Since I very little about good-quality bikes when shopping for my first ten-speed, I listened to friends and dealers when they said the frame was the most important part of the bike. But I was on a budget so I really had to shop around. After months of looking for the cheapest bike with an all-531DB frame, it came down to a PX-10 and a Mercier (forgot the model), both $230 (in 1972). I went with the Peugeot since the Mercier was much farther way (as it was, my father and I still had to drive an hour and a half to get to the Peugeot dealer (then the following year we made the same trip again when my father decided he wanted one too...).
I always considered the PX-10 a tremendous bargain... I never lamented the lack of Campy parts, the sloppy brazing or the practically nonexistant lug filing, I was just grateful to have a double-butted Reynolds frame for a price I could afford.
I was not so grateful a few years later when I started upgrading components and found out about French measurements... but that's another story.
Bob Hovey Columbus, GA
>Well, check this out: my 1969 Atala Grand Prix, with its Campy
>NR derailleurs and hubs (but a Magistroni crankset) was under
>$125. That included a Pletcher rack and New York City sales
>tax! That's why I couldn't bear to purchase a Peugeot in those
>days. It took many more years for me to be seduced by a French
>bicycle.
> Cheers,
> Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia
>
>--- HM & SS Sachs <sachs@erols.com> wrote:
>> In 1968 or 1969, Ken Caster, Caster's Cycles, Warwick, RI,
>> offered to get one for me for $165. I seriously considered
>> it, but instead got a one-year old Raleigh International,
>> almost unridden, from a RISD student for $140. I was so
>> excited I rode it around our apartment in Providence. I
>> remember the first time I saw a PX-10 and was puzzled by the
>> high price of a bike w/o any Campy parts. :-)