The numbers have nothing to do with the number of gears. If you look at old catalogs for example on Oscar Casander's great web site http://home.wanadoo.nl/
It seems that in the beginning Peugeot just numbered their different types of bikes P1, P2, P3... P8, P9, P10,... with the P meaning simply Peugeot the order of the number meaning probably nothing. Back then the P8 was the sports/race bike with fenders and racks and the P10 the professional race bike without fenders. Then they sticked to these numbers with several additions over time indicating the level or quality: C meaning Course, L for Luxe, A for Amateur. X seemed to be a exegaration mark meaning "even more", the PL 8 was the "Luxe" model and the PLX 8 the "Grande Luxe". Maybe the X stood also for inoXidable (stainless). The number 40 and 50 were used for everyday bikes and Randonneurs with wider tires and 45 and 55 beeing the numbers for women. These had their own set of "second" characters: S for Standard, U for Utilitair,.... But the number 8 was always used for the sports race bike with fenders, often lights and racks while the 10 always stood for the pure race version without fenders or racks with the second character indicating the quality. The PH-10 was the better version of the PC-10. So it was natural that their top race bike eventually got the PX-10 and later when they invented an "even better one" it was named PY-10. That sometimes in the 50s the P...-8 had 8 gears while the P...-10 had 10 is pure coincidence. In the 70s the letter N was added for the version with clincher tires instead of tubulars (PXN-10). At this time they also preferred to stick to established names like the famous PX-10 and added more charcters to the end to differentiate several versions. The UO-8 is a strange exception. Maybe all the bikes not beginning with P weren't really build by Peugeot or at least not in the main factory?
Dirk
-- Dirk Feeken Heidelberg Germany
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Fred Rafael Rednor Sent: Mittwoch, 28. April 2004 17:43 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Peugeot model names
> Could P stand for Professional? X for? 10 > for 10 speed? Who knows? The suffix "10" was still used after they went to 12 gears on those bikes. And the UO-8 was a 10 speed, although it may have originally been a 8 speed. But I wonder about the "PX" component of the name. After all, there were PFN-10s, PSV-10s, PGN-10s, etc.
By the way, I don't recall my '82 PSV-10 and '84 PGN-10 having
names - neither on the bike nor in the catalogues. Perhaps
that differed between countries, different printings of the
catalogues and/or various models? Other than "Peugeot" the
only script found on my bikes proudly declared "12 Vittesses"
(i.e. 12 Speeds).
Amitiés,
Fred "San Rafaël" Rednor - Arlington, Virginia