Tom Sanders wrote:
>
> Like many folks here, a PX-10 ( In Lemon Ice, yet!) was my first nice bike
> back in the very early '70s. And it was a VERY nice bike! It often stopped
> folks in their tracks to look at it. Perhaps the mid Michigan folks lacked
> the sophistication of the west coasters, but folks around here thought it
> cool, indeed! I never thought of it as being in any way crude or poorly
> finished.
> Now I own bikes by Brian Baylis, Richard Sachs, etc. I would perhaps now
> regard the Peugeot as more crude...but this is now and that was then. To
> judge it by the standards that we apply now may not be appropriate. In
> those days, I saw no Masi bikes or others that made mine look bad...if there
> were any in town, I certainly never even saw them. Mine was the baddest
> bike in town, far as I knew, and I was very proud of it. To ride it was to
> feel Mad, Bad, and Dangerous To Know.
> I think we have to say that the PX-10 was a great bike in its time and
> certainly about as successful a racer right out of the box as any bike.
> Now we have folks seeming to think they were bad or good and the debate
> seems to be couched in today's standards. I can state flatly that, at the
> time, they were very cool bikes. Why not just leave it at that and cease
> this endless arguing?
> Tom Sanders
> Lansing, Mi
Wow Tom, never heard "sophistication" used in describing "west coasters" before!!! Thank you for that!
Old story, but here it is again. First bike was a Raleigh Pro the beginning of '76 (Pro was a '74 still in the box), then in '77 a Grandis (friends said I needed to try Italian to see how a race bike should handle and they were right), then in '78 got a '77 Masi GC (parts donor for Confente on order) and then a '78 Confente. In 1977 I placed an order for a Peugeot PY 10 CP (Course Professional) through a local shop. Needed a bike I could crash in the local training races with no regrets and wanted something cool and different that the Colnagos, Masis, Guerciottis that all my friends rode. This would be an actual Tour "D" France team issue bike for around $700 or $800. It took 10 months for delivery and the price had gone up to $1200 by the time it arrived.
The team color was silver (no chrome either that year) and you could
order the titanium bottom bracket, alloy freewheel, titanium saddle,
your name on the top tube, Reynolds 531 SL (753 if you wanted or dared).
Similar to these:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/
My only substitution was a french sized Cinelli 1R and 66 Crit bar like half the Peugeot team rode at that time.
The frame was a little crude with short, short point lugs with no cut outs... a tool for race winning, built in their small race shop and what the team rode in the TdF, what Thevenet and Duclos-Lasalle rode. Very cool; at least in my mind. Of course it goes without saying that nobody in SoCal understood why I would order and wait 10 months for the bike!
In 1980 I again ordered a Peugeot team bike but by this time it was
called a PRO 10. Amazingly the team bike had evolved into full on
Italian-style similar to this:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/
Again it took 10 months for delivery... beautiful pearl white (team color) main tubes with chrome fork and complete chrome rear triangle, biconical seat stays with pantographed caps, lion pantographed into the sloping fork crown, long point cut out Prugnat lugs, holes drilled through the drop outs for lightness, water bottle braze-on used for front derailleur mount, Reynolds 531 SL, ti saddle, ti bottom bracket, my name on top tube. Soooo not just a tool!
Very rare bikes (Peugeot USA told me nobody ever ordered them) with tons of TdF mojo from when all those English speakers were on the Peugeot team (Phil Anderson, Stephen Roche, Robt Millar etc.). Racing improves the breed!
But not the baddest bikes in town... back then (mid '70s) in my town that would have been a Baylis-Howard Wizard or a Peter Johnson or a Mario Confente.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.