Greetings all. I have just won this auction, and you may all hate me for having now driven up the eBay-value of a heavy, steel, plebeian, French bicycle this much, but I couldn't resist. Sill, $ 292 is far from a great amount for even a vintage frameset. [ It was just $3 less than my maximum bid amount entered. ]
I decided I wanted this bike for a number of reasons.
First of all, I know almost nothing about the bike. I do not know how old it is, but it certainly looks to be as late as mid-1970s - yet, it does not appear in my 1974 catalog. However, perhaps this was just an omission from the American market version of the Peugeot catalog. That would be understandable because this sort of "all-frills" bike was definitely not what Americans seemed to want over the crest of the Bike Boom years. Instead, we seem to have turned overwhelmingly toward lighter weight and necessarily more stripped down bikes for our recreational rides. Rather sad.
So, one reason I thought this would be a historically "important" bike to have is precisely because it seems to be the ultimate trickle-down result of all of the advances and technologies derived from the Constructeur bikes... now culminating in an affordable daily rider for the working class man.
Bike is complete with full fenders, front and rear generator powered lighting, front and rear racks, a trouser guard outer ring on the crankset, and simple street-shoe welcoming pedals (which in this case appear to be Lyotard model 36-R). A French auction watcher mentioned 650B tires, but I have my doubts, and would suspect 27 x 1 1/4" to be the likely rubber for a US bound bike. But, then again, I never would have expected to see this sort of a "Full-Dresser" bicycle in the US, at all.
I'm truly surprised to see the bike in such fine condition. The paint appears to be basically perfect, there seems to be virtually no rust on the steel cranks and even on the chromed fork-ends... in itself, rather a triumph for ANY French bike, much less for what I suspect would have been a lower rung model, at least in price.
Of course, like all my bikes, I intend to pamper this one. However, I certainly intend to also ride it often - just as it was intended to be treated the day it was built.
Before bidding, I had asked the seller if they were prepared for the complexities of packing such an elaborately rigged bike, and was assured that they had discussed it at length with a local bike shop which was used to shipping even tandems. But, we shall see how well it actually survives the trip. And, I'll give The List my hands-on evaluation of the bike, along with more details as soon as it does arrive.
In the meanwhile, I'd certainly welcome any comments, information, or observations anyone might care to offer about this model - one which I have certainly never seen before, here in the US.
Thanks!
Bob Hanson, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA