Old & New Compatibility

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JPBoothy

Veteran
Location
Cheshire
Hi All, I have had my eye on my brother in laws 1980s 10spd Peugeot 'racer' that is just sitting in his garage waiting to be ridden, as I'm sure that he will never bother and I may be able to rescue it from his neglect one day. It looks to be in very good condition but, I would imagine that the moving parts are going to be a bit stiff through lack of use/lube in the last 20+ yrs.. With the older bikes is it 'the done thing' to stay old school (like with a vintage car restoration project) or stick on STI gears and 700c wheels etc.. Would new parts even fit without too much fettling?
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
Totally up to you which you go, especially on a low grade frame. Most cost effective is usually to keep it as original as possible. If you start messing around with changing the rear spacing, new groupset and wheels, then you may have something easier to ride but it will have cost you quite a bit.
 
As Milkfloat says, a service and a spit and polish is the economical way to go.

However, if you want to indulge then the worlds your oyster. Here's a couple that I did and got a tad carried away with :whistle:

This one involved a full respray, new decals, (not accurate TBH), new wheels and tyres, new chainset and BB, chain and cog, new seat post, (these are rocking horse manure if it's 24mm), new Brooks saddle and Brooks bar tape, new brake calipers and levers and cables, (I did fit both brakes), new headset, various new bolts and fixings and new pedals :wacko:

526518

This next one also involved a full respray, cold setting of rear triangle, (not generally advised on alu frames, but went slowly and it worked a treat), new decals, (again not date/model accurate), new wheels and tyres, new Campag Veloce 10 speed groupset and BB, new chain, new downtube adapters, new seat post, (24mm again), new Brooks saddle and bar end lights, new long reach brake calipers and cables, new headset and Aheadset conversion for new bars, new pedals, full mudguards, various new bolts and fixings and rear rack with light bracket :wacko:

526519

FWIW both these started out as sympathetic resto jobs, but both ended up being full on resto mods as you can see :whistle:

Be warned though, if you go down this road you must either keep the bike forever, or accept you will never recoup the costs involved and just enjoy it for the journey. It would help a little if you used a desirable steel frame, both of mine were just HLE alu frames, but they rode really nicely when they were done, and I really enjoyed doing them.
 
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Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
I should just give it a clean and a lube, change all the cables for new and probably the tyres too and see how it rides. What model is it? Please post a pic we'd all love to see it.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
What you can do with it will depend very much on the exact age of the bike. Peugeot in the 80s had a number of different standards in use, in the early 80s a lot of frames used French sized components - Bottom Bracket, Headset - which can be difficult to get parts for as they aren't many people making them new. Later in the 80s saw them moving to using BSA standard fittings which means there are a lot of compatible parts available, the transition was largely complete from 1985 but there may be a few frames from after that which use the french sizes.

If it's a later frame then you can pretty much do what you want, put modern gearing on (subject to widening the rear triangle) and that should work fine. If you want a retro period correct racer then there's nothing wrong with that either. I have a pug that I did a mix on - downtube shifters with a modern 105 5800 11speed groupset paired with a 10 speed cassette :ohmy::laugh:
 
OP
OP
JPBoothy

JPBoothy

Veteran
Location
Cheshire
I should just give it a clean and a lube, change all the cables for new and probably the tyres too and see how it rides. What model is it? Please post a pic we'd all love to see it.
I think it may only be a 5 spd having googled a photo. If I ever do get it from him, then I would probably start down the route of keeping it original as a Sunday morning plaything as opposed to my making it my main ride.
$_86.jpeg
 
OP
OP
JPBoothy

JPBoothy

Veteran
Location
Cheshire
Wow, what a great job and write-up. I really enjoyed the whole thread.You have a lot patience and an admirable attention to detail Mr Gunk :notworthy:
 
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