1983 Peugeot Sport
Part Diary, Part Technical Manual, Part Tips & Tricks

About a year ago, my good friend Leslie pulled her old bicycle from high school from her parent's garage. It had probably sat there since the late 90s, with very little use. She asked if I could tune it up so she could ride it. So I cleaned it up a bit, put on some new brake pads and tires. There was no rust on the frame and fork, only some surface pitting on the chrome bits. The friction shifters worked fine, so it was ready to go. A year later, Leslie probably tried to ride the bike once. So with a young boy and another baby on the way, she recognized that she probably wasn't going to ride it - so she gave it to me. I picked it up on August 23, 2008. The idea of this bike is to build it for bicycle polo use.

9/1/08 - played our first game of bicycle polo, won 9-7! Really fun, a few minor bumps, but no serious collisions. My seatpost came loose and twisted at one point. My chain also fell off once. Only afterwards did I realize that my rear axle was bent and the tire was rubbing against the left chain stay. Being a french bike, I was not able to put on a new axle that I had, so the search will begin. In the meantime, I put the 700c wheels from my red fixie onto the Peugeot.

9/11/08 - bought a set of practically new Bianchi Pista wheels on craigslist for $100, with tires and tubes too! So I take off the tires and put on the old worn cyclocross tires from my Bianchi Axis. I figured if I'm going to be riding on grass, I could use a little tread and a little more air volume. Then I decide to ride it as a fixie, with the original 16T cog that came with the wheels. The gearing was too high and I almost killed my self riding it. So I ordered a 20T cog by Soma, so now I'm good.

Here are the specs:

Frame: Peugeot Sport. 50cm virtual height, Peugeot 103 tubing. Stamped horizontal dropouts with 120mm spacing. Serial Number: Y101 33345.
Fork: Peugeot, crowned steel.
Rims: Alex SOLO 32 spoke, silver.
Hubs: Bianchi Hi-Flange hubs with flip-flop rear, silver.
Tires: IRC Mythos CS Slick cyclocross tires, 700mm x 35mm.
Cog: Soma 20t cog on the flip, ACS Claws 18t freewheel on the flop
Cranks: Nervar, cottered, 52-40, 170mm, 116 BCD.
Bottom Bracket: unknown
Headset: unknown
Chain: Sedis.
Stem: ATAX, 65mm.
Handlebar: Ritchey straight MTB, black. Chopped 5cm each side.
Grips: Ritchey True Grips 5, black.
Brake Levers: Dia-Compe SS-4 (from the XO-4).
Brakes: Weinman Type 600 side-pull.
Pedal: MKS platform, black.
Seatpost: Steel, 23.8mm
Saddle: Selle Italia X2 Trans Am, black.
Pad: Yancopads.

The bike originally weighted 31 lbs 7 oz, the bike weighed 25 lbs 2 oz with the 27" wheels as a singlespeed. The bike currently weighs 23 lbs 10 oz with the Pista wheels.

The following are OE parts that I am currently not using:

Rims: Rigida Chromage Superchromix, 27" with dimpled side walls.
Hubs: Atom, low flange, 36 spoke.
Tires: Specialized Tri-Sport, 27" x 1-1/4".
Freewheel: Maillard 5spd, 14-17-20-24-28. The Maillard is an interesting design, the two smallest sprockets are one piece that thread onto the hub. The remaining three sprockets are loose with small plastic spacers in between. Since I'm only using the bike as a singlespeed, I didn't want the entire freewheel on there, so I decided to just use the two threaded sprockets that would hang off of the hub. The problem was, once it was tightened down, I would not be able to use remove it because the second chain whip would have nowhere to go. So I just threw on the middle sprocket in between, so I could use the second chain whip. That sprocket just sits there sliding around from side to side - kinda cool. I aligned the front chainring to align with the 17t sprocket.
Front Derailer: Huret doublem, clamp-on, 27.5mm.
Rear Derailer: Huret 5spd.
Shifter: Simplex friction, stem clamp-on.
Brake Levers: Weinmann.
Sidestand: Pletscher.
Rear Rack: Pletscher.
Handlebar: Drop bars, chromed with black Velox wrap and end plugs.
Pedal: Steel rattrap style.
Saddle: Selle Royal Donna.