Vintage Peugeot conversion help and tips please

Tjuice! Thanks... I'm not close to SW9, but thank you for the offer! If I can't get satisfaction from my LBS (yer, I'm learning the lingo too!) I might hit you up on that.

LdnGrrl! I'd love to see your ride. Still not sure what I might do!

Danke!

Here! It's too big the photo..

Looks really great in red. Build that baby and let her run.

That almost looks edible! My frame is a little different though. It's two thinner tubes that go all the way to the rear hub. But I like the simplicity of yours!

Ive done some MSpaint information what ive done (did it as was arguing with Egg)

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Um, so 'nother question. When you say 'screw a bog standard single-speed freewheel' won't I need spacers? Or can I just 'squeeze' the frame together? The spacer kits I've seen on eBay all mention guessets and the like, which sound a bit confusing. Is there a specific type of spacer kit, or can I forgo that altogether? Chur!

Fair challenge. Unless you are incredibly lucky, your chainline will be rubbish when you throw on a standard single-speed freewheel. You may need to respace your rear axle and redish the wheel to make this work - good article on Sheldon's site on this:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/how-to-fixed-conversion.html

Thanks again, that article looks most helpful. Tjiuce, could you point me in the right direction for parts? I'd like to order something soon so I can get to work on it this weekend if possible. a

Oh, I think I've figured it out actually. That's a good article alrite!

good afternoon ladies & gentlemen,

am working on my second fixed gear/single speed project at the moment. i'm in the process of moving back to london from beijing (via france) and wanted to put together a winter bike/single speed to commute on. whilst i was in asia, i picked up a nice w-base trackmaster which i raced the beijing alleycat on. however, given it's shiny black, bright pink with some white here and there, i'm worried it's going to get nicked.... or at least that's a good enough excuse to build another bike anyway!

i'm hoping that by posting up a few pics and sharing the build story, you guys might be able to offer some good insights/tips tricks etc. also, everyone likes pictures of bikes.

i managed to pick up a beautiful old peugeot from 'eurocash' (a pawn shop basically) here en vendée, france. there was a whole rack of the things, most of them in top condition, ranging from 15-70+ euros depending on the condition. i picked this up for just 30 euros (about 25 quid) which i thought was alright:

it was already quite a beautiful bike to be honest, as a regular road bike rider it felt almost wrong to pull it apart! however, i knew i was going to get more out of it as a singlespeed and it was probably past it's glory days.

i started by stripping it right down as standard which was much easier than i thought:

the cranks and chainrings were both in excellent condition still. same with the dropouts, i thought they'd rusted but it was mainly just grease/dirt. after some elbow grease with some cleaning stuff, they came up nicely. there's a few spots of rust here and there but, hey it's character.

the pedals already had cages on with leather straps which was a nice freebie. will probably buy some metal cages when i can back to london later this month.

i already had a built-up wheelset that i had had made in beijing (where everything's cheaper) from left over parts when i'd done up my w-base so the actual conversion part was very straight-forward, just a case of removing all the gears, shortening the chain (by breaking it and adding a removable link) and attaching the back wheel. whilst i'd originally planned to run the smaller 40 chain ring, i wanted to be pushing something a bit harder so have opted for the 50 instead. so long as i don't go up a hill, everything'll be fine.

i put the spare front wheel i had on the front but it actually looked a bit out of place against the classic old lines of the frame. instead, i opted to use the original front wheel which was still completely true and very shiny after a polish. i replaced the quickrelease with a new, shiner one but other than that it was fine. i'll probably get locking wheelnuts anyway for london.

i had a spare, but pretty cheap and chinese-made, white tyre which i put on the back wheel to try and keep in with the frame's colour scheme. again, that's something i'll try and replace with something better when i have the chance. now the only thing that looked a bit out of place was the saddle.

there was a bit of sagging in the chain tension but i was actually able to fix that easily by pulling back the back wheel as one would expect.

nearly done! actually took the saddle from my other fixie and put it on this one. it's just a crap old saddle that an old man on a street corner sold me for about £3 in beijing.

i also had some bazooka pedals a friend in beijing had sold me very cheaply which i swapped out for the original peugeot ones (which were very, very heavy considering their size).

the old 'grip tape', or what actually looked to me like some sort of medical tape, had to come off. i'm thinking of buying some white, cream, or brown grip tape to replace it. it's silver and nekked now which is pretty but unpractical.

it's got a nice arse.

thanks for taking the time to look at it guys. i've got a few questions if anyone would be willing to answer. i'd really appreciate it:

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• the 40 chainring is now pretty redundant as i'm running on the outboard ring. however, i can't work out how i detatch the chainring and crank from the bottom bracket. is this one of those jobs that requires a special tool?
  
• the chain-line is almost spot on considering all i did was whack it on and attach the chain. however, i think it could do with being straighter. i'm only running on single speed, not fixed (there's a flip-flop hub on the back) so the chain shouldn't be undergoing the same abuse it would on a fixie. in any case though, how would i straighten it? with spacers?
  
• this is just aesthetic but what colour grip does everyone think? white? cream? brown? i'd love to hear your thoughts
  
• i want to lower the headset by about a centimeter if i can but haven't been able to adjust it so far. if someone could point me in the right direction, that's be great.
  
• i'm thinking of removing the black powdercoat from the back wheel to make it shiny again and more in keeping with the bike. if i do this, does anyone know how i'd go about it? is it just a case of white spirit and lots of rubbing? what about protecting the metal afterwards?
  
• finally, can anyone identify the year or model of the bike? there's a sticker that says 'carbolite 103' and, judging from the graphics, i'd say it was early 80s. however if anyone has anymore info, please share! i want to do-up this bike in as sensitive a way possible to its original charm (budget permitting of course)
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thanks everyone! and to reward you all for your help, here's some bike porn of my other fixie:

cheers! ^-^

nice frame, not sure about the white tire! I think black tape will be nice IMO. not a fan myself of your newer build, alloy and pink rim not for me. keep updated on the peugeot, I would like to see it finished!

Nice SS conversion pearswick, you have got a really cool set up there! Loving your Beijing track bike too...

In answer to your questions:

1. To remove the chainring from the crank you simply need to undo the five small bolts which hold them together. To then remove the crank from the BB you need a tool called a crank extractor which screws into the side of the crank (where the recessed threaded bit is) and pushes the crank off of the BB.
   
2. I don't think that chainline is as important with single speed; I ran my Peugeot conversion as SS for a while before I went to fixed and although the chain wasn't perfectly straight I had no problems with it. If you do want to try and sort it out though I would suggest using spacers.
   
3. I think that brown grip would look good as it would then go with the brake lever hoods and the decals on the frame. Your call :D
   
4. Sorry, don't know much about headsets, just trying to work out how I am going to remove it from my next frame. Sheldon is probably the place to look though.
   
5. I see what you mean about the back wheel and not quite fitting in with the rest of the colour scheme. I don't know about using white spirits, maybe you are better off to have a search on the forum and find someone who is also having something powder coated and see if you can split the cost with them. If you have a search there is also a really good thread about painting rims.
   
6. Peugeots can be a real pain to track down, I had problems trying to find what mine was for a long time. Between http://cyclespeugeot.com/ and http://www.re-cycle.com/History/Peugeot/Peu_Catalogs.aspx then hopefully you should be able to find what you are looking for.
   
   

Hope that this helps, it would be great to see some finished photos once you are completely done...
Best of luck!

hey guys,

thanks for your replies. mikey mike - i actually went for a cream grip tape in the end. i found some really nice tape in the bargain bin at country sports here in france for about 4 euros! check out their site: http://www.countrysports.fr/ not a bad shop if, for whatever reason, you get a puncture in the countryside hundreds of kilometers from anywhere.

thanks for your feedback stripmymind! very helpful. good to hear from someone else who's been converting too. i agree with what you said about the brown grip but, as i say, there was cream grip in the bargain bin so i just sort of went with that in a daoist sort of way. i think i'll wait until i'm in london to get the chainring removed though, i don't have that tool or even anything like it as far as i know.

as for removing the paint, i'm still none the wiser. i remember on the fixed gear gallery there was an article about removing ionizing from alloy but i'm not sure that's what this is. do you know of any way i can tell?

let me know how you get on with figuring out your headset. i'll post a pic of the bike up after i've got the tape on it and maybe had a fiddle with some paint removal!

best,

pearswick

My first conversion was going nowhere, frame was too small for me, so I got my hands on a peugeot premiere. The serial number on the bottom bracket is y71205676 which would date it as 1987? I think it has an English bb, but would anyone be able to confirm if it has a french or an english bottom bracket? If it helps, it's made of carbolite 103 and has made in france stickers.

too small for you? are you over 6'4?

I'm 6'3, that and the bb was going nowhere. Seized right in.

random qquestion, do you need threaded forks and headset to use a quill stem?

random qquestion, do you need threaded forks and headset to use a quill stem?

Yeah you do, because the ahead steerer/headset uses a top cap to hold it all done (even the 1inch ones). So the threaded part holds the headset down so that the stem does nothing other than hold the handlebars in the steerer.

Robadob.

Very, very likely to be English BB. It was early 80s that Pug switched over to using English BBs (perhaps late 70s?). My Pug (which is slowly coming together - many parts stuck in the postal strike (I hate postal strikes)) is a carbolite and was extremely similar to the pic you post (albeit mine was maroon, not white, and is now blue).

Very easy to work out whether it is an English BB - just check the thread direction on the right hand side of the BB. If the turning the BB cup clockwise unscrews the cup, it is English.

Thanks Tjuice
Mines coming together nicely now, I need a wheelset and some cranks and it'll be done. Have you got any pictures of yours?

No pics taken yet. It is currently looking sorry for itself. It has been sitting in the stand for 2 weeks now with no further work. Currently just has brakes, stem, seatpost and saddle attached. Other parts as follows:

• Front wheel (in box in loft, waiting for its rear mate to arrive)
  
• Rear wheel delayed by Halo's total inability to keep up with demand
  
• Brake levers, cables, pedals sitting around waiting for something to attach to
  
• Bars + cranks, came from US, delayed because of postal strikes
  
• BB, sprocket, lockring, freewheel, decent lockring tool, all delayed because of postal strikes
  
  

I'm a bit bloody fed up with postal strikes (if you hadn't noticed)...

If some of these bits and pieces arrive in the next couple of days, I will take and post some pics at the weekend.

Might as well stick up a pic of my recently completed conversion.

Sam - What have you done with your brakes? I see you have a front brake but see no lever? I can't decide what bar's to have, the aesthetics with the brake levers is a big factor.

Anyone one else have idea's or photo's of brakes on drop bars?

I'm completely new to this game, but I want to make myself a beautiful bike to love till it falls apart while being ridden - surely everyones prefered way to go? Anyway, I've bought a seriously distressed peugeot frame with all it's original parts and basically I'd like to know if it's worth it and if there is anything I need to know about it before I start.

It's a carbolite 103 frame and has all it's decals on it. The wiring is outside the frame and all the parts basically need to be replaced, including the barings which I assume is going to be a small nightmare. What do you think - should I take it on or sell it on? I have big ideas but only a limited budget.

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Also if anyone has any tools and tips they would be willing to share or know anywhere where I can go and work? I would be utterly delighted as I'm working from a very basic kit.

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Sam - What have you done with your brakes? I see you have a front brake but see no lever? I can't decide what bar's to have, the aesthetics with the brake levers is a big factor.

Anyone one else have idea's or photo's of brakes on drop bars?

check the little device near the stem/handlebar, it's on the middle of the bar.

So postal service finally got itself sorted out and I received most of the bits and pieces I was waiting for, for my Peugeot conversion. Have posted a couple of photos in the Current Projects thread in Bikes & Bits:
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread6261-322.html#16067

My frame was very similar (identical?) to Sam's a few posts above (the maroon colour). Currently trying to work out what to do about grips (see photos post).

103mm Tange BB, EighthInch cranks (chainring on inside of spider), Halo fixed/free rear, Andel cog seems to give me a pretty good chainline (on the fixed side) at first glance.