1990 Peugeot Athena - Conversion and Restore

Hello and welcome to my thread about my 1990 Peugeot Athena. I am planning on converting this Bike to a Fixed Gear and get it resprayed. I welcome you to the ride so just sit back and enjoy! This Thread is going to be highly picture based for people who just look at images and with some writing about parts etc etc for the people that take their time and read threads.

***So on to the history of the Frame and Forks: ***
All the history Darstachy (Person I bought it off) knew about the frame was that he used it himself for three months, and before that was a contract bike for a Semi-pro who trained for two years with it before hanging it in the garage until Darstachy got it. *If anyone knows what the Team Racing means on the Top Tube please let me know I am curious!*

History and Pictures of Athena in a 1990 Catalog:
I just literally stumbled across this on a website just now(http://www.cyclespeugeot.com) and discovered Athena on it in the 1990 catalog, to be honest I didn't know the name of the bike until then but here is the page from the catalog with Athena in all her glory. (Rights to CyclesPeugeot & Peugeot).
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/1702/1990athena.png

What I want to do with this Frame and Forks:
I am planning on getting the Dropouts converted from Vertical to Horizontal with Paul Components Track Dropouts (Does anyone have any use with these or recommend a different pair of Dropouts?) Once its been converted I am getting resprayed in the same color, so she is back in her former glory! But before that all happens I have to order the Dropouts, the new Decals and the 653 Tubing Decals. I rang up Vernon Barker Cycles today (24/05/2013) to get a quote on how much it would cost to get all the work done, this is what they quoted:

Converting the Dropouts : £70
Respray : £85 for 1 color then +£25 per every color after that. (He can't respray chrome he said over the phone).
Total : £180 (Not including buying Dropouts and Decals)

I am just wondering what you guys thing of this pricing or does it seem fair to you?

I am going to buy the Peugeot Decals from Allezcycles on eBay, but the set they sell don't contain all the Decals the bike currently has on it so I have sent them an email asking them to make a custom set for me. They do say they can make any Decal for you, and they are done by a professional! But we shall have to see won't we! Unless anyone else has a place they buy their Decals from and would recommend them?

I am on the hunt for 653 Tubing Decals, I have emailed some people and just waiting for a reply from them to see if they still sell the Decals as it does say they do on their website but you never know ;') Unless one of you guys have some knocking around if so drop me a PM!

Currently the state of the Bike Frame:
The top tube looks like it has been sanded down quite a bit but shows no signs of rust luckily. You can see where someone has paint the chips on the bike with nail vanish or with something similar in attempt to hide the chips on the bike and the final thing some has scratched the paint off the forks on at the bottom (I don't know if this is clear in the photo) but I am guessing they did it to match the chrome on the chain-stay.
(The Images are quite large, so I am just leaving them as thumb nails. Just click an image if you want to see a bigger picture, then click on the image again on ImageShack to see Full Resolution)
http://imageshack.us/a/img27/6707/201305241808221.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img194/8845/201305241808311.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img42/2856/201305241808421.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img109/3268/201305241809221.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/1157/201305241809391.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img546/9486/201305241810071.th.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img692/5338/201305241810261h.th.jpg

Part List (Currently have towards building my New Fixed Gear) :

Guys & Girls I don't know what color parts to go for ie. Seat, Bar Tape, Wheels. It will be either Black or White but I don't know which one, what do you think?

Frame & Forks :
(3rd Hand)1990 Peugeot Athena 653 Team Racing Frame & Forks. I bought them on here off Darstachy for £70 posted from France.
(Pictures in thread already)
***Crank and Chainring : ***
(2nd Hand)Campnogolo Gran Sport 170MM with Campnogolo 52T Chainring. I bought on here off bmx_fred for £40 (Very friendly and polite!). Slightly damaged in the taper on the left Crank arm but nothing serious at all and slight marks on the back of the Right Crank right where the chain has caught it or something.
http://imageshack.us/a/img401/7035/201305241943571.jpg

Stem :
(2nd Hand)Nitto Technomic Forged Quill Stem 26.0mm Clamp 90mm. I bought it from Nottingham Fixed Gear (Doooom!) member for £15 posted. It has got general wear and tear on it, especially on the clamp where the bike has been turned over and obviously moved around on the ground.
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/5473/201305241914151.jpg

Bar Tape :
(Brand New) Cinelli Cork Ribbon The Original.. I bought it from Nottingham Fixed Gear (Doooom!) member for £4. I don't know if I will use this Bar Tape on this bike as I haven't decided the color scheme for the parts yet, if I dont end up using on this bike I'll re-wrap my bars on my other bike.
http://imageshack.us/a/img28/9366/201305241944281.jpg

Parts I am getting after the respray, if you are selling any of the following or something you think i might want instead drop me a PM
Headset :
Campagnolo Record 1 Inch Threaded Headset (Link Below)
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/campagnolo-record-1-inch-threaded-headset/

Also Looking for some nice Drop Handlebars in Sliver or Chrome as anyone got any recommendations as I am currently looking around at the moment!

Thanks for reading so far, and i'll post more info when I get new parts or something happens!

P

Fixed the image Links!

1990 Peugeot Athena 653 Team Racing Frame & Forks £70
Converting the Dropouts : £70
Respray : £85
Dropouts and Decals £60

Killing a puppy instead of buying the right frame to start with - Priceless

Not going to lie but Im a fan of a good conversion but please keep the original paint, please please, they dont make them how they used to!!!

:-)

id go with black bars and tape atleast, white will just get dirty, never looks as good as it does when its new!

This will end up looking like a massive steaming turd.
Shame, the frame looks perfect as it is. The money wasted on paint/dropouts/labour would easily pay for a nice steel track frame so why even bother?
The mind boggles.

Changing the dropouts is very useless. Don't do it.

If this^^^^^^^ happens I will loose all faith in humanity.

Just buy what you want not waste money on something that will never be what you want.

Paul dropouts require the chainstays to arrive lower than the rear axle.
If you fit these dropouts the geometry will be screwed apart from anything else.
Don't do it.

I don't understand any of your component choices. Campag gran sport crankset from the 60's paired with an OAP nitto stem and a butchered 90's frame. You might as well get North Road bars to get that pre-war look in the mix.

Agreed - Leave frame & paintwork alone...
Here are 3 good reasons to leave it as it is.

Convert it to fixed by all means, but leave the dropouts as they are and all the braze ons intact, then in 6 months time when you want a proper tight & rad tarck bike you can fit gears and use this for weekend rides and be as rock-hard as millar himself.

Here are a few perfectly nice looking Pug-fixies the really would not be made any better if they had track ends that would make the pedals scrape when cornering sharply/hill bombing/showing rad skills/riding to the Indian take-away...
http://www.kstone.org/peugeot79pxn10e.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6194/6067127906_2af1b3235a_b.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u201/jo_hoops_photo/fixed%20gear%20and%20singlespeed/SNB10092-1.jpg
http://lp1.pinkbike.org/p4pb5675956/p4pb5675956.jpg
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/ac89/sortedorte/DSC_00041_zps406f783e.jpg

I have been speaking to alot of people about converting the dropouts and I have decided not to get them changed now. I was planning on keeping on the brazeons anyways, but now is the difficult question! Do I get the frame and forks resprayed? I would get it resprayed in the same colors and get the same Decals, as the current paint work is badly damaged! The top tube scares me as I think if it gets caught in a bit of rain it will rust :'/

Now I am keeping the vertical dropouts, what would be the best way to work out the magic gear?

Good boy,
http://www.eehouse.org/fixin/formfmu.php

Leave the paint. Clear nail varnish/lacquer over the spots where the paint is completely gone. It would cost well over a hundred notes(and prob more) to reproduce the paintjob. Not really worth it.
Use the hundreds of pounds saved to buy a track frame and build this up geared.
Job done, puppy saved.

The top tube scares me as I think if it gets caught in a bit of rain it will rust :'/

It's a steel bicycle, they'll hardly fall apart after a drop of water.

Very happy to read you have decided against converting dropouts!

Ed is right, rain is not so much of an issue.
While the frame is not built, look inside the tubes through the BB shell, check if there is any rust inside. If you are not sure show it to your LBS. Prior to re-building the bike, get oil inside that will leave a greasy film, this will help. Someone here please suggest the right product to use (not WD-40, it will evaporate... lamping oil? plain normal bike chain oil?)
A clear varnish on top of the frame will help too (do that before the oiling process though if you do it...)

Nice frame, I hope you'll use it geared one day!

Do you have better pictures of the frame please?

Good luck with your build!

Someone here please suggest the right product to use (not WD-40, it will evaporate... lamping oil? plain normal bike chain oil?)

JP Weigle Framesaver is the official solution, although I understand that this is not much more than linseed oil in an aerosol can
If you want a budget DIY solution get a pot of linseed oil, thin it with Turps and slosh it about inside the frame.

I know the frame won't fall apart at the first sight of water, but I would rather be safe than sorry that's all.

I am going to purchase the wheels for this bike hopefully on Monday but its just went I can get to the bank to deposit my money, just have a look at the following image and tell me what you think to the wheel build up? I am ordering the parts from (www.prowheelbuilder.com) only because they stock all the parts apart from the Rear Hub I would like :

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/6342/pwb.png

For the Rear Hub I am going for WI Eno Hub.
What Spoke Lengths if the spoke calculator says for example : 288.9 do I get 289 spokes? I always forget when I order spokes!

Nice frame, I hope you'll use it geared one day!

Do you have better pictures of the frame please?

Good luck with your build!

I might changed it too geared later in life if I still have it around. I'll upload some better pictures soon, I just got to find my camera as the current pictures were taken on my S3.

tell me what you think to the wheel build up?

I wouldn't have used any of those components, it's a ludicrous amount of money to piss away on some slow wheels for a fixie skidder.

What Spoke Lengths if the spoke calculator says for example : 288.9 do I get 289 spokes?

289 will probably be OK, I'd get 288

poyzer where you based? wheelbuilder prices seem to be pretty high, try aspire velotech if you're in the usa

As for what i think on your build:
I'd say change the front hub to a white industries one (silver), then get silver cx ray spokes (for front and back), with silver archetypes (for front and back).

This way, you get a cheaper wheelset, still looking really nice, just look at the photo's above, and if (more likely when [in time you will see]) you want to make this a geared roadie, all you need to do is change out the rear hub to another white industries one with the same hub body (so spoke length won't change) and bam! you've got a real nice looking, matching wheelset. I have a thing for matching wheels.

If you're worried about the hubs, unless you plan on putting serious mileage and/or you're a pro rider, you won't notice the difference.

unless you plan on putting serious mileage and/or you're a pro rider, you won't notice the difference** between boutique hubs and $100/pr Novatecs**

ftfy

yeah, but if the guy wants to spash the cash on a nice wheelset, i'd just rather the wheels match brands at least...

Not disagreeing with that.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/peugeot-653-athena-58cm-road-racing-bike-/281113575401?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item4173acbfe9

Stumbled across this earlier.

And Poyzer is considering spending more than that on a pair of hipster wheels...