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Post by lurker on Feb 28, 2018 20:28:20 GMT -7
i don't see a place for intro threads, but i'm sort of a road bike guy, soooo... i'm in my 60s. i was an awkward kid, first rode a bike at about 14. i inherited a girl's columbia 3 speed into college where i replaced it with a used peugeot 10 speed in about 6 coats of paint. for a year or so in the late 70s it was my sole (other than the soles of my shoes) means of transport. eventually i got a motorcycle and then a truck, and the bike didn't see much use, until i eventually abandoned it in a move. a couple of years ago i had a huffy aerowind, but that was unsatisfactory in a number of ways. mostly too much propietary hardware made it hard to maintain. donated that to a charity. this last year i had a health issue requiring surgery, and the dr.s recommended a bike for exercise. being frugal, i ended up with a wally-world (kent) gmc denali, which weighs about 30 lbs, which isn't that bad by 70s 10-speed standards. but i'm trying to lighten it, as much a learning experience as anything. i'm also volunteering at the local bike coop, and part of the deal is that i get to rebuild a bike, free. lo and behold, there's a 70s peugeot! nothing special, a U08 i think, but a lot of aluminum parts, 26 lbs. so i'm fixing that up too, and we'll see which i like better. meanwhile, i've bought the lady of the house another WW bike, a kent huffy regatta. so far she likes it. so peugeot or not, we're a budget bike household.
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Post by desertbikes on Mar 3, 2018 9:04:19 GMT -7
Welcome, lurker. Yeah, I guess an intro board is pretty standard on forums & something I overlooked. I'll move this thread when I create one. I'm in your age group - the people that just stepped out of a Consumer Cellular ad - and many of us have a similar bike story. I have a early '80s Univega Grand Turismo I've been threatening to make road worthy again. It was my mode of transport in that era too. Like you I started bikes again for health in 2010 & been riding pretty consistently since then, with a few lapses in summer when it's 190' here in Meltingballs AZ.
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Post by lurker on Mar 3, 2018 16:37:05 GMT -7
thanks for the welcome. your board, your rules. or that czar guy's, whichever.
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Post by lurker on Mar 4, 2018 15:21:04 GMT -7
been slackin' the last couple of days, having trouble motivating outside when the weather is cold or murky. today i have been working on my peugeot some. got the brakes connected, the gears connected, oiled the chain, put the seat on, discovered the freewheel is not free, gonna take it apart, clean it, lube it, put it back. at that point it should be rideable, if in need of adjustment. we went for a short ride down to the park, me on the denali, she on the regatta, enjoyed the duck pond and the lovely weather. if i'm feeling energetic (unlikely, but there's a contingency plan) i'll work on the freewheel tonight, otherwise tomorrow. maybe i'll write up a review of the regatta. after i ride it, of course.
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Post by lurker on Mar 6, 2018 6:41:29 GMT -7
got the peugeot up and running. still some fine tuning to do, but i took it out for a ride and it was just fine, noticeably lighter handling than the denali. i like it. i suppose a picture is in order.
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Post by desertbikes on Mar 6, 2018 10:40:27 GMT -7
Congratulations. Pics are always good.
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Post by lurker on Mar 7, 2018 14:05:49 GMT -7
i took this pic of my 76? steel peugeot "superimposed" on my 2017 aluminum denali, and thought i'd post it here in case anyone had any observations to share. they seem very, very similar to me, some subtle differences. right now the denali is about 4 lbs heavier, i expect that to change as i replace stuff. i do not expect it to drop below 25 without going over budget. the most obvious differences are that the peugeot has a slightly longer wheelbase, and the denali crank, hence everything else, has more ground clearance. i believe the difference between road and off-road bikes is beginning to blur, at least for the consumer market.
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Post by lurker on Mar 13, 2018 9:25:25 GMT -7
thought i'd go on about the peugeot a bit. assigning a specific age to a peugeot is an art, not a science. there are literally dozens of websites about vintage bikes, including (sometimes specifically about) vintage peugeots, but no one seems to have it all in one place. so figuring out what you've got is something of a detective story, sniffing out clues here and there, deciding which are relevant, discarding the misdirections. we have two essential questions: year, and model. 1. the vast majority of 70s peugeots are u08s, despite the irresistible siren song of the Ps and PXs. have your crew stuff their ears with wax and tie you to the mast as they row past. no, eddie merckx did not win the TDF on your bike. 2. the lugs are significant to the model of the bike. u08s use a geometric pattern sometimes called aztec, while the Ps and PXs use a curvy, art-deco lug which is much prettier. 3. the serial number was stamped into a bit of metal which was then riveted onto the bottom bracket. decoding the # itself is considered arcane, trickier than interpreting the oracle of delphi. and sometimes, as on my bike, the plate is missing altogether, either scraped off on a rock or removed by some bike thief. 4. pay no attention to the number stamped into the rear left dropout. it was likely put there by the vendor, not the manufacturer, and is deceptively precise but utterly meaningless to mere mortals. 5. the headbadge can be revealing of both model and year. mine has a cast plastic headbadge which clearly places it in the '75 to '78 range. the better models used lighter-weight decals. confused yet? yeah, me too. 6. in the '75 to '78 range, there were 2 types of seatpost lion decals. up thru 75 or 76, there was one, on the front. then for a couple of years after, until the 80s pattern changed completely, they went to two, one on either side of the seatpost. 7. last but not least, there is a two-letter date (actually a 4 digit code, letter-letter-space-letter-number) code stamped into the bottom bracket. the first letter appears to decode into at least the year of manufacture. 3 or 4 examples from known vintage bikes will reveal the pattern. "WA"=1980, "VC"= '79, "TD" is '77, "QJ"='74. it's easy enough to fill in the gaps. i'm guessing the second letter is the month? this, so far as i can tell, is the simplest, most definitive measure of the age of a vintage peugeot in a certain range. wish i'd figured this out first, but the chase was instructive. there's also some distinction to be made regarding the banners on either side of the "peugeot" decal on the downtube which may be meaningful. i leave this mystery to someone else.
edit to add: the 4-character "date code" was apparently implemented after '72, i've spoken to a guy who bought his u08 in spring of '72, his lacks the code. eta: based on the code, mine is a '75, which is consistent with the range of the plastic headbadge and the seatpost lion decals. so a 75 u08 it is, converted to a 14 speed with shimano drivetrain and 700c wheels and tires
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Post by lurker on Mar 18, 2018 5:22:26 GMT -7
yesterday (3rd saturday of the month) i went to the bike "co-op") to show off the progress i've made on the peugeot, see about replacing some parts, and donate some leftover bits. the seatpost was too small, shimmed with a bit of beer can aluminum. the chain sagged considerably, and was skipping some, making me think it was too long, or the drivetrain is badly worn or maladjusted, or both. i wanted to look at their rather large selection of safety (suicide) lever brake levers, and find something to replace the downtube friction shifters. and i noticed the rear cluster is not 5 speeds, but 7. someone did the 10 to 14 speed and 27" to 700c conversions before abandoning this bike.
with all that in mind, i pointed out the weld where the crack in the frame had been, and asked advice of a couple of the guys. neither was familiar with the peugeot, so we didn't get much accomplished, except we replaced the seatpost with an appropriate bit. everyone was pretty much just guessing based on general knowledge. at first we concluded that the chain was too long and removed a link. but by the time we closed some of us thought the chain was too short. so it dawned on me, i'm going to have to become the peugeot/drivetrain guy, because i own one. so i've found a video on rebuilding the suntour v-gt and a couple more on adjusting and tuning drivetrains, and i'm going to learn this, like it or not. it's not just part-swapping anymore.
and i've decided to put the a050 thumb shifters on the peugeot instead of on the denali. i'm going to leave the denali as-is for a while, since still works. and yes, they have safety levers, plenty of them, but i'll worry about which to snag next time.
the weather has been perfect for riding the last couple of days.
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Post by desertbikes on Mar 19, 2018 9:53:43 GMT -7
Always better when you can learn on your own anyway. Feel free to make this your personal Peugeot journal. You've already post a lot of good info on the bike.
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Post by lurker on Mar 19, 2018 16:11:13 GMT -7
Always better when you can learn on your own anyway. Feel free to make this your personal Peugeot journal. You've already post a lot of good info on the bike. if you don't mind, i appreciate it. i have 3 options for bike repair, fumble through it myself, take it to the coop, or to the local bike shop. all 3 have yielded mixed results. i've never liked the downtube friction shifters original to the peugeot. they are imprecise and require you to take your hands off the handlebars, all while looking down at the pavement. so i took them off, and cut off the lug too because it was in the way. there are cable guides that attach to the old shifter lugs, but why? added an ancient suntour bracket to hold the cable housing ends. i've been carrying these parts around for decades, and now i get to use them. i'm coming to appreciate the malleability of steel. today i put the shimano a050 mtn bike thumb shifters on the peugeot. i had originally intended to put them on the denali as part of the lightening project, but i'm going to leave the denali alone (and working) while i tweak "violet" the peugeot. on closer examination, violet has already been converted by a previous owner to a 14 speed via 7 gear rear cluster. and yes, the steel chainstays are a bit narrow, but springy enough to accept the wider hub with a little effort. i've put the shifters on the handle-bar flats, either side of the stem. the left is a 2- or 3-position friction shifter, while the right is a seven position indexed, so that should work. i still need to adjust them. i'm planning to add safety/suicide levers to the brakes. diacompe made them(still does), wienmann made them, even schwinn made them, and with that i will have all the controls, shifters, brakes, and bell accessible from the bar tops. in time there will be a cheap WM computer mounted on the stem top as well. saturday i rode the bike to the co-op where i got some help to look at tensioning the chain. one guy said the chain was too long, so we removed a link, another said it was too short. maybe i'll just break out the wallet and buy a new chain. but the day was not a total loss, i replaced the seatpost with a proper bikeboom post and found their stash of safety lever brake handles. that evening i found a video by "RJ the Bike Guy" detailing dis- and re-assembly of the V-GTLuxe derailleur. there's a trick we all missed, the limiting post has slots for a phillips screwdriver, and can be removed. figure out where you want the cage to rest, line up the return spring, pre-load it 180 degrees, reinstall the limit post, done. easy-peasy. edit-add link. sorry, so much repeat. need to re-read thread before posting
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Post by lurker on Mar 22, 2018 17:56:24 GMT -7
rear shifter/derailleur not working well, gonna have to go over the whole thing and see if i can figure it out, or get lucky and clean the right bit by accident. shifter very stiff (cable routing?), skips some gears, won't go into low or low-1, hesitant to go back into high. maybe swap the original derailleur back on, maybe buy some stem friction shifters. need to build or buy a bike stand. i could pay someone to fix this, but where's the fun in that? i'll beat this thing, dammit.
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Post by lurker on Mar 26, 2018 10:02:43 GMT -7
content. forums are all about content. it's all very well to come and read and move on, sometimes even to add a comment. but once in a while we have to be that other guy, the one who posts something, probably something inane. maybe it's self-absorbtion. "look at what I did!" too analytical? yeah, maybe so. a forum is what you make of it.
yesterday i built a work stand for my bikes, a simple thing of drywall screws and 2x4s. i spent 2 or 3 dollars on hardware i probably already had in the garage but didn't want to spend hours pawing through buckets of metal bits looking for. it's functional, holds the denali and peugeot reasonably well. nothing fancy, i have to find the balance point to hang a bike on it by the top tube. it could stand some further improvement, the "jaws" could use a little padding, and the "quick release" involves a wing nut. not bad for 2 or 3 dollars and a couple of 2x4s. and it's going to help me fix my bikes.
i'm going to click on "post quick reply" now.
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Post by desertbikes on Mar 28, 2018 11:05:09 GMT -7
One man's, inane, is another man's insightful observation.
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Post by lurker on Mar 29, 2018 9:42:26 GMT -7
i think the peugeot is as good as it gets short of replacing the ancient deraillleur, which i think lacks the range to use all 7 gears. it does well enough, shifts easily and consistently now. consistently skips hi-1 and hi-3 gears. i think there's some sort of mismatch between the cluster and shifter indexing, which could maybe be fixed by replacing either cluster or shifters. $$. so it's a six-speed, i never actually use all the gears anyway.
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Admin Czar
Administrator
Mentally Exhausted & Socially Indifferent
Posts: 263
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Post by Admin Czar on Mar 29, 2018 17:29:12 GMT -7
Would like to see a pic of the wooden bike stand. Hit, "Add Attachment" to post a photo to the board.
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Post by lurker on Mar 31, 2018 4:50:49 GMT -7
still working on it, but here it is. i plan to widen the top of the clamp and pad the jaws with carpet or rubber, and that extra notch on the front needs to go.
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Post by lurker on Apr 1, 2018 7:17:15 GMT -7
i'm fixing to order up some more stuff from bikeworldUSA, will report on the experience. the a050 shifters are obviously not right for the peugeot, so i'm thinking of pulling them off and putting them on the denali as originally intended. so i'm thinking of ordering a set of (analog/friction) stem shifters for the lovely violet, and possibly a new stem too, and a kickstand, she needs a kickstand. then i'll need another handlebar for the denali, but i'm hoping i can find a trade at the bike co-op, or maybe just swap over the whole handlebar from violet, but then i'll need handlebars for violet... decisions, decisions! i'm trying to think of everything i'll want so i can just place 1 order and get it all at once. and a frame pump, i want one of those, too! and and and...
i don't ordinarily name my things, but violet seems to have a distinct personality, and i've been thinking of naming the denali BSO for "Bike Shaped Object" to annoy the TDF wannabes.
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Post by lurker on Apr 7, 2018 5:35:10 GMT -7
violet the peugeot came to me with a flat tire. the inner tube has a leak, right through the patch. naturally, i'm cheap and cant't throw anything out if there's an iota of life still in it. so this tube lives on as (in part) rubber padding for the jaws of the new, improved, cheapo brand bike stand (oooh, it rhymes!) pics forthcoming as soon as it stops raining and i can get decent light. Attachments:
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Post by lurker on Apr 10, 2018 8:50:01 GMT -7
so far, violet the peugeot has been getting all of the attention here. but before i joined the coop, before violet, there was the denali. i talked about the denali some on another bike forum but that project is unfinished, so i figure i should continue it here. the kent GMC denali is a chinese-manufactured road bike (actually a series of bikes) which use the licensed names GMC and Denali. apart from the name, General Motors has nothing to do with this bicycle. it comes in a variety of sizes and configurations and is sold by several large retailers. i bought mine from Walmart, because that's the closest, and had the best price, $158.99 shipped. i considered a couple of other bikes like the vilano road bikes but ended up with the denali because for me it was the best combination of price, materials, components and size. i say size because i'm a big guy, 33" inseam and the 25" frame is just right for me. unfortunately, some of the bikes i looked at aren't even made in 25". not even walmart stocks the 25, i had to order it from their website, which was not a problem despite the horror stories you sometimes read. it arrived sooner than expected, mostly assembled, with clear instructions on how to finish the job. the denali is a hydroformed 6061 aluminum-framed, steel-forked road bike with aluminum rims, side pull brakes and 21 speed transmission, 3 gears in front and 7 in back. components are low-end shimano, competent but nothing fancy. the seat is not especially uncomfortable. the handlebars are pieced together, to get the mountain-bike grip-twist shifters on past the bends. some people find this objectionable in theory, i have had no problems with it in practice. this will come up again, but in a different context. out of the box, the bike is 29 to 30 lbs, and is a perfectly competent road bike for flat terrain or around town. the worst thing about the bike is that there are stickers on every flat surface, which is easily remedied with a heat gun or hair dryer. here i've added a rear rack and computer.
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Post by lurker on Apr 10, 2018 9:16:15 GMT -7
rightly or wrongly, one of the main complaints about the denali is that it weighs, well, 29 or 30 pounds. actually not bad for a metal bike, not noticeably heavier than your average bike-boom 10 speed, but in this age of 15 lb carbon bikes, maybe we can do better. there's a guy out there who claims to have gotten 10 lbs off of a denali, but he spent several times the price of the bike doing it. we hear that the most effective weight reduction comes in the rotating parts, i.e. wheels and tires. unfortunately, skinnier tires do not necessarily weigh less, and rims can cost $100 or more each. this is not what i call cost-effective. for fun, i may play with swapping the wheels from violet at some point. the natural place to start is to identify the steel components and where practical, replace them with aluminum. going over the bike with a magnet reveals that the main steel bits are bottom bracket, handlebars and front fork. i was fortunate enough to get an excellent price on some parts a fellow was stripping off of his bike, an SE ROyale, and have replaced the bottom bracket, that is the cranks and chainrings, for a weight saving of just over (1.18) a pound. this is not terribly encouraging. into the bargain i got slightly longer cranks, and 2 extra teeth on the big gear, for the loss of the small chainwheel. so it's now a 14 speed, but it works fine, very smooth conversion, feels good. we'll look at the handlebars and shifters next.
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Post by lurker on Apr 13, 2018 20:14:16 GMT -7
have been shopping online for some bike stuff. started with bikeworldusa, because i bought some stuff there before. loaded up my cart, headed for the checkout, won't let me consummate the purchase because their site is confused as to whether i have an account(i do not). i sent them an e-mail, but received no response. so today i went to niagara cycle, located all the same stuff as on bikeworld. have not tried to check out, and don't know about shipping cost, but for the same items, niagara is $11 less. this is not an endorsement of one vendor over another, i haven't completed the transaction. two items of note: bike helmet mohawk. yes, you heard that right. i don't just want to be seen, i want to be noticed, and this ought to do it. they call it pink, i call it magenta, clashes nicely with my neon yellow helmet: www.niagaracycle.com/categories/pc-racing-helmet-mohawk-pinkhalf toeclips, strapless. maybe useless, very mixed reviews. i don't know, anyone have experience with these? waste of $7?
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Post by lurker on Apr 15, 2018 9:07:23 GMT -7
jennifer at bikeworld sent me an e-mail offering to shepherd me through the process. i may split the order. it'll cost a couple of dollars more, but i'd like to give them the chance to get it right.
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Post by fatdaddy61 on Apr 15, 2018 15:03:51 GMT -7
walmart had those mohawk helmets for kids but I really wanted one. Maybe wear it with a spiked dog collar ;-)
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Post by lurker on Apr 15, 2018 17:07:33 GMT -7
walmart had those mohawk helmets for kids but I really wanted one. Maybe wear it with a spiked dog collar ;-) i saw those, that's where i got the idea. the helmets in the walmart here are black, and the mohawk is comparatively subdued red/black, so i was pleased to find them in garish colors that can be added to any helmet. and now you know where to get them! dog collar is up to you, a little too S&M for my taste.
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