I bought this bike close to five years ago now. Used it to commute for a couple summers when I lived just around the corner from my work. Unknown year Peugeot Mixte. Single speed with coaster brake, as simple as can be.
Then it got a tire puncture.
I never fixed it.
And it sat. Outside. For another 2 years or so, while I moved to where a bicycle commute is not an option. Then it took up residence in my attic for a stint.
However, I am finally getting around to doing something with it! Have some parts on the way and I'm pretty excited to ride this thing again. The goal is to just clean it up and get it presentable again, along with some fresh paint and maintenance parts.
This is how I bought it:
Somewhere along the way I halfass rattle canned the frame in its current green color
And here it is, present day.
All I have really accomplished so far was cleaning up the front wheel, but this was a couple hour process.
From this:
To this:
The rear is even worse. I'm also particularly kicking myself over the fact that my MTB is currently... outside in a snowbank. Lesson learned.
Sweet! I'll be watching this! I just finished my own vintage road bike project a few months ago. What exactly are your plans for it?
I have a lot of bikes, several I consider mine, and many "transitional" which will go to friends and so on. Recently I had 3 Peugeot mixtes and two other mixtes at the same time. This led to the idea of offering them as a rental option to go with the Airbnb trailer rental idea. European/ hipster flair. But then one was sold, and another is going to an authentic French friend, so I'm moving on...
Realistically the plan is to just have something cool to cruise around on on back roads and whatnot. Plus it's giving me something to do and keeping my mind off buying more cars
A couple of the parts arrived today from eBay land. Used chrome drop bars (~20) and new LED headlamp (~10).
The headlamp even came with a comic depicting its journey for a Chinese sweat shop to me!
I also picked out the color for the frame and ordered paint. I went with Volvo Tropic Green, color code 412. It's a little lighter than I was hoping for but it should do the trick.
Now to get started on the rear wheel. My wrists are sore just looking at it.
Have you considered rebuilding the rear wheel and re-lacing it up with stainless steel spokes? They are pretty much the defacto standard these days and not expensive. Another plus is that hubs are about 100x easier to clean when disassembled from the wheel.
Looking great - I especially like the color choice. My wife has a 1970 Raleigh Super Course Mixte that she has threatened to sell a few times but I'd rather she not. I really should clean it up.
Dropped the ball on this thread.
The last piece of the puzzle was this old head badge which came from Australia...
A new chain and it rides!
Reassembly is the opposite of disassembly. Mostly.
Unfortunately, the only pics I got of the "finished" product...
I've only gotten to ride it a handful of times - without incident, until last Friday. Rode into town to pick up lunch and, long story short, a 3/4 ton Chevy truck made a right turn in front of me without signaling and I couldn't quite avoid it. Caught the trailer hitch in my front wheel and went down in the middle of the road. I am fine other than a little road rash. Very thankful it was so minor in the grand scheme of things. Lesson learned about following distance, too. Driver said he didn't see me, even though I had been directly lined up with is passenger side mirror for a while.
Nice looking bike! Riding like every driver is out to kill you is even more important than driving that way. Glad you're okay and the damage is minor.
Thanks
I've heard variations of "ride like everyone is trying to kill you" for years, but I definitely have a better understanding of what that means now!
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