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Old 02-16-20, 10:19 PM
  #16  
dirtman
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Location: NJ/PA
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I had a new left over PX10 in the mid 70's, I bought it as a new in the box left over, I was told it was a 1971 model when I bought it from the shop I was working at then.
The bike came with Nomandy Luxe Comp. hubs, Simplex Prestige deraileurs, a Stronglight 93 crankset, Mafac Racer brakes, Mavic Montlery Rims and Hutchinson tubulars. The freewheel was an Atom 14-23t. The bars and stem were both AVA, The bike was white with black Nervex lugs. Right out of the box I left out the original wheelset and built up a pair of clinchers on a new pair of Normandy Luxe Comp hubs and pair of Rigida 1320 rims and mounted up a pair of new Michelin clinchers. I also left out he Simplex gear changers in favor of a set of Huret Jubilee Derailleurs I pulled off the shelf.
I stripped the bike down and re-greased everything with Phil Wood synthetic grease. A year later I upgraded the wheelset again to a fresh set of Rigida clinchers this time with DT stainless spokes and Phil Wood hubs. I also upgraded to a 13-26t Rigina Corsa freewheel to match the BSA threaded PW hub. The original wheelset hung around till I finally sold it in around 2002 or so. I sold the bike after about two years right after buying a new 1978 Raleigh Professional which got another custom clincher wheel set using a pair of Rigida rims again but with first generation Dura Ace hubs and again DT SS spokes.The Raleigh fit me better and working there I got it for dealer cost.
The PX10 was cheap, Peugeot models were all far less costly than most others, and I bought it for very little being it was a 4 year old left over sitting in the storeroom. The story I had gotten was that the bike was a warranty replacement for another bike that came in with a defective frame, but it was a year old by the time it showed up and never got put out on the floor since they had stopped selling the brand by then.
The Campy stuff on the Raleigh got swapped out for lighter, better shifting Suntour cyclone bits, but the Campy got saved and put back on when that bike got sold.

The one thing I remember most about bikes back then is that you never really knew what was going to be on any given bike. Manufacturers were having trouble keeping up with demand and parts substitutions were common on all models. I remember the shop owner complaining when he opened up a box with a new Peugeot in it and found it equipped with a Shimano rear derailleur, and another that had one Normandy Luxe hub and one lesser Normandy hub. It was also fairly common to find bikes built with one high and one low flange hub, or different cranksets than which were advertised in the brochures. For that reason, they rarely put the brochures out for people to see, it caused to many complaints. Looking back at some of the prices on the boxes from back then I can't believe how cheap things were yet in the bicycle world, they seemed so expensive back then. I think I paid something like $90 for my PX10, and almost $200 for my Raleigh Pro, but keep in mind I worked there and got things cheap. Likely half of what they sold for on the showroom floor. The same with parts. The new in the box Huret Jubilee derailleurs set was only $28 brand new off the shelf. but back then that was most of a weeks paycheck. (Keep in mind that everything was cheaper then, I bought a left over 1971 VW bus from the dealer for $1550 with 1,500 miles on it that had sat unsold for some reason for two three years. The price was about half of the original window sticker price). I traded it in on a Dodge van a few years later and got almost what I paid plus $2k cash towards a Tradesman van listed for $3240 on the window sticker.
Funny thing is I remember all that like it was yesterday but can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning.
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