Silvestru

Good day people!


I purchased this bike (my first), for about 80$. Being in a bad shape and no decals… I want to restore and enjoy it.
Can you guys help me ID it? - https://imgur.com/a/0BcNFw1 (hope the photos help).
Also, since I'm a newbie in the culture, a few details about it's equipment would be wonderful and much appreciated. Maybe some restoration advices, too?


Cheers,
Silviu

Silvestru

Good day people!


I purchased this bike (my first), for about 80$. I'm not interested in selling it so no need for a price appraisal.
Being in a bad shape and no decals… I want to restore and enjoy it.

Can you guys help me ID it? - https://imgur.com/a/0BcNFw1 (hope the photos help).
Also, since I'm a newbie in the culture, a few details about it's equipment would be wonderful and much appreciated. Maybe some restoration advices, too?


Cheers,
Silviu

guidogad

A charming midrange French bike, late 70s/ early 80s.
There were quite a few manufacturers apart from Peugeot, Gitane, Motobecane… Could be a Meral, for instance. Will be curious if someone is fluent in French bikes :-)
If bottom bracket and head set are serviceable you'll have fun. If not, not.

Mr. 66

Nothing came up in your link

Silvestru

Silvestru

I uploaded the photos directly here to avoid further issues

Thanks,

Mr. 66

Your bike is beyond my knowledge, looks Frenchy. I have not seen that bb cable guide before.

Thanks for the repost, it looks very nice.

trailangel

Some kind of late 80's Peugeot? resprayed frame not top of the line? but looks like nice frame.

Silvestru

After spending hours and hours searching, I'm thinking it's a Peugeot but a confirmation and especially model would be marvelous!
I want to find appropriate decals for it and ultimately restore it the proper way

Mr. 66

Here's a few shots of an '81 Peugeot, your bike looks a lot different. Mainly the cable guides, lugs and seat stays treatment is different also.

Silvestru

Mr. 66 - thanks for helping me figure it out!
I'll continue investigating and in the meantime maybe somebody can pinpoint the model

3alarmer 

...I'm not trying to be snarky here, so please don't take it that way. But Peugeot bicycles can be difficult to correctly ID even when they still have the original paint and decals on them. The seat stay caps on yours are interesting, and I've not seen that before on a Peugeot.

3alarmer 

...now that I look at it again, those long point frame lugs that appear to have been hand filed are not typical of most of the French production bikes from the big three makers that I have seen in person. Sorry I can't be more help.

zukahn1 

Based on the lug details and dropouts it likely isn't Peugeot I have not seen the long lugs or those dropouts on a mid level Peugeot. The is most likely smaller production French and is a mid level bike from the second half of the 70's the fork dates it to 75 or later and the components make it no newer than 1980.

Silvestru

Nothing snarky about it. We’re all friends here.
Thanks for your observations!

Silvestru

Valuable comment, much appreciated!

I'll start searching smaller French bike productions, maybe I'll come up with something. In the meantime maybe somebody can help me in ID-ing the bike. I really want to know the brand and make proper improvements

d_dutchison

Mid range, late '70's, French, with equipment that doesn't quite look up to the quality if the frame. Beyond that, all I can say is that you got a great deal for your $80.

juvela

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see nothing to suggest Peugeot-ness

seat stay treatment is one employed by St. Etienne (note that it dffers from the Peugeot example posted above)

since handlebar is also stamped St. Etienne this suggests it a possible ID...

the St. Etienne name is a possible source of confusion as it is the name of a city which is/was the centre of the French cycle industry - both for the manufacture of cycles and for the manufacture of their fittings

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juvela

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Poster hath also created thread on machine over at appraisals -

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-ing-bike.html

mods: wonder if the two could be merged...

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Silvestru

Thank you for your assessment! So, as per current answers, Peugeot is out of the question? What remains?

I saw some bicycles with the "St Etienne cycles" logo and from an untrained eye, some look similar to mine. Is it possible to be a production of this brand?
Regarding the handlebar, although not very readable in the photos, it's a Belleri, hence the "St Etienne" stamp.

Last ride 76 

Cool rear drops. Can someone ID them?

unworthy1

Yep, French and well worth the $80 you spent but nothing that points to one of the major FR brands that most of us NorAm folks are familiar with. Looks like long point Bocama lugs, and Vitus dropouts so surely at least a mid-range model with something decent for tubing...what's the seatpost diameter? Never seen an alloy under-bracket cable guide exactly like this one: unusual little detail!

Chombi1 

I don't think Peugeot ever used Vitus dropouts on their bikes. They were pretty much locked on to Simplex DO's.
Gitane was a big user of Vitus DO's in the 80's (But I do not really see anything definitely Gitane on the bike), but maybe Mercier used them too.....

Silvestru

After checking the frame in more detail and removing the rear wheel, I found this stamp. Tried various searches on the web with different combinations but no luck. Will try some more.
Anybody recognises this? or can direct me to something?

Many thanks,

Silvestru

Just saw this stamp when detaching the rear wheel