wrk101

May just be photo angle, but the tire sure is close to the down tube. I believe this is a PX10, missing a lot of parts of course.

noobinsf 

Front tire is bigger than rear, it seems. Looks like just a steep rake to me, which I know some models of this bike had. It could also possibly be a 27" wheel -- you never know what folks will do, and it's impossible to tell just from that pic. It's worth a look at the very least.

bargainguy

Steerer tube looks like it might be bent backward a bit, but it's almost impossible to tell from a pic from one angle. Plus, what rim/hub combo is going on here?

nlerner

I agree that it's the larger front tire that creates the effect. If I run a straight line through the head tube and down the fork, things seems properly aligned.

SurferRosa

Steel is real. Bend it back.

Always check for bulges in the top and down tubes first. Steel ain't that real.

satbuilder 

With both fork blades visible in the photo, it's hard to tell if the steerer tube is bent or it's just camera angle. Large front tire and small frame size makes the tire look really close to the downtube. miamijim might be able to help with the frame angles, and whether they differed for smaller sized frames.

Road Fan

Based on the DT decal I think it's early 1970s, which would mean the rake should not look steep - it should be like 72 or 73 degrees. It could be a bent frame, bent fork, or ... just an illusion.

3alarmer 

...some bikes from the Nervar lugs phase have pretty steep head tube angles. I think maybe it's a function of the lug sets they chose to use. Anyway, the fork and frame on this one are fine.

P!N20

xiaoman1 

Depending on the year some PX-10s had a steeper fork angle...I also agree the larger tire along with different wheels may give the effect of a bent fork etc.
The only way to tell is to check it out.
Ben

nlerner

Steel can really be bent.

Pcampeau

Is it possible that the fork is a replacement from a lesser model? Odd touch ups on this too. Black painted bottom bracket shell, black seat lug, black fork crown. I believe only the seat stay caps and headlugs should be black. Still, the fork doesn’t really look bent to me, just that it shouldn’t be there. I do realize though that this bike came in several slightly different variations, so I could be wrong.

francophile 

I think rear tire is just smaller. I'm guessing the front wheel is correct size, and the current owner used anything they could find with a flip-flop hub on the rear because they didn't need to worry about a rear brake due to running it fixed/SS.

And I think that's probably the only problem here. But bring a 18" straight edge with you just to be sure there's no S-curve or TT/DT where meets the DT.

PS: Either PR10 or replacement fork. Never seen one with contrast crown and 3pt crown is not Reynolds.

repechage

There was a friend's PX-10 that looked similar. The fork May be bent very slightly.

What his problem was and I think the same issue here is the Frame is bent.
check the top of the head lugs Very carefully- even one transverse show of paint stress or slight distortion of the reflections thereabout.
the lower head lug is up- the top tube is rotated down from where it should be.

The bike I inspected looked very similar
I bet the head angle is 75-76 degrees- way too steep on a frame of this size and vintage.

its been whapped

Insidious C. 

I can't tell if fork bent from that pic so odds are its not. I bet the fork crown was originally while with chrome top. Lots of example of px10 with this crown And 531 blades, especially 73, which this bike appears to be.

ThermionicScott 

Something vague comes to mind, hopefully someone will set me straight if I'm off-base -- with these Peugeots, aren't the fork blades aligned with the steerer along their rear, rather than through their center?

I wish I could remember whose signature had a frustrated Craigslist seller explaining why all Peugeot forks looked bent. It was a riot.

francophile 

Please back up this claim with evidence. Looks like the bike is using this crown, which was never made with 531 tubing. My eyes aren't great, so maybe I'm wrong. But it looks like this crown, only painted black after-the-fact to match the lugs.

Insidious C. 

Also the subject bike has blackened seat lug which seems like original crown may have been blackened at same time.

Edit- Here are two more examples on this forum. There are others but these are the ones I could find quickly.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ot-thread.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...0-ux-10-a.html

francophile 

I assure you, the waterslide on that bike was added after the fact.

I've seen catalogs for most of the years through the 70s, which OP's posted bike appears to be from, and haven't seen one yet showing crown on a factory Reynolds fork. That's for UK, FR, NL, DE, USA, CAN (at least).

This is no jab at you. But I've put my hands on so many of these and pored over hundreds of magazines and brochures over the years. I've only ever seen that crown used on lower-end forks.

francophile 

And actually, it's totally possible I'm wrong on the crown. I've seen at least one person (@Grand Bois;? @miamijim ?) say Peugeot used that specific crown on some PX-10. Can't help but think it's more likely someone at a shop wanted to upsell on a bike and slapped the 531 sticker on there, but I'm skeptical of salespeople and what some humans will do for money.

Might be worth asking some others, @verktyg @rustystrings61 and maybe @juvela and who knows who else? They may have similar input.

I've personally only seen Nervex Professional or Dubois/Wagner styled crowns on a legitimate PX-10. But I haven't seen everything in the world. Just can't imagine why Peugeot would intentionally put that big, lunky, heavy ass crown on a flagship racing bike.

Chombi1 

If the back of the fork blades line up with the head tube vertically, they are most likely ok, but if they angle farther back than the head tube towards their bottoms, then they are most likely bent..... which in the pic seems to he what's going on with that bike?

verktyg 

Here's my 1967 PX-10 barn bike that I bought just about 10 years ago in 2009. It came with sewups and a set of 27" clinchers otherwise, ALL original.

As I purchased it. The plastic bar tape fell off during handling. These were flat 27" x 1" tires that measured 3/4" (20mm). Notice how high the brake blocks are adjusted. Same with the front brake on the OP's bike which looks like it has a 27" wheel.



I cleaned it up and rode it off and on for about a year then it sat until this spring. I re-cleaned it and started riding it. Those are 27" x 1 1/8" Paselas. I tried to mount 27" x 1 1/4" tires but there wasn't enough clearance in the rear to fit into the dropouts or under the brake bridge, even when deflated.

Notice how close the 27" tires are to the seat and down tube.



Here's a UX-10 from the 1974 US catalog. Notice how close the 27" x 1 1/4" tire is to the down tube too... Also Schrader valves like the OP's front tire.


@wrk101 @noobinsf @nlerner @3alarmer @francophile and everyone else...

I see nothing wrong with the forks on the OP's bike. One interesting thing though, it appears to be a 50cm - 19 1/2" frame. I can't find a listing in any of the online catalogs for any PX-10s under 54cm???

When I run across listing for PX-10s, the first "tell" if it's real, are the "socks" on the forks and stays chrome plated? Next, Nervex Professional or Dubois lugs... AND fork crown. The Reynolds 531 sticker should indicate ALL Reynolds 531, not 3 TUBES RENFORCES (3 main tubes). Those decals were water slide and delicate on bike boom era bikes.

Note many early 70's French language Reynolds 531 stickers had pale gray-green 531 characters. I had Greg Softly at cyclomondo.net make repros of these. He has them on his website.



PR-10s and some other better quality Peugeot models had fork blades that were made of brazed rolled sheet metal like on U-08s rather than tubing. The fork crowns were stamped steel like on lower priced models rather than the stamped, welded and machined Nervex crowns.

You can tell by the seam running down the backs of the blades. While I don't know that I've seen a failure with these blades, don't try to straighten them, they'll split like a banana peel.

Getting back to fork crowns, I've seen pictures of several bike boom era PX-10s with stamped steel crowns, so yes @francophile I guess there is a Santa Claus...

As far as variations in frame angles, fork rakes and maybe even crowns, I think that it came down to what ever Peugeot had on the shelf PLUS the frame size had a lot to do with geometry.

Nervex made their Professional lugs in 72°, 73° and 75° angles. During the early 70's bike manufactures used whatever they could get.

Raleigh was especially bad about this on their better models. I recently picked up a nice 1974 International frame. It had 75° angles with a 60mm fork rake! Pretty squirrely for touring model!

I had the frame and fork realigned - wonky from the factory - plus I had 5mm+ taken out of the fork rake.

verktyg

Kabuki12

a bit off topic , but how do you like those tires? I have been running those on two of my bikes for about a year and I like them a lot. That being said , I have a couple of bikes that I am running larger tires and rims than the bike came with and it definitely changes the clearances of the frame and tire.

miamijim

I’ve seen every imaginable combination of fork crowns and lug sets. Some frames were built with mixed lug sets!! I have no doubts thats an original PX10 fork.

I’d have to go through my pics but, in general, all the lugs are usually the same color.

As mentioned there were very steep angled frames. For the shallow angle frames it was 73/73 as per the literature.

SJX426 

@wrk101 - Bill, what is the story behind the question?