Andy Antipas 

While on a Saturday bike ride in October, I crossed paths with another cyclist and he gifted me his wife's circa 1973 Peugeot AO-8. But for some scratches on the fork blades it was very clean and original and likely had very few miles on it. I decided to rebuild and revamp it into a townie bike for my son to take to college... I just finished it up this morning. It started out at 29 pounds and now comes in at a svelte 24 pounds. Modifications included new (used) rigid alloy clincher wheels to replace the normandy/rigida chromalux wheels, Sugino AT crankset with 45/36 chainrings, front and rear derailleurs, simplex alloy shifters, Velo-Orange bars, Did-compe brake levers, modern brake pads, Selle Italia saddle, SRAM chain, Shimano 6spd fw (I spread the rear for 126 OLN axle). I rode it around the block this morning and it is a big improvement over stock (rides great, shifts great, and the brakes are phenomenal. More pics in my Flickr album.



AO-8 after

AO-8 before

Erzulis Boat 

Love the color. It's a super "happy" shade of yellow!

uncle uncle

Looks great, and yellow is one of the faster colors! I'm always curious as to how others go about swapping out the old cotter crank for a newer alloy crank (on these 70's vintage French birds)... what was your process on this one? (If you don't mind sharing your secrets.)

Andy Antipas 

On this bike, I used the BB cups that came with the bike. The bike had very few miles on it and were in excellent condition. I used the 118mm Sugino spindle with the crankset and loose 1/4" ball bearings and it turns smoothly. If I couldn't have used the cups, eBay usually always has French BB cups by just about all the major component manufactures. I weighed the original steel cotter crank vs. the Sugino AT crankset and there was over one pound of weight savings, plus the 110 BCD has a huge range of chainring options. I went with 45/36, which gives a bike like this one a lot more usable gears.

Small cog

Nicely done, I had one of these in that colour as a teenager and have fancied buying one for nostalgia's sake and putting it on a diet like you have sometime.

1989Pre 

Most importantly, you got rid of the dork disc and turkey levers. Are those Atom aluminum hubs? I love up-grading mid-range models.

repechage

Minor surprise the saddle is as far forward as it is even with it being adjusted all the way aft.
I guess a steep seat tube. Maybe a seatpost with greater setback?
Peugeot branded rear mech, styling.

bike is looking good, maybe too nice to park at campus. The lock will need to be Fort Knox.

John E

That looks like a 19" frame. Peugeot made some tweaks to their normal geometry to make that small a frame work with 27" tires.

I am a drop bar man myself, but I like all of the other component changes you made, particularly the crankset and the derailleurs. I did a 2x6 conversion on my UO-8, as well, but I used a Shimano "ultra"-spaced freewheel and needed to spread the rear triangle by only about 3 mm, to just under 123mm.

That paint is in great shape.

markk900

Beautiful job! I especially like the colour. I suspect though that this was originally a UJ10 not at AO-8: the lack of “Aztec Lugs”, the super small frame size, and the full length rear brake cable with clips are signs of the UJ10.

Not that it’s a big deal mind you: they all ride extremely well.

Andy Antipas 

Thank you for that information. What is interesting to me is that the BB is not a lug, but a steel tube. The down tube, seat tube, and stays look like they are stick welded to the BB tube, which came as a surprise when i took the bike apart. A typical plastic BB sleeve doesn't fit inside the BB. I used a strip of aluminum from a soda can to keep the dirt/grit out of the bearings.

repechage

Yeah, don’t like those short people around here. Gitane was worse.
‘they steepened the seat tube, slackened the head tube and raised the bottom bracket.

Maxey

Beautiful little bike! As someone else said, probably too nice to just leave sitting around a college campus these days without some beaucoup security attached to it. But like anything else with kids the best you can do is warn them and tell them not to come crying to you when...well, you know the rest.

markk900

As per the conversation between repechage amd John E , that “unlugged” bottom bracket may be a result of there not being a standard BB casting that fit the new geometry. Was only a couple of years later that Peugeot went to “internally lugged” frames.