Shwuno

Hi everyone, I’m a complete newbie looking for some advice sorry if I’m breaking any forum rules here!

So I’ve recently purchased this beauty, it was listed as a PX10 but guessing it could be a PFN10 - decals are new so are not helpful and the forks are from another Peugeot so again, not helpful. I bought this as my first project (French bike, ambitious for a first time I know!) but it seems like not much needed restoring on it. So instead I am taking it apart for a full service, polishing up all the relevant bits and upgrading some parts. Here’s what I know...

Mafac racer brakes, levers and cables
Stronglight 49D crankset
Normandy hubs. Mavic700 rims, schwalbe tyres
Simplex front and rear derailleur & shifters (unsure of models?)
aftermarket Japanese seatpost
Atax stem
Maillard Atom pedals I believe?
Peugeot leather saddle
stronglight headset

and here’s what I don’t know/am looking to upgrade...

Seatpost to be upgraded with fluted simplex or stronglight (any preference?)
bars - unsure what these are, does anyone know if worth keeping or upgrading?
stem - to be more upgraded to something more fitting with rest of the bike, do simplex or stronglight make stems?

money really isn’t a issue here as I’m go to be giving this bike a lot more love than it deserves and it will be a sunny rider only, however I do live in a very hilly place so wondering what peoples thoughts are on a tripiliser?



Maillard atoms?

Peugeot seat




GUID T7

Strong light 49d not sure of simplex parts?


Thanks!
Sean

rando_couche

Based on the chrome on the rear triangle, it looks like a PX10. Can you share a pic of the frame tubing decal (by the shift levers)?

With the 49d crankset, you can use TA chainrings which will get you down to 26 teeth if you want. No need to mess with a tripleizer.

Shwuno

the 531 decal? The decals aren’t original so not sure if an accurate marker..

ah great thanks re the crankset, I’ll give that a look!

bikemig 

Yeah that's a PX 10 with a chrome on the rear triangle. That's a very pretty bike. Yeah you don't need a triplizer with that 49d crank. You have a lot of gearing choices with that. For a seatpost, a campagnolo nuovo record 2 bolt is a good alternative.

You will need a special stronglight crank puller.

jcb3

Keep an eye out for long cage simplex RD cages - they can usually be swapped onto your RD to give you extra range

Shwuno

Thanks managed to get a suitable crank puller on eBay which proved difficult! Do you have any other suggestions re seat post? I was hoping to keep as many French parts as possible.

Shwuno

Interesting - thanks!

Pcampeau

Very nice bike! It looks quite a bit like my 74 French market PX10. You seem to be aware that some of the parts have been swapped out but what you have will make a plenty nice ride. Seat post on mine is Laprade.

bikemig 

I'm going to use a campy 2 bolt seatpost on my Mercier 300. The campy seatpost will likely cost you less than a simplex and it is a very strong design. But if you want to to tout French, I understand. Also you can run, if you wish, a 22.2 stem but you may have to sand it down to fit.

Simplex rear derailleurs often have a pretty decent chain capacity and can handle a decent sized max cog. I'm running a 13-30 freewheel on my PXN 10 with a simplex rear derailleur. The gearing choices for a French vintage bike tend to be pretty good.

dddd

Looks like a 1973/74 model PX10LE, which means it has super-steep frame angles in excess of 75 degrees.

This bike will make for a very spirited ride and is best for aggressive riding and climbing with the rider perhaps jumping out of the saddle with some regularity to sprint (accelerate) or to "attack" steep switchback turns going uphill.
The steering will always be extremely light and responsive, but may have enough stability for you if the headset bearings are completely free-turning and if the stem extension is 10cm or greater (more length here puts more weight on the front tire, and also positions body weight better with respect to the steering axis for greater steering stability. This will always be an exceptionally-quick steering bike however, and steering stability will suffer further with any raising of the handlebar height.

Your rear derailer appears to have it's top sprung pivot fully de-tensioned. These derailers are NOT to be removed by turning the chromed hex socket on the mounting bolt(!), actually the bolt is un-threaded but for a smaller screw that threads into the other end of the mounting bolt behind the dropout (and facing the opposite direction). Likely someone has forcefully turned the mounting bolt and sheared it's positioning out of the stop plate on the reverse side of the top pivot (sorry for this bit of bad news). Sometimes the situation can be remedied by turning the chromed mounting bolt clockwise and then tightening the small screw on the other end of the mounting bolt (accessed with the rear wheel removed). The spring may thus be re-tensioned enough so that the top pulley clears the largest freewheel sprocket by 1/4" when the chain is on the small chainring.

The PX10LE's rear derailer was I believe NOT the vaunted LJ model but was the almost equally hard to find model SX610 (as stamped into the outer parallel link's "tin" cover). Hopefully this one can be restored, it may take disassembly and some "peening" around the hole in the stop plate to restore it's solid rotational engagement with the mounting bolt (see photo below of a round hole with it's flat restored by peening with a sharp punch).
Below is a picture of a similar Campagnolo stop plate with the hole having become stripped round, but with the flat having been restored (your derailer's stop plate should I believe have two flats along the stripped hole instead of just one).
After restoration of the stop plate, the mounting bolt would be rotated into spring tension before the stop plate is pressed back on and the tensioned assembly carefully re-installed onto the dropout without releasing the press-fit and the spring tension. The positioning of the derailer body could then be fine-tuned by adjusting the cage pivot with it's external hex nut and hex socket. Yes this all requires some investigation and perseverance, but ultimately is not hard to do.

unworthy1

you get major "OMG points" for working on any bike (even one this clean) on an off-white carpet!

bikemig 

The OP may be single . . . . Just sayin.

rjhammett

It's a UX-10. UX-10 were a PX-10 with clincher wheels. The fork is slightly different from a PX-10. I sold this one this past summer.

unworthy1

If there was nothing but a drum kit in that music room, then...case closed!

(I'm allowed drummer and bachelor jokes!)

KenNC

Nice looking bike with an interesting set of components. It would be great if your clincher rims had an inner lip that retains higher pressure tires, with or without wire beads. I recently re-did a PRN10 (lesser frame) of about the same era, and by stroke of good luck it had clincher rims that included an inner lip. Here's the thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-e-rescue.html Also you will see on my thread a discussion of the rear derailleur, how the tension looked too weak and the parallelogram body was pulled too far forward, and how that was resolved--not saying you have a problem but you may want to check it out. Again, nice bike and good luck with it!

Shwuno

She’s a beauty!

Shwuno

Thanks that’s useful to know, looks like a bit of experimentation on the gearing is in order

Shwuno

hahah yeah risky one I know, but this is “my” lounge after all

Shwuno

‘thanks so much for this, I knew there was something wrong with the RD but hadn’t yet removed for inspection. I suspect I would have been clueless! Still might be past my knowledge but hopefully I can work it out based on this information. If not, not sure what I’ll do!

Shwuno

ah ok thanks but these forks aren’t from the original bike, annoyingly! I don’t mind too much what this actually is just trying to figure it out so I can attempt the impossible and source some correct forks...

Shwuno

thanks so much - this forum is amazing! Learning lots and will definitely take some tips from your thread.