tarsi 

There I was minding my own business when the door bell rings and a neighbor is standing at my front door with his son's Peugot. He proceeds to tell me that he is cleaning out their garage and wants to know if I want it. Without knowing anything about French bikes I say, "Sure!". In a split second, a project queue 3 deep went to 4. Knowing it will be a while before I can do any research, planning etc on this bike I was hoping you guys could advise me on what I was just gifted. Is it's worthy of a restoration and if not, are there any custom builds this might be good for? I'm also open to parting bike out and just keeping things of interest and moving the rest on. One thing just came to mind is I have no "French" tools. What kind of problem will that be?

BFisher

That looks like a '71(?) UO-8 with crank, derailleur, handlebar, and stem changes. Maybe more.
Not a high end bike by any means, but they can offer a surprisingly good ride. I have one and I love the way it rides. I'll never get rid of it. A UO-8 is an excellent platform for a build. Here's mine:

Insidious C. 

Now you've done it. I hate to be the one to tell you, but there is no such thing as owning only one French bike.

nlerner

I can’t think of any French-specific tools, plus the coffered crankset has already been replaced, so that cuts out one specialized tool (cotter pin press). If it fits, ride away!

BFisher

This is true! I own three.

I think.

Lemme go count again.

Seriously, though, all three of my French bikes are keepers. The Pug is so nice, but once you get a Motobecane...

SurferRosa

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bgross

Ah, Lieutenant Colonel Obi-wan Nicholson.
Bet he doesn’t ride a Japanese bike. Probably a Raleigh.

ramzilla

The paint, graphics, lug work, brakes & bits make it appear to be an early to mid 70's vintage to me. That's the golden era for Peugeot. Lots of collector appeal for these. Great score for $0. Get some new parts for it and ride it!

dddd

Wow, is it your size?

What great neighbors! The death-stem, plastic derailers and cotter cranks having already been taken care of!

If it fits, and rides in a way that you like, I say fix the handlebars, get a rear caliper, and take it from there.

And give those neighbors some cookies or something.

randyjawa 

For the most part, metric tools will fit just fine. It is the component threading and tube sizing that might cause problems. And, that Simplex plastic derailleur will likely be a problem. They tend to fail completely more often than not...

davester

The Simplex derailleurs have already been replaced with Shimano.

repechage

no it won't - its already been changed out.
money has been spent on this bike-or time- or both
questionable bar and stem choice
be interesting to see if the spindle was just swapped out to get the cotterless cranks on there.
check the chainline

tarsi 

Just for fun I flipped the bar around last night so it faces towards the rider not away and I kind of like it. Thinking bar-end shifters and areo brake levers would be cool. Anybody tried this?

tarsi 

See below for kind-of what I had in mind. Was thinking brakes would be installed further towards stem with levers horizontally parallel to bar. Idea would be for the body of brake to provide an additional hand position. Make sense?

Velo Mule

That is a nice looking U0-8. It is in good shape and the cranks, derailleurs, stem are all good modifications. I am a little jealous. But I have enough bikes already.

If it were mine, I would change the seat but keep the existing one for possible restoration, change the handlebars, add a rear Mafac caliper and ride it. I would also put some money aside for future to re-lace the wheels with vintage looking aluminum rims, double butted stainless spokes and fenders. Then maybe further down the road, get an inexpensive seat post, since this is a resto-mod anyway. Keep an eye out for some better derailleurs, but your really don't need them.

Your idea about flipping the bars is worthwhile, If you end up not liking it, you can change them. At least you would have learned something.

The Golden Boy 

markk900

this is true: I have my AO-8 that I have owned since 1973; a moto and a Lejuene. You have scored a worthy platform for playing with French bikes....

Lascauxcaveman 

Congratulations; you just managed to make it even dorkier that it already was.

My advice would have been to just get a real handlebar and a set up a rear brake and you're done. Unless you have the parts on hand to ditch those heavy old steel rims - in that case, definitely do that, too.