e0richt

hi,
I am looking at a couple of peugeot bikes but it looks like I will have to do some restoration.
are there any gotchas I need to worry about with these french bikes?

thanks!

Maxey

Not really -- well, except for unusual sizing for seat posts, stems, bottom brackets...and don't forget some of the parts, can't recall which, have reverse threading -- maybe the pedals and or bottom bracket. One of the French experts like Juvela will be along shortly to set us straight.

Chombi1 

Component sizing and threading (French or Swiss threaded BBs, French sized 22mm diameter stems. Smaller than usual seatpost diameter to fit the smaller metric sized frame tubes, French threaded crankset/pedals, just to name a few) are the usual issues that come up with rebuilding these older Peugeots.
You can still find the correct sized/threaded components for the bikes, but they might get harder and harder to do so as the years go by. So, it is best to buy these bikes making sure that most the installed components are still servicable.
You can visit the Sheldon Brown site to get more information on all this.
The Carbolite 103 bikes were pretty decent and usually had the good handling and riding qualities that classic Peugeots are famous for. Plus the Carbolite frames were quite bomb proof reliable. I still miss my 1982 upmodded Carbolite 103 framed Peugeot PH10s very much.
Some consider the Carbolite frame tubing as "gas pipe" tubing. But I think their special alloying by Peugeot produced a tubeset that is definitely stronger, lighter and stiffer than the cheap "gas pipes" used on other budget bikes.

bertinjim 

e0richt -

There's some restoration series information on a Peugeot 103 framed Course here: https://peugeotcoursepb12.wordpress.com/tag/pb-12/

MelvinBass

Thanks for the link, I appreciate it.