Narhay

Why not both?

nlerner

Here's my Peugeot in progress. The rear wheel is a placeholder as I wait for the single-speed coaster-brake hub to arrive next week. I have the 27" alloy rim in hand now. That's the original crankset with the spindle flipped around and a 3-pin 40t Stronglight ring. Front platform is from scrap wood and some wire shelving cut to size; front rack is a mini thing that I've had hanging in my basement for years. Those gold-anodized bars are also a basement relic on the original stem.




I fabricated a wooden chainguard some years back and will try and fit it once I have the rear wheel built. I'm also thinking of recovering that saddle with some scrap leather. Need to get to the thrift store and look for a leather jacket or large purse.

USAZorro

I've made a bit more progress than it may appear. Have serviced the rear hub, cleaning everything up quite a bit in the process and only had to swear at the circlip three times. I located the original seat post and pilfered the saddle and mounting bracket that was on the same purple Raleigh Sports that I nabbed the from wheel from. I cleaned the rust from the handlebar and stem (the grips still need an hour or so of Goo-Gonning), Mounted some 15-ish year old Swallow tires that I vaguely remember buying from Merv's for $4.99 each over recycled tubes and fitted things together.

Tomorrow is drive-train day - where I connect the chain, enable all three speeds and the coaster brake. I'm debating whether to attempt a front brake. I'm not sure the hole in the fork is wide enough, but I'll see. After that, it'll be a short journey down our gravel road and then hopefully putting the requisite miles on it.





I am going to have to fabricate attachments to secure the stays to the fenders and get them on it, as that will "Transform" Robin Hood into Bumblebee.

jdawginsc 

You just gave me an idea for one of my giveaways...

Andy_K 

I feel like I've seen something like this before.... Oh, I know where.

nlerner

^ Well, both white Peugeots but very different models, different wheel sizes, different gearing. Are you saying that all bikes with upright bars and single chain rings are the same?!

jdawginsc 

Completely different... One has fenders.

Andy_K 

If you've seen one Peugeot hipster city bike, you've seen them all.

darnet

love the shop-made threadless stem adapter!

DonkeyShow

3 days ago it was sunny in the 80s, today was 45 with 15 mph winds. Decided to take the clunker to the post office. 3.5 miles and 180 feet of suck brings my total to 33.5 miles and 1430 ft.

zukahn1

Today for right about budget 1987/88 Motive Stone Grinder MTB done to a state where I can make the 100 miles. 50$ for my start pile $40 for cheap used tires and pathed tubes a junk crank set with stuck pedals and $15 for a used Deore Thumb shifter for a total of $105 all salvage got for free out of my death pile bins and only 22 cents for a washer out of pocket cash spent for total of $105.22. So no more budget so just done to riding now got 30 miles in should be able to do another 70 easy with maybe a big ride push to the top of 13,000 trail road a couple of epic rides with andgreat pics is the only way this boring so-so pig will stand a chance of being well do good in this. For the record this bike has a serial number of D10804131 and is Branded Motive with 4130 chr-mo frame and High Ten fork.

darnet

I am suspicious now of the Green Mirage. If the Green International and the Green Super Course marked the beginning and ending of COVID-19, then I should have known better than to allow its soul to escape by trying to resurrect another green bike. Now, from seclusion while taking experimental, emergency-only antiviral drugs, I am posting some photos of the Green Mirage as pulled from the underworld

Identification includes an intact "1020" decal

Wheels are biggest part of challenge. Warped, rusted, and dry-rotted

Some surface rust, and sign of secure kickstand

Beautiful lug work, and interesting cable stay detail

Seat post not stuck but what is that sleeve? Bent lug on seat tube

derailleurs in working order

I love the old-school lighting

rustystrings61 

The lugs are Bocama, and look like some variant of the Model 18 but with Type II sockets for the top and down tubes. The French LOVED the Huret Allvit derailleur ensemble, and I am told that if they aren't bent and are properly lubricated they work very well. The French (and some Swiss builders) LOVED using shims, and in a way, it makes sense. You're much less likely to have a frozen seatpost! I've had numerous French bikes with shims, and have seen them on several Allegros.

This looks like a fun project, and rivals my rustbucket '89 LeTour that I need to get back to work on ....

darnet

Thanks! I've never taken apart or ridden a French bike, so I'm noticing some things that are odd to me. The rear derailleur was assembled with machine screws making it dis-assemble-able, handy for cleaning, and both derailleurs actually do work (move) fine now. Don't know yet how they'll function when reinstalled on the bike. I agree with the exclamation point re the frozen seatpost. I still have healing flesh burns from dissolving a frozen aluminum seatpost in a steel frame using lye. Don't always try the tips from YouTube.

darnet

I almost wish now that I’d tried to salvage the Mirage wheels. I could have wire-wheeled them inside and out, trued as well as possible, and maybe put on new old tires (tubes seemed fine). But I guess it would not have been worth the risk of wheel failure on a ride.

So, I have to source new wheels and tires. I saw a CL ad with three sets of too-nice looking wheels for $20. The ad was 14 days old and the ad threatened to recycle them the day before I even saw the ad. Called anyway, the seller hadn’t tossed them yet, so I grabbed them. They are wider hubs than vintage, and need tires, and would look very odd, but I could force them to fit. Afterward, I got to thinking (again) I really should go with something more period. I could use last year’s Green Super Course mis-matched wheels and tires, and pro-rate the expense (maybe 1/3 of the $45 spent on the bike), or find vintage-er wheels. But I think it would be silly to reuse the same bargain parts on different bikes, and I have several spare sets of vintage wheels in the shed, so I think it would be silly to buy more instead of using what I already have. How do I establish the value added to the Mirage if I install wheels from my shed?

Luckily, I found a FB market posting for a local set of 27” wheels and tires that remain unsold for several weeks, $30. Since I could probably get the vintage wheels for $25 including tires, and I actually did get some wheels for $20 (in fact, free!, after I told the seller why I wanted them), I’m going with $30 added for some spare wheels from my shed, including whatever used tires and freewheel I throw on.

rustystrings61 

If memory serves, the Mirage was roughly comparable to the Peugeot A-08 - non-QR version of Atom/Normandy/Maillard hubs, unbranded hi-ten tubing, surprisingly nice ride. I rode my first clunker challenge on a '75 Motobecane Grand Touring, which had SunTour derailleurs, a cheap Shimano Tourney alloy crankset and q/r equipped Normandy Sport hubs on (mismatched!) alloy 27-in rims. That one made me re-evaluate 70s basic bike-boom stuff and appreciate it for how nicely they ride, how little fuss they are, and how forgiving 27 x 1 1/4 at 70 psi is on so many surfaces. Have fun with the Mirage, it has great mojo!

rgvg

I got a rear wheel to go with the front one I got last week. Doesn't match but there was not a lot to choose from. I had considered building a wheel but would cost more for the rim and spokes than if I just bought this one from the coop. I tightened up the tension on the front wheel and trued it as much as I could. I'll have to clean and grease them next.

Mr. 66

Must resist, must resist, must resist...

Must resist, must resist, must resist...

Resistance is futile.

The wheels came first, 6 speed narrow on 120 spaced Campy on Rigida 700 $43.00 as shown the rims have already gone through the first stage of refurbish, 0001 steel wool rubdown.

The frame is Gitane Tour de France with hangerless Simplex Juy forged dropouts, with headset stem, bars, and brake levers. There is a Stronglight bb it's toast. The Gitane was $34.00

RandolphCarter

Since I had difficulty finishing my build last year, and I'm re-entering it this year, in order to ensure I finish my build the natural and proximate solution is obviously to throw another bike in to the mix.

Behold the Allitalia.. um... er... I have no idea:



Suntour Cyclone derailleurs, Sugino Super Mighty cranks, KKT pedals, Weinmann brakes. The hubs and rims are so dirty I have no idea what they are, Front rim is steel and rear is alloy.

It's surprisingly light.

With two bikes I'll be twice as likely to finish the builds!

Edit: That's a Jim Blackburn rear rack, too.

DonkeyShow

I've almost crashed twice now. Gonna eat **** soon. Yesterday the rear wheel fell out the drops.

Took a bunch of stuff off, bike weighed in at 26.9 lbs after.

free

rustystrings61 

I would NEVER be able to resist a green TdF in my size like that! And while I’m used to the Simplex hanger on mine, your dropouts would be better suited for my use - my TdF is my favorite beater fixed-gear, and a 60 cm to top Mel Pinto/foil decal era TdF is pure magic on the road!

rustystrings61 

I have been slow on this LeTour, but the other day I managed to pull the headset and BB bearings and promptly chucked them in a bowl of citrus degreaser. At the time, I thought it odd that the drive side bearings required pulling the cover off from the inside.

Now I understand why. Someone in the years before cartridge bearings became the standard, decided that if the balls were locked in place between metal guards and pre-lubed, it would make for faster installation. I can think of no other reason to do this - behold the Hatta pre-lube BB cup!





I guess I was supposed to remove the fixed cup en bloc like the adjustable side - but I’m pretty sure it is rust-welded in place at this point ….

USAZorro

One of my favorite authors, the very prodigious, "Unknown", graced the human race with the maxim, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

Well, I'd like to amend that to, "Necessity is a mother...".

I am running perilously close to the dollar limit on my build because I was enough of a sucker to spend close to $80.00 on a crudded-up old Robin Hood single speed, and I decided to build that up for the challenge. At a couple points so far, I've had to follow the route of "five steps forward, four steps back", and so it was again these past two days.

Now if I wasn't so hard-headed, I could have just decreed, "and thine Clunker shalt be a single speed", and this would have been the end of the most recent episode. However, that's one corner I don't see myself being able to cut. Now I have a couple conventional three-speed triggers as well as indicators of two different sizes. Heck, I even MacGyvered an anchor assembly from three nuts and one plate from excess chain. However, what I do not have is a proper shift cable with the do-bobber on the end that the trigger pulls on. I could get a whole NOS "Schwinn approved" cable assembly for $10.00 from e-Bay, but my budget doesn't permit.

Enter a sweet little present I recalled receiving from cudak888 a couple years back... the TSC-30 grip shifter. I know I had it around somewhere, but task one was finding it. Well I began that effort in the wee hours of Saturday morning (after spending Friday afternoon locating those three aforementioned nuts and some thin plate steel to fabricate seat-stay attachments from (which required about 1/10th of the 18"x6" sheet that I got from Lowe's for $9.00 - aka 90 cents). Well after sleeping I located the shifter and "hooray!" it has all the workings, so all I need to do is put it on the bar and I'm good to go. Well, to get it on the bar, I have to remove one of the plastic grips that presumably have been attached to the bar since the day that bicycle left the factory apparently before the US entered WWII. I actually worked out how to get one off without damaging it... now to slide the shifter... rats. It needed about one half more mm. It will not fit on.

So I get to thinking, maybe on the stem? It would fit, but the stem is too short, and it looked awful. So I need to change out bars, but I have none that the shifter will fit on that also fit the stem. So after an hour or so of measuring everything and shuffling things around, I have a stem that fits fits steerer and bars, bars that fit shifter and will also work with original grips (though I'll need to put something partially sticky under them so they won't turn) a 3-speed cable that connects all the way from trigger to hub, and a bicycle that barely fits in the budget. If I can work out a way to shorten the cable by about a foot, that would be great, or otherwise I'll have to keep following James Brown's timeless advice: "Make it Funky".

Once I work this out, I have a brake transplant to perform (the coaster brake is rather unimpressive under absolutely ideal conditions), and then address the rear fender stays and attachments to the stay and brake bridges.... and, of course, get the right grip as clean as the left one.

zukahn1

Got the first real long ride in on my challenge bike the Stone Grinder road up to Alma on the bike trail and a bit did bit of riding around there about 20 miles total so I'm about 60 miles down so far. After a bit of the rough dirt roads and trails I think I may want to review and rethink my budget and build to see if a can manage to put a front granny and a simple front shifter on this one probably have the parts off a previous never built bike that I got for the Clunker a few years back and never built for $3 Ross Chrome Mt. something mostly complete poorly repaired frame.

Mr. 66

I've been wanting to build a French bike in my size for a long time, it didn't take but a feather to send over the edge.

Ok my new bike feel is over!!!! Again French bikes!! if I didn't enjoy this stuff boy I be just stuffed. I slapped the wheels on the rear pops in ruff, then I realized the narrow 6 freewheel interferes with the chainstay. That's ok for now I can mount the wheel I just can not spin the freewheel, the teeth straddling the very end of the chainstay. The wheel sets ok, centered at the brake bridge, good I can just swap the 5sp. I go to put the front wheel, it's out of center, shoot. Not evident at the quick glance, appears to need more than side to side, front to back, but better than I thought. What do I mean? I took another look at the frame and the head tube is not inline with the seattube. That out a good solid 1/8", just crap I really wanted this to be an easy build, no...

Of of course I have trouble with the driveside bb cup, it the 8 point 37mm for which I do not have a wrench for. I have an old adjustable, it just glances a hold. I may have a 12 point socket that will fit, probably not, my first set of tools gave no fruit.

I did remove the rest of the bb and with my straight edge clamped to the cup showed the seattube parallels the cup face, nice. I swing the edge to the downtube, nice that's good. Only the toptube is wonkers. Sure it's not lined up, this is very manageable. I can make this work, or that's the running joke I tell myself.