So I don't even recall how I found this board, but I figured I'd share my pride and joy with everyone.

I have a thing for Peugeot cycles. I was an English Raleigh fan in the past, but if there's one thing those Frenchies know how to make, it's a bicycle.

So anyway, I had been looking for ages for a 60-63cm Peugeot frame to build into a fixie... and I came across one that was straight, had basically horizontal dropouts and was 62cm.

Of course, it had seen much better days:



Some closer up shots of the frame (apologies in advance for the shitty pics, camera phone FTL):

Downtube:


Dropouts:


Head and forks:

(One thing I noticed after I finished building it was that the front fork has a slight bend outward on the right fork - I'll likely replace the fork next spring with something else... maybe a carbon one or something.

I tried some gel paint remover to start stripping off the old paint, and it really didn't do much at all.

So I head over to my trusty mechanic's garage (who is a personal friend)... and whose son likes bikes too... and I borrow the following tool and a healthy amount of sanding disks (also shown):


Some light sanding:


The finished product, ready for priming (I have high res shots of this if anyone cares to see it):




Take it home for a little test-fit with the 700C wheels I had (yes, they are tubulars, and no, I ended up going with clinchers):


Brought it back the following weekend, wet everything down with a rag and some thinner (to get the paint dust off) and primed it with self-etching automotive autobody primer (don't have a pic of the primer, sorry ):

Primed and ready for paint:


Some leftover automotive paint we found in his cabinet of paint, bright white (label said 95-99 Chrysler):


The paint gun and can ready to paint:


My mechanic and friend spraying the bike (and you can see that he was painting a carbon wheel at the same time for another friend):


The bike finished with white:


While this was going on, I found a guy on eBay who sells replica decals for vintage bikes... he's in Australia, and he's not cheap, but when I got them I was very happy with the quality - they were top notch. As good as the original, and very easy to apply.


Here's his eBay store, if you're interested: http://stores.ebay.com/Cyclomondo

I don't have a pic of my mechanic spraying clear coat on it, as I wasn't there, and he did it a few days later. But clear-coating over the decals was a smart idea.

After putting together all the new parts I bought for it (and I didn't go cheap, I'll list it all in a sec), here's the finished product:



- Flip flop rear wheel with a Shimano Durace track sprocket and a free-wheel Shimano sprocket on the other side
- a "French-thread" sealed cassette, since the old cassette needed repacking, and it was easier... my local bike shop dude happened to have one, as hard as they are to find
- Sram chain (not on the bike at the time)
- Alexrims 700C wheels with white/black Vittorio rubber
- other generic parts (front brake, MEC red handlebar tape, generic pedals, super long seat post - since I'm 6'4")
- some sort of sporty leather seat I found in a junk shop for $15... BNIB. Nice and comfortable, actually.

Sure, it would have been cheaper to just buy a new fixie at a bike shop (I think I was all in for about $600 in parts - wheels and tires alone were almost half that), but it was so much fun. The only thing I would LOVE to find is a matching vintage frame pump, or a modern frame pump that would fit the pump posts - anyone have any tips?

Next up? I have 2 more Peugeots I'm planning on doing a nice refresh on - not a restore - a really nice 60cm bright pink 80's model (yes, pink!) and an all black model that I found on craigslist for $50. It had so much grime and oil on it that the chrome forks were literally brown. I've been spending a lot of time on that one.

Thanks for reading!

(If anyone wants a better shot of the finished bike, I'll take one - it's hanging up in the garage.)

Also, if anyone was thinking about doing this, I'll share some lessons I learned while doing this.

I get compliments all the time with this bad boy.

Nice work, great old bike. Peugeot and Raleigh's are damn good. A great era for bikes.

As a side note, that Hudsons Bay Company original blanket you have defiled with velo grease is extremely rare. The spacing of the stripes indicates it's highly collectable, and should bring in about 3500.00 to the right collector...

Posted by A. Lien Nice work, great old bike. Peugeot and Raleigh's are damn good. A great era for bikes. As a side note, that Hudsons Bay Company original blanket you have defiled with velo grease is extremely rare. The spacing of the stripes indicates it's highly collectable, and should bring in about 3500.00 to the right collector...

It was found at a Value Village for about $5. It has a few holes in it... it's sitting in a garbage bag right now from when I moved - and the tag on it shows it's from the 50's I think?

I love that blanket!

Here, I pulled it out of the bag and put it on my bed:



It's a 4-point blanket, which apparently was the largest at the time?

Here's the label:


According to HBC Heritage, they switched from a label saying "All Wool" to "100% Wool" around 1950.

I can't imagine it being worth that much, even in mint condition.

Either way, I had always wanted a point blanket, and when I stumbled across it, I nearly choked.

Ooh, lovely! I'll vote yes for another pic

Posted by el nerdo Here, I pulled it out of the bag and put it on my bed: http://farm5.stati...258_f409e8a5a0.jpg It's a 4-point blanket, which apparently was the largest at the time? Here's the label: http://farm3.stati...639_6bc62311fc.jpg According to HBC Heritage, they switched from a label saying "All Wool" to "100% Wool" around 1950. I can't imagine it being worth that much, even in mint condition. Either way, I had always wanted a point blanket, and when I stumbled across it, I nearly choked.

It's a great blanket, glad you saved it. I did kind of get a bit optimistic on the value though

That mid 60's Beetle looks mint.

Posted by A. Lien It's a great blanket, glad you saved it. I did kind of get a bit optimistic on the value though That mid 60's Beetle looks mint.

The Beetle is a 64 I believe, and was a complete frame off restore. I think my mechanic wanted $15K for it.

I think he just likes looking at it.

Good job finding and, mostly, buying the decals. They look great.

Last year I turned my good old commuter into a cute little single speed.

Frame before getting stripped:


Sometime after:


Now it's winter bike mode; I've added fenders, cross tires and the paint job went to hell. This year I'll work on another Peugeot but I'll be keeping the original paint job since it's pristine.

Posted by baleze Sometime after: http://images.couc...8c9f160d501f80.jpg

Tres sexy!