Phil Anderson talks about his Peugeot and other things (CyclingTips)

[fiamme red]

Nice interview, except that the author misspelled Greg Softley's name as Sotley.

https://cyclingtips.com/2019/01/phil...an-82-peugeot/.

How has rediscovering and rebuilding your Peugeot helped you reflect on your career?

Look at the shape the riders were then and how they have changed. We were big burly blokes. We were so big compared to the little guys going around now. I don’t know how we did it. Now they are riding at 100-110 revolutions, but back then there was no spinning. It was always pushing these huge gears around. When you look at the old Youtube videos, at my era or to Eddy Merckx’s era, everyone is just pushing gears at 30 to 40 revolutions. Chris Froome would have a heart attack if he had to push those gears up a hill. We had six speed and the smallest front chain ring you could get was a 42, and the smallest gear we had was a 42 x 23. We would use the 23 going up the mountains or in the classics going up the Koppenberg in (the Tour of) Flanders … Just riding this bike again recently, I gotta say that I am amazed we did what we did. But then I guess we all had to.

What about Richie Porte who has also left teams, BMC for Trek-Segafredo? It will be a huge year for him too.

...My theory is that while these riders are fit, I don’t think they have race fitness. Physically they are fit, but I don’t think they have the skills. They go on these training camps and then they come out to race once a month or whatever. They are so nervous and they have so much pressure on them, they just bloody drop the ball. They only race 40 or 50 days a year, compare that to our days. Sean Kelly would race 130 days a year. I wasn’t quite as heavy, but still did 115 or 120 days.

We were racing three times as much as these guys. So you get to a race, but haven’t got the pressure every time to perform because you have a lot of these races throughout the year, but also the skillset. You are more used to riding in a big bunch because you are doing it three times as much as they are now. I don’t know what it is with Richie, if it’s luck or... you would think you would be ok in the skill department. But look at Cadel. He had some shocking years too...

[El Chaba]

Excellent article. I had a brief exchange with Phil about those Peugeots about 5 years ago and asked if he had one...His reply was no, but he was looking for one...and they were "thin on the ground"....I'm glad that he found one of his old bikes. Personally, I was on the hunt for one for about 30 years before finding one in good shape and the right size...

[redir]

Every once in a while I'll take my vintage leightweight out for a ride and I always do wonder how the heck they pushed gears like that up in he Alps. Not to mention that the cogs were not ramped and you had to shift perfectly with a friction lever often times under a lot of stress.

[Hellgate]

Thanks for the article. Great read. My PX10 approves.

[dancinkozmo]

just looking at this cogset makes my knees ache...

[David Tollefson]

I started racing just when 6 speed was changing over to 7 speed and cassette clusters were first being introduced. 42-21 was my standard low gear, well into 8-speed era, and if the race was "hilly" I'd go to a 23. Climbed pretty well, in fact.

Can't do that any more...

[ntb1001]

Funny when you think back to the 80’s and the gearing...my main freewheel was a 13-18...Suntour Winner Pro.

Not a chance nowadays




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[thwart]

That is a good read.

And a glorious bike... another shot.

[erolorhun]

Nice interview. ´Straight block´ comes into mind reading about 13-18 cassettes... Truly a thing of the past?

[paredown]

Thanks-perfect read over morning coffee!

[saab2000]

The rear brake cable needs to be routed over, not under, the front. This keeps bother me! Otherwise it’s quite perfect!

Big fan of Phil and his generation. That’s when I got into riding and all the English-speaking riders were fascinating and won big races. They were more than a curiosity and ultimately changed the sport, mostly for the better.

[El Chaba]

To elaborate on some of the information from Phil Anderson on the Peugeot Prestige shop...So, it was established in 1974 to build the best possible bikes for the long-standing pro team...and for the company to not be embarrassed by somebody like an Eddy Merckx using a Masi in Peugeot paint...Within the huge Peugeot company, there was this small, say 6 people at the peak, frame operation completely separate from the factory. Somebody within the company thought it would be a good idea to offer these bikes to the public on a limited basis. Sometimes they appeared in catalogs, but usually they were just listed in the dealer's price list along with a rather extensive order form So you could get a custom bike exactly as per the team and built by the same people. They only came as complete bikes with a parts spec of French component makers. The only options on the parts pertained to gearing choices, stem length and other fit parameters. The cost for one of the Prestige bikes was about twice the price of the very similar model from the factory, so not many were sold for that reason alone.
These bikes were quite special and broke many of the rules that most people think apply to the factory bikes from France in that time period. They had a great neutral road racing geometry, were nicely put together, had neatly finished and thinned lugs, nice paint, and the chrome was exceptional. Then there were certain professional touches that reminded you that the bike was built by the same hands that built for the mighty Peugeot pro team...like the small dogwood dowel that was inserted into the bottom of the fork column and held in place by the brake center bolt as a reinforcement. (this was a common practice in Europe among pro teams at the time). The bikes were generally built with lighter gauge tubing than was standard and they spec'ced a fair amount of titanium, etc. My 54.5 cm (c-c) bike is just over 19 lbs...I guess Jan Heine would say that the bike "planed" but I'll just say that it has a great ride and great handling....one of the best bikes that I have ever ridden.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by erolorhun

Nice interview. ´Straight block´ comes into mind reading about 13-18 cassettes... Truly a thing of the past?

Yes, it was a thing of a past - an era when smaller gearing was available, but the "hard men" chose not to, because they had to show how tough they were.

Derailleur gearing was starting to be developed in the late 19th century, and although it first had limited gear size ranges, by the early 20th century gearing wide enough for mountain touring was developed. But racers didn't want to be seen using equipment mere tourists used, so they didn't adopt derailleurs until later. The Tour de France famously did not allow derailleur gearing until 1937, and they only did then because it became embarrassing when spectators watching the race in the mountain passes were riding up the passes faster than the racers.

My first decent derailleur road bike, a 1978 Schwinn World Traveller, had a a 10spd (2x5) drivetrain with a 14-28 freewheel and 52-40 crank, and that wasn't even particularly low gearing at the time. Sugino had already introduced the 110mm BCD crank, but this was considered a "touring" crank, and so would never be seen on any self-respecting racer's bike. Even though lower gearing was available, racers took great pride in pushing as high a gear as they could, and so 42 small chainrings and straight block freewheels were popular for this clique.

If racers rode very high gearing in the 70's and 80's, they had only themselves to blame, not contemporary technology.

[dancinkozmo]

that spidel groupset looks really nice.. was never on my radar before

[osbk67]

Originally Posted by El Chaba

Then there were certain professional touches that reminded you that the bike was built by the same hands that built for the mighty Peugeot pro team...like the small dogwood dowel that was inserted into the bottom of the fork column and held in place by the brake center bolt as a reinforcement. (this was a common practice in Europe among pro teams at the time).

The use of a short piece of dowel was touted as a solution to front brake shuddering for several years in the 1980s. I tried it myself for a while and it seemed to work, but the flip side was that any water or condensation in the steerer tube was trapped. Some frames had X or cross bracing brazed into the steerer for similar reasons.

From memory, which fades, the practice of using a piece of dowel largely ended with the advent of the helically reinforced Columbus SLX steerer tube, which increased rigidity and complicated the installation process in similar measures...