Vintage PX10 Replacing components -Value-

[El Chaba]

This is a great conversation....Just a couple of notes....Tom Simpson had a Masi-built Peugeot (at least one). In those days the team did use bikes right off of the regular assembly line and a custom frame was not a possibility. He and Merckx wound up with Masis more out of a desire for a custom fit rather than a desire for something better as the Peugeots came straight and well built even if the paint/chrome/finish work was workmanlike..... If you ever meet Eddy Merckx and shake his hand, it will strike you that he has big hands...I think the Universal levers were a good fit for his hands. Merckx also sometimes had a Campy crankset on his Masi, but I have also seen photos with a Stronglight 93.

Starting in 1974, Peugeot decided to accommodate their riders with custom bikes and opened up the special "Prestige" shop within the giant Peugeot works. It was comprised of about 5-6 workers who made custom bikes for the team and then by special order for customers. They were expensive-almost twice the cost of the factory version with almost identical parts. Thevenet used these bikes. They are generally easily spotted by their brazed on Mafac brake calipers early on....Later Prestige models are easily differentiated by their use of "continental" shaped Reynolds fork blades. They are fabulous bikes...The foreman of the shop was Raoul Jean D'Heure. He had a reputation of a perfectionist. he left his mark on the frames he built by countersinking the holes in the drilled out rear dropouts 9see photo) as well as the particular treatment he gave to the curved rear brake bridges...

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by steveandbarb1

I thought PX10's had the Nervex "cut out" lugs. I remember Dec 26, 1989 - father brought me to bike store at age 12 to buy my own bike. The PX10 was in the window, 175.00. The UO8 was 89.00. I ended up with a Flandria for 82.00 but interestly enough - that Flandria really got me into inside of biking, I met in 1973 the importer of Flandria, he had never saw a French made one. I asked and he said yes to job in this small retail shop. 2 months later I got a Flandria Team Pro (1st gen dura ace) right above import cost.

They have , mine is the 'Plain Dubois' model as seen here bottom of page ;

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...ervex_lugs.htm

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by El Chaba

This is a great conversation....Just a couple of notes....Tom Simpson had a Masi-built Peugeot (at least one). In those days the team did use bikes right off of the regular assembly line and a custom frame was not a possibility. He and Merckx wound up with Masis more out of a desire for a custom fit rather than a desire for something better as the Peugeots came straight and well built even if the paint/chrome/finish work was workmanlike..... If you ever meet Eddy Merckx and shake his hand, it will strike you that he has big hands...I think the Universal levers were a good fit for his hands. Merckx also sometimes had a Campy crankset on his Masi, but I have also seen photos with a Stronglight 93.

Starting in 1974, Peugeot decided to accommodate their riders with custom bikes and opened up the special "Prestige" shop within the giant Peugeot works. It was comprised of about 5-6 workers who made custom bikes for the team and then by special order for customers. They were expensive-almost twice the cost of the factory version with almost identical parts. Thevenet used these bikes. They are generally easily spotted by their brazed on Mafac brake calipers early on....Later Prestige models are easily differentiated by their use of "continental" shaped Reynolds fork blades. They are fabulous bikes...The foreman of the shop was Raoul Jean D'Heure. He had a reputation of a perfectionist. he left his mark on the frames he built by countersinking the holes in the drilled out rear dropouts 9see photo) as well as the particular treatment he gave to the curved rear brake bridges...

Very nice to know , nice pics as well ..those drilled out rear dropouts i have seen them on some Italian build also !

[93KgBike]

They are a great ride. My 1968 is still the benchmark for all-around-fun. 531 rides great, and the pre-1980's bikes can run 35's. I upgraded mine, retrograded it, even rode it fixed for about 10 years. I wouldn't worry to much about resale value, especially without the fancy Nervex lugs/campy dropouts. As someone above said, its a champion quality tube set, ridden by champions, that can be parked anywhere, and look perfect.

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by 93KgBike

They are a great ride. My 1968 is still the benchmark for all-around-fun. 531 rides great, and the pre-1980's bikes can run 35's. I upgraded mine, retrograded it, even rode it fixed for about 10 years. I wouldn't worry to much about resale value, especially without the fancy Nervex lugs/campy dropouts. As someone above said, its a champion quality tube set, ridden by champions, that can be parked anywhere, and look perfect.

It feels light and cant wait to ride it ..i will upgrade the tires to 28's and see how well they do , might go up to 32's - It still has the original bartape but am thinking about maybe adding new stuff over it and that would be my overall upgrade !

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by 11.4

There are people who are looking for Mafac brakes of that vintage.

The brakes on the OP's bike are Racers. There are an infinite number of the Mafac racers available. I can ship 10 sets on Tuesday. Mafac Raids were in high demand until Compass came out with their brakes, now you can find them for a reasonable price. Later Peugeots came with other mafac brakes, but mostly people are looking for the long reach varieties.

I'm really surprised any of the plastic Simplex derailleurs lasted this long. They tend to fracture. You can see the color is fading on the OP's derailleurs, that's not good. I would be careful while shifting.

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

The brakes on the OP's bike are Racers. There are an infinite number of the Mafac racers available. I can ship 10 sets on Tuesday. Mafac Raids were in high demand until Compass came out with their brakes, now you can find them for a reasonable price. Later Peugeots came with other mafac brakes, but mostly people are looking for the long reach varieties.

I'm really surprised any of the plastic Simplex derailleurs lasted this long. They tend to fracture. You can see the color is fading on the OP's derailleurs, that's not good. I would be careful while shifting.

Mine are Mafac ''Racer'' with the Mafac levers ..i'm also concerned by my derailleur , has light fading but no apparent cracks and shifts ok for now !

[El Chaba]

You could build a pretty good argument that the Simplex Delrin derailleurs took down the entire French bike industry....and the battle was fought from the bottom up. People who bought bike boom 'ten speeds"-many equipped with Simplex Prestige derailleurs then proceeded to abuse the hell out of them and then blame the "cheap plastic derailleur" for breaking. The one fair criticism was that the front derailleur bodies were known to crack, but even that was usually caused by over-tightening. The fact that there are stillthousands of them in an uncracked condition on an equal number of old vintage bike boom bikes would vouch for the fact that they weren't THAT fragile...Simplex was pretty stubborn about the use of Delrin and finally partiallyabandoned it with the introduction of the Super Lj derailleurs in the early-mid 70's along with the more working class SX series. Out of pure stubbornness, there were even a few models with one pivot of alloy and the other of Delrin. They still had Delrin models until the company folded in the late 1980's. Robert Millar's climbing bikes had Delrin derailleurs in this time period.

[Devotion]

If the goal is to sell the bike, I would likely leave it as close to original as possible…including old cables/housing.
If the goal is to ride it and enjoy it, I always like to disassemble, thoroughly clean, repack all bearings, replace the "soft stuff", like tires, cables, bar tape, brake shoes…with modern production stuff that "looks the part" from 5 feet away.

[Devotion]

Oh and if it's gonna be real "rider," I set the original tubular wheelset aside…and ride on a period hub with a vintage looking *clincher* and skin wall tire. (ducks for cover)

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by El Chaba

You could build a pretty good argument that the Simplex Delrin derailleurs took down the entire French bike industry....and the battle was fought from the bottom up. People who bought bike boom 'ten speeds"-many equipped with Simplex Prestige derailleurs then proceeded to abuse the hell out of them and then blame the "cheap plastic derailleur" for breaking. The one fair criticism was that the front derailleur bodies were known to crack, but even that was usually caused by over-tightening. The fact that there are stillthousands of them in an uncracked condition on an equal number of old vintage bike boom bikes would vouch for the fact that they weren't THAT fragile...Simplex was pretty stubborn about the use of Delrin and finally partiallyabandoned it with the introduction of the Super Lj derailleurs in the early-mid 70's along with the more working class SX series. Out of pure stubbornness, there were even a few models with one pivot of alloy and the other of Delrin. They still had Delrin models until the company folded in the late 1980's. Robert Millar's climbing bikes had Delrin derailleurs in this time period.

Very good argument in deed ..i would like to know how many people had their's break during a run or simply because of unregular maintenance and or simply used to the very last until it broke - mine is over 40yrs old , looks fine after i cleaned it and still performs as well as my Campy Record !

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by Devotion

If the goal is to sell the bike, I would likely leave it as close to original as possible…including old cables/housing.
If the goal is to ride it and enjoy it, I always like to disassemble, thoroughly clean, repack all bearings, replace the "soft stuff", like tires, cables, bar tape, brake shoes…with modern production stuff that "looks the part" from 5 feet away.

Mmm selling is not in mind for now unless i find a really cool Cinelli Supercorsa which in my area is almost impossible to find but will see .. the bike is getting cleaned / lubed and ride ready more and more every day !

[Amocat]

Originally Posted by Devotion

Oh and if it's gonna be real "rider," I set the original tubular wheelset aside…and ride on a period hub with a vintage looking *clincher* and skin wall tire. (ducks for cover)

Haha , have all that already covered .

[texbike]

Amocat,

Congratulations on finding such a beautiful example of an iconic classic. About 3 years back, I found a decent, all original '72 that hadn't seen much use in over 30 years. It needed everything that your bike needs, so I hung it on a hook and began to collect the parts needed to go through it - tires, cables, brake blocks, chain, and bar tape. However, it was a bit too small so I wasn't in a huge hurry to get it back on the road. Fast forward to two weeks ago - ANOTHER nice, original '72 popped up on the local CL for a reasonable price. Luckily, it was my size AND in a bit better shape than the other bike. So, I sold the smaller PX and now have the larger example hanging on its old bike hook. I'll get to it once the weather cools down a bit. I'll post a pic of it in the next day or two.

Originally Posted by El Chaba

PX10s are valued on the classic market above bikes of a similar quality. The primary reason is that they were sold by the thousands during the bike boom so like a VW Beetle they are an icon. They were unique, funky and French. They are also highly valued because they ride well. The disaster for something like a PX10 is when somebody starts "upgrading" it with modern components (at any time in its history). They are one of those rare bikes where the whole is generally worth more than the sum of the parts...Peugeot is the quintessential working class bike. They were definitely made to be used and not looked at. Even if their paint/chrome/finishing wasn't of the highest standard, the frames were always stuck together well and they were unusually well aligned.

These are the primary reasons that I'm attracted to the PX-10s. They're essentially the CAAD series of the 60s/70s with a bit of French funkiness for additional flavor. Interestingly, I've been surprised by the quality of the chrome and paint on the two that I've had. However, the decals haven't been as resilient...

Originally Posted by Devotion

I always like to disassemble, thoroughly clean, repack all bearings, replace the "soft stuff", like tires, cables, bar tape, brake shoes…with modern production stuff that "looks the part" from 5 feet away.

This is exactly the plan for mine along with a good polish, replacement of the 531 decals, and a bit of framesaver applied inside the tubes.

Texbike

[Amocat]

Thanks , can't wait to see what your bike looks like .. will you be riding it after resto or hang it as wall art , both are acceptable in my opinion !?