The "What the hell have I bought" post

So, I came to Peugeot ownership in the following manner. I'm sitting beside a field hockey pitch one afternoon chatting to an acquaintance. We were discussing why I wasn't playing (itb strain if you want the gory details!) and we got chatting about bikes and cycling.

"I used to ride a lot when I was younger"

"Oh yeah, what sort of riding?"

"Road, mostly, still got my old bike in my Parent's shed"

"Yeah?"

"its a what you call it, Peugeot!"

With out thinking too hard, my next line was.

"How much?"

"Oh, its probably rusty as, but if you want it, I reckon you could just have it"

"In fact, take it because you'll give it a good home. My Son will just want to turn it into one of those fixies or something"

And thus, it came to pass that a small sum of money changed hands and I became the proud owner of a bike, in, erm, original condition.

It was definitely a Peugeot, ten speed, in French Blue. Beyond that, mmm, not so sure. The frame stickers said R10. How does one find out anything these days?

Google.

Google has many stirling qualities, but an ability to call up data on obscure Peugeots is not really one of them.

It kept trying to tell me I now own a small French Sedan made by Renault. Eventually, after much swearing, I found a glancing reference on a cycling board to the fact that in this market, the U08 was called an R10. Why, because Peugeot are French.

Where to next?

I posted a couple of pics on a forum in oz called Adelaide Cyclists. Thought to myself, there is no such thing as a stupid question and asked about paint, wheels and decals. At this point, I was still working out what to do with the beast. I knew for certain that it would never do to ruin it by converting it to a fixed, but beyond that? Pseudo modernist with lots of shiny new bits? Fully Old School? Somewhere in between?

The gang on the boards were very helpful, in particular one guy who owns an LBS and used to sell them back in the day. First big score! He found a pair of Wolber Superchampion rims in his storeroom. - Decision made, let's go mostly old school and update for safety and reliability.

I dived back in to the whacky world of opinion, advice and making stuff up on the spot that is bicycles and the interweb, and found this site.

http://retropeugeot.com/

Photogalleries, detailed description, catalogues, even old accessory catalogues to lust after! Heaven!

So, using the various advice of the AC guys and information I gleaned from reading the Retropeugeot crew, what I have is a mostly (front rim is a Shimano) original (rear mech is Shimano Tournay) 1973-4 Peugeot U08.

Now to break out the spanners and industrial quantities of WD40 and strip the beast for a rebuild.