Zan's late-60s Peugeot mixte

Yes, yet another Peugeot mixte, this time a real vintage one from, I'm guessing, about 1968.  If anyone knows how to definitively date these things, let me know.  My friend Zan, who rides SF2G with us sometimes down to work, had this kicking around for a long time in semi-functional condition.  This is often the case with old 10-speed drivelines that were never very good to begin with, but are universally much worse for the years.

Original, semi-haggard condition

So, as usual, to start, we stripped it down to the frame/fork/headset and (unfortunately) the oddball 24mm Frenchie seatpost.

Park bottom-bracket threading tool gives this frame some English religion

Naturally, being French, this thing had some issues.  First was the bottom bracket, which was expected.  To teach it a thing or two, we applied the Park BTS-1, which is very good at persuading threads to see its way of thinking.  In this case, 24 thread-per-inch English style, so we could install a modern Shimano UN-72 bottom bracket.

What? a 7mm quill stem bolt? Only the French. Note: this is not the original; it was severely beaten.

Next was the stem.  Being averse to global standards -- why do what everyone else does when we can be different and French? -- the Peugeot guys decided a 24mm handlebar was a good idea, so the stem had to go.  Naturally it was seized in place, so much Liquid Wrench was applied over several weeks, and a good beating with a hammer commenced.  At last it came around, and was summarily buried deep in the parts bin.

Interesting lug cutout detail -- meant to evoke Mayan pyramids perhaps?

Sometime later, I was in Pedal Revolution to get some Soma Sparrow or similar handlebars, when, on a lark,  I asked if they had any Frenchy stems.  They doubted it, but then emerged from the back room with a very cool ATAX stem, complete with French tricolor, which meant it was surely the 22.0mm steerer I needed (nearly every other quill stem in the universe is 22.2mm... who knows why)

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What made it sweet was that the bar clamp is 25.4mm, which is very common, even in 2011, and so getting nice modern riser bars wasn't a problem.  I picked up some Origin8s, which are pretty similar to Sparrows.

Almost done, just needs cables & grips

As for brakes, well, of course they needed to be long-reach, so I just used some of my standard Shimano Nexus super long-armed dual-pivots.  They are kinda cheap, but work fine and have plenty of reach/fender clearance.  You can pick them up for $10-15 each.

Brake bridge is flat, which made it necessary to use spacers for mounting the caliper.  C'est la vie.

The front brake was no problem of course, but the rear was obtuse.  This frame has two of the usual brake bridges, but the are both drilled "vertically", which means I think they were meant as fender attachment points.  The only bridge with "horizontal" drilling is a flat one, which is a bit of an issue with these particular calipers' super long bolts.  Cutting off extra bolt with Mr. Dremel is no trouble, but the bolts are only threaded about half way, so I had to come up with some spacers.  Fortunately I found a random 1" aluminum tube with 1/8" thick walls, which I cut in half with a hacksaw and pressed into service.  Seems to be fine, but we'll see how the braking turns out.

Naturally, it uses amazing special tubing, only available in France

This frame has a lot of cool details & stickers that the later Peugeot mixtes don't, and they're all black & white with some gold accents, which looks good with orange.  As such, Zan picked up some deep-section cheap-ish track wheels from ebay, with white rims & black hubs.  They look sharp (orange rims pictured are placeholders used for setting up the brakes etc.)

Cool decal featuring the Peugeot lion and apparently Chevy-inspired crest thingy

That's about it.  Replaced the 5 lb. original diamond-patterned vinyl seat with something reasonably comfortable by WTB.  Doesn't look bad either.

Done!  Pretty sweet

Zan test rode it to the Deepistan National Parklet on Valencia to shake it down, and declared it Worthy.

'Deepistan National Parklet

Regina's 1991-ish Cannondale cyclocross bike

One day, while browsing ebay for cool Cannondale 3.0-series road frames of the early 90s, I came across this rare-ish cyclocross frame, which I had never seen in this vintage.  Happened to be ~46cm yet take 700c wheels, so I had to buy it ($75 or so).  The person listing the frame didn't even realize it was for cx -- the brake posts were the only evidence.

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This thing is fairly scratched up, but is in good straight condition in general, with lovely deep-blue metal-flake bass-boat-ish paint.  Looks awesome in bright sunlight.

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I really like Cannondale's decal aesthetic from this era, with the "PATENTED DESIGN" and "made in usa" stuff all over the place.  And the "3.0" looks super cool of course (3.0 lbs. is the rough frame weight of this series of bikes).

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Standard 6061 T6 aluminum and some decent parts, and this thing with knobbies is about 18.5 lbs.

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Building this one up, I soon noticed that they didn't leave a whole lot of room for mud/tire clearance, especially at the fork, so I put 35mm tires on it, which are pretty tight.  Makes me think this was intended more as a touring bike than a cyclocross race rig, per se.

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IRD cantilever brakes were a pain to setup, but are remarkably strong.  The rear locks up with ease on dry pavement, so I think they might actually work in wet conditions.

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Made in USA... until about 2009.

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Decided to go with a 1x9 setup on this one for simplicity; we'll see if the chain wants to drop, maybe I'll throw a chain-minder or something on it.  Front brake lever is an older Shimano 600, rear/shifter is a Dura-Ace 7700, the gold standard of cyclocross.  Picked up a good used 7700 group recently for $300 complete, which was a steal for sure.

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Component highlights:

• Dura-Ace 7700 rear shifter, crank
• XTR derailer
• 11-32 XT cassette
• IRD canti's
• Cannondale CODA hubs, Mavic Open Pro rims, in fetching gold
• Ritchey cx tires
• Easton EC-70 carbon post (will replace with Thomson at some point)
• Shimano 600 left/front lever
• Salsa Poco handlebar, for small girly hands
• Ultegra 6500 bottom bracket
• ITM Eclypse quill stem
• Terry Gelissima seat

Pretty cool little bike overall, we'll see if it actually ever sees a race course...

19.59 lbs., not too bad

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Abandoned Univega Safari Ten mixte

We found this beast walking home from the bar one night, leaning against a garage door about 1am. It looked pretty forlorn -- chain rusted stiff and contorted at angles, flat tires with nylon fibers sprouting out of the casing, crappy parts oxidized and seized, stiff cables with no ability to transmit anything.

Like you need drop bars on a mixte... duh

"oh boy" I said to Regina's plaintive look, "this one's a project, let's keep walking." But she said the bike was sad and we couldn't just leave it (like it's a puppy or something), so against better judgment we wheeled it in its lumpy way home.

32.5 lbs., a bit lighter than expected

It then sat in the breezeway for a couple months continuing its imperceptible return to dust, until one day I worked up the gumption to at least strip the parts off it, since they were going to the curb for donation anyway.

Stripped!  Nitto Technomic Deluxe stem added

That part's always the easiest and most satisfying, since it's fast and you get to see what you're working with in terms of frame decay, bottom bracket recyclability, and headset bearings, plus the wacko sizing on the stem and seatpost on many of these old bikes. This one fortunately had a standard 22.2mm stem, but a weird 25.8mm seatpost, ah well. It'll stay on the bike I guess, despite its ugly stamped sheetmetal clamp system that I hate.

First rideable iteration! Wheels and pedals to be replaced

There were some parts worth keeping:

• rack, because it's Swiss-made and works fine
• headset, since it works and new ones are expensive and a PITA to install
• kickstand, because it works fine and is handy
• bottom bracket, because it's fine and new ones are pricey
• seatpost, since it's an odd size (25.8mm or something wack)

New parts were still extensive for a "free" bike like this, but hey, this was surely headed for the landfill, so it both prevents that waste and creates a really useful city bike in the process.  Plus a lot of these parts were sitting in parts bins, so they were "free" too.

• Nitto stem
• Weinmann/Formula wheels
• Bontrager tires (38mm)
• SRAM chain
• SOMA Sparrow bars
• Oury grips
• Sugino 144bcd track crank (old)
• Bontrager cruiser pedals
• WTB super squishy seat
• Wald basic basket
• Dimension elastic net for basket (these are awesome)
• Shimano 17t freewheel
• Shimano basic brake levers
• Shimano Nexus front brake caliper
• Dia-Compe rear brake caliper

The final build, except for 42-tooth chainring (this one's a 51, too tall even for the flats)

Just rode this bike to Jeffrey's pet foods by Dolores Park, and it worked perfectly, just need to tighten up the headset and ship it to Regina's sister Courtney in Chicago.

Orange Alley, between 26th & 25th

Regina models the Safari Ten in front of the fabulous Schauplatz

The final, final build with 42 tooth chainring, basket, and 38mm tires

And the final owner, Courtney Sinsky, giving it a go in Chicago, where it's nice and flat, perfect for a singlespeed.

80s Peugeot mixte, part deux

Frankly, Rover is tired of frenchie bikes, even Peugeots

Score! another Peugeot mixte. This one has cool original fenders and lights, including factory internal wire routing, wow! Regina needs a Mission Beach boardwalk cruiser bike, so this small mixte should be perfect.

The final product, with sweet Paul Components Flatbed basket

Pretty much replaced everything that matters, largely from the parts bins.  Campy Mirage square-taper crank, Shimano Nexus long-reach brakes & matching white levers, Origin8 chainring (42), Soma bars, Bontrager cruiser pedals (best I've found), WTB la-z-boy seat, original seatpost (of course, it's 24mm, so not much choice there), Weinmann/Formula wheels, Bontrager 30mm tires for cruisin', Peugeot original no-name headset, bottom bracket, and stem, and of course that awesome Paul basket.  Had to get extra-long stainless steel bolts for the fork attachment, which I frankly find a little wimpy -- which explains the 25-lb. max weight limit.  

Still need to fix the rear light, but the front one works great

The Gamoh basket on the Atami Samurai, which is steel, has no such weight restrictions, but it's way heavier.

Regina and her bike, pretty sexy pair

Might have to put a rear rack on this thing so there's a place for stuff like the lock.  The Paul basket is minimalist and highly specialized for beer-case transport -- not a lot to keep smaller objects from sliding out the gaps.

Mission Beach boardwalk, January 29th, 2011 -- 72º, nice

Regina's 70s Azuki Mission hipster / grocery bike

on Orange Alley between 25th and 26th, unknown to tour buses

When we first moved to SF, Regina lacked the requisite hipster machine, so I found this cool ~70s Azuki frame, which had been recently powder-coated, for $60. Good deal. Since it was all-black and Regina is a girl, I figured pink accents would be good. Of course, it all went too far...

before I had my own headset press, I had to go to bike shops for some operations, in this case Valencia Cyclery, my favorite local shop

Spending $130 for a headset on a frame/fork that cost $60 is silly, yes, but it does look cool.

Here's the first iteration:

drop bars look good, but are really silly on a city bike

Later we decided this bike needed to be more practical, so the track-ish position had to go, and baskets were required. The finest handlebar for a city bike is of course the Nitto Dove, so that's what we got.

from hipster sled to grocery-getter, and better for it

Taking advantage of the awesome new sharrows on Scott St. (best street in SF)

The Azuki pauses to reflect in a new Scott St. sharrow

Component highlights:

Azuki 70s road frame, powder coated in ~2006

Chris King 2-nut (heh heh) headset, 1"

Velocity rims, Formula hubs

Giant track crank

Pink chain... thanks Davin!

Planet Bike fenders

Campagnolo ~70s single-pivot brakes

Shimano levers

Nitto Dove handlebar, alloy

Nitto Dynamic quill stem

Titec titanium seatpost, 26.0 mm (cheap on ebay)

Blackburn rack, Wald basket

early-90s Cannondale 2.8

This ~1994 Cannondale 2.8 R900 road frame is a little small for me, but these are pretty scarce nowadays (and they made few to begin with), so I went with a 56cm. The "2.8" refers to the approximate weight in lbs. (1270g), so despite being 18 years old, it's weight competitive with most non-carbon bikes even now.

lovely

The only real challenge with building up these things is the fork steerer. Since I wanted it to be as light as possible (within reason -- no tubulars/carbon rims, and it had to be 9-speed shimano), I had to fork over $300 or so for a new Easton EC90 1" fork. There's a lot more selection with 1.125" forks, and you can find a nice Alpha-Q for about $150. No such luck with the relatively rare 1" size nowadays, at least in full carbon. Oh well.

despite marginal utility, I love the cantilevered dropouts of the 90s Cannondale 2.8s and 3.0s

So why did Cannondale go with these wacky cantilevered dropouts? Well, if you take it to the extreme and imagine the seatstays as connecting to the chainstays near the bottom bracket, I can only conclude that the idea was to improve compliance/comfort, since the earlier Cannondale road frames were heavily criticized for an excessively harsh ride. Does it work? I dunno, but it looks sweet.

gotta love the "I have a Chris King hub and you don't" super high-pitched ratcheting sound going down hills

From what I've read, Cannondale took much more time with the polished aluminum frames, since there's no paint (well, other than clearcoat) to hide rough welds. So they had these miniature belt sanders that they painstakingly sanded each joint with until the tubes seemed to become a single cast piece. Beautiful.

mmmmm sexy

Fingerprints dull these things fast, but when they are clean (Pledge works well), they are mirror-finish shiny. So cool.

16.99 lbs. (7706g) including pedals, not bad!

The wheels were sourced used, from ebay of course, and had a wacky 2x lacing front and rear, with black spokes (not my favorite). They quickly went hopelessly out of true, so I rebuilt them with double-butted wheelsmith stainless-steel spokes. Much better.

Found NOS Dura-Ace cranks, shifters and brakes, which are really gorgeous.

NOS Dura-Ace is getting pricey (derailer is new, 10sp)

Since these pics, the bourgeois carbon headset spacers have been replaced with Chris King.

25th anniversary Dura-Ace seatpost, a nice piece

Next time nashbar.com has a 25% off sale, I'll pick up a Dura-Ace 11-23 cassette. The SRAM one on it now looks cool, but is pretty basic compared to the pinnacle of 9-speed technology. D/A cassettes are partially titanium, and are beautifully made. It seems like a shame to put a greasy chain on 'em.

the finished bike... as capable as any 2010 road bike

70s Shogun 500 city bike

the finished Shogun 500 city bike: 21 lbs.

before: ~36 lbs.

Once again this one was salvaged from the vast inventory of Ira, local bike recycler.

The paint's banged up on this 70s Shogun 500, but it has pretty cool lugwork and painted accents, plus I'm a sucker for chromed fork legs. This one (like the frenchie Stella, see previous post) has a 22.0 mm fork tube. Wacky. So I had to keep the original stem, despite its semi-ugly look.

cool Shogun headbadge and painted lug detail

For this one, I decided to build a special (nutty) rear wheel, since I had a Suntour Superbe high-flange track hub and a Mavic open pro rim sitting around. The front wheel is an older Dura-Ace road wheel, which is officially out to pasture in this capacity. It's still true, but the bearings are a bit gritty and the spokes are very weathered & slightly rusted (the rear I ran over with my car, and it's hopelessly out of true... side effect of very low spoke counts and oddball spoke wrench requirements).

Suntour Superbe high-flange track hub + Mavic open pro rim + wheelsmith double-butted spokes = pretty cool wheel

Used a SyCip wonderbar like usual, Kalloy 26.0 mm seatpost, and a cool Trans Am saddle with orange accents. For some reason I love this bike, it's so damn fun to ride around town. Front brake is a powerful Cannondale (Tektro) dual-pivot unit, so I dispensed with a rear brake, which is superflous since the rear is fixed.