From other posts folk may know I have been looking for the 'Cinderella' bike to keep at my place of work as a ride around town bike.
Well, on Sunday my good friend Matt walked into my place toting this Peugeot 'Aubisque' found in the local roadside hard rubbish.
It was really dirty and various bits were missing but on investigation (and a good wash) it came to me that this would be a prime candidate for the 'work bike' role. It had a full Exage six-speed groupset which was a nice in it's day which I think was circa 1990.
Main item to go were the forks which had a stuffed dropout. They were crappy Peugeot 'fold and weld' forks so no loss there. I subbed in a pair of Tange forks from the spare box. The frame is Peugeot HLE tubing which is quite nice stuff once you got rid of the boat anchor iron forks. The wheels were put to one side for later disassembly and a spare pair of Rigida alloys on Suzue low flange hubs from the shed swapped in with a 12-28 6 speed block. Also the damaged Biopace steel chainrings were replaced by an alloy 52/39 pair. All this swapping of parts knocked a heap of weight off the bike!
Both derailleurs were corroded beyond help so an old Suntour Edge went on the front and a Shimano RX100 on the back. Exage gear levers, brake levers and brakes were fine after a clean so they went back on - except as this was going to be a town bike I put an Rx100 twin pivot on the front so it stops... The bars and stem had vanished before Matt got there, as had the saddle, so they all had to be replaced from the bits bin. Thankfully they left the 24mm seat post which are like hens teeth....
So, after an afternoon's cleaning, assembly work and fitting up with cables, cage and bar tape we ended up with this....
I am really pleased with this as it hits the mark by looking a bit shabby and not eye catching to the plebs but being very nice to ride. Also cost basically nothing as all the bits came out of the spare parts bin. Weight came in at 10.5 kg fully built, which is pretty good for 1990-ish steel. It rides well, feels very similar to my Columbus Aelle framed McLachlan from the same period.
No more excuses not to ride at lunchtime....
Richard