The Peugeot time machine

I've recently come into contact with a beautiful Peugeot Mixte, its owner has gratefully allowed me to photograph it, and give it a bit of a tune up at the same time.  What makes it unique is how original it is, this bike roughly dates to the 1960's but it still has what appears to be almost all its original parts.  There is little wear on a lot of it which makes it a bit of a gem.  Bikes of this age often have their wheels, derailleurs, handlebars etc more often than not swapped out.





The classic Stronglight 49D double crankset is one of the jewels of vintage bike bling on this machine, it features the original 48/38t chainrings in a pentagram pattern.  This is paired with a Simplex pushrod style front derailleur.

There is a matching Simplex parallelogram rear derailleur, these are somewhat notorious as Simplex decided to make the knuckles out of plastic at some point and have a reputation for cracking.  So far this example is perfectly fine.  This shifts along a Maillard 14-28t 5 speed freewheel, likely that this is French threaded so finding any replacements won't be particularly easy.

The classic Mafac racer brakes, I had these many moons ago and was never really that impressed with them.  These seem to have the factory Mafac pads which suprisingly feel quite ok

Paired with the classic Soubitez sidewall dynamo.  The dynamo slips now and again, mostly because the dynamo track on the possibly original Michelin tyres has worn away to a smooth strip.  However the dynamo itself is fully functioning along with the rear light.

It's paired with a cute little front light which is mounted to a nice Spécialités T.A front rack.

I'm unsure of the tubing though, however Cadre allégé translates into Lightweight tubing so hopefully this means it's not gas pipe.

 Great little porteur style bars

 Front and rear Normandy hubs, both with matching numbers are laced to Super champion rims

Great head tube lug detail and Simplex friction shifters

 

The mudguards may possibly be originals as well.  Mudguards of this age were made out of celluloid AKA plastic and usually would have cracked to bits by now.  I think this bike saw very few miles, so it's almost like a time machine.

Stay tuned for more to come!

Update:
After some more research the bike is actually from 1975, I was slightly put off course by Peugeot dating guides that apply to the US market.  Here's what it originally looked like in the catalogue:

Also here's some closeups of the hand brushed pin striping work on the frame... not something you would see in a mass produced bike these days.