The Franken-Peugeot project started in early May, 2018, but I didn't
start keeping weekly logs until late July, so this backlog entry is
mostly just the origins of the project and a quick summary of early
work.
The background to the project is that I had recently take my one and
only bike out of winter storage and, out of some vague sense that this
would probably be an opportune time for some kind of maintenance, I
had cleaned and oiled the chain. While searching online for basic
bike upkeep advice, I discovered Sheldon Brown's famous site, and
quickly became, well, a little bit obsessed with bikes, and spent many
hours reading lots of stuff about their mechanics, and some aspects of
their history. I kind of got the crazy idea that I would really enjoy
building up and old bike out of parts, and some eBay searching seemed
to suggest it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive. The idea slowly
took hold...
Shortly afterwards, I was looking for a new tire for my wife's bike.
She is quite short so rides a small tire and, as it turns out, a
rather unusual one with my nearest LBS didn't stock (540mm, apparently
used on most wheelchairs). I was aware of an unusual place nearby, in
a little cluster of unusual hippyish "stores" (not really the word I
want, but I don't know what to call these places. The cluster is not
a commune, but you kind of get the feeling it could easily turn into
one in the future), which sold refurbished old bikes, and also offered
some kind of volunteer repair service or something like that. I went
to check it out to see if they had an old but not-too-worn tire of the
right size, and as it turned out they did. In fact, they had big
piles of pretty much every bike part you could want. Whereas most
real bike shops make me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, selling very
over-priced seeming stuff to hardcore enthusiasts, I felt right at
home in this loosely organised shed. It was obvious you could find
old, obscure or small parts here that it wouldn't be worth a real bike
store's time to stock.
I asked if they had any bare frames that could be used for project
bikes, and I was shown a small cellar full of them. There wasn't much
there that appealed to me, to be honest, but one frame caught my eye.
It was obviously somebody else's abandoned project, as it had had the
original paint and decals stripped off and been painted over with
primer (including the seatpost and stem!), and the fork had been
painted a different colour separately. The frame was quite tall (like
me) and had a nice vintage look, all thin round tubes. I asked how
much and was told 15 Euros. I cheerfully accepted, and said I would
come by another time to collect it (I had ridden my bike there, so
couldn't trasport it home immediately!). At this point I was told for
70 Euros, I could pick a complete bike's worth of parts from the piles
and asssemble the project there, using their tools and instruction
every Thursday. In my city, 70 Euro is somewhere around about the
average price for a used, okay condition utility bike sold by somebody
who hasn't make any special effort to maintain their bike, so getting
a self-built bike and an education in wrench turning for this price
seemd like a good deal. I accepted and this project was born.
As mentioned, it wasn't *quite* a bare frame. A seatpost, stem,
headset and bottom bracket were included - and thank God for the
bottom bracket, because it turned out to be a French bike, and French
bottom brackets use a non-standard thread which can be hard to find
parts for. Most of the early days work on the project involved
finding wheels and a crankset, adjusting, cleaning and lubricating all
of these, and trying to get them to line up properly on the frame for
a nice straight chainline. Important, but slow and boring stuff, too.
These logs start from just after the drivetrain is complete and
working.
