Peugeot PRL 10 – L’Orange

 

Frozen

Frozen is the word of the week after having suffered the rude and uninvited “Beast from the East” since last Saturday. Its clear skies and icy winds have kept temperatures down below freezing and at night the windchill has been as low as -15°C. All this Siberian air has killed off any attempts to work outside on the bikes I have, including this nice Peugeot I picked up a few days ago. So as far as riding goes, forget it; I had the flu last month and picked up a cold this week, and I can’t very well play Russian Roulette with these winter chills, even though I’d love to take this 1970’s Peugeot out for a ride.

 

 

The Frameset

The frame of this Peugeot is similar to this Peugeot I blogged about here, though it’s not identical. At first sight, you can see that this frameset doesn’t have the black painted head tube lugs of the other frame. Apart from that, it is nearly identical in its details and decals, the half chromed forks, the chromed fork crowns, the eyelets around the dropouts, the tricolour painted on the seat stay cluster. I am yet to date the frame as I haven’t yet done any work on it, but I would imagine that it is mid 1970’s. It has Simplex rear drop outs and the main tubes of the frame are built with straight gauge Reynolds 531 tubing. Best of all, it’s orange.

 

 

 

Originality

I’ve dated this bike to 1976; not from the serial number under the bottom bracket, but by the stamps on the Mafac brakes and the Normandy hubs. In my opinion, this ’75 PRL 10 was a well made bike and yet to be compromised by later cost-cutting measures. Check the proper screwed-in head badge, for example, and the quality of the frame’s details, its short pointed Bocama lugs and it’s cool paintwork. It is mostly original, but not quite: firstly, the left arm of the Stronglight 49D crankset has been replaced for a later Stronglight model; the saddle has been swapped out at some point for this uninspiring one; and interestingly, the seatpost was upgraded to a Campagnolo Nuovo Record. Here is a link to the PRL 10 in its original form.

 

 

Delrin Blues

I’m building up quite a collection of broken Simplex derailleurs, and this time it was the front Criterium derailleur of this bike that was destined for the Delrin graveyard. Like others I’ve come across before, this plastic derailleur didn’t look broken when it was on the bike, but as soon as I began to take it off the downtube, the thing fell apart. So this particular one was hanging on by age and dirt, nothing more. Seriously, one end of the clamp was holding onto air. The plastic had long fallen off.  Luckily, the rear derailleur has survived, one of the lucky ones of the Delrin brotherhood of futile derailleurs.

 

 

 

Hub Rebuild

Besides the broken front derailleur clamp, the rear hub felt loose and wobbly. As soon as I took it off the bike it was clear it needed more work than a simple adjustment. In fact, when I jiggled the spindle in the hub, it actually fell out. Wow, never seen that before. It was clear that the spindle had broken and was in two pieces inside the hub. It was therefore totally unsecured, and I’m glad I hadn’t test ridden the bike in this condition! To fix this rear wheel, I had to take a spindle from another Normandy rear and hub and rebuild it, regressing the bearings and balls. To top things off, the Maillard freewheel felt loose as a goose, it just didn’t sound right, so it was time for a swap-out of freewheels.

 

 

 

Stats

 

• 1976 Peugeot PRL 10 55cm C – T
• Top Tube: 55.5cm C – C
• Serial Number: 
• Reynolds 531 Main Tubes
• Frame Weight: 3682 grams
• Simplex Rear Dropouts
• Stronglight Headset and Bottom Bracket
• Bocama Short Pointed Lugs
• Half chromed Forks and Fork Crowns
• Ava Stem and Handlebars 
• Stronglight 49D Crankset ( Left Side Swapped Out )
• Simplex Criterium Shifters, Front Derailleur ( Broken ) and Rear Derailleur
• Mafac 451 Racer Brakes, Centre Pull Calipers
• Hoodless Mafac Brake Levers
• Normandy High Flange Hubs, Super Champion Tubular Rims
• Wolber Classic 290 Tubular Tyres, 700 x 23
• Campagnolo Nuovo Record 26.6mm Seatpost
• Turbo Saddle