My 1987 Peugeot Galaxie build

[JunktionFET]

I figured I should start a nifty thread of my own instead of littering the "What did you do today" thread or thread-jacking Andre's post (http://www.505turbo.com/forum/index.php?/topic/2827-two-new-peugeots/) that started this whole bicycle craze...

I bought a Peugeot Galaxie frame for pennies on eBay. The BB was in great shape but the head bearing was a bit sticky. The top nuts were chewed up from mistreatment by a former owner and an ill-fitting wrench. This is how it looked upon arrival and unboxing:

I managed to source a pair of Wolber wheels (similar in vintage and weight to the original Rigidas):

And a vintage Shimano 105 Biopace groupset:

I had to source a steering stem since the frame didn't come with one. I found an NOS Atax alloy stem on eBay France and jumped on it:

I also got a NOS Stronglight alloy bearing set, complete with new hardware to replace the chewed up top nuts.

I looked for platform pedals from a Shimano 105 groupset but didn't have any luck finding anything in decent shape. So I went with new tech and got a set of Magnesium and Titanium super-ultra-lightweight things from, where else, eBay:

I had a local bike shop lace the Shimano 105 hubs to the Wolber hoops, and mount a set of good tires. I also picked up a set of drop bars for literally a couple dollars. Figured it would be enough to get me started.

Here is the bike in one of its mock-up stages:

Performance Bike was having a store-wide mega sale, so I impulsively bought a nice bike stand so I could finish the assembly somewhat comfortably:

New decals for this model are long since gone--no one has any. I took detailed photos and measurements and got a quote to reproduce a set. It would've been over $200, so I decided against it. I was going to piece together similar-looking decals from more common Peugeots, but I've decided to go a different route. Since the seat tube and head decals are in decent shape as-is, and just the top tube and down tube stripes were the nasty ones, I spent some time with a can of Aircraft Remover and Carb Cleaner, and carefully stripped them off the beautiful Aluminum frame. Here are the results:

[Bean]

Very nice Joe! Can you do me a favour and measure the vertical distance from the center of the brake caliper mounting holes to the center of the braking surface on the wheels? And just to make sure those are newer 700c sized rims?

Those 105 calipers are standard and not long reach- just verifying as I'm looking for a decent groupset as well.

Rabin

[JunktionFET]

This is where my novice-ness begins to show through... I didn't know there were two types of 700C wheels or different caliper lengths :-/
I'll take some measurements today for you. I know that these wheels are presumably "old", and the guy I bought the groupset from told me it was from a high-end late 80s Schwinn (similar enough in vintage to the Galaxie anyway). Right now the pads ride a bit high--up on the sidewall, but it looks to me like there's enough adjustment in the slots to push them down onto the "rotor" surface. I just figured that's how it's done. But if I need different calipers, I guess I should find out about that now rather than later.

[Bean]

Sorry - bad wording on my part. They are 700c rims, but that caliper mount to brake surface measurement should indicate if it can take brand new/modern group set.

You're using period correct components and I'm wanting to fit "late model" components off a newer road bike. I want the brake lever rapid shifters with modern wheelsets as well.

Rabin

[andrethx]

very nice! i like that stand.

are you going to install the stronglight headset you got, or are you going to have your lbs do it? removing the crown race (and setting the new one) takes special tools, but they're not expensive. there is also a special tool to remove the frame races but if you are careful you can get them off with regular hand tools (i.e., hammer and chisel/screwdriver).

the other issue with the headset that you should be aware of is the stack height. on a threaded-headset bike, the length of the steerer is dependent on the length of the head tube plus the stack height of the headset (i.e., the combined height of the upper and lower part of the headset that is exposed). the steerer length on threadless headset bikes is also dependent on these dimensions, but that system is more "forgiving." hopefully the new headset you got has a stack height of less than or equal to your old headset, so you won't have any issues with your steerer being too short for the new headset.

andré

[JunktionFET]

Rabin: It looks like the center of the mounting hole for the caliper and the approximate center of the "rotor" surface is about 55mm

And on mine I just loosened the 5mm bolt to slide the pads down, and in the bottom-most position they line up perfectly with the "rotor". Whew! I was a bit worried.

When I got the headset bearing assembly, it looked as though I might end up damaging the head tube (yikes) if I tried to install the whole thing. So instead I disassembled the existing roller bearings and races, cleaned and repacked with some new Mobil-1 synthetic bearing grease (same stuff I use on cars), and voila the thing turns super slick now. So the only bits I used from the new assembly were the top nuts since they weren't all chewed up. I'm keeping the new bearings and races as spares of course in case I never need them.

[JunktionFET]

Last night I installed the cassette, front and rear derailleurs, brake levers, and brake cables. I gave the cables a rough adjustment for now. I've apparently forgotten to order shifter cables, however now that I know I won't like downtube shifters, I'm going to evaluate my options.

I'd like to find some brifters that will work with my 6 speed Shimano 105x equipment. I haven't found any off-the-shelf bar mounted options that can be configured to work in 6 speed mode... makes me think such an animal doesn't exist. That means I may have to upgrade to a 7 or 8 speed cassette, but I don't know if I'd have to change out the rear hub as well. Andre, do you have any experience with this? You've been a great help so far. I'm also thinking of posting over on bikeforums.net to see if anyone has any advice

[andrethx]

here's your biggest problem -- you have an aluminum frame. aluminum is more brittle and less "forgiving" than steel, so it really isn't a good idea to go with a wider rear hub on your bike. on a steel frame with 126mm rear dropout spacing, it's usually possible to put a 130mm rear hub-ed wheel in without much trouble (none of the spreading nonsense that i went through to go from 126mm to 135mm). i've never tried that on an aluminum frame, and most of the posts i've seen on the internet advise against it. so you are stuck with 126mm rear spacing unless you want to risk cracking your frame. and keep in mind, even if the frame doesn't crack while you are doing it, it is much more likely to crack 1, 2 or 6 months down the line.

that means 6-speed or 7-speed. for general information on speeds & gears, see (once again) sheldon brown's page on this topic. from everything i've read, you could probably go with shimano sora brifters or a couple of others that you can probably find used on ebay. here's a pretty typical bike forum thread on this topic, keep in mind that you can't just jam an 8/9 speed hub into your rear dropouts as the last post suggests....

if you change over to a cassette rear hub, you'll have a lot more options in terms of gear choices, etc.

also keep in mind that using modern components on your bike (like brifters) will be a lot more trouble/complication than most people are willing to go through. you'll see a lot of posts that say, "why bother doing this? sell your bike and get a newer one." we say that sort of thing to people all the time here in the car threads. in your case, though, you have a pretty cool (i.e, historically significant) frame, an early aluminum frame from a manufacturer that doesn't currently sell here so imho it's worth the hassle. that's a value judgment, of course. you're also something of a gear head, and i'm thinking that you would enjoy having a restomodded bike -- not only to have something unique, but also for the experience of putting it together.

[JunktionFET]

Ah cool. So basically, if I wanted to go from 6 to 7 speed, I can't just slip the cluster of 7 sprockets onto the splines... I'd have to get a whole different rear hub (which means re-lacing the wheel, etc). Or does the spline portion detach somehow from the actual hub? Man I feel like an absolute n00b here.

I'm happy with keeping it a 6 speed, using a brifter indexed for 7 speeds, and just setting the limit screws. That's assuming of course the spacing would work. According to that thread you linked to, it sounds like it might work alright.

[andrethx]

For some reason I was thinking that the 105 groupo you got for the galaxie had a freewheel-compatible rear hub. Now that I look at your photos upthread I can see that it's a cassette type (at least it looks that way on my phone). So forget what I said about swapping the rear hub.

If you want to go with a 7-speed rear cassette, you can easily do that, it's a straight swap. 8 or 9 would be another story.

[JunktionFET]

Oooo sweet! You just made my day. In fact, now that I think about it, the guy that I bought it from even said something about easily upgrading to a 7 speed if I wanted to. But at the time I knew about 1% of what I know now (which isn't much anyway), so I just nodded and pretended like I knew what he was talking about

[Bean]

Great discussion since I'm in the same boat, but I've bought no components yet - still looking for a good donor bike.

I did want to comment on the bending of the rear stays though: Generally aluminum is more malleable than steal, and bending each side out 5mm should be no problem if done properly and not stressing the press fit joint.

I plan on a simple jig that will brace the joints from any of the forces, and ensure any bending moments are done only to the tubes themselves. If I screw up, and they do loosen, I'll simply use an adhesive to bond them back in making them even stronger than original.

I do realize the bike has some significance, but he frame I bought is basically being rescued from being recycled, so resto-modding it with the latest 10 speed groupo I can is the plan. 11 speed is the latest greatest so hoping to pick up a bike with an Ultegra 10sp groupo as the donor.

Rabin

[andrethx]

i've seen that done, rabin -- the brace on the brake bridge. i'm of the school of thought that says, "i'd rather have it separate now than later," so i didn't use any bracing of this type. just because the frame doesn't break when you are spreading it, though, doesn't mean it hasn't been weakened to the point where it will fail sometime soon down the road (with you on it). this is always a risk with spreading.

also, if one has a 126mm-spaced frame, spreading it to 130 is only 2mm on each side. but i'd urge you to exercise caution with spreading your aluminum frame for two reasons:

1) sheldon brown said not to do it

2) to get the frame to remain spread, one has to over-spread it...for example, to go from 126mm to 135mm on my wife's bike, i had to spread the dropouts to around 160-165mm! each time i spread it, i would go about 3-5mm more than the previous attempt, then undo the spreading rig and measure. you probably won't have to go as far with your frame (since you only want to end up on 130mm), but you'll still have to go wider than you might expect.

an alternative would be to just jam the larger wheel/hub onto the bike without spreading it; it's not much of a problem since the width difference is not so much. i should think this would be safer than spreading (because of the overspreading issue, noted above), the only downside would be that it would be a bit more difficult to get the rear wheel on and off and thus it might make field repairs a bit more of a hassle.

[Bean]

I should have mentioned the part about using a tubing bender rather than bending them out with a 2x4 like that ghetto master Sheldon Brown...

Seriously - his site is awesome, but I'm much more anal about doing things right and engineering a proper solution than just bending like you would a steel frame.

Im very much aware of the pechiney process it was put together with, so all attempts will be made to bend a gentle "S" into rear stays so that it's bent more against a tubing die like bending steel tubing for brakes or fuel line.

This is all conjecture until I get the frame and get a feel for what the metalurgy is like. If it feels super high tensile then I will have to rethink the plan.

I already know I need to figure out how to lower the rear caliper mount, plan right now is to have another cross piece tig welded in so the newer short arm calipers can be used. (Much improved braking).

Also keeping an eye out for some 1" carbon forks. I'd paint them silver to match as well as possible, but I think ride comfort will be worth it.

Rabin

[JunktionFET]

On my Galaxie (and I assume the Comete is identical), the chain and seat stays (?) are very small diameter aluminum tubing. It looks extremely fragile, but it feels incredibly rigid. That rigidity may or may not be a good thing I think the drop out is slightly tweaked on mine because installing the rear wheel/hub feels like a snug fit. It doesn't feel like there's much elasticity back there.

[Stewart]

That bike looks a beautiful machine.

[JunktionFET]

Thanks Stewart!

So I'm going to try to get a 7 speed cassette. Not knowing much about what gearing works best, I think I'm going to go with a 12-32 set since I live in a hilly area. There are some flat spots here and there, especially on the greeways, but many of the roads are just up and down... For almost the same price I can get an 11-28 set, but I worry that I may need those extra teeth on really challenging grades. Any advice on this?

Edit/Addition:

Just placed a bid on a used Hyperglide 7 speed freehub body. My current one is an old Uniglide, and those cassettes are NLA or obscenely expensive. It looks like the labor to swap Uni to Hyper is pretty easy, at least according to Mr Brown.

[JunktionFET]

Today my saddle arrived in the mail!

Finally starting to look like something

[JunktionFET]

The mail brought gifts today. This bike and the new PSN-10 needed side stands, so I scored these alloy lightweight pieces from eBay for cheap.

[JunktionFET]

The mail brought more gifts today. The Shimano brifters, blue water cage, and blue shift cables are for the Galaxie. The red stuff is for the PSN-10, which I suppose may deserve its own thread.

[andrethx]

i moved this thread here since it's a build.

looking good, joe, i like the blue and red accessories. looking forward to seeing how the brifters work with your derailleurs....

andré

[JunktionFET]

I received my 7 speed freehub and brand new 13-34 tooth cassette last week, but I've been a bit short on time lately to do anything with it.

First of all, that 34 tooth sprocket is massive! I didn't know it was going to be that large. Suffice it to say, my concern about climbing hills has pretty much been obliterated

Anyway, yesterday I had some time so I attempted to upgrade the 6 speed freehub with the 7 speed parts. I found that I have two issues:

1. The 6 speed freehub (Uniglide) seems to use fewer ball bearings than the 7 speed (Hyperglide), so I don't have enough on hand

2. The spacer between the outer bearing "cone" and the outer nut (that mates with the skewer) doesn't seem to be thick enough to provide adequate clearance once the cassette's locking ring is installed.

Fortunately I found a guy on eBay selling assorted kits--one is a new set of ball bearings and cone, another is a set of spacers and seals. I went ahead and ordered those so I can do all of this the right way and not have to worry about it.

She'll get finished eventually!

[andrethx]

that is a big-ass cog.

one of the reasons i went with the smaller chainrings on the new cranksets for my bike and my wife's bike is that we live in a relatively hilly area and we aren't getting any younger. hopefully my conditioning will improve by the time i get around to working on my road bike.

i'd be interested to know the name of the ebay vendor you found, either in this thread or via pm.

andré

[JunktionFET]

It is s_hung. Yes, I'm not joking Based out of the UK but does international shipping (which wasn't too expensive at ~$14US)

[JunktionFET]

Getting back to my Galaxie... The 7 speed freehub I got on eBay (for cheap... $7 if I recall) was supposed to be in good working order, but the bearing race internally seems to be worn to the point where it doesn't spin smoothly, no matter what I try.

So... last night I stumbled upon a Shimano Exage rear hub with 7 speed hyperglide freehub. I ended up winning it for $15... what the hell, right? I don't want to have to re-lace my freshly laced hoop onto this rear hub, so I'm going to try just mounting the freehub to my Shimano 105 rear hub and hope for the best.