Peugeot City Express

So, somewhere along the line I picked up this well used Peugeot commuter bike that looked like it had possibilities. It was missing a seat, but at first glance, it appeared to be a repairable bike.

On further inspection I discovered that the left shifter had been replaced with a cheapo friction shifter off another bike. The right indexed shifter was broken. The left brake lever had been replaced with one off a mountain bike and it didn't have enough travel to engage the center-pull brakes.

I thought the biggest problem would be getting the rust off the steel frame, but the problems turned out to be much bigger than that. What to do now?

Looking around the shop I spied an almost new Schwinn that had gotten up-close and personal with a garage door. The fork is badly bent and in 2 years I haven't been able to find a replacement. I made some measurements and it appeared that most of the Schwinn components (wheels, derailleurs, shifters, brakes, brake levers) could be moved to the Peugeot.

Though I'm sure that the Schwinn SRAM components aren't of the same relative quality of those originally on the Peugeot, at least I could make one whole bike out of two halves.

So far, I have moved the handlebars, complete with shifters and brake levers from the Schwinn to the Peugeot. Surprisingly, the SRAM derailleur from the Schwinn has the same relative location and bolt size as the Peugeot and it was easy to switch it over. I've moved the nice aluminum wheel from the Schwinn to the Peugeot with nothing more than a 1/8" spreading of the frame between the drop-outs.

Unfortunately, the brake levers from the Schwinn don't have enough travel to adequately engage the stock center-pull cantilever brakes on the Peugeot. Fortunately though, the direct pull V Brakes from the Schwinn fit perfectly on the bosses of the Peugeot frame. Not only that, but the brake pads even line up with the rims. So, now I have a completely consistent and compatible shifter, derailleur and cassette as well as brake lever and brakes on the rear.

The Peugeot front derailleur seems to work fine with the SRAM shifter so I may just leave that alone. The front brakes, however, will have to be replaced by the Schwinn direct pull brakes.

Mechanically, this bike is coming along much better than I expected. Unfortunately, it seems that the frame is a bit more difficult to clean up than I expected. We may have to be satisfied with a "rust-on-white" color motif on this one.