Friday, July 10, 2015

PX 10 Update

A while back I found a 1978(?) Peugeot PX 10, 
which didn't have many of it's original components 
left aboard. I did a post here about the beginnings
of that rebuild.
Well here is the finished machine, which I actually
finished quite a while back, a very stylish French
road bike, from a manufacturer with an almost 
unmatched competition history,
hence their well deserved following.




Simplex 410 derailleurs, simple to set up,
nice to use, and (importantly) look pretty good...
especially good for a mid range ensemble.


One of the main reasons I haven't posted this yet, 
was that I didn't have an original
 French wheel set running on the bike.
I finally put together this set of Normandy Luxe Competition
hubs with Super Champion rims...now the bike is complete.
Stronglight crankset..of course
Mafac LS brake set, not quite period.  
At lest they are French.


The Mercier Service des Courses Project.

 I have long been a big fan of Pou-Pou 
other wise known as Raymond Poulidor,
you can check out his incredible record here.
So of course this means, I have always lusted after 
one of the pink Mercier machines that Pou Pou always
raced....
While Peugeot PX 10 are thin on the ground here in 
New Zealand, Merciers are pretty well non  existent,
 a Mercier Service des Courses, which is their equivalent
to the PX 10 or Team Raleigh, forget about it.
So I finally had to take matters into my on hands 
and sell a couple of treasurers to fund
 the import of  a respectable Mercier from France.

I wanted one that had the gold Mafac Simplex SLJ groupset, 
which I know is kind of tacky, but what can I say...
Although this model wasn't used by the Mercier team
in the late 1970's, because unlike Peugeot, who where still
using a full French group set, the Mercier team had
finally gone all Campagnolo.
But you know full campy race bikes are a dime a dozen
how many do you see with a full French gruppo?
After a few months of searching one finally surfaced that fitted
the bill, and the owner was very helpful in finding a reasonably 
cheap service to get it here.
The Mercier Service des Courses as unpacked.

And about an hour later....
Ready for cleaning and reassembly, sounds so easy.