Peugeot PY10 'Paris–Roubaix'

Over the past few years I have been thinking about how to build up
the most comfortable modern era classic/vintage steel race bike with
a reasonably short wheel base without to much fork rake etc
(Some say this modern geometry was standardized by
Ernesto Colnago in 1968 with his iconic Colnago Super frame)
...another good link for Colnago Super here.

The test bed bike I decided to use is my Peugeot PY10 for reasons
that will soon become clear...so the first obvious step was to run
some 25mm Vittoria G Corsa tubulars, as I had been told by reliable
sources that these rather expensive tyres offer unparalleled comfort
and performance.
I have been running two sets for about the past couple of years and
can personally confirm all those positive recommendations....
they are without doubt the best tubular tyres I have used.

The PY with 25mm Vittoria Corsa tyres on a 24h wheelset that I
believe are ex Luis Ocaña (more about that sometime).

So The PY was now riding very smoothly, soaking up lots of that
awful road noise that New Zealand roads are rightfully notorious for,
but I have another item hanging in my workshop that I was hoping
would really turn the bike into a super comfortable ride, while
remaining pretty close to period correct.

Long ago I had seen a photo of Herman Van Springel contending
the 1968 Paris–Roubaix with Merckx, his bike running wooden rims..

 

I had of course already used wooden rims on my 1970's/80's road
bikes, but I had mainly used a new narrow width set that Italian 

specialist wooden rim builder  Cerchio Ghisallo  had especially 

drilled to 28h for me, which to be honest turned out to
be a bit of a mistake on my part.
They need to be trued up pretty tight or they would go out of
alignment pretty damn quickly which resulted in various
complications too boring to go into here. 

Also the narrow wooden rims, while looking seriously cool on the 

70's/80's bikes I rode them on, didn't look period correct, and as I 

have  turned into that really annoying bike nerd that you would do
well to avoid engaging in light bike chat!

It just didn't work for me having those narrow rims after I 

saw Van Springel on those chunky woods in the
68' Paris- Roubaix, I realized that of course some riders would 

have kept using such a well proven piece of equipment 

that would go a long way to reducing rider fatigue on such a brutal
race as the Roubaix.

Wooden racing rims had been a mainstay of the racing peloton since 

the pneumatic tyre was invented, and as it turns out, not being fully
phased out in the late 1960's, possibly early 1970's.

Eventually I tracked down a set of 1970's 36h wooden rims laced
+tied and soldered to Maillard 700, Professional hubs in France, 

I was told that these where a ex Paris-Roubaix wheelset,
which I of course, can't confirm, though that being said, it is hard
to imagine any other reason for building a racing wooden
wheelset in the 1970's?

 

The one thing I knew I would need for the woods was a set of cork
brake pads, I had lazily used normal red and black rubber blocks
on previous wooden wheel sets which soon left a heavy ring of
unsightly rubber on the sides of the rims.

It was a pretty straightforward process cutting and shaping a set of
blocks from unused corks and finishing them with a couple of
coats of shellac.

 
Here they are mounted and after about 1000km use... they work 

incredibly well,quiet, firm..I guess if I had to be critical they can 

be a bit snatchy if applied too briskly at low speed.

 

And here is the PY10 fitted with what I believe are close to period 

wooden rims, photographed immediately at the end of one of my 

45km ride to work courses....so pretty!

The combination a beautifully built steel frame, Ideale 2002 saddle,
25mm Vittoria's and the woods have made this without doubt the
most rider friendly 1970's (almost) period correct 

racing bike I have ridden

I have always been a sucker for those tied and soldered spokes,
something about them  always adds a subtle touch of the serious
to any classic racing bike.

Notice that there is not that ring of rubber that is left with rubber
blocks, the red ring on the rim is a factory insert.

Jacques Anquetil en la Paris-Roubaix. 1959 on woods.

Now I know that in the back of a lot of readers minds they will be 

thinking, what about the weight? (I know I was)...well all I can say
to that is they didn't seem to have slowed Van Spingel down too
much over the 264km of the 1968 Paris-Roubaix....second to Merckx

is about as good as you could get during the peak Merckx years....

and he got it, case closed.

 

 Some nice footage here from that 1968 Paris-Roubaix.

 

If I had one complaint about this set up, it is that overall the ride on 

this machine is so close to perfect for my tastes, that it makes it 

quite hard to spend any serious time aboard any of my other
regular mounts.

 

Last photo goes to  Herman Van Springel, a rider I didn't know a lot
about before researching the background to this build...apart from
his loss on the last stage of the 1968 TdF to Jan Jassen, there was
much much more to him than that, including a record seven 

editions of the marathon Bordeaux–Parisa.
A great rider during a period of great champions.