80s/90s Bike Advice

[wcjuffkins]

Hi guys,

Newbie here, in the market for a bike after moving to London recently. I've been looking mainly at 80s/90s Peugeots but wondered if anyone knew of any comparable/better brands I can look out for. As I said i'm mainly looking around this era and love the style of the Peugeots i've seen so far. Just wanted to know what else there is. If there is anything that is good to look out for or advice buying these bikes I'd greatly appreciate it! My budget is around probably max £350.

Thankyou!

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
They are antique, anything bicycle that is 20 years old is.
I would look on ebay for guides on prices and what you can expect.............I keep looking
Anything steel and sounds old, and there are many brands seem to fetch good money.
Just be careful its not too old with freewheels.........ideally a freehub

[thirdcrank]

A Peugeot may be any level of bike from a run-of-the-mill "sports" model all the way up to the bikes ridden by top professionals. A lot more of the former kicking around. A bike that's 30-40 years old predates a load of changes in specification which have been introduced since it was built. Some bikes are bought, then ridden only once or twice before being shoved to the back of the garage and one that's been kept dry might be sound except for the tyres and innertubes. Otherwise, it depends how it's been looked after.

If anything needs replacing - which it probably will - you are into money-pit territory, especially if you have to pay a bike shop to do it. One of the few things in favour of a Peugeot is that they always came with 700C wheels, whereas British bikes from the 1980s often still had 27" which is now harder to source.

[jimlews]

There were many brands sold in the 80s-90s.

A few to be going on with.

Dawes, Raleigh, Claud Butler, Holdsworth, Coventry Eagle, Evans, Roberts... and many more.

All of the above produced pretty good bicycles. Some also produced bicycle shaped objects of questionable quality.

A fair indication of quality is the tubing the thing is made from. Reynolds 531 was considered to be about the best VFM at that time, but there were other quality tubesets around as well. Vitus, Columbus, Tange and so on. Look for a little sticker or stickers that will say what the tubing is. If it says 'double butted', that's good.

[thirdcrank]

And check the wheel size. If it's 27 x 1¼ , best avoided.

[peetee]

Peugeot’s were good bikes in their day but I would advise against buying if you are unfamiliar with the components fitted to a bike and whether the bike was top, middle or bottom of the range. Unless you are certain you are buying top of the range (Reynolds frame and Shimano or Campagnolo groupset) You may struggle to find replacement parts such as hubs, seat post, pedals and bottom bracket that are compatible.
On the subject of frame tubing, a lot of Peugeot’s had a sticker denoting ‘Carbolite 103’. It sounds fancy - to a novice as fancy as Reynolds 531 I would guess - but it is very basic ‘gas pipe’ and best avoided if you want something special.
It would help if you can indicate what type of bike you are looking for.

[iandusud]

Lots of good advice above but I would suggest that for a bike of that era any Dawes bike would be a sound bet, assuming it is in good condition. I sold many of the marques suggested in that era and most of them ranged from cheap and cheerful to good lightweights. However Dawes never really made cheap and cheerful, they did basic but even their basic bikes (Horizon for example) used half decent tubing unlike the cheaper Raleighs. Apart from the more expensive lightweight models Peugeots of that era were nothing special, although not rubbish either. Again as stated above avoid anything with 27" wheels because of poor supply of tyres.

[Chris56]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303850823625

Small dent on downtube but cheap and looks smart

[peetee]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303850823625

Small dent on downtube but cheap and looks smart

I believe that is older than the seller suggests. The lugs and braze-ons certainly are of an older style than my brothers two Dawes bikes from the early 80’s. The decals are also misplaced. The head tube badge should be placed midway along the tube. Not a major problem but very easy to get right so I do wonder how much care was taken with the rest of the work.

[LuckyLuke]

Hi, I also live in London. I'd suggest looking at the For Sale sections on the Retrobike (Road) forum and on this very forum. Bikes from these sellers are more likely to have been looked after, and more accurately and honestly described in the listing.
At the other end of the spectrum is Gumtree. Occasionally there's some treasure within but there's plenty of suspect listings too.
From my observations Vintage / Retro bikes are pretty popular amongst hipster types in London (I don't mean that pejoratively btw). Consequently a lot looks overpriced IMHO. There are a few semi-professional, London-based, gumtree sellers who seem to specialise in vintage bikes. I wonder if the scour the countryside for stock?
Best wishes,
Luke

[Jim]

Beware compatibility! I recall owning a lovely Peugeot PX10, but discovered that the gear hanger would not take a Campagnolo or Shimano rear mech. The thread/bolt size was unique to Peugeot and (I think) Simplex rear mechs. Similarly, some older Raleigh frames had a variety of compatibility issues with non Raleigh group components.

[Sweep]

Poster has posted nowt since February.
I'd relax on the advice folks.

[531colin]

Beware compatibility! I recall owning a lovely Peugeot PX10, but discovered that the gear hanger would not take a Campagnolo or Shimano rear mech. The thread/bolt size was unique to Peugeot and (I think) Simplex rear mechs. Similarly, some older Raleigh frames had a variety of compatibility issues with non Raleigh group components.

sorry, Jim, not only this thread is months old, but thats an easy fix with a dropout saver https://www.ison-distribution.com/engli ... rt=2IDGHS3