A quick progress report on the Mick Nash Peugeot restoration project now the bike is completely stripped down!
In the next couple of weeks we’re taking the frameset down to our painters to get an exact colour match before getting it media-blasted, and we’ve removed and restored the all-important headbadge ready for reattaching. We’ve sourced a vintage TA chainring in great condition, plus a few NOS items such as correct-as-possible Peugeot transfers, a French version of the classic Reynolds 531 decal, replacement gum brake lever hoods, black leather toe-straps and some superb IRC Road Tour gumwall tyres. We’ve also polished up most of the alloy and chromed steel, thoroughly cleaned the rubber and plastic parts, stripped the rear mech and thoroughly serviced the freewheel. The remarkably little-worn chain is now truly immaculate too…
We enjoyed a great workout removing the stuck seatpost which emitted a truly terrifying howl as 32 years of corrosion finally cracked, and over an hour was spent getting the driveside pedal to move by about one degree. A quite considerable amount of white powder flurried away from the handlebars when we removed both layers of the old ‘bar tape… record-breaking dried sweat particles anyone? As well as the frame and forks, the next jobs include sorting out the wheels, seatpost clamp and jockey wheels, and finding just the right cloth ‘bar tape and a fitting black leather racing saddle… watch this space!
The original brakes were Mafac Racer centre pull but these were removed to put on our old Sun Wasp tandem. The ridiculous gearing was fitted to compete on the extremely flat F1 time trial course on the A! at St Neots in Cambridgeshire. The original chainrings were 52/46 and the block was probably a 13-24
Thanks Mick, your sweat is now safely tucked up in my Dyson :)