1990 Peugeot Electra - Replacing my snapped bike - Daily ride

Facebook: / monkeyshred
Instagram: m0nkeyshred
Twitter: m0nkeyshred
Like the video? Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more!
My old daily, saved from scrap, eventually gave out on me. I was lucky. Lucky it only went when I was pulling away from a junction. If it had been down the hill at the start it would have been a different story.
The replacement; a 1990 Peugeot Electra. Small frame, Reynolds tubing and tough enough to tackle day to day journeys. Sure she’s not light but with a few upgrades and the right legs she’s got enough speed to hang out with the youngun’s.

[@smithbrownjones]

The Peugeot Electra was my first road bike I bought back in 1990...! The rear upright stay weld came away from the upright tube, Peugeot replaced it with a better frame.😁

[@alanprice7584]

After more than 50 years cycling I've always used Brooks B17 saddles but I must say the Charge saddle I'm using on one of my bikes has been a real revelation, still enjoying the vids.

[@rainbowhiker]

Wow! I feel for your old bike. Glad you got a nice replacement.

[@BoingBB]

That was a great £40's worth! A real bargain.

[@wackedoutdude]

Ouch. That's nasty. Great vids. Keep em coming.

[@bullwhipjohnson8247]

That was really lucky to find such a cheap donor bike. You should fully service the headset and check out the the forks on a flat surface. To make sure they're straight and square. It did look like they may have had a hard front impact. I thought I saw some corrosion around the shifter bosses, BB and brakes. If it's a CroMo framset that shouldn't be there. But, rust is easily addressed. All in all it looks like a great replacement.😉

[@MonkeyShred]

Very lucky! The BB has a lot of paint peeling around the backside near the chainstay bridge. I've just had another look and it's mainly just dirt and the colour of the brazing. There are spots of corrosion too I think.

[@Akkendran]

Nice to see I'm not the only one running an older groupset on their daily :D Love the colours on the Peugeot

[@MonkeyShred]

It's a great groupset! I was using it with the DT shifters for a while on my old bike. Bit awkward sometimes in traffic leaning down but they were indexed so it would always select a gear.

[@TorontoPopulistConservative]

I ride with Exage Sport LX components from '88. Its a beautiful groupset.

[@youtubiefun]

Oh shit!? Good thing it did completely snap. You could have really crashed and burned to the GROUND. That purple paint is dope.

[@Baha45315]

Peageot is nice, I have never seen a bike snap like that in over 40 years of cycling many different bikes, good luck with the build

[@MonkeyShred]

At least it didn't snap doing 30+mph down that hill...

[@trimmerman1]

I like it you just put the Peugeot back together without fanfare. You didn't worry about the scratches or the rust or the old gummy on the old tape. You got a fresh saddle, that's alright. You just wanted your rider back.

[@evacureno8426]

Nice jersey 🧐

[@lindathrift4805]

Glad you weren’t hurt.

[@joeyslats31]

looked like the scene from Mr. Beans Holiday with the tractor going past.

[@gza4704]

Could you make a video about how to find the proper size frame before buying a bike and proper position on a road bike as well? There're tons of videos about that but they're quite messy. Honestly a personal POV about these aspects could be very useful! PS: You're becoming my bible on cycling together with RJ. Good jobs guys.

[@MonkeyShred]

Ah, now that is a bit of a messy subject isn't it! I could give it some thought but I'm sure lots would disagree with me.

[@MonkeyShred]

So further to this... I've just bought a few books (good old Christmas vouchers) and one is about bike fit so I'll be doing a little bit of reading into this subject before passing my opinion :)

[@gza4704]

MonkeyShred yeee wonderful! Meanwhile happy new year!

[@donalddonley8420]

Awesome Bike

[@thomaseisen304]

It was your foult ...sorry to say it so ...but those old frames are very very stiff and you replaced the front fork with a stiffer one ....so the vibrations that the fork transfered to the frame broke it...yeah those old weak looking fork have a good reason to stay in the old frame as they swallow the blows of the road very well (even when they are not so pretty as the modern ones ) but hey at least you had something to replace it ....have fun !

[@benspeedschannel888]

Love the yellow cables with the purple frame, got some parts here you can have if they are any good to you👍

[@SilkJester]

Mate, that front fork looks bent back slightly, on the Peugeot, I mean. Also, not sure if you prefer it that way, but, you pulled the rear brake housing in front of the front one. Turning left is going to tighten it against the HT and pull on the front brake housing. maybe there`s enough cable slack and I`m not seeing it. Lovely frame and colour though.

[@MonkeyShred]

So I did! That's not something I've mentally noted before. There is plenty of slack though, I've just tested it out and it's absolutely fine. I'm probably going to invest in a new fork for the 1000 mile birthday... which isn't too far off now actually.

[@timsmith9758]

Nice color. Very retro

[@MonkeyShred]

Definitely stands out!

[@errcoche]

Back in the day, I am talking about the early 1980s, traditional British frame builders would talk about the risks of braze-on parts and how overheating of delicate tubes could degrade the structure and properties of the delicate steel alloys that Reynolds 531, for example, consist of. There were also a lot of old timers who warned of the dangers of chroming tubes and the potential for corrosion. You would see interviews in Cycling Weekly of the chief builder at Mercian, Holdsworth or Harry Quinn expounding on these topics. Any holes drilled in a tube also become focal points for stresses and likely to be the point of origin for cracks. That was the other thing old timers were opposed to, drilling things out. That's why 1970s English frames had clips for everything even while the Italians were brazing on cable stops, shifter bosses, cable guides, bottle cage bosses, chain hangers etc. Things have changed because modern frames are TIG welded so the alloys have been reformulated to withstand higher temperatures. Your frame is lugged and I am going to guess is Columbus SL and the shifter boss attachment was botched I think you had to be certified to build with Reynolds 753 because it had to be "low temperature" silver brazed as opposed to regular silver brazed. If you think about the stresses transferred from the fork when hitting a bump or braking, you can see the the place where the break occurred would be subject to a lot of stress so it is not surprising to see the break given that the tube was compromised over a good part of its circumference.

[@MonkeyShred]

Not quite. Both frames there are Reynolds 501. The one that snapped was a British Eagle too. As for the older frame English frame buildera not brazing attachments, that's not quite true either. I have a 1959 Viking Ian Steel with the brazed on downtube boss. I've seen plenty of Claud Butlers with those bosses too of similar ages. It just seemed to be the higher end bikes were the only ones worthy of the extra work and craftsmanship. My Viking is 531 too

[@errcoche]

​@@MonkeyShred I was fooled by the fork on the snapped bike as to the overall tubing. Well I am sure there were differences of opinion but certain framebuilders were definitely opposed to applying a torch for anything but the lugs, fork ends and bottom bracket shell. I didn't imagine those articles and the quotes were definitely coming from guys who were considered as experts in the field. You would of course find others who would just do what the customer wanted or build in the "Italian style".My grandfather's frame, built in the 50s or early 60s in Glasgow, full 531 Flying Scot, didn't have a braze-on of any kind. My own Mercian 531, built in the 1970s, again a full 531 racer, had nothing and neither did another Mercian my sister had. Actually, the Mericans might have had a cable stop by the rear derailleur but definitely nothing more. If you look at restoration videos for 1970s bikes, the Italian ones have the braze on parts but not the British or French, and we are talking about high end models. Bianchis and the like from the 60s and early 70s had clips for everything. Of course, it's quote likely that the opinions were based on bitter experience, having brazed on the bosses in the late 1950s and then seen frames coming back broken at that point on the tube, so there is nothing contradictory in what you say. Your own frame is proof of the problem. Overheat the tube, let it get red, and it loses it strength. The tube are designed to be only just strong enough for the job so now you have a structural weak point that is going to go at some point in the future. As I said, they have changed the properties of the steel alloys now to accommodate TIG welding so I would imagine that there is much less of an issue with braze-ons on modern steel. They do still braze and not weld them though - you are still talking about a delicate thin walled tube so you don't want to melt it in the middle.

[@johns3106]

Builders who used Reynolds 753 had to be " certified" because the silver brazing that 753 required was high temperature (not low temp) and Reynolds wanted to be sure the builders did not apply TOO much heat, thereby weakening the tubing. As a side note, I really don't think we can blame the broken frame on the "fact" that braze-ons inherently weaken the frame to an unacceptable level. Reynolds 501 was not a "premium" alloy, and after 30+- years of use, (and probably some of those were poorly maintained, allowing rust to set in)we shouldn't be shocked that some frames snap at a potential stress point.

[@thijskoops6262]

You can take your hands of the bars. If the bike goos to one side the fork will be bent. ; ) Nice vid

[@BIGDO13]

super pretty bike...

[@evelasq1]

Cool bike!

[@domenicoflorianrescigno4377]

Very nice! New hoods would be even nicer

[@MonkeyShred]

Unfortunately, for that particular model of "brifter" they're nigh on impossible to find. The levers themselves are rare and I would have preferred black hoods but the only set I saw were these and I jumped at them before anyone else had them.

[@jamesconvey4239]

If you wanted to clean them up there's plenty of good videos on restoring white brake hoods, I think RJ the bike guy has one

[@clawrence034]

WD-40 and some soap and water cleans them up nice.

[@Abandon7d]

So this was 5 years ago. Let me take wild guess: you still have that Elenore's frame :-) - if so then why not attempt welding a tube in it?

[@errcoche]

Have to say, having lived through that era, I hate the paint. Not a high point for industrial design IMO. Nice bike. What do you for work? How sweaty are you when you get off after a 16-20 mile ride? I used to commute when I lived in the UK but I worked in an office with no facilities so it had to be a short ride so that I didn't stink the place out once I got there. Think I would have been too lazy to get up early for a longer ride so the lack of showers wasn't really an issue.

[@MonkeyShred]

I'm not too bad after that distance, or at least I wasn't then. I still love a splatter paint though.

[@ivanmeza9726]

That jersey tho

[@julionalvarez7652]

That jersey tho

[@raynaldorusi]

would've gone all out and used neon pink tape. good stuff!

[@Sir_Arlin]

RIP Eleanor. you were a good bike

[@damianguchi1209]

That jersey tho

[@MonkeyShred]

Wallace and gromit right?

[@damianguchi1209]

Love it 👀

[@damianguchi1209]

Love All your content, Keep It up

[@johnb.9806]

Peugeot Electra 501. I just bought that frame. Making a fixie, which is just as well considering where your frame broke.

[@MonkeyShred]

It wasn't the Electra that broke, it was a British Eagle... in the same tubing though if I remember rightly.

[@johnb.9806]

Yes, I figured that out. Still, it has the same _yokies_ welded to the frame which is a stress point. I have a Coventry Eagle Sport 68 531 with them as well. veterancycleclublibrary.org.uk/ncl/pics/Coventry%20Eagle%20catalogue%201980%20(V-CC%20Library).pdf

[@stevenofford495]

@@MonkeyShred The sticker on the forks of the one that broke said Columbus,where the Peugeot is Reynolds.

[@JogieGlenMait16]

That is a very thin walled pipe used on the downtube.

[@stevenofford495]

I think it was Columbus, which is butted, so very thin in the mid sections away from the joins.

[@busteraaron]

How fast are you going?? That speed looks crazy.

[@MonkeyShred]

PB... haha, erm... average of 28.7, max of 37.1 MPH

[@monkeywrench5942]

As a daily commute how long does it take you to ride to work.

[@MonkeyShred]

Depends on a lot of things.. (which bike, the route etc etc) but recently, on that bike, 20 miles has been taking just under 70 minutes.

[@Jamcam99]

Never seen that before. Must of been metal fatigue.

[@stevenofford495]

Maybe the one that broke was triple butted and the gear bosses were brazed onto the thin mid section. Professional frame builders would have used a silver solder there , which has a lower melting point, less likely to adversely effect the grain structure of the cold drawn steel tube.

[@emmanuelsongalia7380]

What happened to the old Shimano Exage parts? Are you going to donate it? Willing to accept here, hahaha

[@C345OFR]

You have to call this new one Carmen, surely?

[@MonkeyShred]

That would have been a good shout!

[@C345OFR]

What name did you bestow, in the end?

[@MonkeyShred]

Just simply Elektra (after the Comic book character). I completely forgot about Carmen!

[@C345OFR]

Well, either way, she's a beauty. Trying desperately to hide my envy!

[@DarthPingu07]

I have it's mtb brother... Peugeot caiman. No seriously, that's what it's called. Black with noon green handlebar and fork.

[@neilsaeroadventures1116]

Are Schwinn road bikes from the late 80s any good?

[@xeonome1]

I see a few bikes in that garage. Why not use one of those instead??

[@MonkeyShred]

Different horses for different courses. I mainly prefer to ride to work on a roadie like this because it's quick, light(ish) and agile. I have others, the DB is a heavy workhorse set up for panniers and wet weather, the Peugeot is my CX for when I feel like blasting some back routes. I have a lot of vintage and while they are nice to ride, they're not ideal for commuting with the downtube shifters and poor braking.

[@stockton350]

Did you think about replacing the downtube? Would make a fun video.

[@MonkeyShred]

Honestly, no. It was far cheaper to buy a donor bike. If I could weld I would have just bodged it back together maybe... but with it breaking it had also bent the top tube slightly. I do have another proper old steel bike that has a massive dent in. I could maybe look in to replacing that and seeing if it's possible to DIY it

[@Playground-k5i]

Put a music to your time-lapse to be more exiting

[@timbazzinett2693]

No! It was nice not having to hear it

[@bernardorodriguez3250]

That jersey tho

[@jack2710]

Rad colour man! Where do you get most your parts from?

[@MonkeyShred]

eBay. eBay is my addiction :(

[@noXza_]

Hello there, Just wondering, is there a reason you don't remove the rust on the bike? Just found a Peugeot bike myself I intend on restoring to be my daily bike as well as my tourer and it has a bit of rust(surface) wondering if it worth it taking it off and just giving it a bit of paint over it

[@MonkeyShred]

The little bit inbetween the stays isn't an issue for me. The bike has 501 tubing ( forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?t=32762 ) which in theory, shouldn't rust being a CrMo material. For me, on this bike, that little section is easy to keep clean and oiled so it shouldn't get any worse. It's only a very light surface. If needs be, I'll just clean that section back and spray a little paint over it.

[@stevenofford495]

@@MonkeyShred CroMo is basically a steel with proportions of chromium and molybdenum, it's still mostly iron in the alloy, so it will rust. I spot sand chips with fine emery, touch them up with Vactan rust converter then a little enamel top coat to match.

[@mindrudaniel5500]

Is worth to restore a vintage bike in a road bike with new components

[@MonkeyShred]

Is it worth it? Sure, if you're going to use it a lot. It will make your rides easier. If you're thinking of restoring with new components to sell on then probably not. It depends a lot on the frame / brand / components but it's a tough old market.

[@ZER0value]

How much for the yellow fork off your previous bike?

[@MonkeyShred]

They were sold pretty quickly I'm afraid.

[@ZER0value]

MonkeyShred damn! They'd have made a good road fork for my track bike

[@tehw000000t]

Dude, front brake is supposed to be left, that's why the brake has the housing site on the right side of the bike

[@MonkeyShred]

Being British, the front brake is on the right regardless of any positioning on the caliper. It would be weird for me to ride with a lefty front brake.

[@saad8029]

tehw000000t That's only like in America. Everywhere else the front brake is always the right lever. I think it's kind of like which side of the car has the steering wheel.

[@Robipalusaable]

nope in germany too..

[@ChrisinOSMS]

I am a front right convert. I have more control and can signal and stop one-handed with my strong arm on the lever. Sheldon Brown’s article explains the physics.

[@pistolwhip61]

CHANGE THE HOODS

[@MonkeyShred]

CHANGE YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY - It's sticky. As I'm sure I've said in another comment, these brifters are pretty rare. Or at least when I bought them this was the only set. White was the only option - it gets dirty. I would have preferred black - it hides the dirt. NOS hoods are still pretty hard to find and currently at near enough £50 for a set of hoods, I think I'll pass.

[@tyler.london]

7:59 #DirestaStyle

[@MonkeyShred]

Super talented guy.

[@Sir_Arlin]

ummmmm yeahhhh that kinda sucksssss