Old carbon Pug...Safe?

tarloone

Retro Guru
OK, after my inaugural Retrobike official ride over the Gospel Pass with Ed Edwards and the rest of the Sat 17th crew - I've been eyeing up several combo's for my own retro build, with this lies a conundrum -

After owning a Peugeot 653 20+ yrs ago, I naturally found myself looking at something similar/Vitus 979 esque for my first retro build.

Tonight after over a week of looking I spotted something that brought back memories of flicking through the Peugeot cycles brochure back in 1987.....I've spotted a Peugeot Fibre de Carbone frame for sale...my size too!

Now, as much as I would love to progress my investigation into this frame , my recent memories of hurtling down Gospel Pass in hyperdrive with Ed and the lads on my modern winter hack has me pondering the implications of doing the same on a 25yr old aluminium & 3 carbon maintube pug.....stuck together with 25 yr old adhesive!

As scary as it seems, these don't come up often....and I'm really tempted so It'd be interesting to see folks thoughts on this?
 
After seeing Karl descending on a 40lb steel bike with chrome rims, vapourising bake blocks and suicide levers, you question a bike held together by a superior version of Copydex? Shame on you!

I guess the key questions are - how much use? How store? How heavy the new rider? Intended use? But, if price and size are right, then carpe diem regardless of the answers.
 
I have an Alan that acts like a car scene from a 1940s film. You can appear to be turning the steering 20 degrees either way and you carry on in a forward direction.

Anything less bad than this is good.
 
I have a 1981 Alan that handles perfectly.

I also have a 1992 Trek 2300 with carbon main tubes and alloy other bits and that handles perfectly too. I would have no worries about 20 year old carbon so long as the tube bonds are secure and there are no visible cracks. Scretches don't count. I also ride the trek hard and TT the Alan.
 
I regularly sail boats made with epoxy resin from the early 1980s - they are still good as new.

All the usual advice applies - check for signs of bonding failure and pay accordingly. They can be re-bonded successfully, but it is not a trivial job.
 
some interesting and valuable points of view...Many Thanks.

The frame is located in France on that well known auction site, so its a risk in any event, its final few minutes price will dictate the outcome of whether I bid and it becomes a bike, or in the case of it being a pup after purchase...a nice piece of wall art.
 
i was lent one of them for a race when i was in my teen,s. all i can remember is that everytime i got out of the saddle if creaked like a rusty old gate.and that was a new one :oops:
 
rusty bodie":2e6uj2iv said:
whereas the tvt went forward like an exocet!!

:cool:

TVT's were ace always wanted one of those, they come up on ebay but many dont have forks, ahead of their time in my opinion.
 
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