I present to you last week's top score: the Yellow Peril



A chap at work wanted a new mountain bike and his wife wouldn't let him have a new bike until he got rid of one. He'd been pestering me for ages about it and I finally backed down and agreed to take it last Thursday. Monday morning there was a brand new bike in the bike shed at work and this one at my house

Under the ridiculously thick yellow paint it's a 1979-1981 Peugeot with 40-spoke 27" wheels and a single speed flip-flop hub at the back, so I can run single or fixed:



Why is it called the Yellow Peril? Well, aside from the very keen steering geometry it seems to have, at some point a previous owner decided it would be a great idea to paint the rims yellow as well. So that meant no brakes, basically. Coupled with a very distorted tyre, brakes round the wrong way and very low front bars it was quite a mission to ride. I've sorted all that, got some new tyres on their way and hoiked the bars up a bit:



It rides really nicely. I have to say I do like single speed

i have my own yellow peril that awaits putting together , mine is a mid 90's m trax raleigh painted yellow from new , so that will be yellow peril mk 2

I went a bit mad on eBay last night. The front and rear rims are well corroded and a bit buckled in places, so I've been keeping an eye out for some rims to swap on. Well, the back being a 40-hole is practically non-existent in either 27 or 700c, but there have been some NOS alloy 700c's on eBay. I succumbed. So there are NOS alloy rims on their way, some 700x20c tanwalls and an alloy seatpost to replace the cracked chrome one. I figure since I've spent way more on the wheels than the bike will ever be worth they will outlive the bike, plus I get to feel the luuurve lacing up my own wheels

Well none of those bits fitted

The 40 hole rim was too wide for the tyres because they were more like a touring rim and the front one I'd got looked too modern. So back it all went.

I've been riding fixed quite a bit recently and I really love it, so I think I'm going to invest in a pair of wheels and keep these ones hanging up in the garage as spares.

Ooh, cloth tape. Nice. Might have a bash at a harlequin pattern soon.

See here -

http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html

Brilliant! Cheers Ned.

I accidently put a bid in on a flip-flop hub on eBay and surprisingly won it at a sensible price. Let the wheel building begin



So I just need to find a pair of narrow classic-looking polished alloy rims with 36 holes and I'm good to go.