FINDING THE PEUGEOT COURSE

Believe it or not, someone actually threw this gorgeous old road bicycle away in the Dump.  I checked the bicycle over, very carefully, to ensure it was safe to ride.  And, the only thing that I had to do to the bicycle, to take it for that test ride, was pressurize the tires.  And, even the tires are still the originals, though they have certainly seen better days.

It used to be that all I had to do was show up at the Dump, pick out the bicycles that I wanted, and leave.  Well things changed this year.  A local scrap metal company has contract rights to the metal pile.  As part of the contract, they company can keep one of their employees on site at all times, to separate the more valuable metals from the scrap metal pile.  It is no longer show up and grab what I want.

However, I do have permission, from the Landfill Site manager, to pick bikes for Bicycles 4 Humanity and he has seen fit to ensure that the contracted metal company is aware of my privilege to do so.  With this in mind, I approached the on site metal company attendant and offered him a deal.  If he would put the old road bikes aside for me, I would pay him for protecting the ones that I decided to take.  The system worked quite good, and several nice old vintage road bicycles have come my way so far, the Peugeot Course being the nicest of the bunch.

Of course, the question that must come to mind, is why ask for the old road bikes to be set aside.  Simple, if they are not plucked from the metal pile and protected, they stand a pretty good chance of being crushed, by the bulldozer that pushes the pile, one or more times each day.  How many times have I arrived at the Dump, only to find a nice old road bike crushed?  On one occasion, I arrived just in time to see the bulldozer destroy a gorgeous Legnano, and a top of the line one at that.  I couldn't believe it, as I watched that beautiful old bicycle being turned into a pretzel like mess, right in front of my eyes.  Anyway, back to finding the Peugeot...

One Saturday afternoon, just as my wife and I were about to head for the summer cottage, the fellow at the Dump called me.  He informed me that he had something, he knew I would be interested in - a green Peugeot, in mint condition.  The only green Peugeot I could think of was the French model UO8 or a Canadian made Course.  I had recently acquired a large frame Peugeot Course, which I auctioned off on Ebay.  I decided to stop by the Dump, on the way to the cottage, even though my wife was not thrilled at the little delay.

Well, the Course was not mint, but it was in pretty nice shape, none the less.  And wonder of wonders, it was exactly my size.  Saturday was turning out to be a pretty good day.  I had found three more vintage road bikes, at various Yard Sales, just that morning, one of which was a very nice Bottecchia, which is presently on its way to Japan.

Both, the paint and art, on the Course's frame was in pretty good condition.  There are several small scratches, or paint chip,s that make up part of the, near thirty year old bicycle's, patina of age.  Nothing jumps off of the page, to detract from the overall appearance, and I might have a go at a bit of touch-up one day.  But that day might never actually come, since I really don't often feel the need to own, and ride, a cosmetically perfect bicycle.

The Peugeot's frame set is not particularly exotic.  The tubing material is the, well know, Carbolite 103 that has formed the foundation for, near countless, Peugeots, over the years.  The drops, both front and rear, are forged Simplex units, the rears having built in axle position adjusters.  The workmanship is nothing that really stands out as unusual.  Though everything is assembled cleanly, and decals are applied evenly and in line with the tubes they are placed on, their is little evidence of true craftsmanship.  Just a nice clean frame set, that does its job better than one might expect.  More on that later...

There is one thing that has always impressed me, with most of the Peugeots that I have been lucky enough to own.  The Peugeot head badge is a treat to behold.  I really appreciate, the presence of a head badge, on a vintage road bicycle, though the plastic ones are not amongst the ones that I prefer.  That said, and even though the Peugeot's badge is plastic, it just looks good to me.  It was a sad day, in my mind, when the company decided to save a penny or two and discontinued the use of head badges on Canadian Peugeots.

There is an interesting little side story, associated with the my 1980 Peugeot Trophy, that had held a place in my collection of vintage road bikes for a while.  By mistake, I had sold my Trophy a few days before coming across my mint green Peugeot Course.  How can someone sell a bicycle by mistake?  Simple, I thought that I had found a better example of the Peugeot line and let my Trophy go.  Unfortunately, when I looked closer at my new acquisition, a near mint light blue Peugeot Trophy, I realized that it was a 58cm and too big for me to ride.  Needless to sa I was quite upset with myself an for a few day I did not have a Canadian made Peugeot in my stable.  Fortunately, the Peugeot Course fixed that little problem.

NEXT - BUILDING MY PEUGEOT COURSE