This is the story of the restoration of a classic!

This is the story of the restoration of a classic Peugeot Mont Blanc PH-20 Road bike... Well, a classic to me and I dare say many others of the same age! Follow this blog as we bring new life to this iconic "racer"! 

Was it a Sheffield thing to cover your
bike cables with these?

I'm 30 years old and have been riding and playing with bikes since I was tiny. Possibly due to my older brother Steve and his obsession with fixing things..(including on one notable occasion my Sony walkman ..which wasn't broken...until he took it apart...)


 My first memory of cycling is one of pain and bleeding...We grew up on a council estate in Sheffield and at the top of a fair hill. A few doors down was a little girl with one of those pink girls bikes, lots of tassels and (if memory serves) the brake cables were covered it bread tags!...
Steve and my even older sister Debbie "dared me" to steal her bike and ride it down the hill...I was about 5 years old...I declined but egged on by my older siblings we "borrowed it" from the front porch and took it up the hill. We lined up for the approach and I jumped on the seat...Now, have in your mind (as I do now) two naughty young teenagers laughing at the impending doom of there little brother, who had never ridden a bike with stabilisers let alone one without! One big push....!!! And were off!! I swear to got I heard a sonic boom I was going that fast....after a little while (through crying and terrified screams) the momentum subsided along with my balance and the inevitable happened.... I won't use the word "face plant" but it hurt...a lot...!! I even remember Debbie and Steve running down to help me half laughing, half getting ready to explain what happened to mum...! I'm not sure if we broke the bike but it certainly put me off 2 wheels for a while!!

The Racer!

I remember Steve's Bikes, most of them in fact. They were always so big and of course it was totally forbidden for me to touch, let alone ride these bikes! The first one was a white Raleigh road bike (racer as we called them then) ....to me shiny in every way...and so big! I remember that it had to be kept in the kitchen and not outside, this meant that the temptation to climb the thing was always present! Climbing was all I could do though as I could not yet ride on 2 wheels, moreover I didn't possess a bike in which to try! I will spare you the story of how I learned to ride a bike but it started with a BMX...this was the mid 80's the first time that BMX's were cool and the "racers of the 70's were a thing of the past. Mountain bikes were also starting to make an appearance...only with the rich kids though...!!

I'm digressing now....back on point...After a few BMX's Steve had his first Mountain Bike it was a Raleigh Mustang and he gave his racer to me! I didn't really appreciate it at the time though... it had two sets of brakes I remember..the main set on the drops and a kind of separate lever on the top of the bars... Me and my mates used them for just riding about..Of course at the time they were the nearest thing to a mountain bike because of the gears but for a kid in the mid-late 80's they were pretty uncool!

So to present day.. I've had loads of bikes in my life - Built a couple myself too....I also had a really good spec. Trek road bike but sadly during a period of financial hardship it had to go the way of ebay....! I now run a bike shop (Steve is very jealous as I get to repair bikes all day!)  but at the moment I don't have a bike! I don't have the money for a nice road bike.. OK so I could afford a new low spec. bike as I would pay the cost price but I know I would hate it. But, I really need to get on my bike again. I'm getting fatter and unfit! It was then that an idea popped into my head!! Get an old steel racer, and restore it to it's former glory!! ! I'm an adult now, I can appreciate good engineering! If I'm lucky I could probably find a Reynolds 531 frame?! So the hunt commenced......I searched high and low....Scoured the newspapers for weeks, poured over the internet, Facebook, twitter...Even tried to but a retro 531 Claud butler Mountain bike from a customer for £50 but he was having none of it! I have visited the tip too but nothing....It seems everyone is having the same idea but turning them into a fixie! I don't want a fixie....just a not crazy heavy road bike for fitness and commuting....

In my desperation I text my brother and asked him to put the feelers bout at work...."after an old 70's/80's ralegh, peugeot, Claud Butler something like that" as my text.....Amazingly the reply came "My old mate "running Roy" let me have his old Peugeot racer years ago...I've still got it in the garage!" "I'll give him a call"..." It's a go - come and get it".....So thanks to my big brother and "running Roy" I am now the proud owner of a 1980's Peugeot PHE 20 Mont Blanc!! I'm yet to collect it as I live in Devon and Steve in Worcester but were meeting half way this Sunday!! So.....Ladies and gentlemen  readers and finders of this blog.....these are the photos I have......

I do have wheels but they will be HEAVY!

So....Mangalloy then..!!!

Oh, I've just realised that it might not actually be a Mont Blanc...ha ha ha ha I'm pretty sure it is 
though....!!