Re: [CR]1973: $120 for a UO-8 and $200.00 for a PX-10?

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 12:20:55 -0400
From: Jerry & Liz Moos <moos@penn.com>
To: garth libre <rabbitman@mindspring.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]1973: $120 for a UO-8 and $200.00 for a PX-10?
References: <000801c0fc8c$21e12c80$adbd56d1@Marta> <3B360D64.A180D103@penn.com>


OK, so you also have a point about the cheap AGDA leather saddle. A less than top line Brooks, Wrights or Ideale would have made a world of difference, and even a bare plastic Unicanitor clone would have been better. A good saddle, along with proper bike fit and position adjustment, are the keys to rider comfort, and a descent rear derailleur was important in the bike boom, because so many US buyers were totally unfamiliar with derailleur gears and needed all the help they could get. The combination of poor saddle and balky rear derailleur contributed greatly to so many bike boom machines becoming garage ornaments after only one season of riding. A moderate priced Brooks or Ideale and a Simplex Criterium could have made an enormous difference for maybe another $20. Unfortunately, the US public didn't understand this, and would probabaly have bought competiting machines to save $20, never knowing that difference was well worth the money.

Regards,

Jerry Moos

Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
> Gee, Garth, my first ten-speed was also a UO-8, and I remember it relatively foundly. The frame and rims were heavier than on a top model, but the bike was much lighter and livlier than the Huffys and Murrays of the time, or the Schwinn Varsity. The Simplex Prestige derailleurs did leave a lot to be desired, but once I repaced mine with Shimano Titlist (and SunTour ratchet shifters), the bike was a pleasure to ride. I always thought Simplex made a big mistake with this rear derailleur, when the Simplex Criterium found on the PX-10, which was also part pastic and looked the same as the Prestige to the novice, actually shifted better than a Campy NR thanks to a proper forged cage lacked by the Prestige and a spring-loaded upper pivot lacked by the Campy. The Simplex Criterium shifters were also much better, forged alloy and less prone to slipping than Campy. Had Simplex made all their plastic derailleurs like the ones on the PX-10, the French bicycle industry might be alive and well today. One has to remember that plastics were a glamorous high-tech material at the time, but mistakes were made in its application, just as mistakes were made in the early applications of aluminum, titanium and carbon fibre to bicycle frames and components.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
>
> garth libre wrote:
>
> > Please don't tell me it's true. In 1972, I paid $120.00 for a Peugeot and another on this list paid less than $200.00 for a PX-10 at the tail end of 1971! My $120.00 bought me a virtually unusable piece of crap. When the Central Park junky stoled it from me, two weeks after I bought it, part of me was glad. Mafac racer brakes: ok they stopped. Heavy steel unbutted frame: heavy and not much of an improvement over my early sixties Dunelt. (Rudge like). Seat: bad bad bad. Rims: heavy steel and not an improvement over anything. Derailleurs (front and back): the worst that could possibly be made.... More horrible shifting is not possible if they were designed by a cadre of retarded preteens. Somedays it was faster to just get off the bike and help the chain on to the next cog with a stick. The plastic metal shiffters: when you used them the metal part separated and sometimes pinched your thumb skin. Now let's discuss the PX-10 for less than double the price. A totally respectable piece of machinary that brought joy to many and fueled the dreams of all us less fortunate who were caught by the ten speed bug during the 70's bike boom. What bothers me most is that other companies like Atala and even Schwinn were putting out out decent bikes for the same that a U0-8 cost. I only bought the Peugeot because it was my first 10 speed and I didn't know better. Two years later, I saw Nishikis and Gitanes and Motebecanes and of course Atalas that let people travel all over the east coast metropolis for the same $120.00 I spent cursing plastic derailleurs. An early 70's UO-8 was more a mistake than the wiretapping of the Watergate. Was any other bike as badly made and designed, for the same money? Garth