The other day I was sitting outside our building at the university having a coffee with a colleague when a student pulled into a nearby bike rack on a vintage Peugeot. As I looked over my colleague's shoulder he asked if I was checking out her form - I laughed and said no and that she was one of my students from a first-year seminar and that I was most curious about her bike. I was also amazed by the fact that she was wearing a matching Peugeot team jersey. I didn't have a chance to look at the bike closely so will have to ask her in more detail about it next week - in a later exchange of emails about an assignment she did say that:
"My Dad gave me that bike a few years ago, after he upgraded to a Trek or Giant or some other light-weight contraption! He bought it in Germany in 1980. We haven't done too much to it - new brakes and Shimano pedals - but it still runs very well."
I am not sure of the model but the frame was in black and yellow livery (as was her jersey).
There is hope (this student is about 18 or 19) - and not just from the fixie brigade!
Paul Williams,
Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
castell5@sympatico.ca