So far as I know, no bike sold as a PX-10 or any variation thereof, at least in the US, was ever made of Vitus tubing, though other Peugeot models certainly were. Every PX-10 I have ever seen carries a Reynolds 531 DB decal. It is certainly true that stars like Merckx and Simpson had their frame built by others (in those two cases reportedly Masi) and painted as Peugeots. The domestiques may have used frames actually build by Peugeot, but not just taken off the assembly line. I think one of Chuck Schmidt's reproduced Peugeot catalogs talks about a special department at one of the large Peugeot factories where team bike were built. This department may also have built the PY-10 custom order frames that were avaialable for a few year. Rather like the SBU at Ilkston or the Bianchi Reparto Corse. Of course we don't really know for sure who built each of the team bikes, but this seems the common pattern on top tier European teams In The Day. The stars had frames built by the framebuilders of their choice. The domestiques got bikes built by the sponsor, but by a separate depatment or sometimes by semi-independent framebuilders who worked extensively with the sponsor, often building on the sponsor's premises. Sponsored amateur teams or lower tier pro teams might actually have gotten the same bike sold to the public.
BTW, I don't know that I'd agree that the better grades of Vitus tubing were "softer" than 531 or inferior in any other way. I've never seen any scientific comparison test of 531 DB versus Super Vitus.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Bianca Pratorius <biankita@comcast.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Bike shop owner contention
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Friday, February 6, 2009, 1:56 AM
\r?\n> An informed bike shop owner in my hood told me that the
\r?\n> PX-10 that one could buy here in the states was not the
\r?\n> PX-10 that won the TDF. He said those super light Vitus
\r?\n> tubed bikes were too soft for the pros and that typically
\r?\n> Euro pros had their bikes custom built with sturdier,
\r?\n> heavier tubing and Nervex lugs with Peugeout decals so that
\r?\n> they would look like PX-10's. Is it true that the super
\r?\n> light PX-10 was too noodly for the demands of the pros?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Garth Libre in Miami Florida USA