Handlebars and stems

[chris_b]

I'm working on converting my daughter's 1986-ish Peugot ladies tourer with an alien 36v kit which comes with pedelec and twist throttle (pics of our progress will be in another post). The bike has drop handlebars which she uses and would like to keep, but could be talked out of if it is too much grief to convert in a useful way. Her main requirement is assistance (some exercise required ) getting up the 1.5 mile 10% hill on the way to her new place of work. I've looked around the forum and seen some folk talk of converting touring bikes, but I've not found anything that helps me with some of the big questions:

1) Keep the drops?
All the alien fittings (twist throttle and brake levers w/ switches) are for 22mm bars and the bike has 24mm bars (15/16" in real units). The twist throttle could be replaced with an adapted thumb throttle - but where to put it for access from both riding positions without she has to develop an elongated prehensile thumb? The brake levers are a harder problem - I wouldn't want to use anything modified for such an important function. But is the cutoff switch really that useful - if you're going to stop you usually stop pedaling and wouldn't reaching for the brakes mean you release any sort of throttle?

Would the bike be usable if we didn't fit twist throttle or brake switches and rely on the pedelec (with an added positive enable switch for the pedelec - eg a press-to-connect, release-to-disconnect button; or perhaps in a twist?)

2) ....or replace the drops with straight 22mm bars? ...
All the 22mm handlebars I seem to find online are for motorcycles, but perhaps this doesn't matter? I'm also confused about stems/pins (used to call the whole thing a gooseneck when I was a lad) - 'stem' in the adverts doesn't seem to talk about the pin dimensions (which is 7/8" aka 22.2mm on the bike), and again I haven't seen one suitable for 22mm bars.

I'd be grateful for any light that you can shed!

Chris

PS I asked in my local bike shop; their response was that Peugot stopped making bike years ago and I'd be lucky to find parts. I'm hoping their view is because they haven't caught up with online buying....

 

[Alex728]

this might help

French Bicycles by Sheldon Brown

 

[monster]

you call 16ths of an inch real units?

 

[Old Timer]

I'm working on converting my daughter's 1986-ish Peugot ladies tourer with an alien 36v kit which comes with pedelec and twist throttle (pics of our progress will be in another post). The bike has drop handlebars which she uses and would like to keep, but could be talked out of if it is too much grief to convert in a useful way. Her main requirement is assistance (some exercise required ) getting up the 1.5 mile 10% hill on the way to her new place of work. I've looked around the forum and seen some folk talk of converting touring bikes, but I've not found anything that helps me with some of the big questions:

1) Keep the drops?
All the alien fittings (twist throttle and brake levers w/ switches) are for 22mm bars and the bike has 24mm bars (15/16" in real units). The twist throttle could be replaced with an adapted thumb throttle - but where to put it for access from both riding positions without she has to develop an elongated prehensile thumb? The brake levers are a harder problem - I wouldn't want to use anything modified for such an important function. But is the cutoff switch really that useful - if you're going to stop you usually stop pedaling and wouldn't reaching for the brakes mean you release any sort of throttle?

Would the bike be usable if we didn't fit twist throttle or brake switches and rely on the pedelec (with an added positive enable switch for the pedelec - eg a press-to-connect, release-to-disconnect button; or perhaps in a twist?)

2) ....or replace the drops with straight 22mm bars? ...
All the 22mm handlebars I seem to find online are for motorcycles, but perhaps this doesn't matter? I'm also confused about stems/pins (used to call the whole thing a gooseneck when I was a lad) - 'stem' in the adverts doesn't seem to talk about the pin dimensions (which is 7/8" aka 22.2mm on the bike), and again I haven't seen one suitable for 22mm bars.

I'd be grateful for any light that you can shed!

Chris

PS I asked in my local bike shop; their response was that Peugot stopped making bike years ago and I'd be lucky to find parts. I'm hoping their view is because they haven't caught up with online buying....

Hiya Chris

You definitely need at least one brake with microswitch. I did my conversion with just the rear brake microswitched and I was caught out once. I was slowly negotiating a tight turn in a country lane was feathering the brake without the switch and was avoiding the gravel in the middle of the road, I pedalled a touch and the assist kicked in and although I braked the assist doesn`t cut off right away when you stop pedalling. I have since fitted both micro brake levers.

I was talking to Onmebike(one of our members) about a stop light set for a bike, (not really needed on a bike) but he has got one and tells me the micro switch fixes to the brake cable! now two of those might solve your brake problems. I`ll send him an E mail and get him to read this thread and advise.

To be honest Chris, I`d fit a pair of straights so that you can fit everything on them and then fit a pair BAR ENDS. they fit onto the end of the bars and secure with allen bolts, there are various designs and in general come off at 90 degrees to the bars, some have a bend inwards and some outwards and if you fitted them so that they pointed forward it would have a similar effect of being like dropping forward on to drop bars or you could aim them towards the back of the bike and again just like dropping down onto dropbars. I see no reason why you couldn`t fit the twist grip to one of them if she prefers riding bum up head down.

Dave

 

[Old Timer]

Chris

There are some bar ends here and even a set of drop bars ends that might be perfect mate
Origin8 Pro-pulsion Road Ends - Drop Bar Bar Ends

You could probably even fit the twist grip to them Chris

 

[Old Timer]

A few here

Bar Ends, Bicle Bar End, Cycling Bar Ends | Buy Now at ChainReactionCycles.com

Loads of bar ends on E bay Chris, just search "bar ends bike"

How did the front forks go?

Dave

 

[chris_b]

Thanks for the replies everyone,

@Alex728: that's a very useful link: explains a lot of what I'm finding

@monster: well, the metric dimensions of many things (apart from cycle parts) turn out to be inches converted to the nearest metric equivalent

@oldtimer: It just shows that if you know where to look... The dropped bar ends may well provide the best of all worlds; also one of those sites clearly shows handlebars with 22mm ends and a thicker centre for the stem; just need to crack the pin/steerer dept. I'll report all this back to the customer and get her views.

You've clearly tried several riding modus operandi - how do you use the throttle vs the pedelec?

I'm sorting the fork pictures at the moment .....

Chris

 

[Old Timer]

Thanks for the replies everyone,

@Alex728: that's a very useful link: explains a lot of what I'm finding

@monster: well, the metric dimensions of many things (apart from cycle parts) turn out to be inches converted to the nearest metric equivalent

@oldtimer: It just shows that if you know where to look... The dropped bar ends may well provide the best of all worlds; also one of those sites clearly shows handlebars with 22mm ends and a thicker centre for the stem; just need to crack the pin/steerer dept. I'll report all this back to the customer and get her views.

You've clearly tried several riding modus operandi - how do you use the throttle vs the pedelec?

I'm sorting the fork pictures at the moment .....

Chris

I keep my bikes on pedelec + twist, they cut out pedelec when I use the throttle and then cut the pedelec back in when I let go of the throttle. Best of both worlds. Quite often I find that if the pedelec isn`t giving me what I need then the throttle usually gives me a bit more.
Although some might say that you shouldn`t use the throttle from standstill I often do. It gets you up and running easier and I use strapless toeclips and it gives me time to get my left foot in.