Vintage Peugeot Carbolite 103 - suitable for a conversion?

[CycleEye]

Hi there,

I'm considering a conversion on an old Peugeot Carbolite 103 frame.

Someone on another forum says:

'A 1982 Peugeot catalog had a vague description of Carbolite 103, calling it "a special, thin-walled tubing made from a composition in carbon steel unique to Peugeot. This tubing combines strength and resilience and produces the unusual durability of our bicycles."

I've never seen detailed specifications for Carbolite 103, but have seen speculation (without any specific references) that it is similar to AISI 1030 carbon steel.'

The bike is in decent condition.

Does anyone have any opinions on whether it could likely handle an ebike conversion kit (with torque arms of course)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[sjpt]

I don't think there would be any frame strength problems for a rear wheel replacement or mid-drive. There might be problems with axle and bottom bracket widths.

The forks should be fine for a front conversion as long as you go for a sensible motor. Are the forks the same steel as the frame or a heavier one as was often used. Again check axle widths.

 

[Sturmey]

Re. Front conversion. I was considering and measured up a front conversion on a Falcon Bike lately for a standard mxus xf07 front hub. There was a few problems which made this not viable in my case .
Firstly, the vintage front axles were light 5/16 inch size (8mm approx) and there is not enough metal on front dropout to file for wider 10 x12 mm axle.
The second problem was that the forks were much lighter and tapered towards the crown such that the motor would foul the forks.
However, I do believe it may be possible to get a smaller motors with lighter 8mm axles but you may have to build/lace the wheel yourself.

Re rear hub. Many of these older bike have them 45 degree 'semi horizontal' dropouts. I have fitted a rear hub to one of these but it was a bit of a bodge. I had to stretch the chainstays and modify the derailleur so that wheel can be made more secure by pushing the wheel further back into dropout .
It worked OK but it makes fitting the wheel/puncture repairs difficult, especially if caught out on the road as the derailleur comes off and chain can tangle when wheel nuts are loosened.

I have a friend who fitted a Bafang BBS02 into an old Dawes bike and it worked OK. His biggest problem was removing the old bottom bracket which was seized.