1989 Peugeot Tundra Express
1989 Peugeot Tundra Express
Just to clear up any confusion, not all of the bikes that we display in our museum are particularly valuable or special. This Peugeot Tundra Express certainly isn’t.
This bike is a pretty good time capsule, however. It is a good example of those new “Mountain Bikes” that everyone was talking about and buying in the 1980’s.
It’s a Peugeot, an old-world French brand more closely associated with the Tour de France, the Faema team and Eddy Merckx than riding in the dirt. Peugeot didn’t have much experience making off-road bikes in 1989, and this bike looks like it was built by Panasonic or Diamond Back for Peugeot.
“Oval Tech” chainrings
Light Action indexed shifting
As is typical for mid-level mountain bikes of this vintage, the components included Shimano’s new “Light Action” click shifting. With this low-level group you had indexed thumb shifters to manage your shifts and a small lever arm on the rear derailleur that permitted shifts without the chain moving (you had to pedal in order to complete the shift, however). Fantastic new technology and 18 whole gear choices!
Since this was a fairly modest model, the Tundra Express rider had to do without Shimano’s BioPace chainrings (which promised to smooth out the dead spots in your pedal stroke). Instead of BioPace this bike was spec’d with knock off “Oval Tech” rings.
Oval chainrings have gone in and out of fashion over the decades a number of times. Usually they show up on bikes around the time that other trends have been played out (aerodynamic tubing is so last season). The oval trend usually goes away after everyone is reminded of how goofy it feels to pedal with them or when riders get fed up with sloppy front shifting.
Cantilevers, not “U” brakes on this bike
Big motorcycle-style brake levers
The last thing that we’d like to note about this bike is the finish. Chrome, nickel plating, copper plating, and the tinted chrome of the Tundra Express aren’t seen very often anymore. These plated treatments work best for bikes made out of ferrous metal (no need to worry about rust with a carbon fiber or aluminum frame) and steel bikes are a fairly small minority in the bike world today. Since plating adds greater expense and weight to the finished bike than paint, not many modern bikes feature these bright and durable finishes.