Now the penultimate component of the drivetrain - the front derailleur.
My first choice was to fit a Huret front mech. Yes - that's a bit strange, a Huret derailleur on a Peugeot... That's usually regarded as sacrilegious since both marques seemed to ignore each other for most of their existence. However, that Huret front mech looked aesthetically spot-on and was much sturdier than the Simplex models from that era.
Technically however it was not meant to be fitted on a frame which had cable guides brazed on the bottom bracket shell. Instead - like the Simplex models, it was to be used with a cable casing stop device fitted at the lower end of the down tube in lieu of the brazed on cable guide.
As I had those cable guides brazed on specifically I didn't feel it was right to fit an additional cable casing stop clamp and leave the cable guide unused.
However I tried various solutions to try and activate the front mech arm without the cable casing stop setup but none would work satisfactorily.
I therefore resorted to the standard modern front mech mechanism and picked my favorite one - Campy Comp triple derailleur. I have a few of them and they work really well as they have both a long actuation arm and a deep wrapping cage.
However I faced a small issue... As discussed previously the crankset used here is a super compact model based on a Stronglight triple with 110mm and 74mm BCDs. Nothing wrong here... Except that this type of triple crankset is meant to be fitted on a wide bottom bracket spindle - usually a 113mm one, asymmetrical preferably.
Here the spindle is 107mm. And the granny has 28 teeth.
This means that the front mech has to be fitted very low on the seat tube - to catch the chain from the 28t granny, and the cage will be very close to the chainstay.
After many attempts I managed to fit the front mech so that it would be able to catch the chain from the 28t granny, carry it onto the larger ring - which sits in the middle position obviously, and have enough fast and ample actuation to bring it back onto the granny without being impeded - i.e. stopped, by the adjacent rear derailleur cable... That rear derailleur cable acted as an early - i.e. too early, cage stopper on most of my attempts.
Again what is at fault here is the short 107mm spindle. I am really adament to give it a try as I'm keen on reusing what I have in stock - especially if they are of high quality - it's a bulky sturdy oversized and yet light titanium spindle, and if these parts were used on previous memorable bikes and builds - I went across the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Dolomites with this bottom bracket. Not in one go though
So yes, there are fond memories attached to it. But the amount of troubles, the extreme adjustment limitations are now testing my patience and I'm beginning to have second thoughts about this spindle...
I sound a bit emotional now...
Anyway, the front mech is fitted, it works ok... with a very fine setup and strict actuation margins though.