Classic & Vintage - LE Tour Info

Information please,

I am trying to get into a descent touring/commuting bike cheap. I have stumbled accross a Schwin Le Tour at our local used sporting goods store. The bike is in incredible shape. It looks and rides like it is new. However, i know little about road bikes. They are asking $125.oo for the vehicle. here is what I know about it:

It has 4130 CRomo stays and buted chain tube
Sugino VP130 cranks
Weinmann 913-630 Rims
Maillard hubs
DiaComp breaks, and Shimano deraillurs and shifters

I think the bike is form the 80's.
any information or advice is greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Josh

80s vintage sounds right for that one. Schwinn introduced the LeTour lne in 1974. They are Japanese made by Panasonic. I believe some of the later ones might have come out of Taiwan's Giant also.

Shimano and Weinmann parts sound right and the Sugino cranks were very common as well.

Price? That's always sticky. Many will (truthfully) tell you that $125 is high for a LeTour and that garage sales, etc will find you one for $25. Also internet shopping might find a better deal.

But...

There's no guarantee you will find one in a garage sale and that bike has a huge advantage over the internet in that you can see, touch and test ride it. My advice and I might be contradicted is to say "go for it." It's a quality bike and if it fits and is really in great shape will return you alot more than $125 in pleasure. Certainly nothing new for 2-3X that much will be any where near as good. Doesn't hurt to offer a bit less too.

Just finished upgrading a LeTour I found at a thriftstore for $25. "True Temper" 4130 Cro-Moly stays and butted frame tube, like the one you saw. It's an off-white with digital-looking blue decals. Very 80's! Learned alot about it in the process of putting it back together. Maybe what I learned can help you?

-Look at the badge on the head tube. There should be a 4-digit number stamped on it. If they're, it means the bike is almost definately a Panasonic. The first three numbers are the day of the year it was built. The last number is the last digit of the year it was built. I'm guessing mine was constructed in mid-1986.

-I had SACHs "Huret Rival" deraillurs on my bike. SACHs later went on to become SRAM. The front one works nice, so I left it on. The rear one was shot, so I replaced it with an inexpensive Shimano 105 I got on sale. (Kept all the parts, just in case)

-The bike originally had a 6-speed freewheel on 27" rims, but the rear wheel was in bad shape. Fortunately the rear dropouts are 130mm wide, (or is it 135mm?), and will accept modern 700c rims and a 9-speed cassette with little problem. Even the Dia Compe brakes extend low enough to work right.

-My headset is pretty shot; rough turning and a fair amount of external surface rust. I just reconditioned it some and am seeing how it goes from there. Don't know if this is an isolated incident or not.

-Also installed an off-the-shelf, no-name quick release for the rather heavy steel scalloped seatpost. Works like it was OEM equipment. The rather short 26.6mm seatpost is too expensive for me to replace with something lighter, so it stays until I can rationalize paying ~$70 for one that weighs 100g less. :rolleyes:

-The bars were wrapped in some funky transluscent plastic tape. I think that was the fad of the time. Instead of taking it off I just wrapped cork over it, seeing how thin the tape was anyhow. (Maybe it's worth more with it on?)

-The saddle on mine was junk. It was falling apart and not very good to begin with. It got tossed. Replaced with a Selle I found on sale at Nashbar.

-Not sure of the crankset, but it says "Stronglight" on it. I think it came from a French source. Anyhow, the original 52/39t chainrings seem to work well with my mish-mash of bargain-basement priced Ultegra and 105 drivetrain parts, so they're staying on until something goes wrong.

After every was said and done, my $25 thriftstore bike became a $250 18-speed roadbike that weighs in at about 27lbs. I had loads of fun putting it together, as I haven't been on a 10-speed-like bike since I was a kid. Now I have an inexpensive way of getting into road biking to try it out!

I have a picture up already of this bike under "Show off your vintage", or something like that, but it isn't the best shot. Plus it was taken before I finished it. I'll post a completed pic of it soon. It looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself. :D

Also, you may wish to check out these sites:

http://www.oldschwinn.com/how_old_is_my_schwinn/

http://www.yellowjersey.org/pana.html

http://www.angelfire.com/rant/allday101/SchwinnCodes4.html

Hope that helps!

The Mallard hub is a point of concern to me. You cannot get parts for these anymore. The freewheel is not threaded, it has splines and is held in place with a rentainer and requires a special tool to remove.

ebay, if you must have one. Otherwise, look into garage sales & thrift stores. You'd be suprised what people get rid of cheap. my last few finds were a noce schwinn road bike ($15- True temper tubing, Suntour alpha deraileurs) and a Trek 950 ($10- also ture temper, shimano 'mountain' LX deraileurs.).

le tours are great rides. I bought the yellow for $15 and the red one for $25 both at Deseret Industries.

here are a couple that i have;
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/c00pstar/yellowlady.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/c00pstar/letourwright.jpg


i am turning the red one into a fixed girl and the yellow one is for the ladies...

anyone that can help with the fixed gear conversion would be appreciated

I would say $125 is too much without seeing any pictures to help judge a good price. If it is in perfect shape, ask if they would take $75. Asking never hurts.

[QUOTE=Walter]80s vintage sounds right for that one. Schwinn introduced the LeTour lne in 1974. They are Japanese made by Panasonic. I believe some of the later ones might have come out of Taiwan's Giant also.

I have an 84 in my workshop right now that is labeled frame made in America 4130 cro-moly double butted stays.

But country of origin isn't important, the condition of the bike is. If it is completely ready to ride, new tires tubes, cables good or replaced, good seat, chain and drive train lubed and adjusted, brake pads replaced, etc, etc, the bike is worth 125. It is really easy to put 125 into parts fixing up that yard sale special. If you just want to ride with a minimum of fuss, and it really is ready to ride, it's worth it.

The Mallard hub is a point of concern to me. You cannot get parts for these anymore. The freewheel is not threaded, it has splines and is held in place with a rentainer and requires a special tool to remove.

I really wouldn't worry to much about this. A lot of times these 80's bikes have very low miles on them. Even if you do have a problem down the line, you can pick up old school wheel sets for 30 or 40 bucks.

If the bike has been tuned up an has new tires, $125 is an okay but not great deal. If the bike is just the way someone found it in their garage after 20 years, you can quickly spend another $125 getting it ready to ride, especially if you have to pay for shop labor.

I just noticed........this thread is almost three years old. :)