SolidSnake3

Hi everyone!

Well like the title says I have a Schwinn Le Tour from I believe it is 1981 or 1982. It is a friend of my parents older brothers bike that he gave to me since it had been sitting in a garage for a long time. As the pictures below show the bike is in great shape as in a few tiny spots that might be rust and some dirt/grease but that is about it. The paint is almost perfect with 2-3 small chips near the handle bars but that is all. All the parts on it are original including the seat and brakes. Heck I even have the original booklet that came with the bike! It's a bit yellowed with age and has the original price sticker on it.

Anyhow I'm considering either selling the bike or taking the gears/derailers off and turning it into a single speed to drop some weight. It's a bit heavy and I'm sort of a light/smaller sized guy

So I was wondering what you guys thought in terms of price/value? Should I leave it as it is and try and sell it that way or do the single speed conversion? In either case I'm going to clean up the dirt and make it shine.

Also, I'm in Madison WI if that helps at all for price stuff.

Thanks!

Pics:

EjustE

Looks like an 1980. 1020 high tensile steel, list weight 30 pounds. Turning it into a single speed might save you 2 pounds. Still heavy. Shimano 400 RD and Sugino Maxi crank? Cleaned up nicely, and perfectly operational, because you have the original manual and the price of the bike on it, I think around $125ish. Alloy rims help. Also, Madison is a college town and I suspect that the best time to sell will be in the beginning of the next school year.

wrk101

Actually, I think it has steel rims. My 1980 LeTour did.

SolidSnake3

The rims are steel, I'm sort new to the whole bike scene so I'm not sure about if the RD and the Crank are what you said. Think it's sort of funny that it says X-Tra Lite Bicycles on the booklet when it's still probably around 30pounds.

Well anyhow I'm wondering if taking off all the gears and replacing with a single would drop more than 2 pounds. It seems that those things are really heavy but maybe I'm wrong. Could also look at getting different/lighter tires and or pedals/crank maybe?

EjustE

Alloy rims and lighter tires will drop 3-4 pounds. So you are looking at 26-27 lbs with gears and 25-26 as a ss (not much difference there). An alloy wheelset migh be a good investment.

Schwinn called these bikes X-tra lite to differentiate from the "medium weight" 50 lbs behemoth baloon tired bikes

Kakeeater

Always nice to see more LeTours riding around Madison, I'm riding one myself. I recognize the apartments in the background of your pictures.

I wouldn't strip your bike down, just sell it as is on Craigslist. $125 sounds reasonable.

SolidSnake3

Thanks for the advice both of you, great to know about another Le Tour owner in Madison!

I will definitely look into some allow rims and lighter tires then since if I decide not to sell the bike I will be keeping it for another two years or so ideally.

As for the Single Speed idea, I plan on still kicking that around for a while seeing as how right now I think I have shifted gears maybe twice in the past 3 months. The bike stays in the same straight chain gear set literally the entire time. The decrease in maintenance might be nice too with the single. Right now the shifting is a little "rough" so if I would keep it multi-speed that would need to get replaced and or worked on. Wouldn't leave it as it is for as long as I would be keeping it if I do.

I use the bike for the occasional longer ride but usually just to get around town and once and a while to go out to a farther away mall/store or something.

Any suggestions on single speed vs. gear replace now that you have a bit more info on what I use the bike for and the current state of the gears/shifting mechanism?

wrk101

Best bet gearing wise is to find a used set of 27 inch alloy wheels, six or seven speed. They will work fine on that bike in friction mode shifting (which is what it has anyway). Although the spacing is wider, you can pretty easily slip the seven speed stuff right in with a steel frame.

For single speed, your best bet is to just sell the bike as is, and pick up one of the new single speed/fixed gear bikes from (gulp) Bikes Direct. They sell them complete with decent brakes for $300. Pretty tough to recreate what they sell for any less, and selling your LeTour will get you part way there.

SolidSnake3

I have been looking at Bikes Direct and was interested in some of their single speed stuff. It seems to be an amazing deal. Whats the reason for the gulp though? Is there something I need to know about the site or their bikes?

I was considering slowly adding pieces to mine and converting it because that way I could put just a bit of money into it when I could. It would be a lot easier for me to just drop in $30 every few weeks or so.

Also, I sort of am curious about working on bikes and doing some of this rebuilding myself so that was part of why I was thinking about keeping what I had and going the piece build route.

As for Bikes Direct, if I do go that route how do these look?

https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/.../clockwork.htm
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/kilott.htm
https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/..._al_carb_x.htm

wrk101

1. A conversion to SS really does not lend itself to slowly easing into it. Either you do it, or you don't. The second problem is getting the chain line right. It can become a money pit in short order, and even then still be a mediocre SS.

2. If you want to learn wrenching, great! I would start with some basic maintenance, cables, housings, bearings and grease. Almost any 30 year old bike will need all of that tended to.

3. Bikes Direct has a very mixed reputation on this forum. Do a search and you will find more than enough on that topic, no need to create another one.

4. On the models, I would get whatever one appeals to you visually, with a flip flop hub so you can go SS or FG, and with brakes of course. The choices are flat bars or drops. I prefer drops. Then you have a choice of wide tires, or narrow. I would probably go with the wider tire version just for kicks.

But I am a believer in N+1, I have six bikes at least in the keeper fleet for me.

Do a search on the bikes direct models on this forum, you will be able to find ample opinions/feedback on them. Realize the brands on BD bikes mean NOTHING. They just slap the decals on generic bikes from China. So don't sweat the brand, just get the one you like.

How to search:

Go to google, enter into the google search box: bikes direct single speed site:bikeforums.net

SolidSnake3

I guess on this point I should have been a bit more clear. What I mean is that I would make the conversion to single speed at once and then after that slowly upgrading other aspects of the bike or things that I wanted to change. This process would hopefully let me build some sort of weird hybrid looking single speed bike. The frame would still be the Le Tour along with the front forks and a few other things but it would have new tires, pedals, brakes/lines, handle bars and grip tape. Along with maybe switching out the whole gear set to a single speed one after running the bike as a single speed by removing derailers and shifting line stuff for a while if I really like it.

So basically I am trying to decide between buying a bikes direct single speed and selling the Le Tour as it is or making the Le Tour a single speed and over the summer adding/swapping out pieces of it.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the experience and the fun of making something weird and my own vs. getting a new pre-made single speed.

Wondering which I might get better results on as well assuming a similar amount of $ is spent.

By the way, out of the single speeds I posted I really like the look of the Windsor Clockwork, especially the black and the orange one. That one really appeals to me the most