Originally Posted by
TugaDude
Rekmeyata, I absolutely love my Schwinn Letour Luxe. What a nice bike! Triple up front and 5 speed handles any hills I care to throw at it and the weight of the bike is approx. 25 lbs. including rack. The Columbux Tenax tubing is sweet. My bike is the bright blue, it was also offered in a brownish/maroon I believe. I took the Suntour Mountech RD off because it didn't work properly. While it hadn't "exploded" like some reports that I've heard, the upper jockey wheel was toast. Can't even say that it had anything to do with the RD itself, but it really needed to be replaced. I replaced it with a modern RD and intend to do some credit card tours on it this year. Glad you like yours.
Like mine? I just bought it 3 months ago (actually I just remembered I bought it in the middle of November, so not quite 3 months) and due to snow and cold I haven't had a chance to ride it!!! LOL But it fits fine so I know I'll probably like it. The funny thing is that bike has the original Advocet saddle, the same saddle I use to race on years ago, I loved that saddle and had 3 or 4 of them, and when I tried to replace the last one I had they had changed the design and the newer one rode like a brick, and that started a 12 or 13 saddle search over 12 or 13 years trying to find one I liked. But I'm going to take that saddle off buy another B17 for it, and save the saddle for who knows what.
I'm going to make sure the derailleur (and bike of course) stays clean and lubed real well like I do with the Superbe Tech and see how long it will work.
EDIT; I forgot to mention one thing, I will convert the Schwinn from down tube shifters to bar end shifters which are easier to operate with a fully loaded touring bike. But of course I'll keep the down tube shifters in case I ever want to convert it back.
Maybe someone can tell me if this is true; I thought I remembered, or heard that you could have bar end shifters AND down tube shifters at the same time? Not sure how that could work since the one would interfere with the other. But Robert Beckman Designs makes a Sakkit touring bike with a backup shifting system, a primary and a secondary (
http://robertbeckmandesigns.com/bikeframes.html) not sure how's he doing this.