Originally Posted by
The MAX
Schwinn Le Tours are pretty common, and I've seen a few posted restored ones here. Those owners will probably have better more helpful advice.
One more thing. If you are looking for a bike with Ultegra or 105 level components I would suggest keeping an eye out for a late 80's early 90's road bike with those components already on it, and cleaning/fixing it up. It might be more initially, but to buy that stuff new or used to put on a Le Tour would be probably a lot more.
+1 to all that. Putting modern components on a "vintage" frame is possible, but it's really not worth it on a LeTour. You'd end up with an expensive mongrel that wouldn't be exceptional at anything. I'd fix it up enough to be ridden, and then go ride it. If you want modern parts, buy a complete modern bike- it'll be much cheaper that way.
BTW: my first "real" 10-speed was a 1978 Le Tour III. I still miss it. Here's the original catalog page:
One of my bikes now is a later "Mississippi" Schwinn LeTour. It's my coffee bike- I change the parts on it when I feel like it. I recently changed it to a 1-speed since I wasn't changing gears often enough to take advantage of the gears:
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff_wills/...tour%20004.htm