treebound 

Recently there was a thread from someone who was thinking of trying to find an early Schwinn LeTour to replace one they had years ago. The nearest thrift shop to me got one in, looked to be fairly early, Made in Japan. If I got the serial number correct I think it is a 1974 model. The shop had it priced a bit high, but while looking it over I noticed it was missing one of the rear derailer pulley wheels, then noticed the front derailer had the cage spacer missing and one side had been bent over to work as a "bottom" to the cage (and it probably had a tie-wrap on it at some point to hold it to the other side). Then I noticed a bulge on the top tube right behind the head tube, then a slight bend on the leading end of the downtube, then noticed the forks were pushed back just a bit, then noticed a slight flat spot on the front wheel. Bummer, head impact bent frame. So I went in to the store, got the day manager, pointed out the bent frame and missing pulley wheel, and got the price discounted as a "parts special". I figured I could use the saddle and stem and handlebars on another project or two.

I've got it stripped down almost to bare frame, haven't knocked out the steering cups yet. I don't think it would be worth giving it away to someone to try and have it straightened or repaired, and wouldn't want to have someone take it and then try to just build it back up as-is as a rider. So, before I start in on it with the hacksaw and remove the LeTour decal'd downtube to use as a shop equalizer and hang it on a wall, and before I chop off the rear dropouts to use as make shift display stands (like I saw a pic of recently where someone was using that setup as a display stand for their Sturmey Archer rear hub), I thought I'd throw this out to the group to ask the following question:

Question: do you chop or recycle to the steel yards any bent frames you find, or do you decide if they are collectable or worth hanging onto and stuff them into a corner until someone comes along looking for that specific frameset in that specific size?

I'll probably chop it apart tonight when I get home from work after having a short moment of silence and shedding a dry tear because this one is real close to the one I also had back in the 70's, right down to the red color and the chrome ends of the front forks. The handlebars on it have a narrow randonneur look to them and will probably migrate to the MTB/commuter if they feel okay once mounted.