I bought a Schwinn Le Tour today for the princely sum of $20.00. It has Suntour components on it and except for twenty years of crud and neglect, it seems to be in okay shape. I took apart the bottom bracket and it has the old style no cage bearings that sit in a bed of grease, Well they are supposed to at least. Mine are now. The question I have is when I removed the bottom bracket there was a plastic thing in the BB tube. What is the function of this thing and is it really necessary. I reassembled everything sans plactic duhicky and everything seems to work fine. So whats the inside skinny**********?

Thanks

Jim

If it make any difference this is a made in Japan product. I believe it to be mid seventies vintage.

I think the plastic doohickey is meant to deflect water running down the seat tube so it doesn't muck up your grease and start a rust farm. I never could figure out another purpose for the thing. I went ahead and left mine in. I really really love my Le Tour, and when you think about the money people spend to get a production lugged frame brand new, it's a serious bargain. Mine's set up like a cyclocross bike. I absolutely love it.
As far as I know, they were made in Osaka, Japan by Matsu****a (Panasonic) and only by them, people seem to disagree, but with all due respect I have never seen anything online or otherwise from a reputable source that said they came from anywhere other than Osaka. They were made in the same factory that now does the Quickbeam, among others for Rivendell.

Yes, the plastic sleeve is to help keep water and other crud(rust flaking off the inside of the frame tubes) from getting in your bottom bracket bearings. If you stay with the loose bearings instead of the caged ones, you can usually fit at least one more bearing ball in there and thereby distribute the load better.

There were a couple years around 1980 when Schwinn moved the LeTour production in house at the Chicago factory, but then went back to outsourcing them from Japan.

Thanks for the info. After a thorogh cleaning, regreasing, new chain and a new set of tires I took it on its first run today. I am pleased to report I've got a nice ride. I'll stick to my Klein for club rides though.

Jim

Great! And where are our photos?

Suntreader
Like my new bike I am not part of the digital age yet. Ha I'll get out the old Minolta SRT 201, which is about the same vintage as the bike and photogaph it this weekend. I see your from South Carolina. I get down to Charleston and ride with the Coastal Cyclists bike club once in awhile. Awesome spring and fall riding down there.

Jim

Minolta SRT 201... superb camera. They really don't make 'em like that anymore.

I don't think you'd be happy with the cycling here right now. We've been inundated with motorcyclists in various rallies for the last three weeks. It's out of control.

Charleston out to be nice, though. The Spoleto Festival is just getting underway, so the whole city is looking fine.

I've got a Le Tour converted to a fixed gear.Talk about a smooth riding frame.You should ride it on a group ride.We've got a couple of older guys in our club that are on 20+ year old bikes.Plus it gets to some of the guys when they see a guy on a 20 year old bike that doesn't have any problems keeping up with them and there $5000+ bikes.

Ha, it sounds like a good reason to get into mid season form. I remember last year over hearing some Lexus driving lady saying you couldn't buy a decent bike for under three grand. What a crock. I ride a Klein Quantum and the fit and finish on that bike is top notch, IMHO. It cost me about half of her minimum brand new and I can smoke her Seven with it. Perhaps after riding the Le Tour for awhile, I'll be able to do the same on it. It still needs a little tweaking yet, but its close.

Jim