Return of the Lemon D
 

Backstory

I've told this story before, but I'll repeat it here as it's the primary backstory of this bike. My interest in steel bikes began in earnest in 2015. I'd owned steel bikes before that, of course, but I never thought about it that way. They were just bikes. In 2015, I was on the dark path of carbon fiber. I had a nice carbon Ridley Excaliber and I didn't want to get it all messed up by doing things like riding it to work. My commute bike was a workhorse aluminum cyclocross bike, but I wanted something more fun to ride when the weather was nice, while still keeping the Ridley as the special weekend rider. I went to Craigslist looking for something cheap but fun and found this 2001 LeMond Buenos Aires:

https://live.staticflickr.com/5467/1...9789fd82_o.jpg

Horrible, right? But I could see its potential. So I bought it and outfitted it with a new set of Shimano 105 components, and it was exactly what I wanted -- a fast, fun bike that I could abuse and not worry about while it was lashed to the rack at work.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7607/1...5fd173ca_b.jpg

My daughter dubbed it the "Lemon D".

But a funny thing happened. I really enjoyed riding this bike. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I gradually stopped riding the Ridley. As this was happening, and I realized how much I enjoyed riding the LeMond, I started branching out and discovering vintage bikes. The number of bikes in my garage exploded and the LeMond itself fell into disuse. Sometime in 2020 I stripped it down and used the 105 parts to build another bike and the LeMond frame had been hanging above the desk in my home office ever since.

Rebirth

With the frame hanging where it was, I saw it every day. I had fond memories of riding it, and I kept it in the back of my mind that some day I'd want to put it back on the road again. Then a few weeks ago I was assessing the state of my quiver. I had just built a Cannondale and needed to free up a hook in the garage to hang it on. Looking over the bikes, I identified a few that were expendable. After picking one to give up space for the Cannondale, I realized that I liked the LeMond more than a couple of the other candidates, so I stripped one down, hung its frame in the office in place of the LeMond and put the LeMond on the workstand to be rebuilt.

As many of you know, I generally like vintage frames much more than I like vintage components. I really like 10-speed second generation Ergo Campagnolo components. These generally date to around 2001. As I was thinking about what to do with the LeMond, a light came on in my head illuminating the obvious connection between a 2001 frame that I love and 2001 components that I love. I'm slow sometimes, but I get there. And so, breaking from my usual pattern, I went to work building a bike with period-correct components!

I know this is still a few years from meeting the typical standards for "vintage" but it's steel, it has a quill stem, and in my mind anything with Greg LeMond's name on it is classic.

At long last, the part that most of you scrolled down to see without reading that whole overly verbose explanation -- the pictures of the new build.

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(Potenza brakes -- I couldn't go totally period correct)

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Thanks to the wonders of Reynolds 853 steel and with a little help from the carbon fiber fork, the build comes in at 21.5 pounds, just short of dethroning my 2015 Jake the Snake as my lightest bike.

Lovely back, I am glad you're able to give it a better life. Careful with those forks, mine left me facedown on the concrete after it snapped in half on a 1/4 inch increase in sidewalks. One of the best bikes I have owned, besides the nearly fatal flaw.

Wow - is that a common issue, or did you just get unlucky?

DD

Some of my favorite brake calipers...I have a few Centaurs.

Daytona/Centaur stuff is excellent stuff.

seconded—my wife has this very bike and now I’m wondering if I should replace the fork…

Yeah, it makes me nervous but I've been watching it for any signs of weakness (though I'm not entirely sure what I'd be looking for). I've thought about looking for a slightly older LeMond with a steel fork, but so far I'm just taking my chances.

I have a friend who had one of these and for reasons known only to him decided it would be OK to ride a short distance home while carrying a few pieces of rebar. He fumbled the rebar, one of the pieces got into the spokes, and he got a broken fork and busted face. Can't blame the bike for that, of course. A steel fork would still have left him with a busted face but it would have failed in a totally different way. :D

Not sure this is an answer to your question but it is another data point of factual info from around the time frame.

picured below a carbon fork, titanium steerer, 1”, threaded from 1999 or early 2000. After about a year of hard use (Santa Cruz Mts earthquackked roads) I took the bike in for a service and Craig Calfee told me to change the fork. 2nd pic shows a small vertical crack which he said would propagate to failure. I have forgotten who produced this fork, sorry. But the crown is a place to check on older CF forks and of course the fork ends are glued and easy to check for tightness.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bb90b3c00.jpeg
I replaced it with a carbon fork aluminum steerer.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8653eb53a.jpeg

That's cool, @Andy_K, but it's just screaming out for a 650B x 38mm wheelset:

https://live.staticflickr.com/5452/2...87d6ec27_b.jpgLemond1.JPG

That is interesting, the 650B working for the Buenos Aires. I have a Poprad, '02, and a Tourmalet, '01, both 853 frames. I have seen Poprads converted, and I have thought about doing it to mine. I never heard of someone doing it with the B A, Tourmalet, or other Lemond frames of that ilk. I have not done a conversion due to not really needed that, and not wanting to invest the money. Seeing your B A with 650B brings back a bit of interest in doing that with my Tourmalet. Being honest with myself, not likely to happen. I sure do like the looks of yours. My Poprad already has long reach brake calipers, Tektro 559, because the old Avid Shorty 4 were worn out, I am not well versed in cantilevers, and do not especially like them. The 559s brake well with milled rims.

I actually did a test fit with a 650B wheel, and it looked like 650x38s would be a tight squeeze. Plus, I'd have needed long reach brakes.

^ Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I did have to dimple the chainstays a bit, but that wasn't too difficult as they're kind of flattish to begin with and widely spaced enough to do it with my bench vise and some metal bits to do the indenting. I did it, too, for my buddy's BA:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...393e4ddfb3.jpg

Had I not recently bought my Paramount...

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...5-46d4f70fbb3c - $270.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bae49c6c5.jpeg

Mere minutes away from me but this one is missing the rest of its seat tube. :)