I am interested in modifying my 1983 Schwinn Le Tour. I use it as a city bike and live in a place with a lot of hills. What I would like to do is change out the friction shifters on the stem for some bar end shifters, and replace the crank with a compact crankset. I'm here to ask if these modifications are possible with the bike, as in compatible, and if they are what other modifications would you make to improve its city performance. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Barend shifters are an easy upgrade. You can even run the cables completely under the tape to the stem. Also adding aero brake levers such as Techros, you can eliminate the cabling in front of your bars and add a nice handlebar bag to carry stuff.

With the crankset, you will also more than likely need to replace the Bottom Bracket. Your nearly 30 y.o. crankset has a different "Q" factor which describes the straightness of the crank arms. An inexpensive route to go would be with a Nashbar branded compact crank and BB.

Nashbar CR2 Compact Road Bike Crankset


Nashbar ISIS Bottom Bracket


Now your next challenge would be can the original RD and FD handle these chain differences? Maybe, maybe not. Looking at the catalog page it is hard to say.



But, upon closer inspection, I suspect you might have 110BCD sized chainrings on your original crankset. An easy conversion would be to buy a smaller chainring, say a 36-34. Best of luck.