I agree, it's not a money maker -- just dreaming. Still, I think it's a very sensible project for anyone to do on their own. New bikes with 105 components typically sell for $1400 and up. Even going the Bikes Direct route, where the Motobecane Gran Premio Comp is the closest thing I've seen to the build spec I was after, it's $799 and cuts a few corners (like Claris hubs, Tektro brakes and an FSA Vero crankset) and the frame is Reynolds 520 (basically run-of-the-mill Chro-Mo).

I ordered the new 105 bits from England -- about $250 for the shifters, derailleurs and brakes -- so that saved a bunch of money. Paying retail locally for the Thomson seat post and Nitto stem was the biggest blow to my budget, but those are the kind of things that really make for a nice build. Having built with (mostly) new components, the only thing really setting this back from a brand new bike is that there are chips in the paint. That would happen soon enough anyway and helps me personally with my reluctance to lock the bike to a rack.

I did this for a couple of months when I lived near the Salvation Army. I'd hit it every day after work, and if a good bike was on the rack I'd show up before the doors opened on half-price day. Sometimes bikes were cheap enough at full price. I think my best flip was $7.50 for the bike, 20 bucks in parts, sold for $100. I did only MTBs, though. Easier to find cheap and parts are generally cheaper also.

Sweet Buenos Aires! I've had mine for about a year now. Having a bright yellow bike makes every day sunny! :)

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5154/...21e1c7e2_k.jpg

Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't seem (to me) to have any functional purpose, but I just looked at some other LeMonds from the same era on google and even the larger sizes seem to have that spacer.

Nooooooooooo!!!! :twitchy:

Nice! :thumb:

I'm glad mine had the spacer. I'm getting too old for that low-bar action! I guess if some whippersnapper bought one they could have the steerer cut down.

A nice thing about the 2001 Buenos Aires is that they fit 30mm tires if you're inclined to ride some gravel. I even fit a 32mm knobby on the front but the knobs would rub the fork when standing to pedal.

No BMX pegs to go with that stem and bars? What were they thinking?

At least they found a use for that 14" piece of brake cable housing they were saving.

Yeah, I've got 700x28's on mine now and was surprised to see how much space was left.

I can't tell what the frame is, if indeed it's even a Lemond. The tubes seem pretty skinny for a modern steel bike. Taking this from fixie back to roadie seems like a losing proposition unless it were something special. Still, the fork looks cool, and it was nice enough to have a pump peg, and it's not Drewed. It was something good once.

I think the lugged head tube indicates that if it is a LeMond it's a pre-Trek. That could be something worth saving. Now I just need to find a business reason to get my company to fly me down to the bay area. :)

Just check it with a magnet. It's def not alloy.

Icon Carbon Classic fork, sayeth the catalog

Yeah, I did that just for kicks, but I'm pretty sure it's carbon.

Yep. Definitely crabon legs. Aluminium dropouts. Steerer is definitely metal, not sure if steel or aluminum.

I kinda get what you're saying, I rescued a 1935 Raleigh sports model from becoming a fixie, but if its something thats not really rare or unusual then why not set it up to be ridden and enjoyed as one prefers.

Well, a bike that's ridden is obviously better than one that isn't, but I like to think each bike has a natural form to which it aspires. It's kind of like the Levitical statutes against wearing clothes made from two different fabrics..it's against the natural order of things. Thou shalt not put a flat bar and a big cushy seat on a road bike. Plus the geometry is wrong for that.

Nice! One of my friends has a Lemond and he loves it.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that.
Its like people who say if you want a "Dutch" bike, save your money and make one out of a cheap old steel road bike. Sure, it will probably turn out to be a good utility bike, but it won't have the advantages of a real roadsters geometry.
Personally there's only one thing I would never put on a road bike.......me. But that's a preference, not a quantification of road bikes.

It all depends on the types of things you appreciate and admire. Some people who prefer the comfort and warmth of carpeting may not understand why others would be bothered by the idea of covering up a beautiful hardwood floor.

In this case the previous owner took a pretty nice road bike and turned it into a common hybrid. It was a racing machine that was turned into one of the most pedestrian types of bikes there are. It's like putting the body of a minivan on a Porsche. As someone who likes road bikes but has never had anything nicer than a good entry level model, this is a crime. ;)

If you're someone who doesn't give a rip about road bikes or actively dislikes what they represent then of course it wouldn't matter. And the owner of a bike is free to do with it whatever they like.

I converted two old steel road bikes, one for myself and the other for my spouse. We both enjoyed our road bikes when we were younger, but then they hung in the garage for 20 years. Now they were not high end bikes like I suppose that the LeMond was. Selling them would have been a hassle.

My impression of a "hybrid" is that it's a different frame style altogether. The few that I've ridden were heavy and un-responsive. I don't know the correct terminology or technical reasons for how geometry affects the ride, but it seems to. And I suspect that lots of us enjoy riding road bikes even if we don't ever race. It's a luxury to ride a bike that's nicer than it needs to be for its use.

Of course I felt a bit of nostalgic regret, and the drop bars are still in the garage somewhere. But maybe I was really feeling nostalgic about the days when I could actually ride a drop-bar bike. ;)

This is what I was thinking, except it's worse than that. They took a pretty nice road bike and turned it into a kind of crappy hybrid. That's why I think the fixie conversion isn't as bad, or at least can be not as bad. You can make a really nice singlespeed/fixed gear road bike out of a nice old road bike (assuming you don't do awful things like putting intentionally mismatched colored rims on it). The spirit of the bike can be preserved that way a lot of times. But making a road bike into a comfort bike (against which I'll admit personal bias) just isn't like that and can't be.

To be clear, I'm not even saying these LeMonds are exceptional bikes. The frame materials are above average quality, but the Nevada City was LeMond's entry level bike and the Buenos Aires was only a couple of steps higher. The frames are really what makes me like these. Plus I really like the panel paint scheme.

There's a tradition of taking road frames and adding upright bars. How else are you going to get a nice light bike with fast handling and a flat bar? I don't think it's offensive. It goes back before the bike boom. There were Paramounts in this form, for example. The current top of the Trek FX line is basically the Tiagra level of the lowest carbon road bike frame, but with a flat bar.

It's also hard to find a purpose-built hybrid with components nicer than Deore/Tiagra. Specialized is a notable exception. (And good friggin' luck if you want a step-through better than Acera.)

Beautiful bike. Glad you saved it. I think LeMonds are something special.

Just decided I won't be showing you a recent picture of the fixie I'm riding. ;)

I don't know if it were ever a tradition exactly. I would guess that the Trek FX line is more than just a carbon road bike frame with flat bars. I would bet anything that the top tubes are longer and it wouldn't surprise me at all if there are other differences in the geometry.

I've gone the other way and took a flat bar cross-country bike and put drops on it. I suppose that was the same kind of bike abuse only in reverse. It is hard to do without using a stem that makes the set up rather odd looking. Drops move you more forward than flats do. The frames have to be different to accommodate that.

Taking a road bike and putting flats on it doesn't mean you're getting a fast hybrid. You will be more upright than you would be on a flat-bar road bike from the factory. What you're really getting is a lightweight comfort bike. Notice the wide saddles that were put on the bikes along with the flat bars.