Recently I've been wanting a new road bike that to ride to work on nice weather days. I wanted something that would be fun to ride yet not so nice that I wouldn't want to leave it shackled to a bike rack. So I've been cruising craigslist looking for a good candidate. I had a 2001 LeMond Nevada City that I sold last spring, and I've found myself regretting that so LeMonds were high on my list.

Last week I found this for sale:



The seller had clearly gone to some lengths to make it look like an ugly hybrid/comfort bike, but the green decal in the lower center hints at this frame's true potential.



It was the same size as my old Nevada City, and unlike the Nevada City it had a carbon fork. So I overpaid for it and had myself a project.

Initially I was thinking that I had all the parts I'd need to put this bike on the road, and I think that was technically true, but once I had it in my garage I couldn't talk myself into building it up with the motley pile of spare parts I had available. In the end, I could only talk myself into the wheels, tires, cassette, chain and crankset I had on hand and even the crankset, I decided, needed a new middle chainring. So step 1 looked like this:



Then I order some parts that I thought were worthy of this bike...



The parts arrived yesterday. Here it is nearly complete:



If all goes well, I'll have it on the road this weekend.

Sweet.

I very much appreciate your righting the wrong that was done to that bike.

Very, very nice. That's how I got my Schwinn Prelude....someone had gone through lengths to make it look like a decrepit disgusting looking hybrid....with a little bit of love and parts, she is back to being a nice road rider. I can't say I overpaid at 20 bucks though.

Always liked LeMonds. A worthy restoration project. Make sure you hook up some cables before taking it out for a test ride.

This was the aforementioned Nevada City when I bought it on CL.



Why would someone do that? I think this is more egregious than the hipsters who buy classic road bikes and turn them into fixies.

I've actually been trying to figure out a way to buy bikes like this just to rebuild them and re-sell them without losing money. I know people even make money flipping used bikes, but I'm happy to let the garage sale combers do their work. I'm thinking more of projects like the one above where I find a neglected but not yet vintage bike with a nice frame and rebuild it (retro-mod?) with nice new components.

I've got about $650 of recent purchases in the Buenos Aires build, but that number is obviously kept down by the fact that I had the wheels, tires and crankset already. I think it comes out closer to $1200 if I include the original cost of all components when I bought them. To me, this bike is clearly worth that -- it would be a steal for a new bike with a Reynolds 853 frame and 105 components -- but I think I'd be lucky to resell it for $650 if I were so inclined.

People go to craigslist to find bargains so that puts an upper limit on the price you can expect to get for a bike. To successfully flip a bike, you need to find something that's more toward the middle of the pack in terms of quality and for whatever reason the seller is willing to sell pretty cheap. It could be because the bike is unrideable because of some minor issue. A little effort (like washing it) and they could ask for more money but some people don't want to deal with it.

When I was more interested in spending time fixing bikes, they used to just find me somehow. A surprising number of people have non functioning or even working bikes that they just want taken off their hands. Folks used to just give me bikes. I'd spend $50 to $100 on them and sell them for for $125 to $175. Not a great way to make money considering the time involved but at that point in my life I enjoyed it.

It's harder to do with road bikes than it used to be. The world has figured out that there's a demand for them and they'll want $200 for any piece of junk with drop bars.

I must confess that I myself am guilty of a fixie conversion. It wasn't a high end bike though and the fork had been destroyed in a crash. Plus I left the derailleur hanger in place along with all the cable guides. I also saved all the components (which was pretty decent shimano 600 stuff) so it would be easy to convert back into a geared bike if I wanted.

Yeah, I'm not so much interested in making money as I am in indulging in bike rejuvenation as a hobby without losing money. If I could put some nice bikes back in circulation in the process, that would be a bonus. Even so, I think you're right about CL and bargain hunting. I'm thinking I'd need to find a way to market these as "new again" bikes or something.

It seems to me that I read on this forum about some bike shop (maybe in Eugene?) that sold bikes like this.

Were the sellers older? Perhaps they had converted their nice road bikes into hybrids/townies to keep using them.

Nice save my man!

"It was the same size as my old Nevada City, and unlike the Nevada City it had a carbon fork."
Nice save, but that doesn't look like a carbon fork to me. Is it?

Well, it says it is and it weighs about a pound. I guess in 2001 they didn't make carbon forks quite the way they do now.

But I hear you. It looks just like the steel fork on my old Nevada City.

These are pretty nice bikes and since hybrids are a dime a dozen I'd think you could sell the Lemond and get a brand new hybrid for less than the cost of converting the Lemond.

Where I could see it making some sense was if one of those older STIs bit the dust. Now you've got to invest some money anyway.

To be honest, I prefer the look of these older Lemond bikes with their quill stems over the new ones, although it's possible that the new ones have a nicer ride.

The old STI shifters usually just get gummed up. Stripping them down and soaking them usually will free them back up...or if they aren't toooo gummed up shooting something like GT85 inside them will bring them back. If they are 7 or 8 speed, there are a few people out there who have all the small parts and will fix them for like 35 bucks each.

OP: sounds like you should be volunteering at a co op if you enjoy fixing old bikes back up! At least you wouldn't be spending your own money. I've been very fortunate to have a friend who workes in bike shops for years and has every tool out there...as well as a very healthy collection in various parts bins. He has been very free with giving me some real nice stuff (like cranksets, a dura ace brifter, cassettes, etc).

You know, I was really excited when I heard that there were new LeMond bikes, but I agree that the old ones look nicer. Also, at $3149 for a 105 equipped Washoe, the new ones are a bit beyond what I'm willing to pay.

That's not a bad idea.

Beautiful! Personally, I like it without cables. Saves weight, too.

That's the sensible take, anyway. I have this mental image of former racers who are sentimentally attached to their old bikes, but can't ride in a super-aero position anymore, so they convert them. I know it used to be a thing for Euro pros who didn't get rich at it...

Actually that Nevada City was a garage queen. The prior own had bought it new and apparently could never get comfortable on it. The original parts were all like new.

As for the not being able to ride in a super-aero position, that may be the destiny of my Buenos Aires in another 10 years or so. I'm 45 now and already have the bars pretty high, but the Nitto Tecnomic stem I used could go up another four inches before it hit its minimum insertion point. Not that that wouldn't be ugly.

I couldn't wait for the weekend. It's now officially a commute bike.



I'll have to wait for a sunny day to take some glamour pics.

Pinkbike, maybe. I already mentioned it to someone else on the site today. Still, I don't know if you are going to make much or anything putting new 105-level parts on these bikes.

That bike needs a yellow pump to go on its peg.

Very nice! If that bike were a sentient being like a horse or dog, I could picture it getting very excited to be out and running around finally.

I just noticed the healthy headset spacer on both the Nevada City and Buenos Aires. Any idea why they did that? Seems like it would allow them to use forks with the same steerer length for a couple frame sizes, or to use replacement headsets with varying stack heights, but that's just speculation...

Here's one for you.

fixed gear bike. Greg Lemond

Yeah, that Buenos Aires has a carbon fork. I'm gonna guess steel steerer but I haven't had the fork out of mine to take a gander at the steerer.