New guy with a Le Tour
 

Hey guys, just found this site and it looked like a good bike forum. Im on my fair share of forums, mainly off roading and photography ones, but this is my first cycle forum :thumb: I inherited my dads post-college bike last year which is a 1980 Schwinn Le Tour in silver. He told me he wanted to get rid of it and I immediately told him I wanted to keep it. It was love at first ride I tell you :love:

He rode the bike when he moved out to San Francisco after college and put a couple hundred miles on it, if that, then let it sit in the shed for 28 years. Over the past year I have been trying to fix it up and turn it into my college commuter. So far I have stripped the whole bike down minus the bottom bracket and gave it the basic overhaul (clean, grease, and new bearings). Here's some pictures of the bike, this was pre-bar wrap:


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...r/IMG_3653.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...r/IMG_3654.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...r/IMG_2009.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...r/IMG_1998.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2...r/IMG_1987.jpg


My next things I need to do are replace the brake and gear cables and housings, along with truing the wheels. I really want to make the bike lighter by upgrading to some Alloy wheels, but I don't exact know what I'm looking for. Maybe you guys can point me the right direction...

Nice bike Stan (altough the rear rack is giving me a bit of vertigo :) ). I'ld take your questions and pictures to the classic and vintage subforum, we love pictures of old bikes there. The commuting with a 20 year old clunker thread/sticky in the commuting subforum would probably appreciate the addition too.

Thanks for the heads up. What's wrong with my baby rack? I'm turning it into my heavy text book carrier :lol:

Yes, I love these bikes. I bought this one off a friend for 20 bucks and just put tires on it.
73
http://alphabluetech.com/kjhanlon/of...SchLeTour1.gif

The rack would be less top heavy if it were mounted off the rear brake bridge - the bike shop should have pieces in their old parts basket to do this. Alloy wheels would be good for braking and weight is secondary - do the front wheel first since that is the primary braking wheel.