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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle After |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle - Before |
The Schwinn Le Tours have been coming out of the wood work here recently, which is good because they are actually pretty descent bicycles and very versatile. Schwinn Le tour are not extremely heavy like other Schwinn's and they are not exactly light, just descent. They are easily modified, accept wider tires, which in the non perfect conditions of the real world are faster and more comfortable. I have heard many times that Rivendell Bicycles are loosely based on the Panasonic Schwinn's like the Le Tour.
This one is a very nice blue I have only seen a few times. The blue paint has very few chips but is pretty dull, I am very excited to get the frame polished I think it will be stunning. The alloy on the blue Le Tour is pretty dirty and is starting to corrode in a few places but the alloy with some elbow grease should look like new. In the photos below you can see the alloy is pretty dull and rough. The chrome rims have some corrosion but I am thinking they will polish very nice.
The Blue Le Tour will receive a complete restoration with all new cables, new cable housings, new handlebar tape, new tire tubes, new period tires and a new saddle. I can't wait to get working on that blue paint.
I will be adding a page to the blog soon with a "tour" of all the "Le Tours". And I do know that some of the owners of the Le Tours I have restored are planing a Le Tour ride for sometime in the summer, if we have summers anymore, I will get information out on the ride when I have it.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Handlebars Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Stem Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Brake Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Fork Crown Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Crank Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Derailleur Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Brake Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Derailleur Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Wheel Rim - Before |
I tore the bicycle down to the frame, it was nice, first bicycle in a while with no stuck bolt! The frame is in really nice shape, only a few chips and scrapes. The frame was dirty and the paint finish is pretty dull but it should come back beautifully.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before
Bottom Bracket Area |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Brake Bridge Area |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before Fork |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Bottom Bracket |
With a good amount of power polishing and a good amount of hand polishing the blue paint is stunning. The blue has a pearl finish to it and sparkles. I have only seen this blue a few times, usually it a little darker or a little lighter. Again, stunning! I hope it shows in the photos. The chrome on the fork took a good deal of work to remove the rust and some very careful polishing of the chrome plastic fork crown cover and it looks fantastic!
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polilshed |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished
Bottom Bracket Area |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Fork Polished |
While the frame was being polished the bottom bracket and headset components where soaking in the crock pot. The headset includes the shift levers. Because of the levers shape and bracket only a few areas could be reached by the power polishers do most was done by hand. The levers look very nice, the headset and bottom bracket polished beautifully and the bearings are very good. Schwinn at this time and before always made heavy duty bearing brackets, they hold up nice. Best of all the headset and bottom bracket spins quiet and perfect.
At the same time I polished the stem and handlebars. You can see in the before photo the stem had a good deal of rust in the part that is inserted into the fork tube, I was actually shocked that it removed so easy with that amount of rust. The stem, headset, handlebars, bottom bracket look fantastic against that perfect blue paint.
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Handlebars & Stem
Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset, Shift Levers
Bottom BRacket - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Stem & Handlebars - Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Polished |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Stem & Handlebars
Polished |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Stem - Polished |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Shift Levers - Complete |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset Bearings
Packed in New Grease |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Headset Complete |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Headset Complete Stem View |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bottom Bracket Bearings
Packed |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bottom Bracket - Complete |
I have a lot more done so far today on the blue Le Tour but that is all the time I have for photo editing and blog work today. Below is a photo of the headset and bottom bracket completed.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle at this Point |
The brake calipers where next. The alloy was very corroded and dull, the rear brake took some work to get apart. All the brake caliper pieces polished very nice. I reassembled the calipers and greased the pivot points. The calipers look fantastic and function perfect. I have always liked the old center pull brakes, the come back to life nice and actually work pretty well.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes Before |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes Exploded
& Polished |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Brake Complete |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes Complete |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Brake - Installed |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Brake - Installed |
With the brake calipers complete I moved on to the brake levers. The brake levers where dirty but functioned fine. I cleaned, polished and lubricated the levers and installed them. I am happy with the shine, they will look good against the new handlebar tape.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Polished |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Installed |
Next was the derailleurs. The derailleurs are fairly nice for the period. I cleaned and polished the derailleurs, they did have a lot of corrosion and the front derailleur had more then the rear. I lubricated the pivot points and installed the derailleurs. They look fantastic against the blue paint and function very smooth.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Derailleurs - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Derailleur - Exploded |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Derailleur - Polished |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Derailleurs - Complete |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Derailleur - Installed |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Derailleur - Installed |
The crank is nice, It is an early 80's Sugino. I disassembled it and polished the pieces. The bolts took a lot of cleaning up and polishing, I am not a fan of chain ring guards but i do see their function, I like the way Sugino handled this chain ring guard. The end results are very nice, I am happy with the results.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Exploded |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Polished |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Crank - Complete |
Last for the main frame components is the seat post, saddle bracket and seat post cable hanger. All polished very nice and look great against the blue.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Saddle & Seat Post - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Saddle & Pieces Polished |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Saddle Area- Complete |
The wheels are next, the rear wheel is an alloy rim replacement, Le Tours from this time and before had steel chrome rims. The front wheel is original with the steel chrome rim. The rear alloy wheel took a lot of polishing to remove the corrosion, the front wheel polished beautifully. The bearings had new grease installed. New Kenda K-35 gum wall tires where installed. Over all I am happy with the wheels, I wish they where matching and they took way more work then normal, but they do look good in the new gum walls and against the blue paint. I absolutely love the photo of the front wheel hub complete, the fork chrome polished very nice and all the shine together is incredible.
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Wheel - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub - Polished |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Kenda K-35 Tires |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Wheel & Rim - Complete |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Wheel - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel Hub - Before |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel - New Grease |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Wheel - Complete |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Wheels - Complete |
Last is wiring the Le Tour with new cables & housings and installing the new handlebar tape.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Bits & Pieces |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Cables & Handlebar Tape
Complete |
The 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour has quickly become one of my favorite colors and combinations, it is a close second to black and chrome for me. The blue seems to almost have that same affect that black has with chrome. The chrome and alloy pop out so much against the blue. The darker colors highlight the shine of the metal and alloy.
I am also surprised at the shift action of the Blue Le Tour, it is very crisp for friction shift and the shift throw is short and timed very well.
Over all I am extremely pleased with he results of the Le Tour, I know its a Le Tour but i think a dark brown Brooks saddle would awesome on this bike with the blue and the alloy and maybe some upgraded period correct brake levers.
Below are the final photos, again I wish winter would end so I could get the photos out doors to really highlight the bike and let the detail come out.
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Compelte |
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| 1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Handlebars |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Brake |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Stem |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Fantastic Paint |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Drive Train |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Rear Brake |
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1981 Blue Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Rear Wheel |
Thanks for the interest,
John Z.
Such a nice job which is done by you.
ReplyDeleteUnited Restorations | Vintage Car Restorations Jaipur
How's it going Jon, my name is Jon as well! I'm 23 years old and picked up an 81 schwinn le tour in than beautiful blue color that is exactly identical to yours. I decided that I wanted to restore a bike so I went out and found this particular one at a garage sale for two bucks but it was in bad condition. I purchased new brakes, lines, seat, tape, wheels, and tubes for it. I cleaned it up as best as I could. I went to an auto body shop and had them match the blue color into a spray paint bottle and I tapr the bike up and repainted the blue which came over very well. Then I let th bike sit however and over the past year it has accumulated rust. So much so that the derailuers, pedals and shifter headset are shot but I just ordered new ones from eBay that were made for this era bike. My question to you is what are your polishing techniques to get all of these pieces to shine so well. You mention a crockpot in your posts. Do you used that to heat the metal to make it easier to polish? What tools would you recommend to get all the intricate boots and tiny crevasses of some of the parts? Also, how did you polished rims, specifically the spoke and center location of the rims?
ReplyDeleteNice job on your Le Tour – I like the blue. I have a red ’75 Le Tour kept indoors since new, no chips, original except new tires a few years ago – Kenda K161 27x1-3/8. Think also new brake pads several years ago too. When I do take it out, it gets a lot of compliments. The Le Tours are wonderful bikes, just love riding mine, but it’s not my usual ride.
ReplyDeletei have a similar panasonic bike, and am curious as to the rear derailleur install. the little screw that goes behind the dropout appears to have no hole to screw into the frame. do i have a schwinn derailleur on a panasonic bike? or should i drill a hole to secure the derailleur?
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin.
ReplyDeleteThe screw and the backing piece just go through the drop out slot. So as far back in the drop out slot as it will go. No drilling holes.
Thank you
John.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice Job on the Le Tour, I had a 25 inch, 1981 Sky Blue Le Tour that was stolen over 25 years ago. I just bought a 1985, 21 inch, Navy Blue Le Tour on Craigslist, while looking to replace my 1981 sky blue Le Tour (it's for my 11 year old Son). I've been looking on Craiglist hoping to find the Sky Blue Le Tour that was stolen (not literally, obviously). Anyway, after I bought the 21 inch Le Tour for my 11 year old, I ran into your blog trying to show him what my Schwinn looked like. Nice job on the restore!
ReplyDelete