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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
Today I started work on a 1988 Schwinn Le Tour. I have worked on just about every year Schwinn has made a Le Tour and the common theme is a very versatile bicycle. I like Le Tours, I have been working on a Le Tour 12.2 for myself for a while now but the only thing original on the Le Tour 12.2 for myself is some of the frame, I have heavily modified it!
This red Le Tour is in pretty good starting shape, it has some nice features like index shifting, alloy wheels, a very nice Sugino crank and a nice stem and handlebars. The red paint is in pretty good shape and should polish out very nice. The red Le Tour will receive a total restoration along with new cables, cable housings, tires, tubes, saddle and handlebar tape.
The 1988 Le Tour is 15 years into the line for the Le Tour, the Le Tour has been refined over those years, so far I still like the look of David's 1973-74 Le Tour the best, it can be seen by
Clicking Here. I think the Le Tour will come back beautifully and I can't wait to see the finished product!
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Handlebars & Brake Levers |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Stem |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Front Brake |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before - Front Wheel |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Shift Levers |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Stem |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Front Derailleur |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Crank |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Derailleur |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before - Rear Wheel |
I stripped the components from the frame and found the paint to be pretty dull but very usable. I cleaned and then polished out the frame, the paint came back beautifully, a very deep wet look in most areas. Red always comes back very nice.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Head Tube |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before
Top Tube |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before - Bottom Bracket |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Drop Outs |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Fork - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Polished Head Tube |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished
Bottom Bracket |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Polished - Seat Tube |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Polished - Drop Outs |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Polished - Fork |
I put the headset and bottom bracket into the crock pot for cleaning, I have promised a post on the crock pot method, I promise I will get to it soon, its just my busiest time of the year. The headset cleaned up nice and polished nice, there was some rust on the headset nut which cleaned up but there is some scaring from the rust.
The stem polished extremely nice, I love it, its a good looking stem and like I always say a nice polished alloy threaded stem makes the bike! The handlebars are nice Road champion bars, my favorite, the polished very nice.
The bottom bracket needed new bearings, it is the bottom bracket type that the bearings are housed in the cups, no cages. The bottom bracket polished like new if not better! Some how I forgot to take a photo of the new bearings and grease.
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Stem & Handlebars - Before |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Polished |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Headset Cups - Pressed |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset Bearings
Packed in New Grease |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Headset - Complete |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Stem & Handlebars
Polished |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Stem - Installed |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Handlebars - Installed |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bottom Bracket
Complete |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Complete |
The crank is a really nice Sugino BP, It took some heavy gouging somehow, actually pretty strange that it would be gouged like that. The gouging being said it should not be to noticeable after polishing. The decals where gone which happens.
The crank polished very nice! he gauging is there but hard to see. I have said it before but these Sugino cranks from this era might be my favorite cranks!
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Exploded |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Polished |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Complete |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Crank- Installed |
I like these Sun Tour derailleurs, i have restored them before and they work great, the rear is indexed and in my experience shifts very crisp, curious if these will be the same. I do no like paint on derailleurs though, the grey paint is pretty rough, I cleaned it the best I could and polished it a bit. I think I have a fairly close color match to at least hide some of the paint dings. I will have to look, I have over 300 bottles of Testors paint, car touch up paint, paint pens and yes even finger nail polish! (You go to do what you got to do!) 300 last count and going through for old paint, I am sure much more now.
The derailleurs did polish very nice, the front derailleurs cage was pretty rough with rust but it seemed to clean off ok and polish ok. After lubricating both derailleurs function great.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Polished |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brake Levers - Installed |
The seat post was pretty rough along with the mounting hardware. I cleaned and polished all the components and hey turned out not to bad, i am actually pretty happy all considered. I also installed the new saddle at this time.
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Seat Post & Hardware
Before |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Seat Post - Complete |
I forgot to take after photos of the shift levers, I will do that in the morning, the wheels have been disassembled and will be cleaned and polished in the morning also. From there there is not to much left to go, should be finished tomorrow morning if I tuneups don't give me any surprises tomorrow. Check back soon.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Main Body - Complete |
I am picking up today with the shift levers, the shift levers polished beautifully, they also function very nice, the indexing is right on.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Shift Levers - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Shift Levers - Polsihed |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Shift levers - Installed |
The wheels are very dirty and dull but over all they are in great shape considering. I cleaned and polished the wheels, the rims are in good shape and the hubs look great now. The old grease was bad, the new grease will make all the difference. I installed the new Kenda k-35 tires and the new tubes. The wheels turned out beautiful in the end, I am very happy with the results.
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Wheel - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Rim - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel - Old Grease |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub - Polished |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel - New Grease |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel - Complete |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
New Kenda Tires |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Wheel - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel Hub - Before |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel - Old Grease |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel - Polished |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel - New Grease |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Front Wheel - Installed |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Wheels - Complete |
That all for today, the Le Tour was completed today, but it is late, its the busy season and I am out of gas!!
Check back in the morning.
Finishing the blog post this morning! Last to post is the cables, handlebar tape and final photos. The cables and handlebar tape went real easy, no issues at, shifts great on the stand the handlebar tape is a good fit. I forgot to put the cable housings in the photo but they are new.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Cables & Handlebar Tape |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Cables & Handlebar Tape
Installed |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
Now that we actually have weather that is not horrible I get to test ride everything. The Le Tour rides great!! Shift crisp and stops pretty good for side pull brakes. The red just shines in the sun. I am pretty impressed with the speed of the Le Tour, I like it a lot!! The Le Tour looks fantastic in the photos and in person! I started thinking to day if this 1988 Le Tour completes all the Le Tour years of production I have worked one, I have started a list to see.
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Compelte |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Handlebars |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete - Stem |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Brake |
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| 1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete - Front Wheel |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Half |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Drive Train |
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1988 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Rear |
Thanks everyone for all the interest, support, work and kind words!!
John Z.
Beautiful job!
ReplyDeleteI have an 88 Letour exactly like this. I cleaned it up and rewrapped the bars today. How did you get the paint to shine like that? I've tried wax, WD40, magic eraser. Nothing seems to work. Please advise. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDelete