1982 Silver Schwinn Le Tour Restoration and Upgrade - $275.00 - SOLD

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle After

I have had this silver Schwinn Le Tour on a hook for over a year, with all the Le Tour that came in recently I started working on it slowly.  I found the Le Tour in a barn a while back in Wisconsin a long with another bike.  The Le Tour looked like it was siting there for years, the front wheel was missing and the rear wheel was badly rusted from sitting on the ground..

The rear wheel was to far gone to save so I ordered new alloy wheels for the Le Tour.  The Le Tour received a total restoration with new wheels, new tires, new tubes, new brake levers, new cables and cable housings, new saddle and new handlebar tape.  I think I am going to go with red cable housings and red handlebar tape to pick up the red in the decals and to compliment the silver.

The Le Tour was in very rough shape but the thing it had going for it was the paint is in extremely good shape, hardly and chipping or scuffing, just dullness from layers of dust.  I do not think the Le Tour has hardly any miles on it, it just shows how fast a bike can deteriorate when not stored properly.

There is a weird green corrosion on some parts and some slight surface rust here and there on the some of the components but all that should clean and polish away.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before - Handlebars

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Brake Levers

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before - Stem

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Front Brake

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Fork Crown

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Fork Chrome

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Front Derailleur

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Crank

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Brake

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Derailleur

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Rear Wheel Hub

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Before - Old Wheel

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Before
Old Wheel - Not Savable

I stripped the frame of its components, you can see from the before photos that the frame is in really good shape.  The frame is the diamond in the rough of the rest of this Le Tour.  You can see in the before photo of the fork that the chrome fork crown is really hard to see, that is kind of how the whole bike is, chrome and alloy rough and paint nice but dull.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before - Bottom Bracket

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Drop Outs

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Rear Brake Bridge

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Before - Fork

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Before - Fork Crown

The frame polished beautifully, I am very pleased with the results!  The frame paint is truly not that far from new, the decals are not perfect though, there is some yellowing from being stored improper so long.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Frame Polished - Bottom Bracket

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Frame Polished - Seat Lug

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Fork Polished

The headset and bottom bracket went into the crock pot, he shift levers are stem mounted, you can see they where pretty rough in the before photo, they came back along way in the after photo.  I am very happy with the results of the shift levers.

The stem and handlebars polished beautifully also, they are really going to stand out against the red handlebar tape.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset - Bottom Bracket
Stem - Handlebars & Shift levers - Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset - Bottom Bracket
Stem - Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Handlebars - Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Shift levers - Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset
Cups Pressed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset Bearings - Packed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Headset & Stem - Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bottom Bracket Bearings
Packed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bottom Bracket - Compelte

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Headset - Bottom Bracket
Complete

I like center pull brakes, I like dual pivot or cantilever better but the center pull brakes work better then the side pull from the same era.  I also like how well they clean, polish and restore, they look better then new in most cases.  I really really like how they look installed against the silver paint.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes - Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes - Exploded

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes - Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Brakes - Complete
New Brake Pads installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Brake - Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Brake Installed

The crank turned out very nice, it looks fantastic.  It started out rough though, it was missing a bolt for the bash guard and the rest of the bash guard bolts where badly rusted, a little to far to save.  I replaced the bash guard bolts with black chrome bolts, the bolts have such an uncommon thread that this was all I could find.  i actually thing the black looks pretty good in the end.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Exploded

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Crank - Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Crank - Installed

The derailleurs had a weird bluish green corrosion on them.  I cleaned and flushed all the pivot points and then polished the derailleurs.  The derailleurs turned out very nice although they took a good amount of work.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Derailleurs - Before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Derailleurs - Exploded

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Derailleurs - Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Front Derailleur - Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Rear Derailleur - Installed

The seat post was rough but it cleaned and polished nice.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Seat Post and Old Saddle
before

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Seat Post - Polished

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Seat Post - Complete

I have a new front wheel on hand.  It is a fairly nice alloy wheel, with Weinmann rims.  The original wheels on the Le Tour where chromed steal so having alloy wheels will be really nice.  I also installed the New Kenda tire at this time.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
New Front Wheel
New Kenda Tire

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Front Wheel - Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Front Wheel Hub

At this time I was waiting on my order of new parts to show up.

The order showed up and I started with the rear wheel.  I ordered a wheel with a nutted axle instead of a Quick release axle.  I did this because the quick release axle from the old wheel was in good shape so I replaced the nutted axle with the old.  I did this because you get the same hub and rim weather its nutted or quick release but the nutted is $10 less.

I really like the new wheels, I really think they will improve the original ride of the Le Tour greatly.  I can't wait to test ride the Le Tour.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Rear Wheel

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Nutted Rear Wheel.
Will be Replaced with Quick Release

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Rear Wheel Complete
New Kenda Tire Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Wheels Complete

The last is the new stuff like brake elvers, cables, cable housings and saddle.  I am only going to show a few photos of the results here and let the final photos really show the results.  I am super happy with the results!!

I replaced the old brake levers with the suicide lever with new aero brake levers.  I really do not like the old brake levers, they feel mushy, they do not have hoods (although they cane be modified to take hoods by removing he suicide lever) and they are uncomfortable.  The new brake elvers have hoods and look a lot cleaner when the handlebar tape is installed.  It also routes the cables under the handlebar tape so there are not the brake cable loops looping over the handlebars.  Over all a much cleaner look.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Bits and Pieces

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Old Brake Levers

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - New Brake Levers
Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Cables - Installed

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Cables - Installed

I was able to test ride the Le Tour yesterday, I was actually shocked at how smooth it rode, it shifted super smooth and the brakes worked great on the new alloy rims.  The rims are on the wider side and so are the tires so that makes for a fantastic ride.

For how great the ride is I think the Le Tour looks even better!  The read cable housing and red handlebar tape perfect with the red decal highlights.  I went with the white saddle, I think if I went with the red saddle it would be just a little to much red.

The 1982 Le Tour is now up for sale at $275, it will be in the bicycles for sale section soon.

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Handlebars

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Brake

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
New Front Wheel

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Stem & Shift Levers

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Drive Train

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Rear Brake

1982 Schwinn Le Tour Restoration - Bicycle Complete
New Rear Wheel