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I have two Le Tours from Greenville bought new in 1984. My wife’s blue Mixte LeTour has head badge 1074 and my Champagne LeTour Luxe has head badge 0824. Both are 4130 Chro-Moly double-butted tubes on main triangle, fully lugged and brazed “Built in America”. I put Dutch touring bars on the...

Thanks for the reply! That’s a pretty good all around bike from what I’ve heard. It wasn’t in production very long. Should make a good gravel bike.

I guess he’s never gonna tell you what kind (brand) of bike?

I have seen one Colnago track bike with a curved top tube like this one, but it also had a curved seat tube with straight seat stays and a straight fork. Something about the bent seat stays on this bike just doesn’t seem right. I would be inclined to agree with you that this doesn’t look like...

Spectacular collection!

Schwinn must have the heaviest bikes. This is considered a “Lightweight”. It’s a 1973 Deluxe Varsity with a Schwinn headlamp and genset. It weighs 41.6 lbs. I know, doesn’t come close to the heavy weight cruisers, but thought it would provide perspective. My modern all-carbon Colnago clocks...

I rescued a green 1973 Deluxe similar to yours a couple of years back. After replacing all the rubber, fully disassembling and cleaning it up, could only get $120 locally in Charlotte. I had 10-12 hrs of labor into it and the new Schwalbe tires/tubes cost about $70. Like yours, it looked brand...

Oh, wait, you were talking about girl bicycles of the 50’s, not girls of the 50’s.

Amazing. I guess Australia is closer to China than we are in the States

The Electra is a decent beach cruiser. My sister has one in Charleston that is too small for me, but my wife and daughter ride it. It’s heavy like an old Schwin, but pedals nice. If you live at the beach or in the prairie (no hills), then is a good bike. $100 is probably a fair price for a...

These bikes are $400 at the Trek store.

Just love that front sprocket with the A S & CO! Nice bike !

“Leak-Proof” batteries, ha ha!

Only 13 bikes hanging around my garage. I have 3 more beach cruisers at my sisters on the coast. None of these are that old and all are ridden at a few times a year. The Panasonic is from 1977 and two LeTours from 1984. I rode about 8000 miles last year, mostly on my 2011 Colnago CLX.

An old Peugeot I saw recently while in France visiting my wife’s family in the Loire Valley.

I bought a 3G “girls” bike from a CoEd at CofC in Charleston nearly 10 years ago now for $80. I’m a 5’11” 65 yo guy. This bike fits me well and is amazingly smooth and comfy. I ride this all over James Island and all the beaches in Charleston. Great bike! I brought it up to my house in...

Well, UCI has changed their stance on that. “Puppy Paws” is illegal and got the winner of a women’s tour race DQ’d last year when she forgot. The “Super-Tuck” is illegal too. That being said, Lemond did have an advantage with his bars and his aero helmet, but Fignon chose to go bare-headed and...

Read the book “Wheelmen” to get the complete story on the Lance saga. Yes, he admitted to doping on Oprah, but never would come clean with the USADA unless he was guaranteed a very short competition ban so he could get into the professional triathlon circuit. Tygart never would agree to...

Love this line in your post: “I’ve always liked bike racing though, at least everybody cheats equally.” Sad but true. I’m sure there is some level of doping going on even now.

Thanks everyone. I had seen the Murray and Huffy badged bikes, but never an actual Schwinn made 7-Eleven team bike. I did a search and came up with two shots with Heiden on a Paramount from 1981, the only year Schwinn sponsored.

I remember just after graduation from College that Team 7-Eleven was formed with Eric Heiden at the core. Schwinn sponsored them the first year and I believe supplied the bikes. Has anyone ever seen one?

A local guy bought it. I need to delete that post.

It’s not locked down. My guess is someone will steal it if they think it’s worth anything

I stopped by and spoke to the young wife who says someone gave the bike to her husband and he likes it as “yard art”. Told her I’d like to buy it, but she says he wouldn’t want to sell it. Definitely a Fleet. Tank mounts are there. Original grips, tires, etc. A few more pics

Coaster, my first impression was a 1964ish Fleet based on the rack and the headlight match to that shown in 1964 Catalog on Bikehistory.org. At any rate, I’ll ride my LeTour over there and inquire about it. Any idea on fair value?

My wife spotted this old cruiser in an adjacent neighborhood while out riding her bike. It’s been in the front yard for a week or so. No sign for sale. Looks like a Schwinn headbadge. It’s collecting some nice “patina” sitting outside with unseasonably high temperatures in the 80’s.

If just surface rust with light pitting, I use crumpled up aluminum foil dipped in an oxalic acid solution, but I’ve heard from others that used WD-40 or even plain old water. Here’s a chain guard on a ‘73 Varsity before treatment and afterwards mounted on the bike. I spray a corrosion...

Good lookin bike! Nice acquisition.

Here’s my sister’s Panasonic Villager III, which she probably bought new in 1977. I put on some cheap kids mountain bike bars I scavenged from a kid’s Walmart bike to replace the drop bars so she could try to ride it again, but her arthritis won’t let her pull the brake levers. I didn’t weigh...

Yeah, agree with you on the drop bars. I’m a pretty serious roadie, so I have a couple of bikes with drop bars, incl. my 1984 Le Tour Luxe and a 2008 Cannondale flat-bar hybrid that I converted to drop bars because my hands would get numb on long rides (20-60 miles) with the flat bars. So, I...

This was a gutter find in my neighborhood. I cleaned it up and replaced all the rubber and greased it up. Put on some Schwalbe H-159 tires to replace the OEM Schwinn Puff High Pressure Road Racers. Still have the Puffs if a collector is interested. They actually don’t look that bad, but I...

This was a gutter find in my neighborhood. I cleaned it up and replaced all the rubber and greased it up. Put on some Schwalbe H-159 tires to replace the OEM Schwinn Puff High Pressure Road Racers. Still have the Puffs if a collector is interested. They actually don’t look that bad, but I...

The date code/serial # on this bike is interesting. The info I have on Japan made bikes is that the first digit (the W on this bike) is the month and the second digit is the year. I have a copy of a 1981 Information Bulletin from Schwinn Consumer Relation Dept, Schwinn Sales. They provide an...

Here’s the 1984 Le Tour Mixte with new “Touring” handlebars from Sunlite and a modern cushy Schwinn saddle. Weight before was 27.8# and after is 28.2# using the bathroom scale.

I must have been dreaming about your red Le Tour. Actually, I was channeling this old Schwinn advertisement with Uncle Ron. But in any case I ended up with the blue sister of your bike. I reacquired my first wife’s bike from my daughter-in-law, who had it for the past 14 years and didn’t want...

Totally agree with OldBikeGuy on the bottom bracket. The cup and cone design, well packed with grease, can handle a lot of weather. My college bike lived outside for 4 years in the rain and it never had a bearing problem. It was pretty rusty at the end of five years, but I gave it to a grad...

I just added another Schwinn LeTour to my garage. This one is a Mixte, and a return. I bought it new in 1984 as a pair for my first wife and I, when we lived in Eau Claire, WI. We had baby seats on the Le Tours and rode them to the park frequently that summer. Then we had a third child, moved...

I believe the Le Tours were made in Greenville beginning in 1983. I bought two in 1984 and the dealer told me they were made down south.

Here is the finally completed refurb of the ‘73 Varsity. I was able get most of the rust off of the steel wheels and the spoke guard at the freewheel. I did a clean and repack on the wheel bearings and they spin really nice. Not happy with the brake pads from Amazon. They squeal a bit and cause...

Unfortunately, none of the lightweights, with the exception of the Paramounts, will ever be worth much. I have a ‘73 Varsity, pristine condition, which I probably couldn’t sell for much more than $100. Barely over $2 per pound!!! Ditto for my ‘84 Le Tour luxe. The Brooks saddle alone on the ‘84...

$9 for a working bike is a deal. Don’t listen to the bike snobs. A neighbor lady picked a similar one up from FB marketplace and brought to me to check it out. Yeah, typical low end Shimano twist shifters, etc, cantilever brakes, and it rode great. It probably hadn’t been ridden for an hour...

Honey, it’s not an obsession. It’s an investment! You know how volatile the stock market is these days!

Also, I did a bottom bracket service and the bearings were completely dry. I’m sure the head bearings are dried out too, but I could not get the stem out. Any suggestions from more experienced guys on here? A few more before/after pics.

OK, I cleaned up the chrome and put the fenders and light set back on the Varsity. It looks great. I put the new Schwalbe HS-159 tires on my wheels from the ‘84 Le Tour Luxe for now. Those old steel wheels from the Varsity still need a bit of work to look presentable. The alloy wheels from the...

A bit late to the conversation, but I’m amazed at the difference in one year of production. My Le Tour Luxe is 1984. Where the 83 has stem mounted shifters, the 84 has downtube shifters. Mine has the Suntour derailleur, but more a factor of the gearing I think vs your Shimano. My wife’s 84 Le...

https://bikehistory.org/bikes/letour/ check out this website. I believe the LeTours were built in Chicago 1979-1981 using 1020 steel and lugged torch braised frames. My understanding is that Chicago did not have the ability to make CroMoly lugged frames, except in the hand built shop used for...

You are correct. The first Le Tours were built in Japan. I believe that some late 70’s early 80’s might have been built in Chicago, but the Greenville plant built them 1981-91 until it shut down.

SchwinnBicycle Co. 1265 Wasson St, Greenville, MS 38701 I believe it was demolished.

Oh, all that chrome will be back. Cleaning it up now. Will do a full takedown of all the components and try to get the rust off, or at least make it shiny. My new Schwalbe HS-159 tanwall tires in 27x1-1/4 came in today and look real good and hopefully will mount narrow enough to fit under the...