Schwinn LeTour is Finished

I got the LeTour finished and listed on CL today.  This was kind of strange project for me in that I redid all the bearings, took it down to the frame, waxed it, new pads and cables/housing and a new FW and chain combo, but I left the tired bar tape and cheap CST tires alone.  

While a perfectly fine bike the LeTour isn't especially desirable and it seems to me the Vintage bike market has softened of late.  I didn't want to sink any more $$ into the bike that necessary so I could keep the price low and move it on to a new home.

This project was not without its obstacles, it came to me with no rear brake and it took me two tries to find one that had long enough arms to reach the rims.  A Shimano BR-R450 long reach dual pivot caliper brake did the trick, thank you co-op.

I am normally a friction guy as its easy to set up the shifting that way, but my recent experience with the Trek 520 made me decide to try and set these up for index shifting.  I found the shifting on the 520 a nice change of pace and thought this bike would be good practice for the 520 refurb.  The Park Tools video on rear derailleur set up was be very helpful for indexing,  but the process was still very fiddly.  I did finally get it to shift in index mode up and down all gears in both chain rings but I am no expert yet.

One lesson learned on the LeTour is that my enthusiasm for projects on bikes that don't fit me and/or are not for a particular person is on the wane.  I find that without at least the chance a bike my be a candidate for my quiver or its not a build for a friend/family member its tough to stay interested and engaged.  At the end of this project I just wanted to be done and to move the LeTour onto a new home.  I can at least be proud of the fact that a neglected barely functional bike is back on the road and in much better shape.

Although I still have two Treks and a Specialized in the project queue I got a bee in my bonnet to clean up the work-space so I can say it was tidy at least for a day or two.

Ride. Smile. Be picky about your projects. Repeat.