JulesCW 

The Schwinn LeTour III is no great shakes either -- also stamped drops, solidly low mid-range. Not a terrible bike, but not all that great either. It looks clean-ish (although in the wilderness snow/dusk photos who can really tell -- it always surprises me how few folks selling or trading things take decent photos). I'd put a vale on it of $40 to $60, but that really tall size will be harder to flip.

Gashepherd

it still looks better than the headset I found on an 87 super sport that i picked up

(I ended up replacing it with a shimano tri-color headset)

Gashepherd

they wanted $250 for both the le tour III and the astra, I decided that I don't need either one of them.

juvela

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had to go searching for it here within the forum.

something "happened" with me HD recently and most o' the stored files have gone walkabout. dunno if they be "gone, gone" or just temporarily inaccessible due to some snag. Turing thingus tyro here.

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[returning now to subject machine]

lug pattern is BOCAMA 68/I

fork crown is NERVEX pattern nr. 4

the fork crown cap is based on NERVEX item nr. 2570

chain stay bridge is ESGE plate style

one of the things I like about these frames is the undercoat. they have a dull silver-grey undercoat that bonds very well to the tubes and protects them effectively from corrosion. chips and scratches in the paint finish do not lead to initial points for rust. find the quality control and consistency of the builds to be very good. have had a number of them come through both as intake items and as customer repairs.

here are two images of a Nomade model from 1971 showing the undercoat -




the Nomade of this time was also done in a batch for Sears stores. the most commonly encountered livery on Sears examples is a dark green lacquer.

this image illustrating the head of an Astra berceau shows the head transfer, BOCAMA lugs and <M> fork crown cap -



see no point in denigrating base model cycles with epithets such as "gaspipe" when they can offer a good value and product within the context of their market and time...

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francophile 

Wise move. You'd be lucky to get $250 back out of both after putting $100+ into them. I'd have a hard time paying more than $100 for both, and even then it only happen if I had no other projects, and only for the sake of getting two old bikes back in service again knowing darn well they're liable to land in a dumpster or rust out otherwise.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but if we're comparing tank to tank, the Le Tour is the better of the two and looks in better shape. That Astra is roughly on par with the Raleigh Record of the same era, I believe with roughly the same drivetrain. Reminds me of this bike I got in a package deal, rebuilt and resold on eBay.