molleraj

Just picked this up the other day for $100 after selling my (sadly too-tall) Raleigh Technium 400 for $75. I had a good chat with the owner and did a nice test ride. He installed the complex bullhorn (deer antlers?) handlebars because he has carpal tunnel syndrome and wanted to move his hands between the three parts of the handlebars. I found the handlebars fine but still need to get adjusted to the toe clips. The ride quality was excellent thanks to the 4130 frame and stays (plus the geometry). The derailleurs are Suntour ARX front and rear. I estimated the year to be 1985 due to the color and decals (speaking of which - I need to replace the Schwinn decals as they are already rubbing off...). I look forward to riding this and of course continuing to ride my highly noodly Peugeot P8 that now has 210 miles on it. It should fit me well at 5'10". I think this LeTour is a 21" frame.


Drive side view at an angle

Side on drive side view

Suntour ARX RD. Forged dropouts I think.

Suntour ARX FD, toe clips

Non driveside view

Deer antler handlebars

Shop where bike was purchased

Bike shop where bike was purchased and steel type

rumrunn6

a bike is worth what someone will pay, right? sounds like you like the deal. you gonna keep that saddle & bars?

molleraj

Do you think $100 for this was a good deal? I guess bikes are pretty expensive in my area (the Maryland part of the DMV).

I think I will keep them. The saddle felt pretty good but I will definitely raise it up about 3 inches or so. The bars were pretty nice too.

rumrunn6

I like $100 for a bike. it's worth the trouble of advertising & meeting & answering questions. if you're gonna get less, you might as well chuck it or donate it

Velo Mule

Deer Antler handlebars sounds and looks about right for that @molleraj . I have an older LeTour that has straight gauge chromoly tubing and it is a good bike. Yours being a year or two newer has double butted tubing. The Greenville, MS bikes don't have the same paint that Chicago or even, Japanese and Taiwanese Schwinn's had. The decals seem to be particularly delicate at this age.

I had to do a bunch of touch up on the LeTour including to the decal. I am tempted to clear coat it, but I like this bike, so I keep riding it.

Good luck with it and we are looking forward to a ride report.

molleraj

Nice! Do you think this is a Greenville LeTour?

I plan to get a full set of decals from eBay or more likely VeloCals.

Thanks! I look forward to posting a ride report.

streetsurfer

If this helps any:

I have a LeTour Luxe 12 speed that was reported (by seller) to be an ‘85. It has different lettering. Outlined canted block letters.

I have a reported (by seller) ‘86 Sprint that has that same white/yellow lettering scheme, and cursive lettered model name on top tube

molleraj

Hmmm, interesting, thanks! I wonder if the LeTour Luxe is from 1980 or 1981? The Sprint white/yellow sounds more like 1984-1986.

Velo Mule

The easiest date code to decipher is on the headbadge. It is a four digit code. The first three numbers and the day of the year and the last digit the year. The decade has to be figured out from other clues. But this looks to be an '80's bike. And I believe it was a Greenville built bike with a Tange fork. I'm not an expert so I could be wrong, but that is my opinion.

Schwinn kept improving the tubing, dropouts and fork for their entire line of bikes built in Greenville each year. These are good values in the the used market in my opinion, because most people just recognize that the bike is a LeTour. In your case ,you have a LeTour with double butted main tubes and forged dropouts. Schwinn wasn't completely nobel in these yearly upgrades, their competitors were offering similar bike and Schwinn needed to keep up with the Trek's, Raleigh's (Taiwan made) and others that were offering good values on mid-range bikes.

By the way, I really like these Taiwan made Raleigh's. Similar to Giant made Schwinns, they have good geometry and bike know how from the parent company paired with a Taiwanese partner that had low labor rates and wanted to turn out good bikes to impress (and then vanquish) their western partners.

streetsurfer

Velo Mule and molleraj
thanks for both helping narrow the one of mine down. 245th day of 83.

Murray Missile 

Sept. 2nd, 1983, based on the dark blue color you have a very early 1984 model.

https://bikehistory.org/catalogs/1984.html#letour

daverup 

I didn't realize how fast the Le Tour evolved in this period. In 82 it was still old heavy tubing, I've got an 83 with 4130, but it still has the stamped dropouts. The 84 with forged dropouts and Suntour group seems very nice. My 83 had the Altus stuff, but I upgraded to Suntour.