mongol777

Sturmey Archer hubs, simplex derailers, color white with Tour De France decal on the bottom tube, original handlebar black leather tape with brown suede lever hoods
10 speed, very good condition - just needs TLC. Everything is original
I know it is probably commemorative model dedicated to Tour De France winner 1971-1972.
Any info the bike? What it's worth? Will post pictures soon.

wrk101

You know this from what source? Provide a link if you could. I would like to learn more about it.

mongol777

Wikipedia - lost the link but will try and find it. Original source was this forum and then I started searching and found couple of mentions on wikipedia and classicrendevouz:
"A Tour de France rider rode a Lejeune to a stage win in 1972 (Lucien Van Impe or something like that) and some bikes had headtube and downtube decals which read "Vainquerer de le Tour de France" in the years immediately following."
I just finished stripping the bike for bearing flsuhing and repacking. It is in extremely good condition and design and worksmanship is outstanding.
I really falling in love with it. I found saome cached kijiji ads via google - last one but green in color and pre- Tour De France win was sold for 380 in Toronto. My guess mine should go for about 450 once I am done with it (although I did not decide if I want to sell - just the wheels (Rigida) are in such great shape and such good quality that I spent good 2 hrs cleaning them and repacking hubs)

mongol777

And this is from sheldonbrown:
"A classic case of where our previous price guide missed the point - in the last guide LeJeune
received rather ho-hum treatment. In reality, there is a significant level of interest in these
French bikes. LeJeune was a significant name in the racing world. A LeJeune was ridden by Lucien
Van Impe in the 1972 Tour de France. There were also gorgeous LeJeune track bikes in the same
gorgeous but simple red paint scheme.
Workmanship on these bikes is certainly not stellar, but these bikes have a very nice aura about
them. The famous red LeJeune roadbikes with N.R. components, in guideline condition, are worth
about $900. For the matching track bike perhaps $ 800 would be fair. There were also interesting
top-end bikes other than the neat red ones. We've seen other gorgeous hand-worked team issue
bikes with super lightweight tubing that were quite extraordinary. There fun bikes with really
nice detailing for relatively affordable prices."

mongol777

And contrary to Sheldon-workmanship is stellar.

wrk101

Except yours is not red, and does not have NR components. Companies commonly applied decals to their entire product line. For instance, I had a 2005 Trek 1000, entry level road bike. But since Lance Armstrong rode a Trek (certainly not the 1000) to a Tour championship, they put the decals on many/most of their bikes, including my Trek 1000.

I guess its a choice of words. I consider it marketing, rather than a bike built especially to commemorate the TdF. Trek did not build my Trek 1000 to recognize Lance's achievement. Instead, their marketing department took advantage of Lance's wins, and put stickers on all of their bikes, bikes that they were already building, of a design they had used for several years. It likely helped sell some bikes.

mongol777

Yep, no NR but the one which was sold for 380 was an entry level one too. Toronto is probably one of the most expensive cities to buy good condition vintage bike. Similar LeJeunes were sold in US on cl for 200-250 range. All cached ads I found in Toronto -350 min for OK/not everything is there condition. This bike was taken care of during its active life - taking off crankset was a breeze.
Anyway-I will likely to keep it so don't care much at this point how much it is worth. But would love to find out more about the bike.
Some pics I took as soon as I got home:

mongol777

mongol777

Neat yellow jersey symbol on the bottom frame - another hint to LeJeune commemorative edition for Tour De France winning?

repechage

Images are not showing up for me, just question marks. Anyway, a few on the forum here have Lejeune's. All who have them like them a lot. I am speaking most of the top tier bikes, Lejuene marketed a wide range of bikes, from kids bikes to "team" issue models. Most of the adult bikes benefited from good frame design, often the workmanship was not "pretty" but sound.

mongol777

Fixed permissions - pictures should be visible now.
i like it more and more - all rust removed now, I need to replace shifter and brake cables and I want to change all cable housing to blue.

repechage

It is a lower end bike, but the side view indicated that it should handle above its price level. The Tour De France on the down tube may indeed be a marketing model name. The Olympic rings and torch on the seat tube and the World Championship stripes probably lean on Daniel Morelon who was a long dominant amateur Sprinter who rode Lejeune transfered bikes, (at least for a few years).

mongol777

Judging by coimponents - indeed low end. But even before I repacked all hubs and bb and with loose shifters - it rode very smooth, felt very solid and picks up speed very fast. I'd love to leave everything original but will have to replace brake pads - they are old and squeeky.
And I love how frame works with rigida rims -it just eats road imperfections and the same time does not feel like a couch on wheels.

mongol777

Plus all these small details like very nice crankset - not heavy, fully detachable chain rings, all finishes inside and out are smooth, pedals and cranks are very nice looking compared to other vintage bikes I restored.
Al in all - this is first French bike I am working on. I was always skeptical about them (no idea why) but this Lejeune changed my opinion completely.e

seypat

You should find a date code stamp on the rims. To the right of the Rigida Chrolux there should be a diamond with a date # in it.

Your thread is just like mine when I got the "mysterious Lejeune TDF" last fall. Here is a link to my thread.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...to-ponder-date

The yellow jersey means nothing either. It is more about color coordinating with the decal. If you see enough of the decals the color of the "jersey" will vary with the color of the bike. Mine was originally blue so the decal is the same as yours. But I have seen decals with red "jerseys", blue, etc. The colors of the 2 long vertical stripes(in your case red and blue) will vary as well. My TDF has a different seattube decal than this one. The Tour De France model also varied greatly through the years. There was a late 60's frame on ebay that showed up on this forums earlier this year that was top of the line. But most that I have seen have been lower to mid level. Here is a link for you: https://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...es/lejeune.htm

Now for the good. The bike will make a great rider. I have a 54cm from the early 70's that I have nearly completed. I put some new derailleurs on this morning and now I have to adjust the brakes. Before I reassembled it I took the frame to the post office and weighed it along with a full 56cm 531 DB frame. The 531 frame had a NR headset and BB on it and weighed 7lbs 8.2oz. So I weighed the TDF frame with the stock headset and cottered BB. It weighed 8lbs 3oz. Then I weighed it with a Stronglight competition BB/spindle and it weighed 8lbs even.

Funny thing about the Duraprat crankset. That is about the 5th one I have seen on a TDF and each one has a different style of chainring set attached to it. I replaced mine with a Stronglight 93.

The typical TDF will not be worth anything collector wise, but they do give a good ride. So keep it and ride it.

mongol777

Wow -thank you! I had to give it up as my brother apparently was searching for this exact bike for a long time and he just loved it. So I traded it to him for the frame and wheelset I always wanted.
He loves it and I will make sure to pass all this info to him!