Vintage Road Bike Restoration - Japan Made, 1974 Schwinn LeTour - Lots or Rust and Frustration! 

Use penetrating oil to break rusty parts. The longer it sets the better it works or use a hair dryer or heat gun to accelerate the effect. You can make your penetrating oil cheap by mixing 50/50 any transmission fluid/oil with acetone. You can dispense it with a spout oil can.

Oh, fun with something a little bit different! Looking forward to this one.

Um, in the late '70s I built up the very same wheel & hub combination with my hard saved pennies. Campy Nuovo Tipo hubs and Weinmann Concave rims. In the following years I had to rebuild the wheels but was still able to get the concave rims and even though they don't get ridden any more, I still have the same wheel setup on my old Austro Daimler. The hubs are super smooth and even though the wheels are considered heavy, they are very strong and they have a very classic look. Some people didn't like the concave rims as they were hookless long before hookless was a thing.

Ive had a couple city bikes made from garbage picked old schwinns. I had one with shiny chrome, charcoal black paint, new tires, twist spoke wheels, and a bmx 180mm crank for 1x6. Some bastard stole it. It was fun while it lasted, especially down hill . 🪨

To restore such a bike as that to the level you did, not only shows great skill but a good heart. The bike was 2nd tier, IMHO, but I'm 2nd tier compared to your 1st tier. Could never do what you do. You're definitely up there! BTW, I'm a dork disc advocate, lol. But I loved the other two stickers. You should come out with the MOBGA cap. All the best. 😊

Excellent rescue! Evaporust will save us all.

A couple years ago I fixed up a Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 that a friend had found in the alley. It was in pretty good overall condition. Loved the Shimano Arabesque components. I put on new tires, chain, freewheel, cables and wrapped the bars in Newbaum’s cloth tape. Sold it to another friend for just what I had put into it: about $100. That model was very comparable to the Superior, which was surpassed by only the Paramount. Japanese-built bikes from the 70s were some of the best in the world. Keep up the good work!

Try hitting the stem bolt with a hard dead blow mallet to knock the wedge loose, after flipping it and pouring transmission fluid down the steer tube for a day.

I’ll make an exception for metal dork discs 🙂

its really nice man

Nice restoration! Gotta ❤ free bikes! Keep up the good work 🚲🤌🏽!

Can you do another cheap bike build off ? I loved your work on the trek antelope

I use the Sheldon brown bb cup tool (big hardware store bolt, nut, stack of lock washers, pb blaster, and an impact wrench).

Those are fun for flat bar fixies or 1x3 with straight cut freewheels. They have plenty of room for mud and debris clearance and if they take 27in wheels, tires are still easy to find.

looking beautiful!

Thank you for the inspiration. What is the make and model of the handlebars?

I love your work, but I also like dork discs... I think all bike-wrenching people are at least a little bit dorkey, so I see these as a badge of honor... if that makes sense. Also, dork disks separate us from the hard-core, weight-obsessed carbon-everything fanatics, which frankly is a WAY bigger plus for me than any practical dork disk advantages!

Nice save on an old bike! Dare I mention that the seat is clamped in the post backwards? :)

Low riders stink, but low rider shops often have b brackets lay back posts and parts that go well on old bikes.

I had a 1974 red Le Tour that I bought new in 1974, retail price of $149.00. Sadly, mine was stolen in 1979 from my fraternity house in Ann Arbor. I still miss it. Did you save the original handlebars and front brake levers? I may be interested in it. Thanks

Bee you tee full

When are we gonna see some wheelies on this channel 🤔

Hi I tried to go to your site and it didn’t work