First Rides !!! Single-speed Schwinn LeTour…….

I’ve not had a coaster-brake bike that match me for a few half-century, so when a buddy gave me a LeTour body and fork I believed it will be an ideal single-speed test-mule.

Again in my father’s woods, behind his barn was an previous single-speed 26″ Schwinn which had been run over by a truck years in the past, I scarfed the rear hub out of it, a Bendix 76, and it had 36 spoke-holes and appeared to have nearly no mileage on it. Then in late summer season this 12 months I purchased a Schwinn “Dash” ten-speed with a too-small body from an area scrap-yard for $10 which provided me with a set of surprisingly like-new tires and tubes. A Schwinn World body hanging within the backyard shed which the identical buddy gave me who had provided the LeTour body had bottom-bracket, seat-post and stem.

So all of the elements have been there, simply elbow-grease and time are wanted. Immediately I swapped the Bendix hub into the rear rim, put a beater seat and set of bars on the bike so it will be it is personal work-stand, and put a set of Sugino GP cranks on I had sitting round for the reason that mid-Nineteen Nineties. Issues lined up properly. With a bit of wheel truing and tweaking and a few fabricated rear wheel spacers and an anchor for the rear torque-arm the bike will probably be all however performed.

Since we acquired about 18″ of snow in the previous couple of days, I’ll most likely be doing preliminary testing on a mag-trainer within the basement to work out any bugs, then I’ll have it ready and prepared for future driving climate. The body with some World and Dash elements hanging on it;