I’ve gotten the bug… Here’s how it happened! My gravel race bike is a Raleigh with 653 Reynolds tubing, which turned me on to the glory of steel frames! In May, I bought a 1986 Schwinn Sports Tourer after researching about different steel frame makers and viewing many vintage bikes. I loved the aesthetics of the bike and bought it. After learning more about vintage bikes and that it was a mid tier bike, I started looking for others and wanted some with good steel from other frame makers. Here’s what I’ve acquired so far.
(I’m probably going to make individual posts for some of these, but figured this would be a good intro to what I have.)
Complete Bicycles
-1986 Schwinn Sports Tourer
~1984 ish Motobecane Nomade Sprint
-1984 Fuji Touring Series V (separate post to come)
-Motobecane Grand Jubilee (still working on dating it, separate post to come)
Framesets
~1977 Peugeot PX or PY10 – mismatched complements, so I’m not sure what model it is
~1972 ish Bottecchia Le Tour(?) – I think someone put a larger diameter seat post in and damaged the lug. I am thinking about heating up the metal up and trying to bend and / or braze it back together.
Let me know what you think!
by gladhandbart
5 Comments
Nice!
In regard to the Grand Jubilee, Motobecane added the 2nd e in 1982 and “inexternal brazing” makes an appearance in the 1984 U.S. catalog.
This scanned catalog (https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/Motobecane/82/) describes a Grand Jubilee with Columbus tubing versus the Vitus 888 that you have. Go figure…
I have a sports tourer also, my second. Rides better than my current titanium bikes. I believe that is a 1981, the only year for that color scheme. Do you have info to confirm 1986? It is hard to come across good information
That Fuji is a well respected touring bicycle. Hope you use it as intended!
What you want to look for in a vintage bike that you’ll ride on gravel is TIRE CLEARANCE. The more the better. I also have a 1984 Fuji Touring and I can fit 43mm on front and 40mm rear. I converted to 700C without cantilever brake problems. Some old frames don’t have much clearance and you can only fit 32mm tires. I like at least 35mm on off-road drop bar bikes.