1970's LeJuene Help?

zeeto

Picked up a set of metric allen wrenches as I was advised the seat post bibder is a 5mm or 6mm.

I knew this bike was different and hope they make a 7mm, as the 6mm was too small and the 8mm was too big.

Another trip to Auto Zone!

kdelong

Yep, there is a 7mm Allen Wrench. Go to Harbour Freight Tools. You can pick up a whole set, 1mm - 12mm, for less than $10.00.

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One life, one chance. Don't waste it!

dgregory57

Just scanning the thread, and I would agree that what you have is probably worth $500 or more... but the price you get will probably be less. An unfortunate fact of life.

As far as putting a reserve on it, for vintage bikes this usually keeps bidders away. If you want to hold onto it, then fine, but I would lean toward either letting the market decide or putting a starting bid on it at the price you are willing to accept...

There is some risk to selling without reserve, but frankly we are at a point in the year where some people are looking for bikes so if it were my bike, I think I would take the risk...

And since it is my size, let us know when you put it on the bay.

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alfeng

Oops!
Yes, let me confirm that there is indeed such an animal -- I have one that I've only used on Campagnolo's stupidly-sized self-extracting bolt ... the 7mm self-extracting bolt & the atypical 135BCD chainrings were two products designed during Campagnolo's BAD DESIGN period (i.e., from the late-80s to the mid-90s) when someone in Vicenza must have been using NUMEROLOGY to spec & design their components!

If you don't maul/mar that binder bolt, you may be able to get quite a lot for it from a Francophile who is restoring his/her bike, or not ... query the CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS people to see if anyone has any interest OR minimally give you some of the "history" behind it. Regardless, I would replace it with a "standard" Campagnolo-type seatpost binder bolt which uses a 5mm Allen wrench.

Why are you in such a rush to lower your saddle when getting a shorter stem is the probable resolution (other than selling the bike to dgregory57) to your perceived "fit" problem?

zeeto

Well, I thought I could lower the seat myself, easier than replacing the stem. Still haven't decided whether to keep and fix or sell, but thought if I could get a different feel for the bike, maybe it would help me decide.

By the way, went to see the movie Juno tonight with my wife. I could see she was riding an old 10 speed and when she parked it in the rack at school, the bike next to it was a 70's Peugeot.

In the closing scenes it's obviously a red LeJeune she's riding.

Is this a sign?

alfeng

Easier, in theory, but obviously not for you!

Anyway, if a temporary, different riding position is all you are trying to achieve ... then re-set your handlebars to what I refer to as ghetto-style (sorry if that's politcally incorrect for anyone ... "shorthand" phrases are, sometimes ... no offense intended ... for those who don't know what I mean, that simply involves rotating the bars up-and-back about 180º to effectively raise the bars & shorten the reach an extreme amount in both cases ... I've only seen people do THAT to their handlebars in "urban" areas) ... of course, you don't have to rotate them all-the-way! 2/3rds of the way may be enough (NB. you will have to rotate them more-than 90º OTHERWISE YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO USE THE BRAKES as the levers are currently attached!).

zeeto

Good point, Mr Wizard! Is there anything about a bike you don't know?

The purpose of lowering the seat and perhaps the stem is making the bike more ridable for me, should I keep it.

Whether it's right sized for me or not, it FEELS tall and that is what matters.

Monday, it goes to my LBS and I'll see if they can play with it a bit, determine if this frame could be fitted to me better than it has in the past.

zeeto

By the way, it was a 7mm allen wrench on the seat post. Thankfully the older guy who owned the shop came in and had a coffee can of old, offsize wrenches in the back of a cabinet. He assumed the post would be froze after 20+ years, nope, it came free as soon as we loosened the bolt.

Having the front tire and tube replaced, back one is fine and holds air. They had to order a 27 x 1.25 gumwall for me.
Had the bottom bracket tightened to remove a little play in the pedals.

As for the frame size, I don't have an inch of clearance when I straddle the top tube with my feet flat on the ground, less than that.

Getting quotes on the stem, bar end shifters, and dual position brakes just in case.

It was mentioned that most bar end shifters are set up for 7-8 gears and wouldn't work for a 5 gear rear cluster. I thought they were friction, without click stops. Why wouldn't this work?

The young guys at the shop are relatively useless, don't have a clue as to what they are doing if it isn't brand new, or much tolerance for explaining something to "an old guy".

Hah! We have all the money, they should wise up a little.

oldbobcat

Glad to see the thread's still rolling and you're working on the bike. You really have a the makings of a fine classic rider.

Most bar-end shifters are now click-stop. I'd be a little skeptical about spreading the rear dropouts from 120 to 130 mm for an 8-speed. Going to 126 for 6-speed or 7-speed ultra would be safer and you could use the existing hub. Two web stores that have tons of gear for older technology and should be more helpful than the dweebs at your local shop are www.niagaracycles.com and www.bikepartsusa.com. I used them both for building up a fixie and upgrading my wife's old Ross to 7-speed ultra with indexed shifting.

If you go 7-speed, though, watch out for the spacing of Sun Race freewheels.

zeeto

Thanks Bobcat. I was a constant rider for years but marriage, a kid, college bills, etc., got in the way.

Correction, I let them get in the way.

Now I have a new vocabulary to learn. We never spoke of dropouts or mm measurements, but we never had these kinds of options either.

So, either go old tech with friction bar end shifters ( if I can find them) or change the back gear cluster to a 7 speed, is that right?

I'll check out those sites later. It's 12:30 eastern time and I'm hitting the sack.

Been to Boulder once, it's freakin' gorgeous.

zeeto

Hi Bobcat, (or anyone one else)

Checked out the the site , thanks

Let me get this right, I need:

New shifters---No friction shifters listed, I assume thay are all index now, probably not a bad thing.
A new cassette---7-sp seem to be listed by tooth size, 11-28 or 13-26, I can figure out that means the total of teeth per wheel.

Do I need a new rear derailleur too?

Sorry to be so lame, thanks for the help.

alfeng

I think you have to go back to the Rivendell site & read Grant Petersen's philosophy with regard to frame sizing ...

No doubt (at least, in my mind), Petersen would probably fit you with the same frame size as your LeJeune's ... and, if you look at the prices of the Rivendell frames (the cheapest is $800 only because it was a one-of-a-kind), you will see that you'd have to pony up ~$2000 for a ready-to-ride Rivendell. THAT should hopefully encourage you to keep your LeJeune!

You can e-mail him, directly (grant@rivbike.com), and he will probably give you his input ... but, before you bother him, you should read through ALL the info on his site. You can start here: (http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/article/bike_fit/choosing_a_frame_size),

FWIW/BTW. If-or-Once you commit to your LeJeune, you can increase the distance between the top tube & your crotch by a small amount by simply (okay, but at what expense?) changing your 27" wheels (which have the equivalent diameter of a 700x32 wheel) to 700c wheels + 700x25 tires. Making THAT change will lower the bike by about 4mm ... not much, BUT when I ride one of my older frames (AND, when I rode my 60cm GITANE), I (would) simply lean the bike over when I stopped -- YES, stopping-and-standing-astride-your-bike while riding a larger frame is that easy if the rest of the dimensions "fit" the rider.

In part of Petersen's exposition, he makes the observation that in the 40s, the saddle was much closer to the top tube (I would have referred you to the 50s & early 60s).

Having more seatpost exposure is really the consequence of the great differential between same on bikes used by competitive racers ... the notion of having MORE clearance as suggested by the Kommisars of Safety is undoubtely the result of one of them having landed on the top tube when he was riding his balloon-or-middle-weight tired, coaster brake bike despite his bike probably having 7"-or-MORE of clearance!

If you have just barely got an inch of crotch clearance, then you've actually got MORE CLEARANCE with your LeJeune than I have on my 52cm bikes.

The current-and-recent Shimano bar-end shifters can be used in FRICTION MODE ... a simple "twist" of a toggle on the RIGHT shifter [BTW. in another thread, JOHN M corrected my impression that the LEFT Shimano bar-end could also be toggled, but I actually found one of my LEFT shifters, and it is indeed FRICTION-ONLY!] changes the shifter between FRICTION and INDEXED modes ...

Indexing has its benefits when you go beyond 6-speeds beause the cog spacing gets closer ...

There is a DIFFERENT indexing disc for the different cog spacings ... so, it is best to decide which one you want ... I recommend 8-speed because you should be able to index it with a 7-speed freewheel/cassette if you ever make that change; but, any will do if you are going to be using it in FRICTION mode.

I believe that ALL of the 7-speed freewheels/freehubs need a 126mm-or-wider rear triangle.

To repeat MYSELF, you can re-space almost ANY (there are some exceptions) SHIMANO FREEHUB to 120mm if you have the will & money, so the frame-itself, does not have to be respaced. A Shimano ACERA hub (135mm) is actually one of the cheaper hubs, and it can be converted without buying/cannibalizing any additional hubs. I am pretty sure that you can stack a 7-speed cassette (or, an 8-speed MINUS one cog) on the shorter freehub ...

alfeng

If your frame's CURRENT rear spacing is 120mm, then you cannot use any brand of 7-speed freewheel ... IT JUST WON'T FIT, so you can stop thinking about it for the time being. I don't think that a 6-speed freewheel will fit in a frame with 120mm rear spacing unless you manage to get one of SunTour's ULTRA freewheels (circa 1980).

The sizing indicates the smallest & largest cog on the freewheel/cassette. The smallest cog on a "normal" freewheel is 13t. The smallest cog on a "normal" cassette is 11t.

You will NOT need a new rear derailleur if you will be using the shifters in FRICTION mode. You MAY need a new rear derailleur if you are using the shifters in INDEXED mode.

BTW. An alternative to bar end shifters which you may find to be a better choice (at this point in time, at least), would be to buy some "old"/vintage THUMB SHIFTERS (should less than $20 -- check eBay) which were originally used on very early MTBs ... they can generally toggle between friction & indexed mode, too!

The clamp will be for a smaller diameter handlebar (and, probably made of stamped steel), but the easy work-around would be to simply go to your LBS or a hardware store and buy some longer bolts (or, bolts + nuts if you go to a hardware store) ... you will probably want to file the "corners" of the ID of the clamp near the opening; but, maybe not.

zeeto

Hey alfeng,

You are an engineer talking to an idiot here, I have to read and study just to understand your replies. Keep them coming please, it forces me to learn.

I don't have an inch clearance when I straddle the top tube, it brushes my crotch when I stand flatfooted. I dealt with this for years without smacking my nuts too badly, I can continue to do so I guess. Hell, I've already spawned once and have no plans on doing it again, thank you.

I'm looking at keeping the bike and riding but doing a MINIMUM of changing, just enough to make riding a little easier.

My LBS says I can use the Duret bar ends either friction or index if I choose, and if I use them friction style, I don't have to change a thing. Ten speeds were always enough for me then, probably will be now too. I might be able to use them index style and adjust a click stop out or just not use the full range.

I'll investigate the thumb shifters, I think I know what you're talking about. If it's simple and easy, I'm all for it.

My other option is to change the brake levers to type I see on so many bikes now, adding a smaller set of levers in the middle and running the brake cable + housing under the tape.

I'll continue to file updates from the field, now if the Ohio weather would cooperate!