Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.RainmanP
01-09-03, 05:42 PM
Yesterday I put the more or less finishing touches on the rebuilding of an early-'80s Schwinn Voyageur touring bike, and today I rode it on my commute. What a sweet old ride! It has DiaCompe cantilever brakes which were a new animal for me. I stopped by my lbs to get my favorite wrench to check it out. He tweaked a couple of things but otherwise said it looked pretty good. This was a pretty serious touring bike in it's day. It came with 27" 40-spoke Wolber Super Champion rims laced to Sunshine Gyromaster hubs. It was a 15 speed, but I put on a single front 42T chainring and a 17 tooth single freewheel. This will probably become my primary commuter. I like the simplicity of the single speed. Fixed gear would be nice, but I like these old heavy duty wheels. I know we have been talking about the thread on cog backed up by a bb lockring, but I'm not comfortable with that setup. Single speed is fine. I still have the old trashpile Trek that will become my fixed gear ride.
The frame seems to be a contradiction. It measures 62 cm c to c, but the top tube is only 58 inches, same as my 58 cm Bianchi. The frame is theoretically too tall for me, but I had to put on a 140mm stem to get the reach I like. So even though I only have about 10 cm of seatpost exposed, my riding setup feels just like my road bikes except that the bar is about even with the saddle rather than a couple of inches lower. And even though the top tube seems short for the frame size, the wheel base is long.
Between the long wheel base and 32 mm tires at 110 psi, the bike breezes over bumps that are teeth rattlers on my road bikes. I thought the tires, some inexpensive Vittorias I picked up a while back on sale, would feel like a drag after riding nothing but 25 mm for quite a while. However, the tires seem to have kind of a pointy profile so only a relatively narrow strip seems to contact the road. All in all, I don't feel much difference in speed/effort between this bike and my roadies, which is nice. But they cushion the bumps really well. Pretty decent compromise.
I think his name will be Le Boeuf, which I understand is French for The Ox. Seems appropriate for such a bike.
The frame seems to be a contradiction. It measures 62 cm c to c, but the top tube is only 58 inches, same as my 58 cm Bianchi. The frame is theoretically too tall for me, but I had to put on a 140mm stem to get the reach I like. So even though I only have about 10 cm of seatpost exposed, my riding setup feels just like my road bikes except that the bar is about even with the saddle rather than a couple of inches lower. And even though the top tube seems short for the frame size, the wheel base is long.
Between the long wheel base and 32 mm tires at 110 psi, the bike breezes over bumps that are teeth rattlers on my road bikes. I thought the tires, some inexpensive Vittorias I picked up a while back on sale, would feel like a drag after riding nothing but 25 mm for quite a while. However, the tires seem to have kind of a pointy profile so only a relatively narrow strip seems to contact the road. All in all, I don't feel much difference in speed/effort between this bike and my roadies, which is nice. But they cushion the bumps really well. Pretty decent compromise.
I think his name will be Le Boeuf, which I understand is French for The Ox. Seems appropriate for such a bike.