Classic & Vintage - Schwinn Voyageur touring build: sneak peek (pic intensive!)

A while back, AZORCH and I traded frames in the "Frame doesn't fit" thread. I traded my too-small for me 58cm Shogun touring frame for his 63cm Schwinn Voyageur touring frame. As you may already know from the wonderful pictures AZORCH has posted, he built up the Shogun as a Randonneuse and has been using it for century rides all Spring. I, on the other hand, had left the Voyageur frameset hanging on a hook in my basement while I finished up other projects, most notably my Shogun 650B conversion. But as the looming dread of organizing and packing up our home to move drew nearer, I felt it appropriate to get this project out of the way. Most of the parts that hung on the Shogun frameset that got traded away got transferred to this frame: wheelset and Panaracer Paselas, stem, bars, canti brakes and levers, front and rear mechs, saddle, and bar-end shifters. Heck, even the cables housings transferred over. The headset and seatpost are original to the frame, the BB is new, and the crankset is a frankencrank set made up of Specialized arms with half-step plus granny Shimano rings. But it will all work nicely and look the part.

Anyway, it's mostly done, and I'm just waiting for the crankset to arrive from being polished to a perfect satin finish by one of BikeForums' finest for the project to be complete.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5156/5897221963_70d15186a0_b.jpg

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Sweet! What kind of bars are those, Anton? I like the rando bend.

Neal

sweet

Looks great! Wise move getting it going before the never-ending cycle of moving & renovation begins......

Sweet! What kind of bars are those, Anton? I like the rando bend.

Neal

Thanks, Neal. They're the Nitto B135 "Raundoneur" bars.

Oh wow! That looks great! Looks a thousand times better than my Voyageur.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2669/5816956934_f15efc585d_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/armyoftwo/5816956934/)
1988 Schwinn Voyageur (http://www.flickr.com/photos/armyoftwo/5816956934/) by armyofdeux (http://www.flickr.com/people/armyoftwo/), on Flickr

Luckily I'm going to get it powdercoated to hide the rust and switched-out fork. Unfortunately this means that the frame is stripped down for now and I won't be able to ride it until I get it built up again. But hopefully it will look something like yours eventually! :)

(After I posted I looked at the name of the OP and thought "Of course it looks good! That's that guy with that built up that awesome Shogun that made me want a 650b conversion bike.")

Very nice. I like the Shogun, but you have done an outstanding job on the Schwinn too.

Beautiful. Just beautiful, Anton. Love it.

It looks great except for one glaring flaw. You need to polish your bell.

It looks great except for one glaring flaw. You need to polish your bell.

It's patina!

I expected you to say that. I'm a bright and shiny guy myself.

Another dream bike! Man!

Another dream bike! Man!

+1, I'd love to get my hands one one of these, fantastic work Southpaw! In the meantime though, I'll settle for the Voyageur 11.8 that's at the front of the project queue :)

Chris I have a Trek 720 single track frame, 56cm. It's currently set up as a touring bike and it completely rides like one, even though it was made to be a hybrid, whatever that means. I'm not going to keep this frame, so ...

It has cantilever bosses!

spouthpaw: you sir, have great taste. Meh on polishing the bell, it's going to go back to looking like that in a couple months anyways, and it looks better with the "patina" IMO :)

I've got that exact bike. My only beef with it is the short top tube. It has crazy TCO with my size 13's especially if I run fenders.

Very sharp!

Wow!!! That's a gorgeous Schwinn!!! Nicely done!

Thanks, Neal. They're the Nitto B135 "Raundoneur" bars.

I've been lusting after those handlebars and the Nitto stem that you have on your Voyageur. This is giving me a good chance to see what they would look like on a Schwinn. (They look very sweet, imo!) The technomic is the extended length stem, isn't it?

Very nice build! The paint looks remarkable!

Anton, I've been lusting after a cool vintage bell for the Shogun. I'm just finishing a cyclotour of Scotland and have been photographing C&V bikes when the opportunity presents itself. And what should fall into my lap yesterday, but a very cool bell! I won't hijack your thread but will post details on my return. In the mean time: contests, fantastic as usual.

Not "contests" but "congrats" I hate auto fill on the Blackberry. Nice work and I can't wait to see the finished bike.

+1, I'd love to get my hands one one of these, fantastic work Southpaw! In the meantime though, I'll settle for the Voyageur 11.8 that's at the front of the project queue :)

Quite a different bike. But, I own both and if I had to pick only one it'd probably be the 11.8.



I've got that exact bike. My only beef with it is the short top tube.

That's why I love my 80s Schwinns so much.

I have to say it Southpaw - Your builds are simply spectacular!

very nice. did you put that paint line in the fenders? did you use one of those paint pens or something else? I'm thinking about doing something similar in red for my px-bilenky.

Thanks, all, for the nice comments!


Very nice build! The paint looks remarkable!

And it's original! For the most part, Panasonic did a good job on the paint, although they sprayed it kind of thin on the fork blades and the color is not as saturated, allowing some of the white-ish primer to lighten the color and make it look more like a medium blue metallic. I've never seen that inconsistency on a bike paint job before. You can actually see it fairly accurately in the first pic. Notice the touchup marks on the fork blade-- those same touchups on the rest of the frame would not be noticeable. Weird, huh?


The technomic is the extended length stem, isn't it?

Yep, it is, and in this build, it's not even all the way up. There's like two more inches it can be raised.


I've got that exact bike. My only beef with it is the short top tube. It has crazy TCO with my size 13's especially if I run fenders.

Yikes, that's good to know in advance. I wear a size 12/12.5 (47). Once I get the crankset on, that'll be the first thing I assess.


did you put that paint line in the fenders? did you use one of those paint pens or something else? I'm thinking about doing something similar in red for my px-bilenky.

I used a course-point paint pen, and it was way easier than outlining lugs. The error margin is so much wider so minor imperfections aren't noticed. I chose gold because it's subtle, doesn't stand out much from the aluminum, and it brings out the gold decals. However, AZORCH supplied some automotive touch up paint with the frame that is almost a perfect match to the dark metallic teal, and in retrospect it would have looked spectacular to paint those flutes the same color as the frame!

Now I have to get back to my new regular schedule of home interior demolition!

Yep, it is, and in this build, it's not even all the way up. There's like two more inches it can be raised.

Very nice. After seeing yours, I am 99% sure now that I am going to have to get that set for my Schwinn. A much nicer look than my stock black stem and bleh handlebars.(plus it would be nice to have the extra length of that technomic and the cool geometry of those handlebars....not to mention the quality of both)

Hell, I wish my entire bike looked like yours......well, not exactly, but you probably know what I mean.

Again, just a really superb build!! And those fenders are something else!

Something for a noob like me to aspire to.

It looks great! Is this your only bike with the original paint and decals?

It looks great! Is this your only bike with the original paint and decals?

Thanks, I have one other bike with all original paint and decals, my 1988 Trek 560:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4693576916_fa932929e3_z.jpg

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Update:

Bike is fully built up, and this pic was taken this evening during its "shakedown" cruise out to dinner with my wife:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6015/5923882997_97480f038a_b.jpg

Love those deep red accents!

Beautiful!

Cheers,
Chris