Imperial Rose Voyageur rides again
 

I finished the rehab of the 1987 Schwinn Voyageur I picked up last fall. I bought it on eBay as kind of a lark since I already had a Specialized Expedition. But I felt it was comparable and the Expedition has a shimmy issue I haven't worked out yet.

Anyway it was pretty scratched and nicked up so I decided to do the quick and dirty (and cheap) route and sand it down and do a rattle can paint job. The decals were pretty good so I masked them off and went to work. I got a pretty close but a bit darker Duplicolor match to the paint. Overall I'm pleased with the results and it seems relatively hard with the clear coat.

It came with the bar end shifters but I reworked the handle bars adding the interrupter and Techtro aero brake levers. The only other things not stock are the Shimano Mega freewheel and the seat. It came with the Blackburn front rack and I replaced the rear no name rack with a Blackburn I had.

It finally cracked the 50 degree mark here yesterday and I took it for a very enjoyable ride. What a sweet and comfortable ride the old girl has! I can't wait to load it down for a short tour to try it out. It it works well I guess I'll go the full powder coat route when and if my paint job gets bad.

Enjoy a before and some after pics.

It looks really nice for a rattle can job. Have you had a chance to ride with the 'mega range' rear cluster and what do you think of it? I have an older Nishiki touring bike that I was thinking of doing something similar.

Looks nice indeed

So far I'm more than pleased with the mega range and it shifts no differently than a normal cluster. It easily pops up to the mega cog from either the 28t granny or 44t middle ring. I'm just using the Deore RD that came with the bike. I just wish I could find a 26t biopace ring to give me a little lower loaded gear and maybe a 42t middle ring for lower mid range gears.

My bro-in-law added a mega to his older Trek with an older Deore XT and it shifts but not as cleanly as mine. It may be a chain line or lenght issue and I need to check it out. He's also using RSX brifters.