Phamilton

At any rate, any minor frustrations aside, I still really like this bike. If I allow myself to forget that I know anything about bikes (which is pretty easy to do), just completely subjectively I prefer the way the Voyageur rides, feels, and looks to the Trek. The configuration is/was nearly identical - a steel framed drop bar bike with wide tires and fenders, a triple crank, friction shifting, and a rear rack (I’ve left the front rack off the Voyageur until I figure out what to do with it). The Voyageur is lighter by maybe 10 lbs. The Trek frame tubes are oversized AND thicker. I can’t speculate where the rest of the weight savings come from, although much of the drivetrain on the Trek is steel and also the seatpost and handlebar while on the Voyageur all these items are alloy. The Trek top tube is 15mm or so longer, and the head tube angle shallower. There are superficial differences like the 7 speed cassette vs the 5 speed freewheel, and 700C vs 27” wheels.
One pretty big difference is in the crank width, the Q factor (if I’m referring to it correctly) is 150 on the Voyageur vs 180 on the Trek. My knees haven’t been super appreciative of the change.

Phamilton

Completely different bikes, though, despite the many similarities.

Phamilton

A three speed hub and a front dyno hub sounds rad.

Phamilton

I think this looks about right:

Phamilton

There are (2) 27” wheels with Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs on eBay right now, the one I snapped earlier (AC) and another one with an AM, looks like same seller. Wish I had the coin.

Phamilton

If I wanted to keep the triple, I could swap the 46t for a 40t.

Phamilton

The triple on the Trek had similar percentage steps and how I typically rode it was to select a rear gear on the middle ring that was comfortable on the flat and for the particular wind situation, use the small ring for climbing and and big ring for descending.
But with just a 5 speed rear (as opposed to 7) I’ll have less options to choose from, and wider apart.

Phamilton

In reality how all the gearing plays out is on whatever bike I’m riding, I usually end up choosing the gear that’s closest to about 60-65 gear inches the vast majority of the time. If I have a tailwind I’ll use taller gears and if I have a lot of headwind I rely more on the next step down, I guess around mid 50s and if I have a lot of headwind and a little climbing I’ll kick it down to 40-something. That’s what makes me think I might be able to make do with a 3 speed by sacrificing the top end, which is not so important for commuting use anyway.

Phamilton

This 1st gen Deore drivetrain is super cool and all in really nice shape. I almost don’t want to use it for commuting. If it were worth anything, I might sell it to help subsidize the cost of a 3 speed drivetrain, or whatever I decide to do, if I do anything at all.

Phamilton

3K views. What kind of creepers are reading this? LOL

Phamilton

Best thing never said today - “Your mom’s rear derailer has some corrosion”

Lemond1985

"Oooooh! I wouldn't take that, if I were you. Leave his Mom's derailleur outta this. Especially her rear derailleur."

Phamilton

A reality TV show about bike flippers called “Polishing Chrome”

Phamilton

I like this, but evidently I can’t “like” it while mobile.

Thanks for popping in!

Phamilton

My dead grampa would sit and talk for hours and we’d sit around and listen. It was easier after my gramma had her stroke, there were a lot less interruptions.
Theres this YouTube channel I watch sometimes, an older guy who runs a sawmill somewhere in the south I guess. He talks sort of like my grampa did while he’s running the saw. It’s kinda weird and weirdly comforting to watch. He just talks, not really about what he’s doing, it’s not like educational, he just talks about stuff while he’s sawing. Like I said, weird.

Phamilton

He grew up Amish, he and my gramma both did. They left the Amish when they got married. They both had an 8th grade education. They were among the first of their siblings to leave. Pioneers sort of. My dad and his siblings subsequently were among the first in the family to graduate high school, and I was the first to go to college.

Phamilton

Neither one of them could ride a bike.

Phamilton

He was a brick mason. She was a homemaker. I don’t really care for the term, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment.
I guess she learned to drive around the time I was born. By the time I had my learners permit she was having me do all the driving.
I worked for the family business for a few years starting in high school and then for a year or so afterward. I did paperwork and was their bricktender. It was grueling work. There wasn’t enough local work available to keep a crew of 3-4 busy so I left when I was 19 to get a factory job where my dad worked. Just about everybody in the family worked for the business at some point, or at several points, including both my younger brothers. I lived at my grandparents’ house for a few years while I was in elementary school after my parents divorced. After I got my drivers license and a car I started spending a lot of time over there. It’s funny because I was then driving just 3 or 4 miles to visit them, and I’m now riding my bike 12 miles each way every day to work.

Phamilton

I’ve been thinking about doing a mini bike tour sometime this summer where I’ll ride past all the places I’ve ever lived. I haven’t started trying to figure out yet what the mileage would be, but every place I’ve ever lived is definitely within a 20 mile radius of our current house.

Phamilton

I’d visit their gravesite, too. It’s only like 2 miles from their house.

Phamilton

I’ll get to do laps around that trailer park as many times as I lived there, twice in the same trailer.

Phamilton

Excellent.


I lowered my saddle another 1mm, repositioned my feet another 1mm forward on the pedals, and lowered my bars another .5mm in addition to rotating them about 1/2 a deg further forward. I can really feel the difference in this setup, especially the bars. Even though I'm not tracking my miles or speed or anything, I pretty sure I just KOMed all the way to work. I think I could cut my average commute time by at least a full minute, maybe 90 seconds, after a full habituation to this new setup.

Had some guy in a truck pulling a trailer pass me way too close for comfort, he wasn't even all the way into the other lane and started cutting back over less than 50 feet in front of me, and then had the nerve to slow down and stop. I'm sure he could have passed the vehicle in front of him that was turning right, but instead decided to slow down, I'm sure he did it on purpose just to slow me down but just to show him how awesome I am, I tailgated him all the way down the hill. We must have been going 50 mph by the time I had to slow for my turn, I could just tell by feel and the frequency of the road vibrations through the tires and handlebars. I just know all those guys in pickup trucks are so jealous when they see me rollin' on my Schwinn Voyageur in my sweat pants and New Balance shoes and my batman saddle bag.

After the long, hard winter and stuff, I'm just so ready to take my bike commute to the next level, you know - no compromises. Now if I can just get the sun to start shining and the wind to stop blowing. I have read articles in science journals about greenhouse gases and climate change and stuff and they're saying that if enough people commute by bike and fast enough, it can have an effect on the weather.

Phamilton

Somebody accused me of whining on Bike Forums. Preposterous.

Phamilton

I'm a liberal. Whining is what we do.

Phamilton

Blogs are old school.

Forums are old school.

I gotta break up with Bike Forums. I gotta grow up a little.

See ya.