Ahh... the 1980s, this was a heyday for sport/touring road bikes. A time when the mountain bike, suspension forks, fat tires on 26" wheels and aluminum frames were mostly just a cloud on the trail. I stepped back into this time recently upon finding a vintage steel Schwinn road bike frame abandoned in a dumpster. This week I finished building it up and here it is:
Most of us, when we think of Schwinn, think of their classic fillet brazed road bikes from the 70s, or one of their cruiser style bikes. These were solid bikes, I remember my dad buying a Schwinn Varsity for himself in the 70s, for my mom, they bought a lightweight French step-through framed Jeunet. After they bought these, I remember my mom saying about the Jeunet "it has MAFAC brakes... these are really good". Vraiment ;^)
As a teenager and not having a car for a period, I started to bike more, during this time I rode my dad's heavy metal, safety lemon yellow Schwinn Varsity to work and, on my own, ventured for the first time on Shepherd Canyon road in the Oakland hills a regular route for cyclists heading out canyon towards Orinda Moraga and Mount Diablo. Once, on the way back climbing up the steep section back to Skyline blvd, I talked to a guy on a lugged bike and I remember him saying why lugs were better and how some frames were lighter and better made than others, it got me interested. A year or so later, my first road bike of my own was one I built-up from a frame a friend had sold me. I didn't know the brand, probably a Nishiki. But I learned about the parts and how to do the work on bikes as I went.
This Schwinn frame I found was not one of the traditional fillet-brazed Schwinn frames, but lugged with forged wheel drop-outs, better than the stamped steel kind on cheap bikes. So I took it home. It was a Voyageur SP from about 1982 made in Japan. It had a stuck seatpost, that was way deep. I soaked it and soaked in penetrating oil. no luck. I finally managed to have most of the post ground out by a shop. The fork was missing but I found another new one and built it up recently with a new headset and BB bearings and some used parts I had. It is now a very solid riding bike and the frame seems fairly lightweight for a 4130 double butted steel frame. In looking for more info on this bike, I learned, much to my surprise, that it was originally a touring-specific bike. It's not like the original, now, but functional. I'm trying to find a more original fork.
I seem to keep stumbling across vintage touring bikes, so I had to write about this one.
