polymorphself 

The amazing weather is upon us in Arizona and I took the opportunity yesterday to do a day trip from my home in Downtown Phoenix to the base of Tonto National Forest, about 80 miles round trip. The entire route is bike lanes and path with some climbs towards the end. The voyageur is an extremely comfortable ride, although I'm not sure if I'm sold on the half step setup yet so that may change in the future. It often seemed like it was just a little too high or a little too low in every combination, but I''ve not been riding regularly and certainly haven't spent enough time with the setup, so we'll see! The thing really glides though and is so stable it sometimes feels easier to ride with no hands I'm guessing this doesn't change much the more heavily loaded it becomes. Anyways, some photos:

daka

Great scenery, nice looking bike!

The Golden Boy 

Totally beautiful scenery... sort of reminds me of when I used to live in El Paso.

The Voyageur is looking sweet as well. You mention feeling between gear space... are you using that half-step theory with that?

polymorphself 

Thanks! And probably not. This is my first time using half step gearing. I can say that I spent time in every possible combination, but I'm not sure I'm getting the most out of the setup. I find that I've almost never used the largest ring and stay in the half step 90% of the time, but the space in between the rear cogs feels massive when shifting through them.

Bianchigirll 

Great scenery and good looking bike. I really miss the south west

The Golden Boy 

The idea with half-step is that the steps between the gears is roughly half the distance between the big and middle ring.

So if you're in the little ring and it's too easy in the 24, but too hard in the 20- put it in the 24 and shift up into the big ring.

polymorphself 

Ah, right, this is the “double shift” I’ve seen people discuss, yeah? I’ll have to try it more consciously.

The Golden Boy 

I think the idea is being able to 'walk' up/down the gears. So- little ring, shift rear, shift big ring. THEN shift down to little ring AND shift up in the rear. Repeat.

It'll make sense- Especially if you're just shifting up and down in the rear- and only using the big ring as an 'overdrive.' Once you figure out you've got an 'in between' gear with the front derailleur- you'll get it.

non-fixie 

Nice bike.

Classtime 

That is a beauty. To explore that 1/2 step thing, I suggest the following: when you are in the "wrong" gear, look to shift the front first and if it is already where you wanted to go, then shift the rear and if it is too much leave it there and then shift the front. It really is a neat set up.

polymorphself 

Thanks! I’m trying to discern the benefit to this setup when used properly but it’s not clicking.

If it never grows on me I’ve got the drivetrain from a 1988 Miyata 612 lying around and might try that (48/38/28, 14-28).

cb400bill

Still a lovely bike!

polymorphself 

Still very happy to have it, thank you!

daka

The way I see it, the logic behind half-step gearing is this: the ratios on the freewheel are widely spaced - say, 20% apart - and seldom feel like the right gear. The chainwheels on the other hand are narrowly spaced - about 10% apart so you can dial in the ratio to where it feels "right". However, half of the time it will require a double-shift to achieve that. For example, if you are on the big chainring and the middle cog and that gear is just a little too low, to get the adjacent ratio will require shifting to the next smaller cog on the freewheel (20% change up) and then ALSO changing to the smaller chainwheel which changes you 10% back down - a net change of 10%.

But things could be worse - back in the bike boom, a low to mid range 10 speed touring bike came with "Alpine" gearing, usually 40-52 in the front and 14-28 in the back. That arrangement has fairly well spaced ratios on paper but (counting 1-5 on the small chainring and 6-10 on the large) the ratios in sequence are 1, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 8, 5, 9,10. So, to change to most any adjacent ratio for fine tuning requires a double-shift - every time. Don't ask me why, but I still ride a couple bikes set up like this..... So with that in mind, now maybe half-step doesn't sound so bad?

loudbay

Great looking bike! British Racing Green the Jaguar/Rover color and an absolute deal maker for me...

polymorphself 

Thank you. The green of the 86 Voyageur is what drew me to this model in the first place, it's my favorite color and look especially beautiful when polished and waxed up, here's a close up of the top tube after it came to me and I gave it a thorough polishing. It probably won't look like this again for quite some time, if ever

Cougrrcj

Plug your chainrings and rear gears into this handy calculator to find what you're missing!!! https://www.gear-calculator.com/