AeroGut

Great looking bike! That chrome really pops. I personally wish they’d stuck with canti brakes on the voyageur, which it had pre 1980 or so (I don’t remember what year the change was exactly). But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a great bike for enjoying long rides. I’m glad you brought it back to life.

madpogue 

Wow, yummy bike! I would definitely keep the Brooks; looks like a Professional with plenty of life left in it. Tape is dependent on condition, and personal preference wrt. type/material. Yours looks remarkably good for the bike's age, not torn or out of position. But the old-school plain cotton may not be to your liking. If you decide to change it, that gives you the opportunity to ride it with no tape for a while, which in turn gives you the opprotunity to relocate the brake levers to your liking/fit.

I see no reason you'd want to replace those wheels. The catalog mentions only "Araya alloy" rims and "bright finish" spokes, so those Mavics on Wheelsmith spokes are probably a significant upgrade. And actually, "smoke" rims on a chrome frame look kind of cool.

Seatpost replacement wouldn't be a bad idea. That seatpost looks like one of those funky SRs that have the adjuster bolts facing each other on the inside. I've only had one of those, and I recall it being a PITA to adjust. Slide it out as gently as you can, clean it up good and look for a size.

The bike must've been ridden by someone who cornered tightly and leaned heavily. It most likely came with stainless steel toe clips, that were probably damaged in service and replaced. And now the current ones are beat up, evidently. I suspect the toe straps were chosen to match the color of the cable housings.

Senrab62 

I have an 81 chrome 11.8 as well. I'm 6'2" and the 25" was a better fit for me vs Schwinn's 23" for this era.

Your bike looks great post clear coat stripping! Any thoughts on what your long term plans are for it? They are pretty versatile and nice riding bikes. My main complaints are the lack of bottle bosses for these frames and Schwinn's proprietary sizing. Good luck and keep us posted.

PilotFishBob 

Looks great!

3alarmer 

.
...keep the wheels. They are substantially better than the originals.

kocour

I plan to keep it for occasional riding around town, but will rely on my Specialized Sequoia and Handsome for long-distance rides. I have been riding it around town the last few days and have had three people ask me if I would sell it to them. No way! I like the looks so much that I would like to display it in my house. I just have not found a space where that will work, but I am still scheming ;-)

I have decided to keep the current wheels. My only decision now is what color to use for the cable housing. I am thinking keeping the red with black being my second choice.

PilotFishBob 

Red and Chrome are a great pairing, the friend I sold my 11.8 to went that route. I also had the Velocals replacement stickers and threw those in, he used all but the red seat tube stripes deciding that with the cable housing that would be a bit much. Meh, I'd have gone for it but it's no longer my bike.

madpogue 

^^^^^ +1 on the red housings; then you can get some nice old chromed steel Christophe toe clips, reintegrate those red straps.

kocour

Thanks for the advice. I did just what you suggested and the current setup on the Schwinn matches my other two bikes. I am keeping the original stem :-)

kocour

Thanks for the photo. I went to your Flicker page and really enjoyed it. I had to stop myself before spending hours looking at the photos of beautiful rides.

abshipp 

Looks great @kocour!

I'm liking the idea of stripping the clear coat.

I have a 1977 Super Le Tour 12.2 (your bike's older brother) that the clear coat is starting to get a little tired on. The chrome on it is almost perfect, so the ratty clear coat is starting to bother me a bit, especially since I see these stripped bikes and the bare chrome really seems to glow.

I generally stop riding that bike after the first snow (or more accurately, the first salt ), so I'm thinking this might be a good winter project

justcynn

found a 1980 or 1981 Chrome Voyageur. Badge 3290 This thing looks original or close to it. the chrome looks very nice, may do the stripping with aircraft cleaner as mentioned above. I found this on facebook, 1 picture and it looked clean enough. The price was great at $100 but it was 5 hours away - I debated whether to make the driver and then my college age children are home and offered to provide the freight for a fee, I took them up on it and I am glad I did! I think it will clean up very nicely. I am not counting the freight cost as I would have given that $ to them anyway and gas has never been cheaper in my adult years. So with $100 in it and many parts on hand - I believe I can get a beautiful bike put together. Thank you for the tips in this thread, I will prob opt for the new decals at velocals

kocour

That looks like a great find. I enjoy my two chrome Voyageurs. The one that has a rougher finish goes on rides around the neighborhood and on a few longer rides of about about 20 miles. The restored one does not get out much. I probably should not say "restored" since I converted both bikes to bar end shifters, which I find much easier to use than the original down tube shifters. I also decided to leave them without decals. Here is the "restored" Voyageur. If I find a third chrome Voyageur I may restore it to the original appearance.

76SLT 

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to add to the thread. I also just bought a chrome 80 Voyageur 11.8. The crazy thing is it has the same build date of 1150 on the headbadge, and a serial number of 0F00974 which us just 29 bikes apart from your 0F00945 bike. Just thought it was one of those quirky things worth mentioning.