lord_athlon

I did what I could with this bike, then forgot to login for 9 months.
There was a good amount of corrosion on the components. I saved what I could, and replaced what wasn't easily restored.
The brakes had some pitting on the chrome hardware, so I got a set of center pulls from the co-op, and polished them along with some fresh grease and Gran-Compe hangers. I like the way they turned out.
The front and rear mechs had some pitting, so I swapped them with a set of Cyclone's off of another bike. I like the way they shift over the altus mech's the bike came with.
There was some pitting on the cranks, and in order to remove it, I had to sand and polish the pitted surfaces, ruining the cast/beaded finish. I like how it turned out. Its amazing what mothers and a dremel will accomplish.

I think the brown bar tape and the orange yoyo-strings turned out nicely for my first attempt. Needs some shellac. I also got new hoods for the Weinmann/DiaCompe levers.

belacqua

running 700c / 32mm rubber and my affordable but trusty dynamo setup from IDC.

rccardr 

Pictures, finally. Bought this virtually NOS '87 in Ruby Red about 10 days ago. Everything was minty but age takes its toll no matter how well something is stored, plus some personalization was needed. Thus far, I've re-wrapped the bars, serviced all of the bearings, installed my favorite long distance ride-'em-all-day saddle (a Selle Italia Q-bik SE), and put on a Cateye Strada, Kool Stop thinline brake pads, a pair of Ciussi Elite cages and my VPS campus pedals. Rides great & will be a good touring partner.



Really like the rack, have never seen one of these Rhode Gear strappy things before...





A few things just arrived for it: 34 and 24 tooth chain rings (to deal with mega-hills) & a pair of Panaracer Pasela PT tires. Still waiting on the cable housing (will use either dark red translucent or silver, which is kinda like what came with it originally) and straddle cables. Figure I might as well replace the cables and housing while I'm at it, they're like new but 27 years old and likely to become brittle. I might replace the black cages with silver ones, but that front reflector is definitely coming off when I do the cables and housing, and the wired Strada will be replaced by a wireless one to clean up the front end a little. Me likey!

The Golden Boy 

It looks great-it's going to be a fun, fun bike.

Shop around, you should be able to find the DiaCompe QR headset cable hanger- there's also identical Shimano branded ones. Probably run you around $10. The DiaCompe rear cable hangers with QR are a bit harder to find.

oddjob2

I won this Goodwill auction about a year ago, just finished this afternoon. @TIHabanaro graciously assisted with facilitating the pickup and a friend brought it to Ann Arbor from Grand Rapids. I never dreamed it would clean up so nicely. As it only has a double crank, I will move my 1981 Super Sport which has a triple to the Adirondack Mountains and keep the Voyageur 11.8 for running around town. I even have a full set of OEM racks buried in the garage.

H0GWILD

Been riding this sine 12/73. goes to shop every 3yrs for basic maint and lubes

YouthxCrew

I have my eyes set on finding an 11.8 to build up this winter, a coworker let me ride hers today for a test and I loved the feel of it so much. Beautiful machines.

The Golden Boy 

What's nice about that is I have seen a bunch of small size 80-81-ish Voyageurs. Online- but it's good to know they're out there.

You ride a 50cm? or are you smaller?

akcapbikeforums

I thought I'd go ahead and post this here. This is a pretty thorough comparison of the models done by Sandro Fouche. I'm not sure if he's a member here or not.


Here's a link to Sandro's discussion page about his Voyageurs, along with a link to a PDF version of his chart.

akcapbikeforums

And here is a picture of my 25" chrome 1980 Voyageur. I love this bike, but it's really too small for me.

akcapbikeforums

Thanks... fixed.

The Golden Boy 

Sorry about the curt reply-

Chrome Voyageurs dominate.

akcapbikeforums

I love that Voyageurs have been discovered here, embraced and celebrated. They're such great bikes.

badger_biker 

I haven't hit this thread since you posted your pics rccardr. Wow what a beauty you found! My Imperial Rose twin is on post #40 if you want to see what yours might look like with fenders.
Keep posting pictures of your updates to it.

YouthxCrew

Yes, that's my size. There's one I'm looking at on ebay, but the seller wants local pickup only.

johnnyace 

I just bought this 1986 Voyageur today on ebay, so please excuse the horrible seller pic. It looks like a 25", so it's too big for me, but at $150 and free shipping, I couldn't resist.

It looks like it will need an overhaul, good cleanup, and new consumables, but the condition looks good otherwise.

I personally am looking for an 84-85 Voyageur SP in 22-23", if anyone has any leads, or is looking to sell one.

echo victor 

Nice find. You'll have to let us know how it turns out when you get it all tuned up.

And speaking of horrible pics, I scanned back through some of this thread since it popped up, and I was reminded that I'd posted in this thread back in the day. I'm embarrassed to have posted a photo as bad as I did.

Andy_K 

Hey! A picture gallery thread I've missed, and I even have a bike to put in it.



This 1980 Voyageur 11.8 has had a tough life. When I got it the fork, top tube and down tube were bent. I convinced gugie to straighten out the fork for me, and he helped me roll the bulges out of the other tubes along with a minor dent in the top tube.

The head tube angle is now about 75 degrees, but I think it handles OK. Looking at some of these other old Voyageurs I wonder if they didn't have pretty steep head tube angles to begin with.

johnnyace 

Nice bike Andy, I love the red and chrome. I'd say let's bust out the Voyageurs for the next ride up around Stumptown, but next time I plan on bringing a proper road bike, the '72 Gitane TdF, rather than another touring bike, like the Miyata 615 I rode recently.

Something about the Miyata just didn't click with me. Not that it wasn't a good rider. But my search continues for a nice 80s touring bike.

My short list:
Trek 620 or 720
Schwinn Voyageur SP
Miyata 1000
Specialized Expedition

Scottybigs 

Maiden voyage for my '83 Voyageur SP (been a long winter project). The Shimano CX70 cantilever brakes worked well for the conversion to 700c (had to mod the brake pads to be more like v-brake shoes, though). Saddle tilt has been corrected.

The Golden Boy 

That's pretty.

Did you do a build thread on it?

Scottybigs 

Not yet--suppose I should. I moreso want to get it written in detail that the CX70's work, because I couldn't find any info/experience from anyone who had tried.

I'll post in more detail soon.

noglider 

That's fantastic, @Scottybigs.

johnnyace 

That's a beauty, Scotty, I really like those colors.

Andy_K 

Honestly, the beauty of the red and chrome is the main reason I refuse to let this frame die in peace. The paint is much, much worse than it looks in the picture. Besides the normal aging, I had to paint over the repair spots. They say the key to good painting is proper prep work -- I didn't even bother to wipe it off before slapping the touch up paint on. I was mainly doing it to see how the color matched and it matched so well that I just finished covering it and left it.

The chrome, on the other hand, looks at least as good in person as it does in the picture. Schwinn really knew how to do chrome right. My long term plan is to learn enough about brazing to replace the compromised tubes and restore it properly, maybe with a 650b conversion. I know that's a bit over the top for a such a basic 4130 frame, but I think it'll be a fun project.

Well maybe if I get around to servicing the shifters on my '72 Motobecane Grand Record we can get take a couple of classic French road bikes out for a journey.

I look forward to seeing the TdF in person. I really like Gitanes.

It's a good list. The Specialized Sequoia I got recently has turned out to be one of the best riding bikes I own. The closest thing I have to a complaint about it is that 700x32 tires just barely fit with fenders -- it's very tight at the fork crown. I believe the Expedition, being more of a proper touring bike, addresses that.