Life's a Voyage-ur

That's right, life is a voyage. We're all going some where, we talk to people, make new friends and keep up with old ones. The story of my newest bike is some thing like that. 3 years ago, as many of you know, life brought me to the high five of Michigan after the time came for much needed change. One of the many people I have kept up with since moving is the one and only Guitar Ted. We've exchanged emails, gone for rides when I've made my way back to the homeland, and the such.

Recently, Mark [ask G-Ted] posted on his Twitter that a Xtracycle could be in the future for him. Being in the middle of a move and evaluating what I have, what I need and didn't need. In seeing that, I sent him a little what's up and said that I had a Xtracycle kit that had spent the last year in pieces since taking off the K-Monkey to finally get a mountain bike going. Since I was moving from a house to a studio, space was the issue and with 6 other bikes floating around having the Xtracycle wasn't the best idea.

I told Mark, I was looking for a touring bike and a few other odds and ends. And what do you know, Mark just so happened to have a 1987 Schwinn Voyageur gathering dust in his basement. A trade began to work itself out and through some middlemen the bike made its way here and the Xtracycle kit his way...

Here is what the Voyageur looked like when I got it:

The bike came with Campy barend shifters, Shimano 105 brake levers, Shimano Deore front deraileur, Shimano 6 speed rear, Suntour cranks, Blackburn front and rear racks. To be perfectly honest, I was so excited about getting the bike that I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention while I was taking it down to it's frame for paint. Yes, that's right, paint. I decided that I couldn't deny my desire to update the look of the bike and started on the 'winter' project right way.

I asked around to the guys in the wheel department at Velocity what a classic or pseudo-classic color for the bike might be and in the end I landed on a baby blue. As luck may have it, parts began to compile. As I stumbled onto the actual decal set from Alger Cyclery along with a few year old, yet still in the box 105 crank and 105 rear deraileur. I had the WTB Mountain Drop Bar floating around from my Trans Iowa set-up a few years back and decided that it would be a good way to go for touring. The canti brakes, front deraileur, Campy bar end shifters and 105 brake levers all cleaned up great with a little elbow grease. I couldn't help myself when I had the chance to bring the baby blue down onto the racks. I topped off the touring rig with a Shimano Dymo hub in the front, laced to Halo Dyads [32 hole 3x front, 36 hole 4x rear], bronze Bottle Traps and a brown Chris King 1" headset.

So without much ado, the after:


I'm excited to get this thing out on the road, I could easily see this become my main commuter. Either way, there are 3 rides begging for this bike to be used: the November 13th/14th 200 mile Cadillac and Back installment: honoring the 29 men lost with the Edmond Fitzgerald, RAGBRAI, and my personal goal of riding around Lake Michigan. We'll see what become of it.


9/6 UPDATE:

I sent an email to Mark, just to show him what became of his rig and he responded with an email that gave the Voyageur even more history and story...

Here's a bit of the back round on this rig, just so you know the history of it.........

This Voyaguer came in as a trade in to Advantage Cyclery when I worked there. It belonged to Jim T. [...] Jim bought the bike new from Ansborough Schwinn. So, I see this bike, and Jim was hemming and hawing about buying a new rig. I needed to find a rig to get my buddy Ryan S. a cheap rig so he could join us on our tour that we took to the Black Hills. Anyway, I finagled Jim out of the Voyaguer and into a Bianchi, which he owned up until recently.

Okay, so Ryan owned the bike for a couple of years, did two tours on it, but basically never rode it otherwise. I ended up taking it off his hands, since I pretty much twisted his arm to buy it in the first place. I used it a few times. Once on the inaugural Trails festival, in 1996, I rode it on the night ride. There was a big blow out party at Bennington's that night, and I was showing off by track standing off one side of the bike and blew out the 40 spoke rear wheel in the process! I maybe rode it a handful of times afterward.

So, now it is in your hands and you get to write the next chapter of its history

Week One: DVS Milan CTC Cadence thoughts

Let's get a few things straight. I'm bias. I'm stubborn. I judge and because of this, often I feel I am right. I know that I am not alone in this and sure, some might write this off another way for me to feel superiority over the next guy in being able to acknowledge this. This does not mean that I am afraid to engage in discussion on any number of topics or perspectives. I'll value your insight, thought and will challenge you with questions as I wade through what I may believe.

Wow, talk about dropping a bomb just to say I got some new shoes that are 'cycling' specific.

I am privileged to be able to spend a few minutes out of my day roaming the internet super highway looking to see what's being said and done in the cycling world for work. One of the sites that I frequent like many is over at Prolly is not Probably via Fourteen Teeth. He's had a DVS banner up for some time and has been rocking the DVS/Cadence collaboration for most of the summer. Ever since I caught wind of these I've been interested in getting a pair but didn't find a need since my Adidas Sambas have been holding up great after around a year of use, along with a dip in the Louisiana swamp back in March. All good things must come to an end, as 3 weeks ago the heel began to finally give way and so I ordered up a pair of these.

I had my hesitations about a pseudo-cycling shoe by DVS, given the obvious fact that they have primarily been a skate company. Don't get me wrong, I rocked DVS's back in my emo kid days but having aged to become the grown-up emo kid/hipster [yes, I don't deny it like some] of sorts, the width of my shoes have become rather important for a few reasons.

First, let's not deny aesthetics. The downfall of skate shoes can be the brick like appearance, especially with the wave of bootcut/girl pants. Yet at the same time, too narrow of a show can give the impression of... well, I don't know but I think we can all agree that some thing isn't right. Secondly, as mentioned before width. Width comes into play especially when running toe clips, thus was my draw to the Adidas'. The last thing I want to have to do is struggle to get my foot in the clip while riding. With DVS's background in skate was afraid that problem might occur.

After receiving the shoes in the mail around a week ago, when I opened the box I did have a little buyers remorse. Why? I ordered the gray instead of the black. As any of my friends my attest, black is kind of my color. Although I love the look of the gray, I immediately realized that the gray would never quite look as good as they did the day before as I continued to wear them. But I took a breath, laced them up, slipped them on and...

Foot Nirvana. A tight heal, firm yet highly walkable soul, and a toe box that felt very similar to my Samba's in their prime.

Over the past week, I've been rocking these as my everyday shoe, at work and play. riding around on my cruiser and then with Red. Red is the only bike that I have toe clips on, the All City with their double strap and needless to say, the transition was not noticeable. All in all, so far so good; I'd more than willingly put my stamp of approval on these. Every now and again I'll do a check in of sorts on these shoes and see how it goes.

As Guitar Ted has said many times, when people buy some thing they are more likely to not admit to problems with the item when reviewing it because of the expense they incurred in purchasing. I bought these and thus my bias. Take it or leave it, Prolly has been rocking the DVS Milan CTC Cadence shoe for some time and gives plenty more insight here.

The Roads are Yours and Mine

This is a post that came from a good friend of mine over at The Cyclist site, G-Ted concerning some frustrating 'proposed' legislation. I'll throw my two cents out there in a few days:

From Dictionary.com

pub⋅lic [puhb-lik]

1.	of, pertaining to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole: public funds; a public nuisance.

2.	done, made, acting, etc., for the community as a whole: public prosecution.

3.	open to all persons: a public meeting.

4.	of, pertaining to, or being in the service of a community or nation, esp. as a government officer: a public official.

5.	maintained at the public expense and under public control: a public library; a public road.

The thing about cycling is that you need somewhere to engage in the activity. Obvious, and not unlike other activities we participate in. The beauty of cycling is that you can make use of so many places to do it at because they are public places. That is what makes using a bicycle so appealing.

Now we are finding that people who are not fans of cycling, for whatever reasons, feel they can use the law to take away your public access to roadways. Even if you are a tax paying, law abiding resident. We are seeing rumblings of this in Colorado, and now in the state of Iowa, a similar movement to ban cyclists is afoot. There are several glaring affronts to your freedom going on here.

First of all, the public road system is created and maintained by tax dollars procured from all residents of any given state, and all across the country. You own part of the roads. Because of the public nature these roads, they become non-public if certain taxpaying residents are banned from them. The ridiculous nature of such a proposition should be obvious. These propositions in Colorado and Iowa pre-suppose that even though you pay for the roads, you do not own any part of them, nor do you have a right to ride on them on a bicycle. Both cases state that the "safety" of the cyclists can not be provided for in any other way than to ban them altogether.

Another way to look at it is to say that your use is dictated by a small, unhappy segment of the user group that wishes to impose their will on the masses. Never mind that these users are most likely to be at fault in automobile/cyclist accidents that result in injury or death.

Finally, this sets a dangerous precedent in that any organized small group could feasibly dictate use of your freedoms soley based on what the imposing group feels is safe for you.

Think that this is just a strange happening in states that do not matter to you and that it will "just go away"? Think again. Be vigilant about your rights as cyclists. Fight for your freedom. If you just stand around thinking someone else will take care of it, they will, and probably not in the way you imagine it should be.

Join IMBA, join a local cycling advocacy, and write your representatives in the State and Federal branches of government. Be reasonable, but be firm. Or you may find yourself with a bicycle and all dressed up with no where to go.