I think Sheldon's triple, cantilever requirement is too strict. Let's just say a lowest gear of around 32 gear inches (I actually like triples and much lower gearing) and the potential for strong braking. Some very serious tourists use wide range doubles by choice and Mathauser pads on stout sidepulls sit the bike down very well. It is also to be remembered that braking is a matter of hand strength also. Cantilevers also leave out the excellent and very custom brazed on centerpull option.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
<stevem@nonlintec.com>; <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 1:55 PM Subject: Re: [CR]Touring on vintage lightweights
> I wrote:
>
> > > Very little was available as far as mass-produced, purpose built
> >> tourers until the early '80s.
> >>
> >> High-end bespoke tourers were available to those who could afford
> >> them, but most touring cyclists used modified "sport touring" bikes,
> >> a.k.a. "tenspeeds."
>
> Joe Bender-Zanoni wrote:
>
> >Sheldon is basically right. The Schwinn Sports Tourer was sort of
> >half-baked. Poor derailleurs, fairly flimsy rims. By the time the
> >derailleurs were right, the cranks were not.
>
> I don't generally consider a bike to be a "purpose-built" tourer
> unless it has a triple chainring and cantilever brakes.
> >
> >The first decent off the shelf tourer might be the Fuji America. 1976.
Other
> >examples?
>
> The America had caliper brakes, not great tire clearance. It had a
> triple of sorts, but it wos one of those 110 BCD 3-on-1 rigs with 34
> tooth minimum chainring.
>
> The name "America" always struck me as rather bizarre because that
> bike came with 622 mm (700c) wheels, which were distinctly oddball in
> the U.S. at the time, and highly unsuited to touring in the U.S.
> because replacement tires were about as hard to find as 650Bs.
>
> Subsequently, that all changed, and the 622 size has become the norm,
> but when the America was a current model, that was not the case.
>
> My current major touring bike, however has only one chainring, and
> runs 559 tires:
>
> http://sheldonbrown.org/
>
> Sheldon "Roll On..." Brown
> Newtonville, Massachusetts
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