Schwinn Sport Tourers. The original off the shelf American expedition bike. Believe it or not I chose to ride one of these on a 1000 mile trip about 1995. 28 pounds of smooth riding 42" wheelbase straight guage machine. No shimmy at 60 MPH down some of the Gaspe Peninsula hills. Yes, I changed out the Turismo! I picked up the idea from friends who rode them to Alaska and back in the 70's.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch NJ
> If you want the real vintage touring experience, don't use fancy
equipment. Back in the day, most tourists couldn't afford 531 frames and TA
cranks. A typical setup was a high-tensile or straight gauge chrome-moly
frame, aluminum rims, Acocet seat, 27" gumwalls and Pletscher rack. Weight
was carried in huge rear panniers and a big handlebar bar. (Had a
horrendous shimmy going down Hwy 1 in Sonoma county and nearly went over the
side. Later got one of those expensive Blackburns, and it was a tremendous
improvement.) Gearing was usually something like 52/40 with a 14-34 five
speed freewheel. I actually had a triple on my Univega with a low of 30"!
I almost never saw anyone else with a triple. Did see humorless roadies
with loaded racing bikes and corncobs.
> Bata Bikers and Skid-Lids were common. So was lots of padding on the
bars: Grab-Ons or foam rubber covered with tape. One water bottle. Huret
Multito counting the miles. Broken flickstand.
> Leonard Bulger
> The last night in my Ann Arbor house, bikes cocooned in pipe foam, boxes
everywhere.