In a message dated 7/14/01 11:42:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, bhufford@mail.orion.org writes:
<< I have a little information on the bike here:
http://www.geocities.com/
It was between the fillet brazed Sport Tourer and the Paramounts in the line up. ............(snip)....Seamless, leather covered nylon saddle (Unica-Nitor) -- sometimes Brooks B-15 leather saddle.....(snip)...... The bars may be GB. I parted out a Schwinn Super Sport today and the only marking on the randonneur bars was the GB logo about 1 inch up from the end of the left drop. >>
Special thanks to Bob for building a neat resource for Schwinns at:
http://www.geocities.com/
I was a little frustrated to click back into many pages that are not built yet (Maybe remove links until pages filled?) but there obviously will be a lot of neat info there when completed!
A couple of quick comments on the World Voyageur;
The components on these bikes were 100% Japanese so OE was never Unicanitor nor Brooks, at least not in the unopened box. Dealers may have fiddled with them after the fact. The saddles were Japanese copies of the Unicanitor. (YFC? or similar?) The bars again were nice versions of Randonneurs but Japanese sourced.
The USA assembled Schwinns of the era had much French and British made components, GB, TA, Maillard, Weinmann, Nervar, etc. often labeled as Schwinn approved. ("If you buy enough, you can get your name printed in it.")
The bikes were made by National (also known as Panasonic) and were very nicely made. One could remove the paint and have a fairly nice all-chrome frame. I did this with mine. The chrome was not polished as well in the previously painted areas but looked good (to me!) at 10 feet away!
These bikes were also a little hefty but rode nicely. I commuted daily on mine for a few years before it met it's cruel end by colliding with the rear end of a parked Ford Pinto (DO NOT adjust brakes while riding!) The stupid rider has a sore shoulder to this day.
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina