Next year i'll move to a smaller apartment so we can get used to that limited amount of space before we jump to our real project. This will highly contrast with my current spacious loft near the Jean-Talon market, thus buying folding bikes and reducing our goods becomes a necessity. My partner wanted a used folder and we checked what was available in the surroundings, we were tempted by a Raleigh Twenty but decided to buy an 80$ Leader Voyageur from a nice old guy near Coteaux-du-Lac.
This bike was made in Canada by Victoria Precision Works and appeared to be pretty popular during the 70's/80's, it is very sturdy and heavy but was kept in good condition. The 1st thing we did is to replace a useless gigantic white saddle, take off a weird rear rack, problem is that the owner has made a DIY job with aluminium parts and planks and cut the original rear fender in the process. Here is how it looked on Week 2, after a super expensive crappy tune-up at Momentum velo, i had a better service on my Kona before but this was really butchered (check the front black cable below).
There are a lot of things that need to be changed on this bike in order to improve the ride; so i went to my LBS Dumoulin Bicyclettes (they sell Brompton, Tern, Dahon, Vela.ca and Strida), we are replacing the short one piece Chromoly crankset (child size), the original 40T chain-ring for a 44T, the brake levers, brake pads and also ordered a new bar.
The Voyageur has a comfy/casual ride if you are a small person, granted you got rid of the original bars, it's a bit slow and the original drive-train is not a good choice but overall the bike feels rock solid. Imagine that these are the original rubber tires from the 70's and they are still in great condition, i don't think we can count on any products today to last that long!
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