Feeler F/T: 54cm Jamis Ventura Sport Road Bike (for vintage steel)

So, I rode my dad's old Lotus over the weekend, and absolutely fell in love with the feel of steel and the look of an absolutely horizontal top tube. 

Here are the specs of my bike:

http://jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/road/ventura/10_venturasport.html

Upgrades include: new rear wheel (Mavic Open Pro laced with DT Swiss spokes to Ultegra hub) , Prologo Scratch saddle, Bontrager hard-case tires. The picture below shows it with the stock saddle (which I also have) and an uncut steerer tube (which has since been cut.)

If you have something that may be of interest, give me a shout.

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Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on August 23, 2012 at 1:03pm

I rotated the bars up a slight bit and it made a world of a difference. 

Also, I had the seat-post too high. It got moved down an inch or so, and now I've got about a fistful of seatpost showing, which would make sense. The stem is still raised a little high because I don't like extreme saddle to bar drop. 

This is a 53cm frame - which is fine, but I have a super long torso and short arms. The next size up in this frame would have been a 23 inch which is a 58cm frame..too big. I think I'd ideally fit a 54/55cm frame, but at that point I'd have very little seat post showing and probably a shorter stem. My only concern is that it 'looks' goofy with that much stem showing on the voyageur. Once I get a 110-120mm length stem, I'm probably set as far as fine tuning. I *DO* intend to ride this bike on the perimeter ride, north shore century, and the beer ride on the 2nd of next month. If I can survive with those adjustments, I'm good.

ilter said:

Congrats Jim!  I would say do a long ride and a few hundred miles in total to see what is working & what is not, you may like  many things the way they are.  Rotating handlebars should give you more room on the ramps, drops need not be parallel to ground..  My bike has similar half-step gearing with a small chainring as a quick bailout uphill. I like it a lot.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, looks like you too were charmed & got a bike that is one or two sizes too small.  Now your quest for your perfect vintage bike begins :))

Permalink Reply by ilter on August 23, 2012 at 1:22pm

Good, sounds like you were careful about the size, unlike me :)

If it will make you feel better about the tall stem, check out some of the Rivendell bikes on this site :)

http://cyclofiend.com/cc/cc-maker.html

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on August 23, 2012 at 2:02pm

Sweet Jesus, some of those stems are mega-sized. I don't feel so bad anymore. I know you were riding a 58cm LHT. What sizes did you pick up for your other frames? Are they too small by that much?

ilter said:

Good, sounds like you were careful about the size, unlike me :)

If it will make you feel better about the tall stem, check out some of the Rivendell bikes on this site :)

http://cyclofiend.com/cc/cc-maker.html

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 23, 2012 at 2:49pm

I like a tall stem.  If the top of the bars is level with the seat that's about where I like them, with the ramps up a tiny bit from there.  This way the drops are actually usable for me.   I've got longer legs than arms too.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on August 23, 2012 at 3:04pm

Me too, James. I'm not worried about the stem being past the minimum insertion mark, as I don't really have a ton of weight on my hands anyhow; it's probably 60% on my saddle

Speaking of which, the saddle that's in the picture is the shitty stock saddle from my Jamis. It's absolutely awful, and I'm possibly ready to try a B17 or hell, even a flyer. I'm thinking the geometry is probably a little different from when I had my Jamis, so maybe the brooks would work better than when I had the B17N on the old bike. 

Or, I'm just about ready to have the Velo Orange catalogue vomit all over my bike. :)

Permalink Reply by Michael A on August 23, 2012 at 3:08pm

how much past the mark are you? and how much do you like your teeth?

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on August 23, 2012 at 3:11pm

Ha! I'm 3/4 of an inch over. My teeth are just ok, but I would prefer to keep them as-is. Already had to have cosmetic surgery on them from a hockey incident about 15 years ago.

Michael A said:

how much past the mark are you? and how much do you like your teeth?

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 23, 2012 at 3:13pm

If you get another Brooks I doubt it will be as non-pliable as the last one you had.  Whatever cow was the prior owner of that leather skin must have been the Chuck Norris of bovines.  Brooks shouldn't need that much break-in time. 

As for stem insertion.  I never go less than 2" from the very bottom of the stem diagonal cut.

Permalink Reply by Gerry G on August 23, 2012 at 4:06pm

Happy new bike Jim!  The frame was manufactured by Panasonic/Matsushita of Japan to Schwinn specifications.  

I hope you can dial in the fit so you can comfortably go 25K miles on it.  Looking forward to a ride report.  

Permalink Reply by spencewine on August 23, 2012 at 4:56pm

I hated long distance biking until I got a B17....I know it's probably abnormal, but immediately the saddle felt good and for long distances. I put in a 116 miles last weekend on my Trek 520/B17 and there was almost no soreness the day of and none the next day. My B17 has almost 400 miles on it at this point which isn't a lot, but I ride a selle contour on my commuting bike...a 1989 Bianchi Volpe. Anyway...I just think the B17 is the cat's meow, that's all.

edit: and if you want to see the worst marketing campaign for a saddle ever? Here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLh_VwpWycA



Jim S said:

Me too, James. I'm not worried about the stem being past the minimum insertion mark, as I don't really have a ton of weight on my hands anyhow; it's probably 60% on my saddle

Speaking of which, the saddle that's in the picture is the shitty stock saddle from my Jamis. It's absolutely awful, and I'm possibly ready to try a B17 or hell, even a flyer. I'm thinking the geometry is probably a little different from when I had my Jamis, so maybe the brooks would work better than when I had the B17N on the old bike. 

Or, I'm just about ready to have the Velo Orange catalogue vomit all over my bike. :)

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on August 24, 2012 at 2:03am

I like the one comment on that video : 'wtf is this."

 

You're right; it is the worst marketing campaign. And that girl needs to tilt the saddle back on the road bike she was on; it's going to hurt her hands.

 

On the plus side, I finally figured out how to get the san marco saddle to work for me. I had to flip the seat post 180 degrees and was able to get it dialed in perfectly. Luckily, the san marco is a bulky saddle whose wings cover up the clamp, so nobody can see how stupid it looks. Ha. I'm still saving pennies for the real deal, though.
 
spencewine said:

I hated long distance biking until I got a B17....I know it's probably abnormal, but immediately the saddle felt good and for long distances. I put in a 116 miles last weekend on my Trek 520/B17 and there was almost no soreness the day of and none the next day. My B17 has almost 400 miles on it at this point which isn't a lot, but I ride a selle contour on my commuting bike...a 1989 Bianchi Volpe. Anyway...I just think the B17 is the cat's meow, that's all.

edit: and if you want to see the worst marketing campaign for a saddle ever? Here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLh_VwpWycA



Jim S said:

Me too, James. I'm not worried about the stem being past the minimum insertion mark, as I don't really have a ton of weight on my hands anyhow; it's probably 60% on my saddle

Speaking of which, the saddle that's in the picture is the shitty stock saddle from my Jamis. It's absolutely awful, and I'm possibly ready to try a B17 or hell, even a flyer. I'm thinking the geometry is probably a little different from when I had my Jamis, so maybe the brooks would work better than when I had the B17N on the old bike. 

Or, I'm just about ready to have the Velo Orange catalogue vomit all over my bike. :)

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 24, 2012 at 2:11am

Was that Shirley Manson?  

The T1001 doesn't require any special saddle.  It can conform itself INTO a saddle if it needs to...



spencewine said:

edit: and if you want to see the worst marketing campaign for a saddle ever? Here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLh_VwpWycA




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