Big Red - My 2003 Waterford "Road Sport Adventure Cycle".
last modified 6/24/2009

click on picture to enlarge

OK - there's no such thing as a Waterford "Road Sport Adventure Cycle". Officially, this is a RST-22 (Road Sport Touring) with some "Adventure Cycle Type"; upgrades in terms of down-tube and seat-tube specifications. Read about the frame and orginal components.

I had intended to get an Adventure Cycle based on my physical size (6'3"; 250 lbs), my commuting load (laptop computer and change of clothes), and my long-term dream to ride across the country. However, Waterford's Road Sport Touring model also intrigued me with it's potential to be an all-purpose bike. When I went to the factory for my fitting they asked me about the riding I actually do (commuting, recreational rail-trails, 2 to 4 day credit-card tours) rather than the riding I might do some day (loaded, cross-country) and we ended up with a reinforced RST.

After a couple years, I reached the following conclusions about my original choices:

• Long Reach Side-pull Brakes & Tire Clearance:  I had a choice between side-pulls and cantilevers and chose side-pulls. If I had it to do over, I would go with cantlevers.  The 700 x 32 tires that I usually run fit fine.  However, I ran some 700 x 37's for awhile and really liked the way they rode on rail-trails.  Unfortunately, I couldn't remove/install the wheels without deflating the tires.  Even with the brake cable disconnected, I couldn't squeeze the tires through the calipers. So now I run the 700 x 32's as my widest tires.

• The RST vs. the Adventure Cycle when carrying a load:  I've never done a fully loaded tour so the RST made sense. However, on a credit-card trip a few years back my load still weighed enough to make the handling a little squirrelly at high speed.  In retrospect I was over-packed (I'm working on that).  Also, it wasn't a "fast ride" trip - I had to intentionally sprint up to a higher speed than the group in order to notice anything odd about the ride.  However, my commuting load occasionally nears the "squirrelly weight threshold" and I wonder if the Adventure Cycle might have been better specifically for commuting (then again, maybe I need to carry less when commuting!).

• The RST as an all-purpose bike: Outside of the occasional heavy loads, the RST seems to excel as an all-purpose bike.  I regularly ride on roads and rail trails with no problems - I've even taken it on a few dirt trails.  I know that "hybrid" has a bad connotation to some, but the RST is sort of a drop-bar hybrid.  I guess some would criticize the fact that it's neither a great racer nor a great loaded tourer, but it wasn't designed to be either.  It was designed as an all-purpose road bike (Richard Schwinn has called it the "gentlemen's sport tourer") and it fulfills that role very well.

  Big Red is llisted on the Current Classics Bike Gallery

My quality/cost/performance analogies for non-cyclists are:

Frame Highlights

The frame is 63 cm, lugged steel, Intense Red with White pinstripes. I thought I might go with the richer looking Candy Red, but when I looked at finished frames in the factory, Intense Red just jumped out at me. I like to call it Ferrari/Corvette/Mid-life Crisis Red. The background image for this page is the engineering diagram for the frame. Click here to see the diagram in detail.

The slight rise in the top tube and the 20 cm extension made the head tube (1 1/8" threadless) so long that the fork steerer was not cut at all when the bike was built up by Southport Schwinn in Kenosha, WI. Based on my conversations with the Waterford folks, I think this may be the first 1 1/8" lugged head tube frame they made.

I had a choice between cantilevers and side-pulls. It was a tough choice since I like the looks of both, but I decided on the side-pulls. Check out the tire clearance. The Pasella tires in the picture are labeled inconsistently with both 700x35 and 37-622. Oddly, they actually measure about 32 when fully inflated. Later, I installed some Schwalbe Marathon Slicks with the same inconsistent size labels. However, they actually measured 37 when inflated. They rode well, but fit very tightly and had to be deflated to remove/install the wheel. If I had cantilever brakes, they would have been no problem at all.

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Orginal Components

After going for the best in a custom-sized, U.S. made frame, I decided to aim for middle of the road in components to save a little money. If I manage to wear something out quickly, I can always upgrade on the replacement.

Except for the first five items on the list, all the components were purchased through Southport Schwinn in Kenosha, WI (262-653-0204). For Waterford buyers, they gave a 15% discount on all parts purchased through them and install them for free. They sold at least three Waterfords in the last half of 2003.

The first four components (seat, seatpost, bottle cages, pedals) were things I already had in my parts collection. They either came from other bikes or I ran across an incredible sale while I was saving up for this bike so I bought them and put them aside. As for the crankset, Southport simply couldn't find it in stock with any of their suppliers so I got it from Harris Cyclery. We talked about other road or mountain cranks, but the Sugino had the chainring sizes I really wanted.

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