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Llewellyn Custom Bicycles Randonneur Voyageur Project

Llewellyn, Voyageur 2013 Randonneur Custom frame and forks by Darrell McCulloch of Llewellyn Custom Bicycles.

This year I've been watching Darrell McCulloch pour his heart and soul into every detail of his 2013 Voyageur - randonneur concept. Built in true constructeur style, meaning no cheap after market parts, and incorporating many bespoke components made in house, in the style of builders like Alex Singer and Rene Herse. Complimented with carefully selected high quality parts from various independent manufacturers. Darrell tooled up for the project by making many of the tools required for the job himself, tools that aid in building a precision built frame. Darrell designed and builds the racks himself. Dedication to perfection saw Darrell commissioning Jesse Geisler from the Bike Bar at Fitzroy Melbourne, to manufacture a custom tool just for bending the 316 stainless steel tubing used in the racks. Geisler's tool built under the name of Geisler Tool and Gauge.

Darrell says "The Voyageur is a reconstruction of a practical bike for weekday riding to work and weekend credit card touring, just throw your gear in the bags and off you go."

In 2005 Darrell attended Cirque custom vintage collectors bike show in the US and after meeting other bike builders at the show he was inspired to begin working on a Llewellyn randonneur project. He bought the Blackwell clocks at that show, they were stored away all that time until the first Voyageur rolled out of the workshop this month. In the last couple of years Darrell started building other randonneur bikes for customers, all the while planning the creation of a fully integrated machine with his own handmade racks. Two years ago Darrell got into designing and working on the concept, beginning with drawings. The bike was finally ready just a week before the 2012 Australian Custom Bicycle Show.

The green colour of the Voyageur is inspired by the green of the countryside.  Black bags compliment the Campagnolo black components and the gold honey colour is addedto compliment the brown bags.

I was at Darrell's workshop at the end of September when he was nearing completion of the concept and almost ready to braze up the frame. There's a couple of images below of the Voyageur in the jig and the plans that Darrell used to meticulously create every detail. Talk to Darrell and you'll know why his bikes are flawless, yesterday when I shot the final images he pointed out the alignment of the fender and rear tyre, perfectly matching one another. Cables for the rear light are hidden inside the rolled edge of the mudguard. You'll see in the images the detailing under the bottom bracket for the light cable routing. These are just a couple of examples of the exhaustive nature of Darrell's attention to detail, suffice to say this is a fully integrated bike worthy of the title of being built in true constructeur style.

Drawing inserted into front bag by Frank Patterson - location shots inspired by the Frank Patterson drawings of early randonneur riders. If you're interested in early cycling drawings also check out Daniel Rebour.

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COMPONENTS for the Llewellyn Voyageur - Randonneur - by Darrell McCulloch

Main features - Integrated racks and lights, inspiration going back to builders like Alex Singer, Rene Herse, built in house, no bolt on generic parts, making a more lightweight and adaptable machine.

Paint by Joe Cosgrove

Campagnolo Athena 11 speed triple ensemble 2013 first release
Paul cantilever brakes, neo retro front, touring model for back
Rear hub Campagnolo Record 2013
Chorus Carbon Seat Post
Deda Zero 100 Alloy Bars
Llewellyn Custom Stem, painted by Joe Cosgrove
Tyres 30mm Grand Bois
Honey coloured Brooks Swift Leather riveted saddle, with Titanium rails
CRM Clipless Road Pedal by KEYWIN
Blackwell Analogue time piece in a machined alloy housing fitted to head stem tensioning bolt
Biddon Cages King ti
Brooks Leather brown bar tape, tied off with waxed cotton twine
Schmidt Edelux K 607 6V / 2.4 W Headlight, with custom Llewellyn cable routing. Custom earth via fork tips, cleverly hidden and designed into dropouts. Connectorless front hub, due to being earthed live through the front axle
Schmidt front Hub SON Delux
Lllewellyn custom front and rear racks, designed and manufactured in house at Llewellyn from 316 stainless steel tubing, fully silver brazed.Tubing for racks bent using custom jig manufactured by Jesse Geisler, at Bike Bar Fitzroy Melbourne
Honjo alloy Fenders
Spare spoke holder braze on’s under left hand chain stay
Columbus spirit for lugs – tubing
Lugs Lllewellyn Custodian – designed and manufactured by Darrell McCulloch
Handbuilt wheels, Mavic Open Pro rims Dt Spokes, rear wheel tied and soldered
Front and Rear – French Bags handmade by Gilles Berthous
Brooks leather – under saddle – toolbag
Mudguards fitted using stainless steel studs, leather washers, nyloc nuts – will never vibrate loose
Racks custom fitted and designed, individually made to fit bike correctly
Tail light wire inside rolled edge of mudguard all lights double earthed
Seat stay attachment style inspired by the restoration of Brian MacLean’s Ron Cooper, inspired originally by Bianchi
Dzus 90 degree titanium motorcycle fairing clips for bags – world’s first deployment on a randonneur bike

All images by Robert Cobcroft - a big thanks to Darrell for letting me take his Voyageur for the photo shoot.

Voyageur Lllewellyn Plans in the making since 2005
Preliminary work on the llewellyn Voyageur
Llewellyn Voyageur randonneur in development
Randonneur Llewellyn in construction phase
Detail, without lugs Darrell's precision work

Voyageur Llewellyn custom randonneur in constructeur style

Blackwell Analogue time piece in a machined alloy housing
Brooks leather saddle bag
Brooks leather bar tape
Brooks cork bar end
Llewellym country inspired green randonneur
Spare spokes built into left chain stay

Llewellyn bike cable routing

Voyageur Llewellyn Bike spare spokes

Athena Campagnolo triple chainrings

Schmidt SON deluxe hub

Honjo alloy fender

Columbus spirit for lugs tubing

Athena Campagnolo levers

Deda Zero 100 handlebars

Brooks Leather brown bar tape, tied off with waxed cotton twine
Keywin CRM Clipless Road Pedal

Honjo fenders

Llewellyn custom bikes randonneur

Llewellyn bikes custom head badge

Brooks Swift saddle

Campagnolo Athena triple chainrings

Llewellyn constructeur style bicycle by Darrell McCulloch

Campagnolo chain

Cable routing detail llewellyn bikes

Brooks of England since 1866

Brooks England puncture repair kit

Campagnolo Chorus seat post

Voyageur Llewellyn bike

Voyageur randonneur Llewellyn bicycle

Early randonneur riding in England reflected in the Rebour drawing

Blackwell clock fitted to the Lllewellyn randonneur, Darrell collected these clocks at a trade show years earlier in anticipation of building the first Voyageur bike

Paul cantilver brakes

Llewellyn bicycle ready for touring

Voyageur Llewellyn bicycle at sunset

Llewellyn custom bicycles

Llewellyn randonneur constructeur style bike

Touring on a randonneur Llewellyn bicycle

Green Llewellyn bike randonneur

Schmidt hub SON deluxe
Jesse Geisler bike bar geisler tool and gauge
Jesse Geisler llewellyn rack bending tool

MORE LLEWELLYN BIKE STORIES

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