My advice if you're just starting out in randonneuring is ride what you own. That will give you a chance to figure out whether you really like it, and what "style" of randonneuring you want to do. People succeed at randonneuring on all sorts of different bikes.
My first five years randonneuring I rode high-trail bikes with most of the load in a saddlebag and a moderate amount in a handlebar bag. The last six years I've ridden low-trail bikes with most of the load in a handlebar bag and only a small portion in a saddlebag. I like low-trail better, but it's not a deal-breaker either way. Way more important is to have a bike that fits well and that is lively. Nick Bull RBA MD:Capital Region / DC Randonneurs On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 7:01:30 PM UTC-4, Reed Kennedy wrote: > > Thanks very much for the thoughts, Bill! You described exactly the sort of > experience I was hoping to hear about. > > I'm currently considering training for a couple brevets. I've never done > one, and it both seems like an interesting challenge and a good training > goal. At the moment the two most appropriate (or perhaps I should say least > inappropriate) bikes I own for such a thing are a drop bar'd Hunqapillar > and an old 2004 Madone race bike that was given to me and then ignored. I'm > concerned that the Hunq is overbuilt for randonneuring and that the Madone > would simply be unpleasant. But then, I'm also concerned I'm just looking > for an excuse to buy another bike! > > Do you feel randonneuring benefits hugely from a purpose-built bike, or > should I just go for it with what I have? > > > Best, > Reed > > On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 3:46 PM, Bill Lindsay <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Reed asked: >> >> Does anyone have experience with both Rivvy (mid-trail, burly rigid >> frame, carrying stuff all over) and the more French rando / Jan sort of >> bike? What did you think of each? >> >> Yes I do. I think both are fine. Some people feel like it's a night and >> day kind of difference, and I don't feel that way. My two low-trail bikes >> are both Rawlands. I have their road model, the Nordavinden, and their >> 650b rando model, the Stag. My Stag is still my primary brevet bike and >> it's terrific. I did a lot of brevets on a 650B A Homer Hilsen before that >> and it was great, too, but I felt it was somewhat overbuilt for that >> brevet-only use. Let me know if you want to check out my Nordavinden (it's >> a 58-59 Large). I used that as a platform to just explore the concepts, >> and I feel like I've learned what I needed to learn. Most recently I had >> braze-on centerpulls attached to see what the fuss was about. I'm now >> moving my road bike exploration towards contemporary gravel bike concepts. >> >> I'm a big fan of front loading in general. I put stuff in saddle bags >> only as a last resort. I think front loading works great for me on high >> trail and low trail. In my experience a low trail bike unloaded is still >> fine. >> >> >> On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 3:24:31 PM UTC-7, Reed Kennedy wrote: >>> >>> I've been a Rivvy sorta guy for the last ten years, owning several of >>> their bikes and numerous others built up in Riv-inspired ways. Recently >>> I've been reading through back issues of Bicycle Quarterly, and back posts >>> on Jan Heine's blog. It's got me wondering about this whole >>> alternate-universe practical bike thing he describes, which seems to be >>> characterized by low trail steering geometry, flexible frames, and carrying >>> loads up front. >>> >>> I'd love to try it, but such bikes aren't exactly common. >>> >>> Does anyone have experience with both Rivvy (mid-trail, burly rigid >>> frame, carrying stuff all over) and the more French rando / Jan sort of >>> bike? What did you think of each? >>> >>> >>> Reed >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> <javascript:>. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
