Hey Tim, if my friend hadn't offered to build me the rando bike at a discount I'd still be riding the Hilsen for randonneuring. The Hilsen really is a fine randonneuring bike in spite of it not be optimized for a front bag. Still, I rode mine with a front bag for 2 complete series and had no major issues.
My dedicated rando bike had had a VO 50.4 BCD crank on it and it was just a bit finicky to set-up and didn't feel so great. I don't know that I'm a fan of narrow tread cranks. I'm gonna put a Sugino crank on the rando bike, either an XD triple or the compact double off my Hilsen. With 46/34 rings I still don't feel I have the gears I want when mated to an 8 spd 11--28 cassette. I may try 44/34 or convert the triple into a 44/30 double or, and most likely, just run a triple 46/36/28. I'm gonna pick-up a bottom bracket today and experiment. I checked the route and it's only like 3800' of climbing. There are no extended climbs. From Estacada to Ripplebrook is like 25 miles of river grade with the exception of one part where the road kicks up for about 1/2 a mile. We had some serious headwinds. The main thing that slowed us down was just some long breaks which are okay, it was just my initial intention to ride straight through with only one extended stop, at Ripplebrook to make coffee and eat sangwiches. But yeah, the Hilsen is a more than adequete randonneuring bike. I think between it and my LHT all my current cycling needs--rambling, road riding, camping/touring, commuting, randonneuring--are covered. It's another beautiful day here in Portland. I'm gonna take a little ramble on the Hilsen through Forest Park and around town to run some errands. --mike On May 11, 5:49 am, Tim <[email protected]> wrote: > Mike, what is your normal rando bike and why do you usually ride it > over the Homer? Just curious because I rode some brevets last year, > 200 and 300k, preparing for a supported tour, and did them on my > Homer, which I had just bought. I thought it performed well, although > I had nothing at all to compare it to because I had only done some > club/charity type centuries in the past on bikes that, although > decent, had zero thought put into them. It was my first foray into the > rando/touring world. Also, how much climbing was in your latest 200k? > Your Cascade ride sounds like it will have lots of vertical feet! Good > luck on it. I've not done any brevets this year, but want to try them > again. Last year gave me a real appreciation of the dedication and > perseverance it takes to do the Super Randonneur series. Way to go! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
