On Wed, 2013-05-08 at 07:39 -0700, Michael wrote: > What actually is a Randonneur frame?
> Meaning, what is it about its geometry and materials that makes it more > suited to this activity over other traditionally styled road bikes - > fenderability and tire width and ad- ons capability excluded? Think about the mission. You need a bike that's comfortable for long distance riding, that won't fatigue you because it rides roughly. You can expect that the rider is going to be tired and inattentive at some point (inevitable if you're riding through the night) so you can't tolerate hair-trigger handling that will get away from you if you're slow and inattentive. You can expect to start at 7 am and, for the longer rides, ride through the heat of the day, past sundown, and into the chill of night. In some places, that can mean as much as a 25-30 degree temperature range. You can't do that with a pair of arm warmers and leg warmers that you can stick in a jersey pocket, so you're going to have to be able to carry the clothing you needed when it was cold during the heat of the day. "More than you can stick in a jersey pocket" means you're going to have to carry bags of some kind. The more accessible those bags are when you're riding (so you don't have to stop and park the bike to put on a pair of sun glasses, for example) the better. On the longer rides you will have to ride at night. That means you'll need a lighting system. The really long rides will outlast the range of battery-operated systems, so either you'll need to replace batteries or will have to rely on bicycle-powered systems that don't need batteries. Randonneuring is a spring-time sport, and in most areas of the country spring is a rainy season. You can't skip out on a ride because it rains, so the bike is going to have to go in bad weather. The worst part about riding in the rain is getting chilled because you're wet, and to deal with that you'll not only need suitable rain clothing, you also should find a way to keep the worst of it, spray from the road, off you. That means you'll need to mount fenders, and that in turn means the bike should have the room to fit them and the attachment points to fit them. All that said, it's a sport that is run against a time limit. Time allowed is based on distance, with no consideration for terrain. Go too slow and you won't finish in time. Also, the rides are typically in mountainous country, so the bike is going to have to be set up so you can climb long, steep hills. Basically, any bike that can meet those functional requirements will do. Many bikes can't meet them all but can do some, and often compromises will be made. In fact, the rules used to mandate fenders but since so few bicycles made recently can actually fit fenders, they relaxed the rules to make them optional. Some people do without them. -- 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
