It's been interesting and exciting riding brevets. Each ride has been unique, even riding over some of the same roads on seperate events has been different each time. After two years of randonneuring on a recumbent I have put in enough mileage to feel I can call myself a randonneur. Maybe not a very experienced one but I have had enough experience to learn what and what does not work for me. For each of us some things work well or not so well in different conditions.
I have taken some time after completing my Super Randonneur series this year and decided to evaluate my strategies, all of them. I am going to train differently and a bit more intensive this next year. More hills and more intervals.
I am also going to add a special bike to the mix. Some of the local brevets include up to ten mountain gaps in 200K. Others only 4 or 6 gaps. While I feel it is a bit ridiculous to design a route like this, it is what the local RBA's offer. So a bike that climbs better is also on my list. Don't fear fellow bent riders, I am not giving up the Silver Strada. I love riding a bent way too much and frankly I find the upright bike an outdated design and concept for most riding. Unless you are racing in a peleton or triathlon, I don't see a reason to ride one. I know some folks love the DF and that's fine. We should all ride what we like.
After the thought process, I came up with a list of what I feel would make a great randonneuring bike for me;
Lightweight - need to get up those hills and make my energy last over hundreds of miles.
A good climber
Reliable frame - solid design and construction
Reliable components - no finicky pieces
Light but strong wheels - easy to repair on the road
Disk brakes - for those steep down hill runs, wet weather and no tire popping in the heat, easy wheel changes
Two sets of wheels - training and randonee'
Wider tires - something to fight chip seal
Dynamo hub - time to go light on batteries
LED Lights - use the newer dynamo driven led lights
Fenders - light but solid
GPS - 'nough said
700C wheels - easier to find than 650C or 26"
Comfortable - If it's not comfy, why ride?
Efficient - Brevets are not races but you want an efficient bike
Easy to transport and store
Easy to add racks and storage
Bar cons or trigger shifters
Removable seat pad - for rain days when off the bike
So armed with my list and some research I rented a RANS crank forward bike from Greg about a month ago. It was a Zenetik, a model year or two old. I liked the format a lot. A missing thing Toby had mentioned was being able to look back with ease. Something I can not do on a highracer but sure could on the Zenetik. While I liked the bike and Gregs price on it was fair, I wanted something a bit more. So after a lot of reading forums and Vik B's blog I decided on the RANS 700X. Since this bike was going to be very specific to my needs, I decdided a frame set was the way to go. I would build the bike from scratch, with it's main purpose being a rando rig.
Here is the Silver 700 frame from the rear quarter.
It's a pretty light bike. The seat is the RANS carbon fiber model, the fork is also the RANS carbon fork. The frame has disk brake tabs, so does the fork!
I plan to use the brake bosses for mounting lights. This should give me a solid mounting place front and rear. It puts the front lights low and the rear lights a little higher than my Strada.
Here are the goodies for it so far;
SRAM X.0 carbon trigger shifters
SRAM X.0 carbon rear DR
These should be in early next week. Planned are;
SRAM X.0 front DR
AVID BB7 brakes
Carbon Truvativ crankset with MTB gearing.
GPX bottom bracket
One wheel set hand made with SRAM dynamo
Schmidt LED lights
Dinnotte rear light
Spare Trek rear light
Ti Crank brothers Quattro pedals
I am still researching the daily driver wheel set and the base computer. I'll probably go with the Trek Team iNsite I have on the Strada. It supports two bikes so a second set of transmitters is all I need with a mount.
Tires, I am thinking of trying out the Vittoria Randonneurs and the Schwalbe Marathon Racers or Kojaks. I might even look at Pro 3's or GP4K's. The first set will probably be the Vittoria's unless I hear somehting really bad about them or they won't fit.
This bike is great looking, it's gonna get black rims and spokes I think.
I am thinking of replacing the bar with a carbon one, depending upon weight saved. Looking at ergo grips or have Kevin do the custom wrap like he did on the Strada.
A few last thoughts and comments on the RANS CF's and a few other things;
An order for a Fusion and Dynamik came into the shop, we have folks that are dieing to try these bikes. I put them together out back as soon as they came off the truck. RANS does a great job of packing these bikes.
Jeff took the Fusion for a very short spin around the parking lot and was quite surprised at how it handled. Not like a bent, but a DF. He "got it" on the first ride, once someone rides one of these bikes, it is a no brainer.
I also took the Fusion and the Dynamik for brief spins after assembly to shake them down and you can really tell the difference in the geometry between them, both great bikes, just a different feel.
Last, when I unpacked the frame back atr the house, Kristin caught that the 700X was packed by "Randy." I wonder if this was someone else or was it Randy Schlitter? Kind of cool and we are keeping the packing check list with signature for historical sake.
That's all for now. I'll post over the next week as the base bike is built, then tested. After that the updates as it is "rando rigged" will come in. Hopefully in October or November I'll do a 200K on it and see if my suspicions are right. This may be the new brevet platform.
I have taken some time after completing my Super Randonneur series this year and decided to evaluate my strategies, all of them. I am going to train differently and a bit more intensive this next year. More hills and more intervals.
I am also going to add a special bike to the mix. Some of the local brevets include up to ten mountain gaps in 200K. Others only 4 or 6 gaps. While I feel it is a bit ridiculous to design a route like this, it is what the local RBA's offer. So a bike that climbs better is also on my list. Don't fear fellow bent riders, I am not giving up the Silver Strada. I love riding a bent way too much and frankly I find the upright bike an outdated design and concept for most riding. Unless you are racing in a peleton or triathlon, I don't see a reason to ride one. I know some folks love the DF and that's fine. We should all ride what we like.
After the thought process, I came up with a list of what I feel would make a great randonneuring bike for me;
Lightweight - need to get up those hills and make my energy last over hundreds of miles.
A good climber
Reliable frame - solid design and construction
Reliable components - no finicky pieces
Light but strong wheels - easy to repair on the road
Disk brakes - for those steep down hill runs, wet weather and no tire popping in the heat, easy wheel changes
Two sets of wheels - training and randonee'
Wider tires - something to fight chip seal
Dynamo hub - time to go light on batteries
LED Lights - use the newer dynamo driven led lights
Fenders - light but solid
GPS - 'nough said
700C wheels - easier to find than 650C or 26"
Comfortable - If it's not comfy, why ride?
Efficient - Brevets are not races but you want an efficient bike
Easy to transport and store
Easy to add racks and storage
Bar cons or trigger shifters
Removable seat pad - for rain days when off the bike
So armed with my list and some research I rented a RANS crank forward bike from Greg about a month ago. It was a Zenetik, a model year or two old. I liked the format a lot. A missing thing Toby had mentioned was being able to look back with ease. Something I can not do on a highracer but sure could on the Zenetik. While I liked the bike and Gregs price on it was fair, I wanted something a bit more. So after a lot of reading forums and Vik B's blog I decided on the RANS 700X. Since this bike was going to be very specific to my needs, I decdided a frame set was the way to go. I would build the bike from scratch, with it's main purpose being a rando rig.
Here is the Silver 700 frame from the rear quarter.
It's a pretty light bike. The seat is the RANS carbon fiber model, the fork is also the RANS carbon fork. The frame has disk brake tabs, so does the fork!
I plan to use the brake bosses for mounting lights. This should give me a solid mounting place front and rear. It puts the front lights low and the rear lights a little higher than my Strada.
Here are the goodies for it so far;
SRAM X.0 carbon trigger shifters
SRAM X.0 carbon rear DR
These should be in early next week. Planned are;
SRAM X.0 front DR
AVID BB7 brakes
Carbon Truvativ crankset with MTB gearing.
GPX bottom bracket
One wheel set hand made with SRAM dynamo
Schmidt LED lights
Dinnotte rear light
Spare Trek rear light
Ti Crank brothers Quattro pedals
I am still researching the daily driver wheel set and the base computer. I'll probably go with the Trek Team iNsite I have on the Strada. It supports two bikes so a second set of transmitters is all I need with a mount.
Tires, I am thinking of trying out the Vittoria Randonneurs and the Schwalbe Marathon Racers or Kojaks. I might even look at Pro 3's or GP4K's. The first set will probably be the Vittoria's unless I hear somehting really bad about them or they won't fit.
This bike is great looking, it's gonna get black rims and spokes I think.
I am thinking of replacing the bar with a carbon one, depending upon weight saved. Looking at ergo grips or have Kevin do the custom wrap like he did on the Strada.
A few last thoughts and comments on the RANS CF's and a few other things;
An order for a Fusion and Dynamik came into the shop, we have folks that are dieing to try these bikes. I put them together out back as soon as they came off the truck. RANS does a great job of packing these bikes.
Jeff took the Fusion for a very short spin around the parking lot and was quite surprised at how it handled. Not like a bent, but a DF. He "got it" on the first ride, once someone rides one of these bikes, it is a no brainer.
I also took the Fusion and the Dynamik for brief spins after assembly to shake them down and you can really tell the difference in the geometry between them, both great bikes, just a different feel.
Last, when I unpacked the frame back atr the house, Kristin caught that the 700X was packed by "Randy." I wonder if this was someone else or was it Randy Schlitter? Kind of cool and we are keeping the packing check list with signature for historical sake.
That's all for now. I'll post over the next week as the base bike is built, then tested. After that the updates as it is "rando rigged" will come in. Hopefully in October or November I'll do a 200K on it and see if my suspicions are right. This may be the new brevet platform.