What do you ride? How do you have it set up? What to you like about? What would you change?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ilter on April 6, 2012 at 10:34pm

My bike is a Surly LHT (LongHaulTrucker).  I bought it brand new & kept most stock parts.  It has been a reliable ride.  Touring geometry & room for wide tires with fenders, eyelets for racks and bottles, wide gear range are the good things about the bike.  Stock cranks placed the pedals too far apart, and I changed them with an old Sakae set (which sits closer to the frame, accommodates 2 chainrings & clears the chainstays with a few millimetres).  Also changed the stock handlebar with Nitto randonneur bar.  What I do not like about the LHT is its super stiff frame.  Slightest slopes make me shift down to a lower gear & standing on the pedals feels more tiring and less efficient than my previous (road) bike.

I recently acquired a light weight touring bike similar to Cameron`s Miyata.  It is a 1982 Trek 720.  That bike has most stock parts in decent shape & I will be keeping them.  Cannot wait to take it on a long ride & see how it feels.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on April 6, 2012 at 10:35pm

Very interesting, Cameron. I'm riding a '10 Jamis Ventura Sport. Luckily, it had brazeons for a rear rack, so I easily added one on. I'm still trying to find a great front rack to use that doesn't require any sort of eyelet/brazeon, since I don't have anything aside from where the front fended already is occupying. 

I use Plant Bike Cascadia fenders, which are marketed as their longest set. They are indeed long, but my bike doesn't offer a lot of clearance for the rear fender; I had to shoe-horn them in to make it work. My bike also rides on 23mm tires, of which I have grown tired at this point. Unfortunately, the bike was only made to accept 25mm tires, but then I'd lose clearance for fenders. Sigh. 

Otherwise, the bike rides pretty well, and gets the job done. I was just in the LBS today putting my grubby paws all over a Bianchi Volpe. Mmmm. Ultimately, I think I'd be happy with a production version of  touring bike (LHT, 520, Aurora..etc.)

Permalink Reply by ilter on April 7, 2012 at 11:53am

Jim,

You may have heard, one option is to split the rear fender as in here, though I don`t know how easy it would be to find/make the parts:

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonbarnwell/5210092274/

Permalink Reply by Scott Stelzer on May 7, 2012 at 12:17am

Hi all, I ride a '09 Specialized Roubaix Pro with a Zipp 101 wheels, 23mm tires, a single bottle cage (probably will add another for hotter months), and no adjustments specific to randonneuring made so far. My spring $plurge this year was on those Zipp wheels and a Garmin Edge 800.  Prior to these brevets, I've used this bike for a couple of years for rides typically in the 40-100 mile range, both hilly and flat. I downloaded the brevet courses with turn prompts and this saved me from a few wrong/missed turns and also really helped with setting my mental/psych expectations for the courses.  

I've just started randonneuring this year, with a 200k and a 300k completed so far, and what strikes me on the course is how heavy many of these bikes are out there and what a penalty that must bring for a long ride.  Obviously what I like is having a light bike. I depend on the minimarts/controls for all food beyond some Gu & powder mixes, and I hydrate/eat/electrolyze very well at each control stop (though I dawdle a little to get this eating done there instead of on the bike). I like that I have a wide gear range in the back, though on some of the steeper hills I wished I had a triple crankset instead of the compact.

What I don't like is that my racing-ish seat really hurt toward the end of the 200k but not so much on the 300k (guess I got used to it).  I also learned that very powerful lighting is very important when completing after dark, so I need to rethink lighting beyond the "afterthought" clip-on light set I bought at Kozy's.  Otherwise I didn't feel like I was missing anything that I should have been carrying, though any real mechanical problems other than flatting would have put me out of the ride.  I didn't like that my GPS battery didn't last through the end of the 300k either.  I feel my no-fender situation is ok for now, if I pick rides that are not likely to have rain (I have fenders on my commuter and they just annoy me it's not wet).

Theoretically I'd ride a completely different setup for a cross-state trip where I could not depend on food and supplies being available at predictable locations.  I'm looking forward to a 400k now, and my changes will probably be a honking pair of front lights and maybe a softer seat.  Also a course check to make sure that the controls in the last 70 miles offer food 24hrs.

Permalink Reply by ilter on May 7, 2012 at 9:49pm

Here is a photo of my Trek at Evansville control.  It turned out to be such a smooth & fun ride..

http://www.thechainlink.org/photo/new-bike-3

ilter said:

[snip]

I recently acquired a light weight touring bike similar to Cameron`s Miyata.  It is a 1982 Trek 720.  That bike has most stock parts in decent shape & I will be keeping them.  Cannot wait to take it on a long ride & see how it feels.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on May 7, 2012 at 10:31pm

That's a great looking build, ilter. I like how it came out.

Is it just me or do older bikes have a different seat tube angle? 

Permalink Reply by ilter on May 7, 2012 at 10:44pm

Thanks Jim, I feel really lucky.. Seat tube angle is 73.5 according to this brochure, but I have no idea how that compares to modern bikes.  Photo might be deceiving due to camera angle etc.  Cropped cell phone camera image after all :)

http://vintage-trek.com/TrekBrochure1982.htm

Permalink Reply by ilter on May 14, 2012 at 9:54pm

Cameron,

Does your Miyata shimmy?  I used to have a Miyata 512 which could shimmy violently while going fast downhill. And so far Trek shimmies sometimes when riding no hands, though seems easier to tame, touching top tube w/ my knee has always worked.