I created the Luminous Duck and then all but abandoned it. In fact, after the Carfree Family blog, I pretty much abandoned blogging altogether. (Although I do wish I had not deleted my Google account that included the Carfree Family blog, in one of my occasional fits of trying to disentangle myself from the digital world. Someone else has control of that domain now.)
Our children, which I so dutifully hauled around in a bicycle trailer in the beginning, until their fights in the trailer became unbearable, and then on a Bike Friday Family Triple, have all but grown up, and my daughter will be heading to college after this coming academic year. I thought all those people who told me that it goes by sooo fast were crazy, yet here I am. It does go by sooo fast.
Consequently, I suddenly find that I can just, you know, go out and ride my bicycle. I have always dreamed of riding long distances, and now, I can do that without thinking that I have abandoned my children.
When the kids were younger, I was riding around with them all day. It just didn't occur to me to go off on a ride on my own at the end of the day. I was tired. I wanted to collapse with a glass of wine. I was the at-home-dad for twelve years, and we were carfree for eight of those years. Given the load I was hauling around on a daily basis, it's almost as if I were on a twelve year bicycle tour without ever leaving my city. Once the kids were well established in school, and I started working again, it was simply a marvel to be on a bike by myself and to commute to work.
During all of that time, I continued, (except for a brief hiatus when, during a bout of frugality, I did not renew my subscription), to read Bicycle Quarterly and dream of riding in Paris Brest Paris, or even cruising through the night through New Mexico - well, actually, every time I thought about that, our drunk driving rate sprang to mind.
The web of incidents and associations always boggles my mind. Here's how I arrived at my knowledge of randonneuring and brevet riding. I had always ridden bicycles, but I did not think much about them. Around 1998, my old Cannondale mountain bike was experiencing mechanical trouble, something with the derailleurs if I remember correctly, and the local bike shops all said they couldn't get those parts any more, and I should just buy a new bike. "Aluminum fatigues," they said. "It's probably not safe to ride that thing around any more."
I had, in my possession, a copy of Eugene Sloane's The Complete Book of Bicycling. In it, he talks at great length about his Alex Singer. Looking at that bike, I knew the kind of bike I wanted. When my wife bought a new bike, I thought, "I should get a new bike as well. I have not had a new bike in a very long time." And so, armed with visions of an Alex Singer in my head, and the intention to buy a new bike, I headed off to the local bike shop.
It should have come as no surprise that there was nary an Alex Singer to be found. At the very end of the nineties, there were mountain bikes and there were racing bikes. I knew I didn't want a mountain bike, and I knew I didn't want a racing bike. The owner of the store steered me over to the lone Cannondale hybrid. I knew I did not want a hybrid either, but what else was there? At that point, I had not yet begun using the internet with any sort of regularity, and it did not occur to me to look for bikes online. I bought the hybrid but immediately regretted it. I tried to take it back the next day, but the owner said "no returns." He would not even let me have it in his shop on consignment. There followed a long series of bad experiences both with the bike and with the shop, which I will not go into here. The shop is still in business, and many people like them. My experience, however, was terrible. I was looking for a different type of shop that sold a different type of bicycle.
Soon thereafter, I did look into the internet for information on bicycle touring and commuting. On a website that now seems to defunct, I found a reference to Rivendell Bicycle Works. Being a Tolkien fan, I checked them out. They seemed to be building the kind of bike I had been looking for. I ordered a custom bicycle from them thinking it would be the last bike I ever bought. Who would need anything more?
After ordering the bike, I also subscribed to their in-house magazine, The Rivendell Reader, which occasionally featured a piece by Jan Heine on old French constructeur bicycles. There was my fantasy Alex Singer; there was Rene Herse! Jan went on to start writing the Bicycle Quarterly.
The Rivendell was a fine and beautiful bike, but here were more things to consider: low trail geometry, bikes with no toe clip overlap, lighter tubing, wider tires. Each issue would have some beautiful old bike, and some beautiful new bike. The fantasy, of course, is that I would find a fine old Rene Herse at Goodwill for $15. What makes it worse is that I know a guy who did find an old French bicycle from a constructeur that Jan hadn't heard of - but a simply beautiful, lightweight, elegant bike - and he talked Goodwill down to $15 because of the flat tires. On the other hand, the newer bikes were expensive, and I had, in living memory, spent far too much for my means on a custom bicycle.
It may have ended there, but this spring I found a used 1984 Trek 520. I bought it simply because I wanted to see if it "planed" with its thinner, smaller diameter tubing. It does seem to be a faster, more nimble bicycle than the Rivendell. Riding it made me want to ride in the Santa Fe Century again, and riding in the Santa Fe Century made me want to ride brevets, (though the nearest to me are around 300 miles away). I joined RUSA. I joined the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club, so I could ride in their brevet series, and I fully intend to ride as much of a full series as I can next year.
But that leads me back around to the question of a brevet bike. The Rivendell is a fine touring machine, and I am sure it would work well for brevets. I have, over the years, built it up like a brevet bike, with a Schmidt dynohub, Edelux headlight, Berthoud handlebar bag, Compass Cycles decaleur. In short, I have put a lot of money into an already expensive bike. The Trek is faster, more responsive. It climbs better. But it does not have room for fenders, or generator lights, or a handlebar bag. It's also just a tad less comfortable than the Rivendell.
That leads me to think it is time for a dedicated randonneur. But those are still expensive. I have put a tiny bit of money into a Betterment savings goal, but it's not going to grow very quickly. I just want to create the intention of saving for a specific purchase.
My mid-level aim is set on a Boulder Bicycle with Compass centerpull brakes. I had emailed Mike Kone to ask him how much a full build cost. He emailed back to let me know that he did not do full builds anymore and added that, if cost was an issue, why not buy a Soma Grand Randonneur, a frame he had a hand in designing. That's tempting, but it's just not what I am looking for, although I do go back and forth about it. For one thing, it just strikes me as odd that the front wheel alone, with a Schmidt generator hub, would cost just about as much as the frame. The other thing is that online reviewers complain that the fork is not as flexible as those on custom built bikes. Some people think the ride is fine; some think it is terrible. How can you judge without trying it?
Of course, what I would like most of all is one of J.P. Weigle's bikes. Jan is riding this one in the Concours de Machines even as I type away. By the time I saved enough, however, Peter Weigle would probably be retired. I had thought, as well, about the MAP S&P project bikes, which were very well reviewed, but alas, Mitch Pryor told me they were no more.
So, for now, I'll save without a real goal, or continue to aim for the Boulder Bicycle, ride my Rivendell and my Trek, and try to focus on the joy of riding rather than the toe clip overlap or questions of whether the bike is planing or not. (Curiously, while I do not have the final paperwork for my Rivendell anymore, I do have one set of plans that show my downtube is 8-5-8. The Grand Randonneur is 9-6-9. While I don't know what the top tube is, maybe it's more flexy than I give it credit for.)
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