It’s a vintage Blackburn. I actually replaced it with another Blackburn rack that I pulled off a bike destined for the trash, so I wouldn’t have to jury-rig the connection between the rack and the frame itself.
Just for you I snapped some current pics.
Big Picture 1
Big Picture 2
Big Picture 3
The only problem with the linked Rivendell geometry is its for the Bleriot, a 650B bike. From the pics on this page it looks like everyone is rockin’ 700c wheels so its kinda apples->oranges.
It’s a PDF, you’ll probably want to page down to the A.Homer Hilsen or the Atlantis on pages 3 and 4 respectively. They’re probably most appropriate as a lightweight rando or audax bike.
[quote=“halbritt”]
It’s a PDF, you’ll probably want to page down to the A.Homer Hilsen or the Atlantis on pages 3 and 4 respectively. They’re probably most appropriate as a lightweight rando or audax bike.[/quote]
Oops, epic fail on my part. The specs don’t seem that different from the quick and dirty measurements of my Seral. Looking at the AAH and Atlantis geometry many of them are extremely close to the Surly Long Haul trucker. The cross check is pretty close except for shorter chain stays and less bottom bracket drop.
Ah I see. I can’t get the Blackburn knockoff on my Crosscheck anywhere near level. I see you have an easier time with yours because it’s a smaller frame and so the seatstays aren’t as steep.
Thanks for the pics bigmatt! I’m still trying to figure out whether i actually need the VO front rack or whether something cheaper and less fancy frenchy will do. That rack you’re running looks solid.
My god, this thread has been refreshing.
My SRAM bits came in the mail today, so soon my ccheck will be getting the rando/tourer treatment as well.
Hooray!!!
Rando bikes are awesome. I want to reply to almost every post in this thread but wont so here’s a bunch of things I have to say on the matter in no discernible order.
Randos are the most ultimate bikes ever and everyone should own one. If you’re looking for one on the cheap, keep an eye out for 70’s and 80’s touring bikes. For reasons unknown to me, touring bikes were generally more “light duty” back then and most would make great candidates for new wheels/ drivetrain. Due to their lack of “prestige”, they’re also a lot cheaper than the racers of the era but watch out since a lot of them have 27" wheels.
Vanilla and Ira Ryan make my favorite randonneurs today and René Herse and Alex Singer are the kings of the classic era. Take a look at their bikes before you get your own.
In case you missed it, the Official PBP 2011 thread may be found here.
The main differences in geometry between classic racing road bikes and randonneurs are: slightly slacker head angle with added fork rake to reduce the adverse effects on handling cause by weight carried on the front which also helps with toe overlap, lower bb, added tire clearance and longer chainstays.
All the bikes posted in this thread are nice and someone should resurrect the classy bike thread.
The first frame I build is going to be a randonneur.
Conversation Réelle.
[quote=“halbritt”]72-ish degrees of HT and ST angle and rake between 45mm and 55mm. Bridgestone racing bikes from back in the day are in the 74-ish degrees of HT and ST angles with 45-55mm of rake.
Rando bikes are a bit slacker than true racing bikes like the Bridgestone 700, but there are a world of slacker bikes from that period with a bit heavier tubing more suited to the task of randoneurring.[/quote]
Cool. If the geo charts in the old Schwinn catalogs, which I found here are correct, my '89 World has 72 head and seat tube angles and it seems perfectly suited to epic ride comfort with no front fender/toeclip interference and overall steady handling.
In addition to HT and ST angles, chain stay length will definitely make a difference in handling. There were a ton of bikes built in the 80s that had appropriate geometry. I used Bridgestone for comparison as a lot of the old catalogs are on Sheldon Brown’s site for comparison. Also, both Rivendell and Bridgestone, Grant Petersen… duh.
Just read this:
http://home.pacbell.net/donnk/rando/grr.htmlMan, that sounds like fun.
i liek mah peugeot
1982 peugeot princeton.
wsn’t that peugeot in some video with some dork doing alot of retarded and lame skids?
I kinda wish my Karate Monkey was a Cross Check since it now has slicks, drops is getting fenders and hasn’t seen any dirt lately.
I’ve got this frame waiting for me at home. Well, not this bike, but the same frame in the same size. It came with 27’s, but 700’s work great. For some reason, the BB is super high. After converting to 700’s, it was still as high as my track bike at the time. Unfortunately mine did not have the triple crank. It had been changed to a shitty double somewhere along the line. And the RD had been changed to a crappier short cage thing. I’m hoping to do a light touring build with it when I get back. Once, when I had them both torn apart, I compared it to my steel track frame (Fuji) and this one was lighter even though it was 3cm taller.
It got dropped off at the Co-Op. One of the benefits of volunteering there full time is that you sometimes get to grab something before anyone else sees it. I just happen to be the tallest person around at the time.
I have an old Peugeot PNK-10 set up as essentially a Rando bike. It isn’t as pretty as a frame made for the purpose, but it is great for long rides and bicycle camping. I’ll try to post pictures later tonight. Good thread.
Mariposa makes some badass bikes.
Very nice, but I don’t get that stem.
Carbon shouldn’t be allowed in this thread.
I wouldn’t want one of those threadless quill-looking stems for my bikes, but I can certainly understand why you’d want it on a classically styled yet modern bike like that.
looks like a 1" threadless stem with a unique steer tube clamping setup. the clamp is right above the headset, and there are no spacers… i like it.