[MMcG]

Here's what I'm looking for - a road/touring/CX type bike that can handle the following duties:

A) Small Group road rides with friends - casual pace - good times out on the pavement
B) Solo road/gravel/dirt road rides
C) A couple of Charity Bike Rides including the MS Bike Tour and the CT Challenge (a cancer fundraiser ride)
D) if I'm in good enough shape - the D2R2 ride. http://www.franklinlandtrust.org/randonnee.html

I'm 5'9" tall and my last road bike was a 54L Serotta Colorado LT that I felt a tad bit stretched out on (and that had too narrow handlebars for my taste - but I bought it used).

What say ye??

 

[SuspectDevice]

look out for a bike with the general geometry of our Kittenpaste frame

This is my personal Kittenpaste that I ride as my long-distance commuter and winter bike. I have another frame with the same geometry but in aluminum in the welding fixture right now, which will be my primary rain bike for this winter... The contact points are pretty much transfered over from my road race bike, just rotated counter clockwise to have a more centered weight balance. It fits 30C tires with fenders, or 32c cx tires without (i've pre-ridden every Root66 xc course on this bike with 32's).

You don't need or want tons of tire clearance, cx geometry etc to do an event like D2r2. You are on your bike for between 6 and 12 hours... A good all-around road bike, which there should be waay more of, is by far, the best bicycle to ride anything that you could ever drive a car on.

I rode my 17 pound full-race skeletor with a 25c front tire last year, and I couldn't imagine riding any other bike, personally, but for someone who is more tentative on the descents and wants to ride a little bit more "floaty" gravel, a bike like the Kittenpaste is a great choice.

For all intents and purposes, these are just bikes that fit and function like elite level race bikes from the 70's, but with modern tweaks to make them better. An old frame with "standard" reach brakes and 35c 650b tires is a great low-cost option usually....

Hope that helps,
_m

 

[MMcG]

That gets me started Mickey - thanks.

 

[MMcG]

For all intents and purposes, these are just bikes that fit and function like elite level race bikes from the 70's, but with modern tweaks to make them better. An old frame with "standard" reach brakes and 35c 650b tires is a great low-cost option usually....

Hope that helps,
_m

Sort of like some of the 650b conversions you can find on the bikeman.com site etc. etc.