What's this "end of the season" thing to which you refer?
We (DC Randonneurs) have brevets scheduled every month through December, will possibly schedule in January and February, and will definitely have a full schedule from March forward. The September brevet -- Civil War Tour -- will visit several battlefields (Gettysburg and Antietam at least). There are about a dozen DCR members who are riding R-12's and will definitely be riding in January and February, either on a permanent or brevet. Also, there are training rides that are not associated with DCR but are lead by some of our members--there are typically two century rides every weekend, often with shortcut options. See the "Calendar" page of the DCR website for the upcoming brevets and for the scheduled training rides (
www.dcrand.org).
Email for more info. Look forward to meeting you. The Trek 520 should work well as a rando bike.
Best regards,
Nick Bull
President, DC Randonneurs