I've long wanted to know what it was like for the racers of 1910-1930. These were true long distance riders, with races of hundreds of miles over dirt roads. Tour de France stages could exceed 300 miles. So I put together this:



It's as close a copy as I can manage. Straight, heavy-gauge steel tubing, 66 degree angles, lots of fork rake. A few parts are not completely "correct" -- aluminum bars and stem substitute for essentially unavailable steel, and good luck finding brake calipers that clamps to the stays! -- but it's "in spirit" enough to give me a solid idea what the folks of days gone by experienced.

And what they experienced sucked out loud. This is the least rewarding bicycle project I have attempted. The bicycle handles terribly, and it's a nearly 30 pound single speed. The longest I have ridden it at one go is 62 miles (metric century, for sticklers) and I'm not going to repeat the experience. I may try to salvage things by turning it into an American-style "scorcher" with a skip tooth chain and a Sturmey "kick" two speed with coaster brake. Or I may just bury the thing in the garage and try to forget about it.

At least I've learned a bit about what it was like for the TdF heroes of old. Those were some real hard cases. I simply cannot imagine riding this bike hundreds of miles over unpaved roads in the Pyrenees.