Originally Posted by
StephenH
My take on the original question- you're working on two different hobbies. One is fiddling with/riding old bikes. One is randonneuring. And either hobby is fine, but the two aren't really connected. So yeah, you can get the old bike and do randonneuring on it, and other people do, but there's no particular motivation to combine them, either.
It's sort of like if somebody asked, "I like '57 Chevys and I plan to drive cross-country. Should I do so in a '57 Chevy?" and the answer is just "Sure, if that floats your boat", but there's no great motivation to use '57 Chevys for cross-country touring, either.
Personally, I'm kind of waiting until one of those rod-brake Raleighs shows up somewhere semi-local or can be shipped. Yes, I'd ride a 200k on it, but not that's an especially good choice for it.
I have three responses to this.
First, that's an excellent reading of the issue.
Second, riding a 200k on an old Raleigh DL-1 (or the equivalent) would be a crazy thing to do.
Third, crazy as it is, I'd do that, for sure. In fact just this past September I did a flat central NJ randonnee on my ca 1938 Fothergill bike, with cottered steel crank, three speed hub (plus a Trivelox derailleur; so a six speed transmission really), Resilion cantilever brakes, a pretty archaic looking bike (though nowhere near as heavy as a DL-1). I like riding that bike.