As for the subject of my experiment, I finally got to take a ride on the Bob Jackson after all these years. It's my first bike from Bob Jackson and is a well-kept specimen.
With 73x73-degree angles and57cm top tube, thereach is thankfully mediated by the seat tube angle to give a good fit. I'm not liking the tall and narrow randonneur bars but the bike did get me up the hills to Goodwill before closing, where I bought (and ghost-rode home three miles) a Bianchi hybrid for a mere $30.
The bar-end shifters required a lot of force to operate and the shifting response was vague with huge hysteresis losses between lever and derailer. Things will have to change here but I'm also dealing with 120mm frame spacing to it's time to get creative and perhaps build up another Uniglide "Ultra-six" freewheel for this bike.
