Originally Posted by
Bacciagalupe
Because those are racing bikes which happened to get used on ultra-distance events. This is not to say that the "ONLY" bike you can use on a long ride is a Mercian Audax, only that a handful of bikes are specifically designed (and marketed) specifically for long rides.
I.e. I could use a Trek 520 in a crit, that won't make it a "racing bike."
Who makes the definition of what a rando bike is**********?? If you go to Seattle a lot of riders may describe a bike like what you've mentioned. They ride in the rain a lot and if it doesn't have fenders it's not a rando bike. If you ride a brevet in SoCal the predominant bike is what you call a "race bike." I call it a rando bike. Just because a bike has lax geometry doesn't mean that it is a better long distance bike than one with "race geometry" and because a bike is not marketed as a long distance bike doesn't mean it isn't one. I've done three RAAM's on "race geometry" bikes and I can tell you that I darned well wouldn't be out there on something that wasn't comfortable for a long ride! There is a lot of snobbery in the rando community (not you, but in general) when it comes to bikes. As far as I'm concerned, any bike you ride on a randonnee is a rando bike.