I am a newbie still. Only been in the road bike "scene"(sort of) for about three years.
I have come to realize that I like "bumming" around my neighborhood in the evenings and using my bike to go get groceries. I also like charity rides and touring. You will not find me participating in a crit anytime soon.

so now that you know me a little....

Somebody explain to me the difference between a Randonnuer and a Fully Loaded touring bike? And don't say one is loaded at all four corners., I'm talking geometry, components, etc...and is there really a need for the two different bikes?
Also...
What is a Brevet?
What constitutes a bike as being a "Sport" bike?
Same for a "Sport Tourer"?
Are drop bars the only requisite for a bike being called a "road" bike?

If I could only have three "road" bikes in my stable, what would you tell me to get and why?
Conditions are. I like to tour, bum around the neighborhood in the evenings and get groceries at the corner store, and charity/event rides.

I guess what I am getting at is this. Is there an "etiquette" to what bike to ride for certain event? Other than the obvious. You don't show up with an LHT to your Tuesday Night Crit.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

I'm starting at the end.

It's not about the bike.


One local Cat1 comes and slums with some of our ["fast" recreational] rides on his flat-bar hybrid with a bucket loaded down with rocks.

I'm often the only one with steel and/or downtube shifters on my rides.
I'm often the only one on a single speed.
If you're not racing - bring whatcha got.

In general,

Longer wheel base = more comfort and weight = more touring oriented
Racing bikes are really short and compact, and have components designed for speed rather than longevity. They come equipped with very narrow tires.
Touring bikes have eyelets for racks and fenders, tough equipment, and lots of gearing to cover a range of terrains. They have wider tires, and some even opt for 26" which is a common size for mountain and "urban" bikes.
Randonnuer require the rider to go long distances with the goal of finishing, not finishing the fastest. AFAIK, there's no off-the-shelf "randonnuer" bike, but people tend to build bikes that are lighter than touring bikes but more comfortable than race bikes. "Sport touring" bikes could fall in this category.

Do you need two bikes? Why stop at two?

Basically, you're going to either want to go as fast as possible or as comfortably as possible. Right now road bikes can be split into race bikes for road racing, race bikes for triathlons (looser rules than road racing), and more relaxed, cheaper road bikes. The first two are "sport" bikes because they're built for a specific sport. The last category isn't built to a specific spec, so they're built for riding instead of all-out speed. This is probably more like what you want.

A brevet is the bicycle equivalent of a time trial in a car. You try to hit checkpoints in a specific time frame, going neither to slow nor too fast.

Road bikes have narrow tubes and tires. Some touring bikes use mountain bike bars for more leverage, but they're still road bikes.

So, what three bikes should you have?

IMHO,

An upright townie/urban/whatever bike for getting groceries. These are easier to get on and off of at stops, comfortable to ride, and easy to put a basket on. If you've been reading these forums you know about English 3-speeds by now: They're cheap, fun, and practical.

A regular road or touring bike, depending on how long your rides are. These should be fine for charity rides.

If you decide you like a specific type of racing, build a bike for it.

Wisdom, from me, would be a stretch. Welcome to the forum.

The Rando bike is a lot of the features of a touring bike, but lighter. You need to carry luggage on a Brevet so you can fix anything that goes wrong as well as food, clothing, etc. depending on the length. A "typical" rando bike I would call lighter tubing, steeper geometry (73 degree headtube), ability to fit fatter tires (say 700c- 28-32ish), full fenders, lighting system if you plan to do long events, and a wider range of gearing, but not touring wide. I own a full on touring bike (LHT) and took a vintage touring bike and made it into a Randonneuring bike (83' Nishiki Seral). An unloaded touring bike is often 30-35lbs were as a rando bike unloaded would be lower 20-30lbs (steel of course). I have done a 200K on my Nishiki and would want to kill someone (and myself) if I had to do it on my LHT.

Brevet definition according to Wikipedia.
Sport bike: more relaxed road bike, but still ability to fit fenders or racks sometimes.
Sport touring: more relaxed geometry than a road bike that is lighter than a touring bike with the ability to fit racks if needed. aka a credit card tourer.
Drop bars? yes and no. I would only call a real road bike with drop bars, but would include some with mustache, cruiser, or even a flat bar/riser with the appriote other parts a "road bike"

Only three bikes? I can't help you there and I know many of our regulars can't help either. Let me count my drop barred bikes real quick.........12! A touring bike, cyclocross,3 rando type bikes, 3 track bikes, two steel road bikes with 9/10 speed drivetrains, and two vintage road bikes with original parts.

But, in the end "run what cha brung"! It isn't the car its the motor that is fast or slow.

Actually, they do make some off-the-shelf randonneuring bikes now.

I identify with redxj's comments about the LHT. I used to own one myself. I attempted one 200K on it at the beginning of the season on a route that had insane amounts of climbing on it (with a grand total of 41 miles under my belt for the year at that point). The LHT was far too heavy for that. I ended up converting a '72 Fuji Finest, and ended up with a bike that had comfortable, geometry, good handling, and weighed about 7 pounds lighter.

I'm of the "you can justify having 7-10 bikes with no problem" school of thought.

My only rules of etiquette are (1) wait your turn at intersections, (2) announce your presence with a friendly greeting (or a click of the brake levers), (3) if you must get flats, fix them yourself, and (4) for casual group rides, leave your ultra-lightweight carbon wheels at home.

I'd probably stay away from chili the night before a group ride.