More than a format, randonneuring is a culture highlighted by long routes and camaraderie. Rando legend Melinda Lyon suggested that, first and foremost, randonneurs are always polite: you can ride hard, but your speed remains secondary to consideration for everyone, whether it’s another rider, a course volunteer, a motorist, a citizen with no affiliation with the event, or your own safety. In races, other riders try to drop you; in randonnees, your company is a welcome part of the journey. The course itself is the daunting competitor.
Tag: randonneuring
The Connaught 600
First the photo, this one worth 2,000 words, we think.
Even without any context, we found ourselves wondering, if you could ride a bike there (where?) why would you ever ride anywhere else? If you’re looking for the spot, it’sat the Ceide Fields a Neolithic field system in Mayo, Ireland.
We met Noel, the rider, through our friends at Cyclefit in London. Noel is an accomplished audax rider from Ireland, and we painted his Axiom SL to match his favorite place to ride, as well as to honor Audax Ireland. The photo was taken during the Connaught 600, a 600k event by the organiser of the Wild Atlantic Way Randonee.
At the Coulee Challenge
Brad and Matt are at it again, this time taking on the 1200km Coulee Challenge in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We remixed their TransAt bikes for this new event. This ride differs from the TransAtlantic Way they took on last month in the quality of the road surfaces (thus the switch to 700c wheels) and the type of climbing they’re doing.
From the ride description:
Our RM 1200k route includes great roads and bike trails in Minnesota and Wisconsin with a focus on the challenging coulees of Southeast Minnesota and Southwest Wisconsin. The terrain will have some hilly sections, with multiple, occasionally steep, hills crossing ridge lines followed by pastoral valleys and quiet, bucolic roads. Along the way riders will enjoy passing through a number of small towns in the coulees and river towns on the Mississippi River.
A coulee is a deep ravine, one of the defining features of the terrain in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This is no flat, mid-Western romp,so we reconfigured Brad and Matt’s bikes for the occasion.
The Coulee Remix bike is a progressive gravel bike that features a number of innovations, special offers, and incentives. It’s also available for a very limited time. The Remix employs the SRAM Force 1 group set with mechanical shifting and hydraulic brakes, aiming for the lightest weight, simplest design, and purest performance.
1000km on the Seven RedSky S
We delivered Woody’s RedSky S in February of this year, via Adam and Saj at Get-a-Grip in Chicago. We received this photo, just this morning, which suggests Woody and his Seven are getting along pretty well.
He wrote:
Rode my Seven for the Great Lakes Randonneurs 1000k last weekend. We were allowed 75 hours, completed it in 65. Had decent weather, just one huge storm on Day 1 to contend with. Great roads, terrific variety of terrain, and great support from the GLR volunteers. My bike handled great. Bombing hills, cornering with speed, bouncing across gravel sections—all good.
Thanks,
Woody
Joe’s Expat SL
Here is a do-everything touring machine we built for Joe with our friends at Spokes, Etc. in Alexandria, VA. This Expat SL incorporate S&S couplings, front and rear rack & fender mounts, a kickstand, belt drive, generator hub, extra water bottle mount and a pump peg. We like this build because it really demonstrates the extent to which a rider can personalize a Seven to produce what is, for them, the ultimate bike for the purpose (or many purposes).
Photos by Mike Gregerson