Archival Bicycles: Brevet Bikes

Chromed Canadian custom by rider/builder Nigel Press

On Friday, I head up to The Dalles, Oregon, to participate in the Oregon Randonneur's Oregon Blue Mountains 1000k brevet. If all goes well, this will be my last brevet on The Pencil, my trusty Rivendell road bike. In September--or so--I'll be taking delivery of a custom randonnee frame by Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles (details to follow).

Since I'm a slow randonneuse, I rarely spend time with other riders or their bikes (save for Pal Peg and her newly built Tony Pereira). I try to grab reference shots at the beginning of brevets or during rest controls. As I've already documented, I adore randonneuring bikes for their visual elegance, purpose built design, uber-durability and post-apocalyptic use value. I also love that a brevet bike is visually incomplete without a well made, canvas duck front handlebar bag.

Here are a few of my sample brevet bike snaps.

PBP Ancien, Duane Wright, and his vintage Peugeot

Beautiful custom bike by rider/builder Corey Thomspon

Steve Rex custom at start of SIR 4 Passes 600k

Steve Rex custom front rack

Peg's Pereira (rare flat repair)

Tournesol after SIR Bremerton 400k

Jack's vintage 650b Grand Jubile Motobecane

Amy P's Rivendell Rambouillet (in ghoulish a.m. hotel light)

Tom's custom Coho

Robin P's Waterford custom (mark down for minimalist baggage)

Sara's Velo-Orange Randonneuse (early Johnny Coast prototype)

Trusty Pencil on 3 Capes 300k

Via Pillpat

Shopping From Three Years Ago: Rivendell Custom Bicycle

After three years and a few days, I just received word from custom frame builder Curt Goodrich that my 650b frame and rack are finally finished and ready for paint/plating. After putting over 6,000 on my Goodwill Trek randonneuse, I'm thrilled and desperate to ride something which was actually built to accommodate the mixed dimensions of my mini monkey donkey body.

Here is a link to my parts selection to date.

Glacier Addendum

Just back from PDX to Glacier. Completed 638 miles (official route plus "bonus miles") in 71 hours 45 minutes. Unseen stat here is my total (lack of) sleep time: less than four hours over two nights.

During the brevet, I faced a number of micro obstacles which kept my focus on immediate goals rather than big picture mileage: colliding with a fellow rider 15 minutes into the ride, breaking my derailleur cable and having to ride in my high gear for a little less than 100 miles, scaling each endlessly ascending hill, dodging Montana trucker traffic, managing heat/direct sunlight (my main nemesis), avoiding dodgy rumblestrip placement, navigating in the dark with only one light, staying awake after dark, finding adequate nutrition from microwaveable minimart offerings (Bomb burriots and push-button lattes), losing my wallet in Plains, MT, and managing various low grade medical maladies best documented in a nineteenth century medical handbook.

Two days after the finish, I'm realizing how relieved I am to have actually completed this brevet (one which a friend oddly referred to as "the easiest 1000k you'll ever do"). In retrospect, despite my intensive Spring prep, there were quite a few moments, mishaps, which should have sent me over to the DNF column.

Since I'm not doing PBP (saving up for funds to pay a mortgage), I'm going to take the rest of the summer easy and plan for a big 1200k in 2008 (Boston-Montreal-Boston, if it's held next summer). Also, I'm definitely looking forward to the arrival of my custom Rivendell (sometime this Fall?) which should make completing these brevets a little more cushy, a little more do-able.

No medal at the end of the 1000k (just bad news from Amtrak that one cannot board a train without picture id)(see note about lost wallet). But here's a simulated image of my post-ride podium moment:



And a half finished flickr set