Random ruminations from a recycled randonneur

Flitting From Job to Job

Admittedly, I came up with the title for this article before I had any idea what I was going to write about.

Perhaps that’s the peripatetic nature of the randonneur in me, for “randonneur” means “to ramble” en français, and, ask any of my friends, I tend to ramble, though only in English.

Lately, I’ve been subject to restless dreams.

Big picture concerns demand: Am I doing enough to promote and underscore the natural wonders that are the engines of our survival?

Global worries are limited by personal desires masquerading as empathy.

I need more time … to make movies, to wander city and forest with my cameras. I need a new portrait lens, maybe wildlife lens … or do I?

I’ve been trying to tie up some loose ends at VeloWeb, so I’ve been flitting from job to job, tweaking the back end, video recording and editing, still photography, writing.

Then there’s the neglected bikes ….

Bike-related meditations have taken me to the state of the mainstream bicycle industry—it’s broken—to the state of my creative engine—it needs a tune-up.

In regards to the former, perhaps it’s not that different than it’s been in the last few decades—catering to a disposable toy-bike market that rises and falls with the popularity of the racing game.

All this is fine—technical advancements are often driven by the rigors of racing—but, at the risk of retro-grouching, where does this focus leave the “average” cyclist?

It could be argued that racing today—where riders are followed by motorcades of doctors, mechanics and spare everything, including complete bikes—chases the grail of weight-reduction beyond the limits of mechanical durability.

Again, this would be fine if the major manufacturers (I’m talking Shimano and Campagnolo here) tossed a few of the shekels they make off racer wannabes to a design team dedicated, at least, to the “sport” cyclist.

Perusing the 2012 Campag catalogue reveals that the renowned Italian company retains only the “Comp” triple crankset, bottom bracket and front derailleur. Unfathomably, the Comp rear derailleur is nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, across the board with most manufacturers, plastic and black anodizing rules the day.

Can anyone tell me who still makes a traditional long-cage derailleur (polished aluminum please) suitable for touring, randonneuring and commuting?

There’s an opening there for an enterprising company.

As detailed on VeloWeb, the rules of early racing and pioneering randonneurs advanced technical bike developments.

In particular, the French technical trials, or Concours de Machines of the ‘30s, examined in Jan Heine’s Bicycle Quarterly, valued thrift in weight, but demanded resilience in performance.

(Update (Dec 20): Jan has just re-examined this phenomenon on his blog).

Randonneurs challenged the orthodoxies of racing from the earliest days, prevailing over the fixation on fixed gear bikes, with the idea of multiple-gears.

Of course, there’s a place for all kinds of two-wheeled machines, on road and trail. This isn’t an argument against having fun with whatever bike strikes your fancy. But some designs work better, because they were designed for a specific job.

Just as no one would seriously argue that a Surly “Moonlander” would function as well for the Tour de France as the winter trails of Alaska, similarly, the 11-speed wonders promoted by boutique shops are ill-suited to the needs of cyclists outside the rarified atmosphere of the professional peloton.

Incidentally, Surly should be commended for their pursuit of purpose-built bikes at an affordable price-point.

Strangely, we see attempts to integrate the most specific characteristics of the racing bike into the commuter or randonneur bicycle, with predictably incongruous results.

Considering that commuting bikes are growing in demand, it seems strange that—when it comes to derailleur systems at least—the industry is chasing the fickle racer boy market, or the specialty mountain biking biz.

Of course, my racer boy days are long gone. I’m much more interested in the circle of life than the circumscription of the market, which (according to neoliberal economists) will eventually give everyone what they want.

Well, this little rant seems to have lubricated my “creative engine” (or perhaps it was the ale).

I’ll examine some of the preceding concerns in more detail in future posts and pages.

Tagged as: bikes, cameras, economics, gears, tour de france