Ted’s Travel Randonneur

Ted came to me looking for a new bike. He wanted a randonneur with lights, fenders, rack, and he wanted it to be a travel friendly bike. The challenge immediately started as there is not a whole lot of room in the 26″x26″x10″ case. The bike has 650x42B tires that fit nicely in the case when deflated and the fenders can sit tightly against the wheels. The issue was going to be the rack and light. We decided against the integrated rear light and went with just the Schmidt Edelux in the front. I ended up making a custom folding rack with an adjustable light mount off of the side. It folds completely flat and takes up very little space in the box where real estate is scarce.

Other travel friendly details include quick release cable guides underneath the bottom bracket, raised cable guides on the top tube to prevent rattling of the cable disconnect, and the SL connector-less front dropouts for the dynamo. This was my first time building a bike for the new Compass centerpull brakes. They are very well made but the brake pads’ lack of toe-in and the polished Velocity A23 rims were a squealing combination. I ended up installing a set of the Velo-Orange adjustable post pads that can be toed-in and the brakes were perfect. Because this is a travel bike, I wasn’t able to use the beautiful Compass straddle hangers and used instead a set of classic CLB ones for quick disconnecting the front brake cable.

The bike is built from a selection of tubes that allowed for adequate thickness at the couplers. The lugs were originally a set of arrowheads that I carved and sculpted into something with a more classic look.

At this point in time, Ted had already put a lot of miles on this bike and has had his fastest century time. Look for this travel randonneur at an event near you as he has plans to go places with it! There was a lot that went into making this bike and I encourage you to check out the slideshow link below.