jimboalee said:
"Audax" bikes are a fairly recent development.
Fail!
Why am I not surprised though? As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
First, what you refer to in UK as an "audax bike" has been around since the earliest days of the safety bicycle, neccessity being the mother of invention, or perhaps in this case invention sprang more from good sense over blind convention -- a lesson that might be of use here as well.
In the same way that fools rush in to buy the latest "racing"-style bikes today, convinced by manufacturers and their own vanity that they can be "just like Lance," so it was just after the turn of the 20th century, when the public were sold "Tour de France" bikes ... with fixed gears, even though they were inappropriate for the use most tried to put them to.
Enter the touriste-routiers, led by Paul de Vivie (AKA Velocio) -- inventor of the derailleur.
Though TdF organizer Henry Desgrange resisted the derailleur, writing a barrage of anti-gear diatribes in the newspaper
L'Auto-Vélo, common sense eventually prevailed, of course, multi-geared bikes were adopted, and the practice of changing whole bikes at the base of climbs was abandoned.
The 1930s saw a boom in "technical trials" or
concourse de machines, all over Europe. These tests graded on weight -- bicycles as light as 20 lbs were common -- durability and function. They were run on very difficult courses, including plenty of cobbles and unpaved roads. Participants included builders like Cycles Mignon, Reyhand, Alex Singer and Dujardin.
So, not only is jimboalee's thesis wrong right from the very first premise, undaunted, it continues to expand through a series of subtexts based on incomplete knowledge and the exploitation of meaningless subcategories to try to make a point that is in itself pointless.
It is meaningless as well to exclude machines from his imaginary "road" category by an arbitrary weight point ... that he alone has mandated. Or is there some international governing body you belong to jimboalee -- maybe that one based in California you are fond of quoting?
In the relatively contemporary era that I belong to, randonneurs did indeed press a variety of road bikes into service to ride brevets. For instance, as a bicycle shop employee at the time, I helped the first Canadians to go to PBP prepare and modify their bikes, in 1979. Those bikes
can be seen here (riders at front right). They were the kind of road bikes commonly available in those days, but wouldn't meet jimboalee's criteria as a "road bike." Lord knows what they were then!
By jimboalee's silly nit-picking among modern bicycle nomenclature, the incredible randonneuses of the thirties would be
mountain bikes, because they were built to handle the mountain roads of the 1930's ... which were for the most part unpaved!
BTW. jimbo, you also don't know the meaning of "grumpy old git."
History lessons happily provided.
In the meantime, anyone interested in a properly documented history of road bikes and randonneurring (audax) can find one at the link below.
Not a full racer, and not a 'sport tourer'. Note the 'SPORT tourer' here.
Not a full racer, and not a 'sport tourer'. Note the 'SPORT tourer' here.
