Brian,
Your touring bike concept is very exciting. I suggest you take a long look at one of the French randonneur bikes (are you ever in Seattle?) - they basically are what you want, but without the racing pretensions. (Why would you take off fenders and lights? Even in SoCal it can rain, and a wet butt is no fun. And your riding horizons truly expand if you don't have to be back by dark.)
On a Singer randonneur (like the 1990 Singer shown in Rivendell
Reader 24), the low-rider racks for the front (shown in RR 25) can be
taken off, leaving only two eyelets on the rack and one on the
dropout (per side). That makes the bike the perfect day rider or
randonneur. With the low-riders, you can carry what you need for a
weekend or longer, if staying in B&B.
>For any other
>situation other than a dwarf such as myself, 700c wheels are the only
>way to go except for 650B which doesn't buy me much room. I'm willing to
>accept the rim and tyre limitations in order to make the bike properly.
>And actually the 650c wheels fit into my concept quite well otherwise.
>Damn, I might have to make my own 650c x 28 tyres someday.
Why not go with 650B x 30 (tires are available), or mtb wheels? Tire
choices for 650C are so limited to narrow ones. With 28 or 30 mm
tires, you can venture off the pavement, if you like. On pavement,
you are as fast (or faster) than with narrow tires. Honjo makes
fenders for 650B that you can use or modify. The radius of alloy
fenders can be adjusted by hand - or go to a car body shop doing
those nice old fenders on 1930s cars.
>I intend to make both front and rear racks in two
Why a rear rack at all? The weight distribution of a bike is much more balanced if the weight is carried on the front, especially with low-riders.
The aero thing: Handlebar bags actually are quite aero, shielding that body cavity - almost like aero bars do. You could improve those, of course. Will you use teardrop tubing? :)
Brian, it sounds a bit like you are planning to reinvent the wheel. The French did all those touring trials in the 1930s and 1940s and came up with designs that are hard to improve. (Think low-riders - I think they were invented because that is the only place you could carry the mandatory 3 kg weight on a flimsy 16 lb. bike!) You can make the bikes better, as far as craftsmanship is concerned, develop your own way of doing some of these things, but I would at least start with a Singer randonneur (I like the racks of the Singers better because you can add and subtract).
As far as those "racing pretensions" go: I just won our 275-mile, cross-state Cannonball race on a Rivendell that is basically a Singer clone, with front rack, handlebar bag, fenders, lights, etc. The other guys had racing bikes and support cars (I didn't bring a car, but bought my food and drink along the way). What I am trying to say is that the 3 or 4 lbs the fenders and lights add to the bike weight don't make it any less performing. Taking them off really isn't necessary - in my opinion actually counterproductive. (It took me a few years to accept this, but now my fenders stay on all year - they are part of the bike! I don't take off my front derailleur for flat rides where I won't need the small chainring, either.)
What kind of geometry do you plan to use? The Singers are very stable, allowing even a very tired rider to ride straight... I feel that modern "super-criterium" handling handicaps most bikes, because they require too much concentration simply to keep on the road after 6 or more hours in the saddle. (I used to race a Marinoni racing bike on these long distances... never again!)
Keep up the good work, and let me know how it comes along. I can see a lot of potential customers, both randonneurs and people who do century rides and supported tours. Currently, they use ill-suited racing bikes because nothing else is available...
As an aside, I would love to organize technical trials some day. 4 days, 750 km, on rough roads in the mountains (60% fire roads), penalties for everything that doesn't work or breaks at the finish, for not making the scheduled 15 mph average speed, for getting off your bike and walking. Then points for the lightest bike, etc. I wonder who would show up? Who would report the results? Your bike sounds like a good candidate...
Jan Heine, Seattle
P.S.: Most Herse and Singer that came to this country weren't really randonneur bikes, because few people here understood the concept. Look at one made for a French rider...