On re-reading my email on this subject, I see that I forgot the signoff, for which I apologise.
On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 at 09:10:26-0800, Jan Heine wrote:
"I believe that in Britain, the "ultimate" form of the bike revealed itself when fenders, rack and lights were removed for a time trial. As a result, there was more focus on quick removal of these parts than on careful integration. So your hypothesis (1) "They didn't have to" does apply, but for different reasons. The British builders didn't have to make superb custom racks, stems and lighting solutions, because their customers didn't consider these parts very important."
I don't agree entirely with the first sentence: as has been well-documented, most clubmen could afford only one machine, which served for commuting related to work, shops and social life, club riding, touring and racing, and therefore, it could not be limited in its purpose by in-built custom items. I believe that it was this, rather than a focus on the stripped-down time trial machine, which resulted in limited demand for specialised touring machines. For the dedicated tourist, the most prominent maker of specialist touring machines, offering custom braze-ons and mutiple gears was F. W. Evans, but in the 1939 catalogue, even this maker listed ten other models in addition to their "Tourist" model.
Neil Foddering
Weymouth, Dorset, England