ISO: randonneur frame recommendations -
 

Looking to build a 650b randonneur rig. I feel like most bikes are custom or conversions. Heavy preference to Canadian or American vintage frame to look out for or simply interesting collectable frames. The Bridgestone XO-1 seems like a great candidate, albeit a hard to find one.

so you didn't mention budget, but from your post I assume you are wanting to stay low on the budget side.. the first thing that pops in my head would be an older Trek 520.. or maybe a Miyata of some variation?

BUT, I know you can get a full custom Fitz Cycles built for right at $2k.. which seems like a crazy good price for what you get.. and he is kind of know for steel/rando bikes..

The 650b Google Group has a Fitz for sale on there right now, with custom front rack and integrated wiring. Might have been posted on the PL too, can't remember.

Boulder Bikes (Mike Kone) had some lovely rando frames made by Waterford but they almost never turn up used, ditto for Boxdog, a nice San Francisco shop. And I think Soma did a rando frame a while back; they still do, but it’s set up for discs. If that doesn’t’ bother you, check it out. The Trek 520 is more of a loaded touring heavy duty beast than a rando bike.

Crust Lightning Bolt to thread

X0-1 is a 26" wheeled bike, FWIW.

Isn't XO-1 26"? Colonel beat me to it. 650b would be tough then. But you could go Jan Heine on it. Actually you couldn't because 26x1.95" is about as big as you can fit.

I guess you might need to further flesh out what randonneur means to you. Dynamo, lights, low trail fork, etc? Or does it just mean pop some 650b on a frame designed for 700c. If the latter, there are many candidates, especially if you're willing to do a little tube squishing.

The XO-1 is also a tank compared to the "classic" thin-tubed rando bikes. I recall my buddy's period-correct XO-1 being in the range of 37 pounds.

Wouldn't the XO-1 bring you back to "conversion" territory since it's a 26" wheel bike? I also don't think it's known as a randonneur bike. More of an early gravel bike and based on MTB geometry.

I think vintage + 650b + North American is going to lead you nowhere since 650b was never popular here until relatively recently.

What about the Soma Grand Randonneur for disc or the Brother Cycles Mr. Wooden for rim?

Cycles Toussaint is also offering their braze-on free 650b low trail frame for a stupid low price:

https://www.cyclestoussaint.com/coll...hout-braze-ons

but you'd have to factor in solutions for your needs or stripping/sending to a frame builder to get sorted.

What I've heard around the 'nets is that the Cycles Toussaint is actually a pretty decent bike, especially for the price.

I find the 650b wheel size quite good – you can get a cushy 42 mm tire in there, a full coverage fender, and still avoid toe overlap and get a fairly narrow chainstays and therefore Q-factor.

Depending on the size you're looking for, there are good conversion candidate frames (or sometimes whole bikes) that turn up on the lists. Trek 400, other older Treks, Fuji, Nishiki, etc. – they're inexpensive frames that ride well and convert to 650b relatively well. Some don't even require extra dimpling of chainstays to fit a 42 tire, and most will do a 38. But conversions make sense only if you're into tinkering and already have a pile of parts, IMO.

So... tell us more about your impetus, size reqs, and budget, and we could be of greater help. :-)

Are you looking for something to ride brevets on? Or are you looking for something that generally fits the internet's overall concept of what "randonneur bike" means? Because the range of bikes that people happily and comfortably use for randonneuring is much broader than the internet's image of what constitutes a "randonneur rig".

There's nothing wrong with the stereotypical randonneuring bike, but it's only one choice among many of what people ride for actual randonneuring. Lots of people ride plain ol' stock road bikes, gravel bikes, cross bikes, etc, perfectly happily. And lots of people ride custom bikes, and vintage bikes, and 650b conversion bikes, old bikes, new bikes, and so on.

If 26x2-2.2 was an option you could hunt down an old, decent tubing, canti 700c/27inch road dropbar frame. Maybe stick in a Tange Prestige Ultralight 1" mtb fork. https://www.reddit.com/r/xbiking/com...26_conversion/

#4 discussing old, lower-trail frames: https://m.bikeforums.net/showthread....1150747&page=1

I’m looking to fit the stereotype.
I’m starting to think 700c might be the way to go.. I definitely have those parts on hand. Just wonder about max tire w/ fender.

And my size as well.

The picture in my head is rim brake. But this bike is beautiful and the price is enticing.

Ha. I owned that Fitz linked above. John built it for himself but found it a little stiff for his weight. I inquired about having him build a frame for me and since that frame sounded a lot like what I described he offered to send it to me and let me try it out. I rode it a while, but it was too short and I wanted some different features and some slight geo differences so I sent it back and he started building a frame for me.