For some strange reason I got the idea in my head that it would be fun to build a bike.
Now, I have plenty of bikes already so I can’t say I really needed another one. I was looking at pictures of the classic French touring bikes of the 1930s-1950s and decided it would be cool to have something like that.
Then I thought it would be even cooler to build something like that. Now I’ve never built a bike before, but I’ve never been one to let a minor detail like that stop me.
Specifically I wanted to build a Randonneur , which roughly translates to “camper” or “hiker”. There is some ambiguity between randonneur, brevet, and tourer so don’t quote me on that. I’m not exactly sure if the term applies to the bike or the rider. The American version is a “rando” bike.
This is an old-school style of bike that’s been making a comeback over the last ten years or so.
The frame looks like a modern road bike but the geometry is slightly different. The fork has a slender curve near the end which gives it a bit more flex. They don’t make ‘em like that any more, probably for liability reasons. The frame has less “trail” and more “rake” than a modern road bike. I don’t know exactly what that means, but it’s supposed to make for a stable ride and is optimized to carry a load on the front.
The other main difference is the 650b wheels. These are fatter than the skinny tires you see on a modern road bike. Back in the day these bikes were ridden long distances over rough roads. The fat, low-pressure (60-75 psi) tires gave a softer ride than a modern bike.
The list of “old school” touches I wanted included:
650b “gumwall” tires.
Hammered aluminum fenders.
Downtube shift levers.
Flared randonneur-style drop bars.
Front and rear racks.
Leather saddle and handlebar tape.
Cantilever brakes.
Old fashioned “non aero” brake levers.
The first problem was finding a frame. Not many people are making low-trail French style frames these days. Sure, I could have gone to a custom frame-builder like Rivendell and spent $1,500-$2,500 for a custom frame. I didn’t feel like spending that kind of cash and waiting a year a frame.
This is where I got lucky. An ebay search turned up a used Velo Orange Polyvalent MKIII in my size. Polyvalent means “multi purpose” I believe. Pardon me as I commit atrocities to the French language.
I made the seller an offer and a week later I had my frame, in beautiful French “tri-color blue”. It had a few scratches but was otherwise in great condition. After trying several different shades of blue nail polish with no luck I managed to find some Honda touch-up paint that was an exact match.
I would never have been able to do this without the help of my local bike shop. I’ve been working with this guy for years and he’s wonderful. Highly knowledgeable and a nice guy to boot.
When I told him what I was trying to build he knew exactly what I wanted. He asked “Do you want to use vintage or modern components?”
Since this bike will hopefully be ridden many miles, I decided that I didn’t need some 50-year-old derailleur coming apart in the middle of a long ride. I would go with modern components.
The problem is, most modern components are black or grey and I wanted everything on this bike to be silver - “ooooh shiny!” This somewhat limited my choice of components since I wanted a specific look.
There are a few places that specialize in retro looking bike parts. Compass Cycles is at the high end of the price/quality spectrum. Velo Orange is in the mid range. I’m not shilling for anyone here but those would be good places to start if you wanted to do a build like this. I’ve bought parts from both plus a few other sources.
A bike has to have wheels, so might as well start there.
Now there are people who have the skills to properly build a wheel and they already know who they are. I believe it involves arcane chanting and sacrificing a goat at midnight on the Sabbath. Since I had a hard time getting my hands on a live goat, I decided to outsource this part of the project.
My local bike shop (love that guy) put together a beautiful set of polished 650b wheels with a dynamo front hub and a 36-spoke rear. The wheels cost more than the frame but I didn’t want to skimp on something that important. Fully loaded with rider and gear over a rough road these wheels will need to be sturdy.
I ordered a book on road bike maintenance and started looking for tools. Work stands seem to come in two flavors: cheap but too flimsy looking to do the job, or sturdy but cost almost as much as a bike. I finally found one that looked solid enough to do the job but wouldn’t break the bank.
Mind you there was no economic justification for doing this build. In the amount of time I spent on this bike I could have picked up an extra trip at work and bought the bike three times over. This was purely a labor of love. Plus an excuse to buy tools. Can’t have too many tools.
Thankfully my dear wife didn’t mind me turning our rec room into a bike shop.
Now that I had wheels I needed something to make them go. I wanted some serious hill climbing gears on this thing. There’s nothing worse than being out of gears, energy, and ideas on a long climb. I went with a Velo Orange triple chainring 24-48 on the front and Campy 12-30 on the rear. That 24-30 tooth combination should let me climb the Eiffel Tower.
I was initially going to use friction shifting, but then I found a set of Campy 10-speed indexed bar-end shifters on ebay. These are hard to come by because don’t make them any more. The cool thing is, if you remove the plastic bits that mount them to the handlebars, they will work as downtube shifters.
The bad news was, when the shifters got here they were missing the little springs that make them index. It can never be simple. The good news was, most Campy stuff can be rebuilt.
After rebuilding the shifters it was time to install the rest of the drivetrain. The front (Veloce triple) and rear (Veloce long-cage) derailleurs went on with no trouble.
Never having installed a chain before, I carefully read the instructions and then watched a couple of youtube videos on how to install a 10-speed Campy chain. Then I promptly did it wrong and broke my brand new chain tool. Then I gouged my hand with a screwdriver while trying to fix it. Because I’m an idiot.
Luckily I had a mini chain tool that I carry on long rides. The chain meanwhile decided that I had sacrificed enough and went together without any further struggle.
Now the moment of truth. I spun the crank and tried the shifter. Click! Click! Click! Ka-chunk! Ka-chunk! Ka-chunk! Amazingly enough it worked.
I have no experience with cantilever brakes. Local bike shop guy strongly suggested I go top of the line if I was going to use them. Since I kind of like being able to stop, I heeded his advice. Brakes are one of those things you take for granted, except when they don’t work.
After installing them, my impression is that it takes a bit of effort to get them set up properly. After that, they seem to work as well as any other brakes.
I had to order a special set of bolts from the brake manufacturer that would allow me to mount my front rack to them. Because it can never be simple.
The rest of it went together pretty easily. I spent most of my time waiting on parts to come in. I definitely did my part for the package delivery business here.
There were a few snags however. Back when I worked in IT we had something we called the “80-20 rule”. You spend 80 percent of your time on 20 percent of the work.
Fenders and lights proved to be the 80 in the 80-20 rule.
I went with top of the line Hanjo fenders. There is definitely “some assembly required” with these guys.
I measured, measured again, measured once more just to be sure and then started cutting and drilling. The instructions that came with the fenders were minimal at best, and in Japanese.
This is where I wished I spoke Japanese — so that I could properly curse the designer of these things in his native tongue.
I figured out where to mount the fender stays by looking at pictures of similar bikes. I found that my bolt cutters worked well for trimming the fender stays.
It took me several iterations to get them the length I wanted. You can always cut more off, but once it’s too short you’re screwed.
I used my Dremel tool to round off the edges of the fender stays after cutting them. I wanted everything on this bike to look like it was “meant to be there”.
The rear was especially troublesome because I wanted to integrate my rear rack with the fender. This made for a cleaner look and helped support the fender as well.
I’m pleased with how they came out. After a few tweaks I was able to get the “fender line” to properly follow the curve of the tires.
I’m running 42mm tires and there’s not a whole lot of clearance. The only way to get the back wheel on and off is to deflate the tire first.
At some point I may decide to secure the front fender to the rack with a long bolt just to give the fender additional stability.
The lights were a very big deal. I don’t know why, but I wanted a hub dynamo on this bike. I really don’t ride at night very much but I thought it would be a cool feature.
The new hub generators are far superior to the old “bottle” generators I remember from back in the day. Those mostly made a lot of noise and wore your tire out. These new ones are silent and create very little resistance. If the lights are turned off, I can’t even really tell that the dynamo is there.
They can be a bit pricey, however. I went with a Shutter Precision hub, which seemed to hit the price/performance “sweet spot”.
After hitting the online auction houses I was able to come by a selection of antique French headlights and taillights. Eventually packages from France started arriving at the house, to my wife’s amusement.
I went with a hammered aluminum Luxor headlight to match my fenders and saved the art-deco Radios light for my wife’s future build.
Now I have seen a few builds where people took the guts out of the Luxor headlight and somehow hid a modern Busch & Mueller headlight in there. I didn’t feel like spending that kind of money on a light. Plus I enjoy a challenge.
I found a company in the UK that sold LED bulbs that would fit the old fashioned screw-in bulb holders. They also sold a small voltage regulator to keep my generator from blowing out the bulbs at higher speeds. It’s not as sophisticated as a $150 German headlight, but it puts out a pretty good beam.
If I need extra light I can always clip on a battery powered headlight, which is what they did back in the day. I’ve seen pictures of old bikes with big D-cell flashlights attached to the front racks.
I was originally going to mount the light on the fender, but didn’t like the idea of hanging extra weight on the front of the fender. I thought it might cause it to spring like a diving board.
Carefully cutting and drilling with my Dremel, I removed the original bracket and fit a bracket from another light that I wasn’t going to use.
This would allow me to attach it to the front rack, which seemed to be a much sturdier setup. This was a common way of doing it back in the day, so I didn’t feel like I was taking away from “the look”.
Since this is a steel frame, I only had to run a single wire, with the frame acting as the rest of the circuit. I drilled the bottom of the headlight to add an on/off switch plus a rubber grommet to run the wiring through. The voltage regulator fit neatly inside the headlight. I wanted everything to look clean and professional. No “slop” here.
In 20/20 hindsight, I probably should have drilled the fork and frame for internal wiring back when all I had was a bare frame. Not sure if I would have been brave enough to do it.
Instead I found some thin, 20-gauge wire that exactly matched the blue frame. I used a single blue cable-tie to attach the wire to the frame, between the shift levers where you can hardly see it. Now, where to attach the other end?
This frame is equipped for three bottle cages but I only planned on using two. I anchored the wire to the screws for the third bottle cage. A small cable guide under the bottom bracket keeps it in place. I added a bullet connector in case I ever have to remove the rear fender.
Finally I drilled the rear fender and ran the wire through a rubber grommet and along the inside of the fender, securing it with metallic HVAC tape.
The classic French touring bag was my Christmas present. I think my wife was happy there was something I finally wanted for Christmas.
I managed to sneak in one ride before the first snowfall of the year. Overall I’m very pleased with it. It’s not perfect, but I’d say I got it 95% right the first time. Everything is “tight” and it all works the way it’s supposed it. At 29 pounds it’s on the heavy side, but I’m told that’s not bad for this kind of bike.
I need to better secure the bag to the front rack. I used an integrated decaleur (bag holder thingy) but it pops loose when I hit a hard bump. I may have to secure it with a strap or bungee cord.
Now I can’t wait for the spring so that I can ride it some more. Currently it’s sitting on a trainer as the world’s most expensive stationary bike.