The December 1st installment of this year’s “meet the teams” series was hosted by the Seattle International Randonneurs (aka the “SIRs”). Although not part of the WSBA, SIR’s involvement in the series makes sense from the perspective that official randonneuring events involve time checks, and randonneuring in general is structured to motivate participants to ride for challenging personal goals.
Self-sufficiency is a hallmark of the Randonneurs.
SIR is one of the larger cycling organizations in Cascadia, and the range of randonneurring events can appeal to any cyclist. For cyclists looking to build fitness and endurance, SIR events are sequenced in a series of increasingly longer rides that build to extremely long distances as the season progresses. The (in)famous 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris ride is the marquee randoneurring event, but there are numerous shorter brevets as well as a few events that are even longer.
Club president Mark Thomas presiding and showing off his ride.
The Ride:
I arrived at the ride completely unprepared for an outing with these guys. The Randonneurs are known for their endurance and gritty determination, but I showed up after a full night’s sleep and with fresh legs that hadn’t pedaled in about a week. Fortunately, the SIRs welcomed visitors who were not sleep deprived or suffering from a lactate hangover.
Don Boothby shows off his Davidson and a most excellent illumination system.
Before we headed out, club president Mark Thomas patiently spent time trying to explain various randoneurring details, but he could tell that the morning’s caffeine hadn’t yet titrated into my nervous system and recommended I check out the Audax Club Parisien, which is the sanctioning body for official randonneurring events. The BC Randonneurs post an easy to digest compilation of randonneuring rules on their site.
During one of the regroups, Don Boothby gave me a tour of his new custom Davidson. I was particularly interested in how well Don had considered illumination. To design the the illumination system, part of the process he used was to have his wife photograph him. Based on the photos, he strategically placed SOLAS reflective tape so that he could verify that he looked like a bicyclist from the perspective of a motorist. The lighting system itself is a Schmidt SON hub with an E-6 and a Lumotec Plus (unswitched) running in series. Seattle area nighttime commuters could learn a lot from Don and the other randos.
Got wool? Peter McKay discusses route details with other Randos.
As the ride continued I chatted with Noel Howes, about among other things, the variety of bicycles in the group. Noel broke down the riders into two classes: Those on racing bikes, and those who prefer touring bicycles with wider tires. I thought of the riders on the bikes with wider tires as the longboard surfers of the Seattle bicycling scene. Not in a hurry, and all about style.
More:
Check out RUSA: Randonneurs USA
