I haven't heard anyone comment on the different steering technique that a Crit bike seems to demand. Besides slipping easily through packed riders, the bars are perhaps narrower because less steering is done with them and more done with one's butt on the saddle. My first one was all set for its' test ride after assembly. It had rained earlier and the pavement was a little damp. I rode over to my daughter's house to show it to her and as her car was not in the drive way when I got there I made a U-Turn in the street to head back. I used about the usual lean and steer and was amazed to see it tuning in about half the normal turning radius.suddenly the rear tire broke traction on the pavement and I very nearly went down in a most spectacular fashion! After that I sort learned a technique of steering very little with the bars and shifting the butt on the saddle for most corrections.sure worked better for me! A more subtle hand and body movement is needed for bikes with this geometry for sure.
Now a question that has been nagging me. Is a Randonneur bike merely a touring bike intended to carry less load? Maybe not the hundred pounds of stuff one might have on a cross country stint, but, say, forty pounds like one might have for a night or two on the road? The term Randonneur has picked up so much popularity these days that suddenly everyone has a Randonneuring bike instead of a Touring bike.Is there a real difference in bikes that I am not picking up on? Surely just the presence of a randonneur handlebar does not make it a Randonneuring bike? I notice that these latter sometimes lack this bar, anyway, in current descriptions). Lighter racks make the bike as clothes sometimes make the man?
Pondering if I have not sold some folks like Jerry Moos Touring bikes when they were really Randonneuring bikes (Jerry, you might owe me some more $$$!) The builder did refer to them as Sport Tourers, though.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA