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@scarlet
First attempt at a project post, but here goes...
The background
I got into riding long a few years ago, after chatting to someone about Paris-Brest-Paris at an otherwise forgettable city finance thing. Odd how you meet people.
In 2018, I did my first 200k, which nearly killed me. I'm a slow learner, so I did another, just to be sure. The second wasn't so bad. Up to about 160k...
In 2019, I did an audax super-randonneur series to qualify for PBP. Each ride was a voyage of discovery, mostly into "how not to ride...". I'm still not quite sure how I qualified, nor why I thought my "experience" qualified me to ride 1,200k around France.
In short, I pi55ed around with different bikes and setups from lightweight race to touring. Mostly I chose different setups each time, or the wrong kit. I got bailed out a few times by kindly folks. Hopefully, I'm putting all this learning into this new project.
PBP 2019 was just brilliant. I could write a bit more about it if folks are interested. I came back full of motivation to ride more, and ride a bit faster. I also couldn't walk, sit properly or use cutlery for a few weeks due to contact-point ailments.
Since PBP I have mostly been racing long time trials and just riding long for fun. I've beaten 4h for 100 miles, which was a lifelong ambition, and I got around the Mersey Roads last year, which I was delighted with.
The project goal
I want a road bike upon which to ride long distances quickly. Mostly, these will be audaxes (and PBP 2023), but this bike might also have to double up as a spare for the national 24h TT.
It will need to cover some easy bridleways/canals and some crappy roads, so I'm really wanting to run 28 or 32mm tyres.
For both aero and comfort, I'll need aero bars. That's one thing I learned.
I'll write a bit more about previous bikes (and things I learned) in a bit.