Custom Oak Cycles 650B French Randonneur Project.

I was talking about those old common stem/bar that does have noticeable flexing, modern bar are much better naturally, but some people does feel a slight difference between modern quill/bar and ahead stem/oversize bar.

Yes. Is optimum stiffness of much importance for a geared randonneuring bike though? How often is it likely to be ridden aggressively in the drops and out of the saddle? How often are you going to push a big gear at low cadence etc, you get the idea.