Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

weird structural decisions

Lolo you can't just dump that picture and walk away, details!

rack and panniers seems the soundest solution. I was also thinking along the lines of a basket I can just throw my bag into then bunjees over the top to secure it - would make things simple - but I guess the cost outlay just isn't worth it.

I've used Wald baskets on track bikes before, brakeless, front brake and f+r brakes.

If you're just carrying a laptop and maybe your lunch or a change of clothes, it's fine. It will affect the steering slightly, but not to the point where it's horrible or dangerous. My wife used to use her Wald front basket on her track bike (with tight road forks) to carry a bag with a change of clothes, mini-d lock and her lunch. No problems. I've carried two six packs (glass bottles) and a bottle of wine in mine and it was fine.

This is my track bike with a Wald 137 basket.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/mysisterthecop/785000D0-A1FB-45D6-9BE2-303D24006E68-3808-000002590669519F_zpsd9c5ea49.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f151/mysisterthecop/4CFEE660-0C20-4C3C-B0A3-D8638AF42187-669-0000006D365E4B4C_zpsc24f25b5.jpg

All this talk of fork rake and trail and steering being affected is relevant... if you're carrying more than 3 or 4 kilos on your front wheel and touring. You may need to widen your bars if you're riding with narrow risers, but thats it.

Sorry, reader's wife, but hey. Touring northern France on this was rad, despite obviously overloaded carradice.

Equipped for the LEL, very short mudguard thought;

A friend of mine featured that bike on his blog. He and his wife were volunteering on LEL.
Have a look here at some very nice functional bikes.

Cool! Is that zanda's Bob Jackson?

95% sure, odd thing to change the fork, wonder why.

The most awesome touring bike ever;

The bikes were tailor-made, built to the highest specification by Raleigh. Gerald O'Donovan master-minded the project at his Specialist Bicycle Development Unit at Ilkeston, which has also produced the winning Tour de France team bikes.
Frames. The geometry was based on that used for the toughest professional races, e.g. the Paris-Roubaix, with a lengthened wheelhase, softer angles (74o seat tube, 73o head tube) and increased rake. Together these give a smoother, less ,twitchy' ride. The tubing was TI Reynolds 753 which is much in favour for professional racing because, although it is expensive, it offers the best strength-to-weight ratio; 753 is heat-treated manganese molybdenum steel which on our bikes was double-butted, top tube 24 gauge, down tube 23 gauge, i.e. the tube wall was about 0.5 mm thick in the middle and about 0.8 mm thick at the ends. The tensile strength is an impressive 80 tsi. The lugs, fork crown and bottom bracket were micro-fusion crushed steel (i.e. very fine-grained, precision cast) and all joints were silver-soldered. Each frame contains £20 worth of silver solder! The frames were hand-sprayed and stove-enamelled with five coats of paint in the Raleigh Team colours: pearl, red, blue and yellow. They had long Campagnolo rear dropouts, and bosses for bottle cage and a single (the rear) gear lever.
Wheels. Bob Arnold of F. W. Evans built strong wheels capable of withstanding pounding on dirt roads for several thousand kilometres. They had Mavic M3 CD rims with 36 x 36 stainless-steel single-buttoned spokes on Campagnolo small-flange hubs. We hit numerous rocks and several large pots at high speed, one of them near Amdo catapulting Nick into Outer Space, but the wheels remained true. The tyres were Specialized; one Touring K4 and one Expedition 700 X 35C. Although rated at 75 psi, we rode them at 90 psi on both tarmac and dirt. Because the wheels and tyres had to be highstrength, hard-wearing, they contributed greatly to the overall weight; pushing it up from the 17½ lb which our bikes would have weighed if fitted with sprint wheels and tubes to the 22 lb all-up weight including Blackburn alloy rear carrier and bottle cages.
Equipment. Cinelli bars and stem. Shimano Dura Ace levers for Campagnolo side-pull brakes. Brooks Professional saddle on Dura Ace seatpost. Shimano 600 EX chainset (49/39 teeth for Nick, 52/40 for Dick) with Shimano Uniglide chain to Sun Tour Perfect freewheel (14 to 28). Control was from a cut-down Simplex gear shift to a Shimano 600 EX derailleur. In order to save weight, there was no front derailleur or lever, we used heel kick-down for lower gears and finger lift-up for higher.
Over a quarter of the distance was very rough dirt road, and the bikes had to suffer monsoon rain and humidity, snow and ice, dust and sand and temperatures ranging from -10oC to 46oC. The only breakdown we had was a broken cable caused by Tibetan children playing with the gear lever - easily mended - and only two punctures each. The bikes were impeccably designed and built, comfortable, utterly reliable and as at home in the Himalayas as they were crossing the Gobi Desert.

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Tl:dr... Didn't realise you could actually appreciate a touring bike without mudguards???

Where they've went, they're not looking for luxury.

Nasty.

Am I allowed readers wives?

Not quite done, but at least its ridable.

Still to do:

• mudguards
  
• rack angle
  
• compressionless outter for the v-twin
  

Spotter, that is great.

Cheers.

yup, grand job. very nice build.

rear rack and mudguards?

Am I allowed readers wives?

Yes mate, that's awesome!

I'm gonna post some RW too, thoroughly enjoying riding this around Scotland this month but looking forward to potentially following the Tawe (or was it Severn!?) with Spotter when I get back to London.

Hmm, photo doesn't seem to work. Link: http://imageshack.com/i/0i4gcrj

Am I allowed readers wives?

This is great, nice work. Sort of what I have in mind.
What are the bars and rack mate?

yup, grand job. very nice build.

rear rack and mudguards?

Mudguards yes, probably no rear rack. well not straight away

This is great, nice work. Sort of what I have in mind.
What are the bars and rack mate?

bars are salsa cowbells and the rack is soma

is it for commuting? Looks like it will last for years and years, good stuff

Its for everything really.

here's my functional updated track bike

You've kind of missed the point. Functional (usually) means, racks, guards, multiple gears, ability to tour or carry stuff, etc.

Anyway, here's a video from AWOL (Specialized)

AWOL x TRANSCONTINENTAL | Trailer (Full documentary coming late 2013) on Vimeo