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When I was a lad, these were the sorts of bike regarded as suitable for what we now call gravel.
I never saw one in the Highlands though. What I did see was more likely to be the likes of a Flying Scot or other lightweight, fixed, and often on tubs and ridden by what I thought were ancient old geezers (i.e. probably 40+).
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Note the extra clearance for mud.
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The Rudge was basically a Raleigh Lenton frame with the Rudge fork which had a reinforced steerer.
Here's my Windrush in appropriate conditions, anyone else running a retro gravel?
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How old is your bike
Probably 1958, but not sure.
@epicyclo what are those handlebars?
This just popped up on my Twitter feed, looks like people have been bikepacking as soon as bikes were capable
https://twitter.com/m_xl/status/1252641778223714304?s=20
disco_stu
@epicyclo what are those handlebars?
Lauterwasser replica by Soma fabrications.
That looks like a pic I posted on MTBR many years before Flickr. I've misplaced the original attribution unfortunately because there were other good pics in the same place.
If you want to see more early bike packing follow this link
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(Pics from Jim Fitzpatrick's Bicycle and the Bush - well worth buying.)
Have a look on the Cycling UK forums. Pages of it. Some one asked about such things. I think he was after something special. It was pointed out that people used their normal bikes. Same as they toured or went to work on and probably time trialled. In the mid 80s I took my Raleigh Competition from Capel Curig over the Crafnant tubs and all. The 13 _ 17 block wasn't best suited with 42 and 52 chain rings. The old A5 from Capel to Tryfan was a normal commute.