kingston 

I run the extralights on my long distance bikes which run 700x32 & 38c tires, and they are as good as everyone says. I buy them three at a time and it really pains me to see the bill for $250 for three tires, but I haven't found a 32 or 38c tire that I'd rather use for randonneuring. I don't really keep track of mileage, but I would guess a rear tire lasts 2-3,000k and a front tire double that.

rhm

I have been using Compass Rat Trap Pass tires on one bike, and Pacenti Pari-Moto tires on another. I can't say there's any difference in their durability. On both bikes I replaced the rear tire after several thousand miles. One of the RTP's had got misshapen (I think because it didn't seat well on that rim) and when I built new wheels for that bike, I chose to use a new tire. The new tire and the new rim were a better match. As far as I can remember, my RTP tires have never had a puncture. I also replaced one of the Pari-Moto tires, late at night on the BRB 1200 last month. The tire was going flat, I was riding with three other riders, and I didn't want to slow them down by trying to figure out what had caused my flat. I replaced both tire and tube and we rolled on down the road with little delay. On later inspection, I found there is a band around 10-15 mm wide down where the tread has worn off. Over the life of that tire I think I had had three punctures.

It's anecdotal evidence, of course, but my experience is that these tires hold up well enough. I've certainly had worse luck with cheaper tires such as Paselas.

Bandera

A different era and a different discipline of the sport but buying handmade silk casing Clement Criterium Setas for the race wheels was far more expensive than training tubulars, but far less expensive than losing the front in a Crit in a season ending crash. It's been no secret that high quality supple tires well fitted to rider weight and properly inflated are the way to go for performance in all aspects, but have never been inexpensive.
That being said, do Brevet riders have two wheel-sets to swap w/ lighter, more aero and better shod set for events and training wheels to mule out the big endurance rides, lousy weather and town miles?

-Bandera

Chesterton

I have no experience with the Compass tires, but they are advertised as getting several thousand kms, which seems like good value. My Paselas lasted not quite two seasons, definitely less than 2,000 km.

kingston 

I can't speak for all randonneurs, but I have different bikes. My long distance bikes with compass tires are reserved for longer brevets. For training miles and JRA I prefer a different everything; geometry, gearing, wheels, tires, luggage, etc. It's the main thing that prevents me from getting myself a really nice randonneuring bike. I only use it a few times a year.

Bandera

I'm not descended from the Princess Who Could not Abide the Pea but it takes a week or so to transition from the winter/wet bike back onto the newly serviced CF road bike before doing any hard efforts even though both are carefully fitted. The FG is a whole other deal requiring a good bit of seat time to re-adapt to the relentless nature and specific techniques of hours of never being in the "right" gear and getting up and over anyway.

-Bandera

StephenH

My thoughts:
9 speed/10 speed/11 speed- zero difference in riding and usability- but check at your bike shop as to parts availability on the different components. I think my shop upgraded my older bike from 9 to 10 speed because some of the 9-speed stuff wasn't available.
The Big Handlebar Bag (edited) Issue- considered essential by a lot of users, but hardly anyone around here uses one, and nobody seems the worse off for it, either.
Moving parts- I'd go with the higher-end in terms of quality, not necessarily weight. Your bottom bracket WILL go out sometime, somewhere, so the longer you can stave that off, the less likely to DNF on a ride.
Big tires- I use them for gravel rides, use 28's for everything else- don't go bigger unless you have specific reason to do so.
If there's a lot of parts where you just don't know the difference, buy a ready-built-up bike, otherwise, you're paying extra to have exactly the part you don't care about used there.
Generator hubs are great because you always have lights ready. I used to use battery systems, and I'd come in from a ride and forget to charge it for next time.

kingston 

I guess I'm lucky that way. None of my bikes ride or fit the same and I have no problem going from one to another, even the fixed-gear. What is a little odd to me is that I have no problem riding fixed for pretty long distances, but on all my geared bikes I have swapped out wide-ratio cassettes for narrow spacing which seems to work better for me. I never have quite figured that one out.

Bandera

Adaption to riding a FG and being capable of riding close ratios effectively are part and parcel of the Old School training techniques when limited gear ranges were the norm and the capability of putting out both grunt or spin on demand as adaption to the FG winter base miles required carried over into the racing season. There is no substitute for good technique, a fair bit of power and some grit.

-Bandera

Craptacular8

Good to know. I've got a little under a thousand miles on a set of Bon Jon's in the standard casing on a bike I do gravel and touring on. Love them. I try to be pretty careful, but know I've ridden over debris with them and no ill effects. Ditto for the extralite 32's on another gravel/road bike. I've been less lucky on the extralite 28's...two flats in the last month with only a few hundred on them. I'm hoping I don't repeat that too often, but suspect that supple casing I enjoy so much is a bit of a magnet for pointy bits when its in a smaller package like the 28's.

clasher

I ride both my current rando bikes with their supple tires for all kinds of other rides, the compass tires have almost 3000km on them and the only flat I had was from leaning it against an air conditioner that somehow popped the tube. My roadie has 28mm vittoria corsa tires and I get 2000km from the rear and more from the front, sometimes I'll go through 3 tires in a season but the cost hasn't bothered me enough to build another set of wheels just for training.

kingston 

I don't claim to know if one technique is better than another, but I have found that riding fixed in the spring helps prevent sore knees and riding a lot of fixed in the spring makes it annoying to ride wide-ratio cassettes in the summer. It stinks because the trend in the market seems to be moving towards wider and wider ratios.

Bandera

I am fond of the now obsolescent 10 cog cassettes. For me there never has been the need for an 11T top cog ever. Swapping from 12-23/25/27/28 depending on fitness/distance/load/terrain on whichever road bike/wheel-set is being ridden takes just a few minutes. Having only the lowest cog needed to climb the steepest pitch on a ride w/o undue stress and cramming as many between that and the 12T is good to go for me.

-Bandera

Chesterton

Is it that easy to swap out cassettes? You don't have to adjust the chain length or derailleur positioning at all? Good to know!

Bandera

Modern cassettes really changed the way we set-up bikes for a parcours from the old days of freewheels.
The Friday night before a race we'd have a team of guys using the bench vises and a variety of FW pullers to swap from straight blocks to road gearing and using the bike stands checking that spacing really was the same.
Now a properly set-up machine w/ the chain length to handle the max capacity, a chain whip and cassette lock-ring tool gets it done in 10 minutes from TT gearing to mountains w/ no guesswork or monkey motion.
Taking a couple of cassette ranges along w/ the tool box to an event is cheap insurance for finding out that "chain-drop hill" has been added to this years' event, but the promoter forgot to tell anyone.....

-Bandera

joewein

FWIW, I swapped my Compass Babyshoe Pass EL (650B x 42mm) for a new pair at over 9,000 km, not because they were threadbare but because I felt safer without the cuts in the center of the tread that had accumulated over the distance. I have also used the standard BSP (non-EL) for about 4,000 km and they have plenty of wear left (I went back to the EL).

Both the BSP and the BSP EL are fantastic tires, worth every cent in my opinion: Very supple and fast, but with minimal puncture risk. I've had two punctures in 17,500 km / 30 months.

unterhausen

Just a data point, the Gravel King slicks I had rode really well, but I doubt I got 2000 miles out of them. And the rear tire was missing tread, had worn through to the casing. I'm thinking the compass might be more economical