Well, my great bicycle hunt is over. I bought a Waterford RS-22, and am enjoying it tremendously. The adjustment phase is over, and I'm using it on my longer rides and brevets (I commute to work on a Cannondale R-400 road bike). The first week I had it I rode the Waterford on a 215 mile weekend tour laughingly named the Leakey Death Ride without any problems other than those caused by my lack of fitness!

I looked for a lightweight road bike with touring geometry, braze-ons for racks and fenders, and road components and fittings. I looked at the Litespeed Blue Ridge, but didn't like the mountain-bike style brakes. I also looked at Serotta, but couldn't find the geometry and braze-ons I wanted without going to a custom bike. I thought about going to a custom frame-builder and was almost to that point when I found the Waterford. After riding one on a business trip to Portland, I decided to purchase one.

If you're wanting to put fenders on a bike, using cantilever or V-brakes would allow more room (the Blayleys' website refers to another type of brake setup that would also allow more room, Shimano's long-reach caliper brake, the R600 or RX100 (57mm)) to fit in fenders. All of these setups would require modifications to a standard road frame, however (including the long-reach caliper brake).