Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
[...]
In honor of Pi Day, I took out my "special occasion", 25 year old, Reynolds 531, steel bike for a spin both yesterday and today on Houston's less than perfect streets. Uh, oh! My steel isn't nearly as real as I thought it was either. I plan to confirm tomorrow by repeating the ride on the CF bike, but after all this time I have just realized the steel ride isn't nearly cushy as I had thought. I guess the CF and the new Ti have me spoiled. [...]
That's too bad because the Romic is a very nice and uncommon bike. Was it sold originally by Danial Boone?
I've been riding a new Ciocc steel frame recently and it has 25 mm tires that I gas up to about 100 psi. Houston streets are not smooth, for sure, but I don't consider if harsh. You're probably a much stronger rider and go faster than I do and encounter more bumps per unit time. I'm old, fat, and slow.
Have you considerd trying a carbon fork on the Romic? Nashbar has them for about $100 less 17% (sale) plus tax and shipping (probably comes out to about $100) and a Tange threaded headset to put on it would be less than $20. I have a Nashbar carbon fork on a 97 fat tube Cannondale and it really smooths things out.
Just a thought, they're not ugly forks and it's really too bad that the Romic doesn't make you as happy as it should.