Originally Posted by
desconhecido
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.
Thanks for the comments. Actually that is a Performance full carbon fork from a few years ago that only weighs about 370g. I had it painted as part of the redo of the frame. It was about $120 but, as many good buys at Performance, has been discontinued.
No, I actually had Ray build it for me directly. I had bought a 501 frame of his that had one of the first ever Shimano 600 groups on it back in '83. Complete with the scalloped Shimano 600 headset. I got it from a store that was on Fannin Street downtown, but it is long gone now. Anyway that frame needed a few paint touch ups when I got it home from the store, so I took it over to Ray's "factory" to have it fixed it up. We struck up a friendship, also with Geri his wife, and I visited with them on occasion over the years. Then when I had a particularly good year for donations for the MS 150 in about 1990, I had them forward my award to Ray for a custom frame. The one you see is it, but several repaints and other changes later.