Building the Bikes

 

Building style

Romic was primarily known for lugged, road bikes, but added a strong line of track bikes in later years. Custom models were always an option, and beautiful racing bikes were created by Ray and the team for specialized needs. Working in steel, Ray focused on two 'lines' of tubing. For the lower cost line of bikes, over the years he used tube sets called High Ten (tensile), or Cro Mo (chrome molybendium), and later used the Tange2 line of steel tubes. It seems most of these tubesets came from Japan. For the higher end bikes, he primarily worked in Reynolds 531 - though some frames were built using Columbus

The bikes were built specifically for the customer and/or bicycle shop that ordered them. One feature of the Romics was that no matter which tubing material used, the bikes were built to the same high quality standards. The 'high ten', lower cost Cro Molly line had the exact same high quality finish as the more expensive 531 frames. In the 70’s and 80’s - ‘High Ten’ was the lowest grade of tubing used on frames, with the next step up being the CrMo tube sets. Ray ordered both these sets, in pre cut lengths of the largest size frames he made, directly from Japan. His top of the line frames used Reynolds 531, which he ordered in individual tube sets from Sturmey Archer, up in Chicago – they were the distributor of Reynolds 531 a that time.

Romics were primarily built and configured as full bikes - with assembly staff 'hanging' the hardware on each frame in the final stages. In the 70's Ray was an early adopter of the fledgling japanese componentry - and most of his bikes used build sets from Suntour and Shimano over more expensive Italian products.

Virtual Shop Tour, (with some personal thoughts on working with Ray....)

From some of the members, visit the shop here.....<click>

Models

Ray always did custom builds. I've not seen printed catalogs from the 70's, but in later years (mid 80's perhaps onwards?) there were a more detailed set of printed offerings for his geared models. His model 50 (touring) and 75 (racing) used Champion #2 tubes, while his models X100 (Racing and Touring) used 531 or Columbus tubing. Cinelli and Haden Concorde frame lugs were used on both series. (ed. If anyone has spec sheets on his track bikes, I would love to include them here). Romic did a lot with Track bikes, and in 89 Ray built a set of bikes for the Houston velodrome - which are still use today. (see page 4 of the build book below)

Model specs can be seen here:

Serial numbers

From the first frame that was recorded as built on April 10, 1974, right up until frame 14,724 was finished, Romic maintained one paper based, build list of the bikes. This list included the serial numbers which were stamped on the underside of the bottom brackets, the sizing (mostly in inches), the model, the color, and often the tubing material used in the build. Romic was primarily known for lugged, road bikes, but added a strong line of track bikes in later years. In fact, the US track championship one year had a Silver medalist team riding Romic bikes.

A sequential Serial number was always entered as the first string of digits stamped on the underside of the bottom bracket. In early years there was a still puzzling letter which came next, then a string of digits signifying the build date. In later years the letter was ommitted.

A few pages from the book are here:

 

First frame listed in the book (4/10/74):

   4/10/74 01A41074 – 23 ½ , flamboyant red, ‘Lux’

First Reynolds frame listed (4/18/74):

   11A41874 – 24 ½ , flamboyant blue, ‘Rey’ model listing

Last frame listed in the book, on 12/29/2004 (the 14,724th recorded frame built)

   14724122904 (12/29/2004)

This last frame was built for 'Maino' and listed as 54cm with no other details (and in markedly different handwriting than the others.) Was this final frame possibly built by a shop craftsman, making one last frame before the doors closed ??

Last 5 frames built for:

Tim Carlson (Ray and Gerry’s son in law) – Road, size not specified (14720041002)

Marc Mcdonald – Road -62cm (14721090603)

Kris Pherson – Road – 59cm (14722111403)

Jeremy (Sam Prot. Cyclework) – 57.5 cant read designation (14723112003)

Maino (14724122904) - described above.

Sample Build Reciepts 1987:1993:

Thanks to John H, here are production invoices for his bike SN 1405193087, both from it's original build in 1987 and it's return to Ray for a beautiful re'finish in 1993. See John's bike in Gallery 13