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Ronnie Romance Goes BTS in Arizona

“To the desert go prophets and hermits; through deserts go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

As Ronnie Romance grapples with the closing of Nutmeg Needleworks, he sought the spiritual values of retreat as Jon Krakauer wrote in “Into the Wild.” Follow along as he takes us BTS on Josh and John’s romp in the Hawes Trail System on the Cotic shoot…

Archive Re-Up: Benedict’s (Ronnie Romance’s) Clockwork Dirt Droooop Tourer

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Archive Re-Up: Benedict’s (Ronnie Romance’s) Clockwork Dirt Droooop Tourer

When we lost our 2014-2015 image bucket back in 2018, it was a huge bummer, but over the past few months, I’ve been digging out hard drives and re-editing some photos, in the hopes of filling in the bigger holes.

2014. What a wild time. I was living in Austin, TX and connecting with individuals who would become some of my best friends. From Matt and his prototype Crust Bikes Evasion to Benedict, aka Ronnie Romance, and his Clockwork Dirt Drop Tourer, some of my favorite bike and personality moments came from that era. Today, in conjunction with Bené’s Blue Lug post, I wanted to re-up this classic photoset, so enjoy!

Benedict’s Romantical Clockwork Bikes Dirt Droop 29er

I should also note that my intent here is only to upload lost photos, keeping the text and formatting intact.

Origins and Activations: How Ronnie Romance Found Inspiration at Blue Lug Bike Shops

Reportage By: Ronnie Romance

Origins and Activations: How Ronnie Romance Found Inspiration at Blue Lug Bike Shops

This is a long story. It is a story of Blue Lug‘s influence on me, an interview with the co-founder, and hopefully it will lend some inspiration to American bike shops.

The photos you are seeing are of Blue Lug employee bikes that I shot one after another as we visited each location. We thought it would be cool to document the personal bikes of the build artists whose handiwork you see each day on the Blue Lug Instagram softcore porn for bike nerds.

We will begin with the story of my 650b leather and canvas activation as a lead in…

Rubber Baron Ronnie and His 650b Ultradynamico Crust Romanceür Canti

Reportage By: john watson & ronnie romance

Rubber Baron Ronnie and His 650b Ultradynamico Crust Romanceür Canti

What will soon be seven summers ago, Crust Bikes CEO Matt pedaled his prototype Evasion to the end of Long Island to catch a ferry across the Sound to where the fishing boat I was working on docked each evening. I readied the lines as the boat backed into the harbor.  Looking up, I could see a backlit figure of a cyclist above the docks in the parking lot— late summer setting sun illuminating orange and golds through course, untamed hair.  Chest hair.  We had been expecting each other…

Ronnie Romance’s Specialized DURALCAN S Works Stumpjumper M2: Cry of the Duralcan

Reportage By: Ronnie Romance & John Watson

Ronnie Romance’s Specialized DURALCAN S Works Stumpjumper M2: Cry of the Duralcan

I grew up working at a Specialized shop, and learned how to mountain bike by watching Ned Overend’s Performance Mountain Biking technique VHS. While I always appreciated the refreshing ideas of small makers, I thought it advantageous for larger brands to be able to invest more in their materials and construction. This was a time when top-end bikes were made of metal, and made domestically.

Metal Matrix (M2) composite is a prime example of this. The big S sourced a 6061 alloy infused with an aluminum oxide ceramic particulate by Alcan. Say that again, backwards now. Alcan called it Duralcan, and I am proud to display their logo on my top tube—that cool typeface!

Ornot Ornot
Mondraker Mondraker
Endura Endura
Flagstaff Flagstaff
45NRTH 45NRTH
State Bicycle Co State Bicycle Co
Paul Paul
Gravel Adventure Field Guide Gravel Adventure Field Guide
Leatt Leatt
Rivendell Rivendell
SimWorks SimWorks
Quad Lock Quad Lock