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  "description": "Inspired by the pointy end of the gravel racing segment, the second iteration of this frameset features revised angles, plump prototype tires, and an ecclectic retro-mod build.   ",
  "path": "/joy-rides-rons-bikes-alumax-ii-prototype/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-11T23:32:45.000Z",
  "site": "https://escapecollective.com",
  "tags": [
    "Romancing the classics: An interview with Ronnie and AryaHow I stopped worrying about performance and learned to love weird bikes.Escape CollectiveBrendan Shafer",
    "Romanceür",
    "different kind of sponsored Specialized athlete",
    "Subscribe now"
  ],
  "textContent": "Josh Weinberg\n\nYou might recall a recent piece published here at _Escape Collective_ by Brendan Schafer about his long-time friend Ronnie Romance and Ronnie's wife/business partner, Arya. The piece outlined the duo's perspectives on cycling culture, their views on performance-focused bikes, and highlighted an appreciation of classic and unconventional designs.\n\nRomancing the classics: An interview with Ronnie and AryaHow I stopped worrying about performance and learned to love weird bikes.Escape CollectiveBrendan Shafer\n\nI recently connected with Ronnie and Arya in Arizona's Sky Islands region, where both locals like myself and snowbirds like them often converge during winter to enjoy warm days, cool nights, and seemingly endless forest roads nearly void of auto traffic.\n\nRonnie was riding the newest iteration of the gravel platform in his brand's growing lineup: the Alumax II. With a small batch of the frames currently in production – along with an intriguing blend of vintage component standards and modern design adorning his personal build – I consider it a fun addition to the Joy Rides series.\n\nAt first glance, you might look at this bike and write it off because of its rim brakes, quick-release 135 mm rear/100 mm front hub standard, and un-filed aluminum welds – relics of a bygone era rather than compatible with contemporary innovations. But that's the thing with Ronnie and so many other cyclists, me included – we never stopped using the stuff just because the industry moved on.\n\nSure, I'll agree that modern, more technologically advanced components are easier to use and safer in certain scenarios. That doesn't mean the parts that propelled and stopped our bikes for so many years before the modern era belong confined to the bottom of a spares box or, worse, in the rubbish bin.\n\nUnlike the bike models Ronnie helped bring to fruition with Crust Bikes and builder/designer Larkin Cycles, such as the comfortable Romanceür low-trail fat tire tourer, the offerings in his Ron's Bikes catalog currently coalesce around a more modern approach to performance-inspired geometry and ride characteristics, yet incorporate classically durable components, regional manufacturing, and a heavy dose of panache.\n\n\"While my aesthetic and principles may project _luddite_ , I am energized by 'under the hood tech' — the simple mechanical improvements hidden in the numbers,\" Ronnie told me.\n\nElaborating on this conversation point, Ronnie told me that \"a bike needs to call to me before I want to ride it. Without style, I'm not riding … even if no one is around to see but me. This is informed by my belief and experience that with some effort and education, you don’t necessarily have to choose between style and performance.\"\n\nIn terms of where a brand like his exists in the current economy, he said that \"'Big Bike' marketing has driven the narrative of performance in modern bikes, and I get it, they need to sell this stuff to stay afloat. A lot of folks love that stuff, and I am one of them. These advancements may be perceivable at the top levels of the sport, but in reality, most of us will only know the expensive placebos. \"And that's fine,\" he explained, \"I just like the simplicity idea, and that design principle usually produces the  _actual_ highest performance over time. Mine look cool as well!\"\n\n## Rons Bikes\n\nThis began for Ronnie back in his college days during the late 1990s at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. \"I was constantly messing around with my XC setups,\" he told me, \"always thinking I was onto something, only to realize a few days later that I was in fact not onto anything but maybe just _on something_ instead. High on tinkering, we will call it. Wanting to be a racer, I calculated that a faster, better-handling bike would help make me competitive with less training work.\"\n\nEventually, his tinkering led to \"my first custom [bike] from Gunner in 2002 and took it upon myself to customize the geo to go with the longer front end trend that has since stuck around in my current designs, among most others.\"\n\nIt's been a slow and methodical road to get the brand to where it is now. His business venture began about 10 years ago with the launch of Fabio's bike bag lineup. According to Ronnie, it was \"an exploration in making something that I wanted and needed as a full-time bike tourist, but could not find on the market. The first batch of 50 sold out in an afternoon, and I learned for the first time that there were others out there who wanted this stuff, too.\"\n\nEarly to the internet influencing scene, Ronnie was a different kind of sponsored Specialized athlete and used the little money he had from that partnership to invest in bag, handlebar, and shoe designs. \"And people kept buying them,\" he said. \"We had our own bag factory at one point, and then didn’t have a factory at another point, and while facing the financial loss of failure, I decided to start doing bike frames in 2023.\"\n\nUnlike nearly 99% of bike brands in operation, he built his brand around a bold idea: \"I wanted MUSA [_made in the USA_ - Ed.], modern, simple, lightweight, performance-oriented bicycles built around rim brakes to take advantage of the lighter and more flexible materials you can use when not bracing for disc brakes.\" And just like those early bag launches, his small-batch bike drops tended to sell out quickly, too. \"Luckily, there were just enough people looking for the same thing, and Ron's Bikes was successful in evading financial ruin,\" said Ronnie, \"We now do bags, bikes, shoes, jewelry, tires, handlebars, and rims of our own design.\"\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Joy Rides: Ron's Bikes Alumax II Prototype",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-12T01:06:32.884Z"
}