This is my bike Ron

Ron was a Craigslist find that I bought with the intent to convert it from an old club racer to a slick porteur/city bike. It's a Ron Kitching "Cyclassic"-- an English lugged road frame from the early '70s that was originally set up with drop bars. The frame was baby blue, but the paint was a mess-- it was a dinged-up rust bucket. We had it sandblasted and powdercoated a deep red and rebuilt it with Nitto Albatross bars, a Brooks B17 saddle and Shimano 600 ("Arabesque") shifters and derailleurs. It rides like a dream. The fenders are Soma Eurotrips in bright red that matches the frame, but only coincidentally.

Ron is beloved far and wide-- every time I lock him up somewhere, I always catch people stopping to admire him. If the bikes had a prom, Ron would be king. Girls smile and wave coquettishly as we pass by. Fame and fortune are heaped upon Ron by all who encounter him. Women want him, men want to be him. He makes whatever bike my boyfriend is riding feel ignored and unloved. Such is Ron's power.

Ron recently got a rack and a set of red Ortlieb panniers (front rollers-- small for his dainty self) and I'll be damned if I don't love this bike even more unreasonably now that I can haul shit with it. I also added a Japanese aluminum bell to the stem from Velo Orange.