Quoth Jerry Moos, "The water bottle shown is one of those American made products that appeared during and just after the Bike Boom...."
To a great extent, right you are (...although your subsequent guess about it being a Cool Gear product was just a tad off). The particular integrated water bottle / cage combination seen on Rich's Romic was a Rhode Gear USA offering (...those very same folks more commonly associated with the once ubiquitous Flickstand). And you are most perceptive in noting that once "...the keyed plastic bottle eventually cracks with age you'll probably have to replace the whole system...". This nevertheless interesting bit of cycling kit first appeared in 1980 when Rhode Gear sought to proliferate their product line from that of being somewhat of a "one trick pony". Their expanded line-up then included Handlebar Hide (...genuine leather bar covering with nylon stitching), the Rhode Rack (...a rear mount rack incorporating a lightweight Minlon shelf that doubled as a fender), the aforementioned Rhode Bottle (...a "cage-less" water bottle featuring dual molded finger grip areas and an integrated Nylon plastic frame mount into which said bottle slid), and of course the venerable Flickstand itself which had debuted a couple of years earlier.
For whatever it may be worth, by 1982 Rhode Gear USA further expended its range of product offerings to include a whole host of touring packs and bags, riding gloves, cyclist guides, bicyclist oriented post cards, a conventional Continental touring rack, pant leg cinches, and a second edition Rhode Bottle featuring a revised Nylon mounting base which could be used in conjunction with frame mount braze-ons as opposed to only offering the original clamp-on design. 1983 saw them begin to market smaller behind the saddle bags designated their Bantam Saddle Pack, various sets of traditional style panniers, map cases, a rear rack mount trunk, touring hooks, and a custom logo printing service for any of their various colored water bottles.
Eventually I will get around to digitizing all of my Rhode Gear USA product literature, flyers, brochures, catalogs and the like and posting same to Velo-Pages (...so, stay tuned).
Robert "no Rhodes Scholar - and I don't even play one on TV" Broderick ...the "Chronically Cloudy Clime" of Oregon Portland, USA
> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:29:34 -0800
> From: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org; rpinder@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: [CR] Riding the Red Romic
>
> Always good to hear of a Romic on the road. Ray was pretty conservative and avoided extreme geometry, so his bikes are very rideable. As I've related before, I had to argue long and hard to persuade him to build even my custom built track frame with toeclip overlap. Ray of course worked at Schwinn and AMF before opening Romic, so he was no doubt long involved in selecting components with value for the price in mind. My 1976 tourer came with Sugino Might Tour cranks, Shimano Titlist GS derailleurs, Suntour ratcheted DT shifters and Sunshine ProAm hubs. This was an affordable model using a frameset which I believe Ray offered separately for $99, so at that price point I don't think anyone could have come up with a better choice of components.
>
> The water bottle shown is one of those American made products that appeared during and just after the Bike Boom. Kool Gear maybe??? If not, one of the similar companies of the era. I think they are actually kind of cool, with the minimalist mount - not sure you can call it a "cage". I guess the drawback is when the keyed plastic bottle eventually cracks with age you'll probably have to replace the whole system and you can't use that souvenir bottle from your most recent century.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
>
> --- On Sat, 2/13/10, Rich Pinder <rpinder@usc.edu> wrote:
>
> > From: Rich Pinder <rpinder@usc.edu>
> > Subject: [CR] Riding the Red Romic
> > To: "classic" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> > Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 11:23 PM
> > Today I experienced something many of
> > us on this list likely have. I brought out my 1975
> > Romic for a fun ride down to visit Gretchen & Chuck at
> > Pacific Coast Cycles in Oceanside, and got reacquainted with
> > it on the way south. Partly due to aging memory fade,
> > and partly due to the number of bikes out in the garage,
> > it's a GREAT experience to re'discover a dusty jewel
> > (ok.. I did kind of polish the Flam red Imron before I left
> > !) This red Romic, built by Ray Gasiorowski
> > from Houston Texas, came to me from a warehouse in New
> > Orleans (pre Katrina). I rode the bike a few times,
> > remembering how I liked the longer wheelbase and ride.
> > It has 27 1/8 Pasellas and early Shimano 600
> > components. Ray liked the value of the newly emerging
> > Shimano components back in the 70's, and from the beginning
> > he believed their performance was second to
> > none. The other day I mounted my Lone Peak
> > handlebar bag, thinking the relaxed rake fork would handle
> > the bag well. RIGHT for sure. Even with a full
> > load in it, the bike tracked fantastically.
> > After 20 miles or so, checking out fabulous ocean views to
> > the right, I start to let the mind wander to ALL the
> > little 'upgrades' the bike could use. You
> > know, looking down you get to wondering:
> >
> > - About 1cm longer stem ?
> > - Slightly wider set of bars ?
> > - Maybe a more traditional bottle cage (what is UP with
> > that style that came with the Romic ? - <see pics
> > below>
> > - Could a smaller chainring work out out, to allow some
> > climbing ?
> > - Brakes... hmmmm
> >
> > There's always something to work on, right ??
> >
> > Jackie met me at Chucks, and the Romic rode up on top the
> > Jetta for the 40 mile return trip. Along the way, I
> > kept looking up through the sunroof, thinking "now that
> > Romic is ONE nice looking bike" !!
> >
> > Pics of the ride today:
> > http://tinyurl.com/
> > My Romic pages:
> > http://tinyurl.com/
> >
> > Rich Pinder
> > [for today in] Dana Point, CA