[CR]Ron Stout

(Example: Framebuilders:Rene Herse)

From: AdventureCORPS News <news@adventurecorps.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2005 08:45:25 -0800
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Ron Stout

Hi

Yes, indeed, Ron Stout sponsored me in 1985 and 1988 for ultracycling, including RAAM. I still have the 1985 edition and had it repainted by Cyclart a while back. I have not yet built it up yet, but will do so in the next few months and will prepare a very detailed web slideshow of it. It's made of Columbus SL and is essentially a typical racing bike of that period, except it has bottle mounts on both fork blades, plus headlamp braze-on on the left fork blade and dual taillight braze-ons on the seat stays. I will rebuild it now as it was in 1985: all Campy SR except for Simplex levers, Superbe Pro rear der, American Classic post. Wheels: 24 hole custom-made tubulars by Wheelsmith from 1985.

As for serial numbers, I took possession of this one in January 1985 at the bike show, after Ron had displayed it and the show ended. The serial number is 27685J, which I have always believed to mean it was the 276th frame he ever made, and it was made in 1985. Not sure about the J.

Ron made me a pretty radical bike for RAAM racing which I no longer own, but would give anything to have it back. There's a pic of it here (with me on it in RAAM 88), along with the lengthy article I wrote about it for the now defunct "Bike Tech" newsletter that Rodale published. It had all the extra lights and bottle mounts, all internal cables, internal computer wire routing, and more. The one goof was a too slack seat angle for use with the aerobars. That bike was built with as many American components as possible.

http://www.adventurecorps.com/when/raam/ultrastout.html

- Chris Kostman Oak Park, CA http://www.adventurecorps.com ------------ "As I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road until I am compelled to believe differently," Meriwether Lewis, 1805. ------------

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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:05:29 -0700 From: "Gear" <gear@xmission.com> To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]David White's Ron Stout frame Message-ID: <015701c5de6f$9f417350$7101a8c0@Grego1> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="iso-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Reply-To: Gear <gear@xmission.com> Message: 7

Hi David, nice Stout frame. I can add a little info. I moved to Salt Lake in '92, and Ron was building very few, if any, frames at that point. I've seen several, and owned a few of his frames over the years. Of most note were his frames for Steve Johnson (successful racer in the eighties and I believe current president of USA Cycling, and former prof. at the Univ of Utah), along with an ultra distance bike or two for Chris Kostman (RAAM participant I believe). Pretty much all of the Stouts I have seen have been well made, and if anything, overbuilt and solid as tanks. He stopped building frames after a change in his marital status, and from what I heard, began a small construction company. His brother was long time owner of Stout Cycles, a now gone bike shop in SLC. In the early years, Ron built frames in the back of the shop. A couple of Stouts that I've owned have had a really neat fastback seatstay/binder arrangement, carrying the Cinelli style to greater elegance. All in all, nice frames, all that I have seen have been Columbus tubing, Campy tips and longish lugs, trad Euro geometry and nice, but thick, paintwork. Hope that helps! Greg Overton Salt Lake City, Utah

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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 15:18:26 -0500 From: "David G. White" <whiteknight@adelphia.net> To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Really cool early 80s gear - mix & match! - Results! Message-ID: <43667C12.5070103@adelphia.net> In-Reply-To: <df813d780510310807r5de35f17y@mail.gmail.com> References: <c76dc510510310758rab37e8auf8e5a62984eeeff9@mail.gmail.com> <df813d780510310807r5de35f17y@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Message: 1

Hi All,

A bit more than a year ago I posted a query to the CR list asking for suggestions of "really cool early 80s gear", other than Campy and Shimano. I was looking for ideas for building up a circa 1981 Ron Stout frame I'd acquired a few months earlier. List members asked me to post the final outcome. Well, you can now see the results on Morgan Fletcher's Wooljersey site. Morgan has kindly provided space. Over time I'll upload albums of my various bikes, but the first one is the now complete Ron Stout. You can see it here: <http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/David-G-Whites-Bikes>.

I bought this Ron Stout frame in mid-2004. I loved it from the first time I saw it. Very crisp, clean lug-work. Elegant to my eye.

Thinking about how to build it up, Campy was the obvious choice. Perhaps too obvious. As much as I like Campagnolo gear, for some reason it felt sort of like "me too". I decided to try something different. I posted a note to the CR list asking for suggestions regarding the best trick gear from circa 1980 with the following rules: no Campagnolo and no Shimano. The list was abuzz for a couple weeks as folks chattered about different cool stuff. I made notes of every suggested item, gradually building a fairly extensive list. It was really interesting for me because I was out of touch with the cycling world during that period and really had little idea of what was then considered to be the hot stuff. So many of the suggestions were for items I'd never even heard of before, let alone seen.

Over the subsequent nine months or so, I gradually acquired parts when the opportunity arose - mostly on eBay. Along the way, I added one more rule for this particular bike -- no SunTour. It was great fun paying attention to the more obscure brands. And the equipment is truly wonderful!

The bike you can see on the Wool Jersey Gallery is the result. It has strong American and French themes. Weyless (the original 1970s vintage -- not the current mountain bike stuff!), Mavic, Stronglight, Bullseye, Phil Wood and more. I finished building it this summer and it quickly became one of my favorite rides.

I promised to share the results with the CR list, so a year later here it is! Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

David

PS As far as I've been able to learn, Ron Stout was a self-taught frame builder who worked in Salt Lake City. I believe he started around 1980 (?) and stopped building in the mid-90s. If anyone knows more, I'd love to hear about it (as well as contact info for Ron -- I'd like to ask him about his serial numbering scheme, so I can date my frame (#9281) more precisely!

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