Riley's Rondo: A Final PDJ Stroke (version 1.0)

Riley’s longterm tenure at PDJ came to an end in September when he was fired, err, went back to school for his last semester before graduation. That doesn’t mean he won’t have periods as artist-in-residence or be helping via the magic of the internet (his contract stipulates he can’t actually leave) but when he bought this Rondo RUUT ST to paint as a gravel bike we all knew it’d be his sendoff.

This is version one (it has been updated slightly since the release of Shimano GRX, winter fender photos incoming) featuring a SRAM Red HRD groupset we just had lying around (only in Leschi) and White Industries bling.

The bike arrived completely matte black. Which just will not do! Riley wanted a bike that wouldn’t be like any other bike and so he chose silver, gold, and a whoooole lot of purple. His girlfriend Emily did the Keith Herring-inspired gold inlays before it was clearcoated.

It’s fair to say she knocked it out of the park.

White Industries’ machining is second-to-none and the R30 crank/gold bottom bracket combo is stupid cool.

The gold White Industries spacers are sweet, but to cap it all off is a handpainted paint-match top cap.