About the ROM
Construction
The ROM Machine is constructed entirely in-house in Los Angeles, California, with the
highest level of craftsmanship and only the
most durable materials accepted, right down to the aircraft-grade sealed bearings. Hand finishing and inspection ensures that every detail of each ROM Machine meets the full standard of excellence for construction and durability.
Only about a hundred ROMs will be completed each month, but each ROM Machine is unconditionally guaranteed against failures of craftsmanship or for a period of five years from your date of purchase. This is the longest guarantee of any personal exercise machine we're aware of.
The ROM Machine is constructed of DOM tubing and solid cold rolled steel, stainless steel, aircraft-grade parts and bearings, and employs the highest standards of welding, grinding, polishing and plating.
The flywheel, which is the heart of the ROM Machine and provides the resistance, goes through several stages of grinding, balancing and polishing before chroming, ensuring its mirror-like finish.
We've even designed our own custom storage racks for holding parts to keep them safe and sound in the warehouse until they´re ready to be used. The wood containers used for shipping the ROM are custom-designed specifically for the ROM Machine to provide the best protection during transportation.
In short, we build and deliver the ROM Machine with pride, and build it to last a lifetime.
The ROM Story: The invention of a true original... and timeless classic.
The ROM Machine is an acronym that stands for Range of Motion. The machine is the brainchild of John Pitre, a world-renowned artist and inventor holding over 30 patents.
In their study of physiology, Mr. Pitre and Arthur Jones, the inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines, discovered that if a higher percentage of muscles were worked out intensely for short periods of time, this could provide all the muscle building, stretching and cardiovascular conditioning most people need.
Dr. Lawrence Morehouse confirmed Pitre's and Jones' findings and implemented the principals of "HIT," or High Intensity Training, into NASA's fitness program for its astronauts.
In 1990, Mr. Pitre approached Alf Temme, a pioneer in the health and fitness industry, to manufacture the ROM Machine. Just a year later, the ROM Machine was awarded Popular Science's “Best of What´s New” Award for the greatest achievement in science and technology.
The godfather of the ROM: Alf Temme
The former owner of the Nordic Fitness Equipment chain, Alf Temme emigrated from Germany to the U.S. from Europe in 1963. He settled in California and soon launched a successful sauna-manufacturing business while becoming a student of America's then nascent but growing health and fitness industry.When ROM Machine inventor John Pitre first approached him about the ROM, Alf was skeptical but investigated the machine and began using it himself. He soon fell in love with the ROM, made a patent royalty agreement with Mr. Pitre to start manufacturing it himself, and became an evangelist.
With Alf´s manufacturing expertise and his exacting standards for quality and precision engineering, the ROM underwent changes in industrial design. He streamlined the ROM for easier manufacturing and it took the shape it has today, which hasn´t changed much in the last 20 years.
With claims of a 4-minute workout and the ROM's $14,615 price tag, it was no surprise that at first, Alf had few disciples for his ROM. "I marketed the machines with difficulty," Temme recalls of his early days in the '90s. The idea behind the machine—that one could exercise just four minutes a day for optimum conditioning—seemed too good to be true. And "experts" shot down the concept without even examining the machine. But Alf persevered.
With the ROM factory based in Los Angeles, Alf found himself in the center of the fitness explosion that was occurring at the time, and the ROM Machine had the perfect home to thrive in the growing industry. After building the ROM's initial success on local advertising, he soon went national, further expanding thecompany and putting the ROM Machine on the pages of prominent magazines and news outlets like Vanity Fair, Time, Forbes and many more.
The other factor in the ROM's initial and long-term success was that Alf and others knew, and still know, that it works. Alf was and is more than an entrepreneur or pitchman—he uses the ROM every day himself. Still looking fit and trim at 71, Alf is one of the company's best testaments to the ROM's benefits. Try it for yourself, and you can be, too.