Peloton magazine: Tom Ritchey interview

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Love it. Says it how it is. You need some frame flex and narrower diameter steel and Ti tubes to give that optimal ride feel. Very insightful perspective from a legend.
 
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Didn't he call 80's Cannondales 'billboards' too?

I really like this article - TR is a cool guy and it looks like he opens up a bit in his answers here - but I also have a soft spot for early Cannondales.

Is there really that much difference between jigging, welding and filing an aluminium frame and jigging, brazing and filing a steel frame? How did Cannondale do it for $25 a frame, built in the US?

Appreciate that it was a marketing coup to use the same frame, big stickers, and then just hang different components on it. But arguably, if that frame rides superbly, then why bother with minute variations in frame spec? The low end models become a super bargain, rather than the top-end ones being a con.
 
I really like the article. And I think the guy is really inspiring.
But his view is kind of biased to the hard tail / rigid bike. In that respect, I totally agree with his arguments.

But one might say that most inventions and improvement went into the suspension of the bikes. And that's where the flex of the frame parts is not a goal. In contrary. You want to be that frame as stiff as possible and let the suspension do the (controllable) biong.

The hardtails then, went from main stream to a niche product. (Whether that is good or bad, that's a whole different story...)
And the feel for the right design to achive the best possible ride on that kind of bike went ... lost?
 
For me, the best bit of the article is the end when he talks about the future and combining steel with carbon. Now where has we seen that before? ;)

At the end of the day, steel is and will remain, one of the best materials, if not the best material for what we ride and do. But it's even better if you keep evolving and complimenting it.

And, whilst some manufacturers chased what was cool, plenty didn't. Kona still have 6 bikes that are steel ;-)
 
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