rumpfy
BoTY Winner
Outside of a Slingshot, the other bike I lusted after most as a kid was the Ritchey P-23 Team. Don Myrah grew up in my home town and raced for Ritchey at the time. Since I've been collecting, I've always had a Ritchey in my garage. Some of my first Ritchey builds were....not great. We all had to start somewhere. But I have now, what I consider to be the perfect P-23 Team.
Here's my journey.
I started with a 1995ish Ritchey ST (Softtail). Get in the wrong flow with this bike and it would start to pogo. And with steel's fatigue life (unlike ti)...it was only a matter of time before it would crack. Wrong XTR, Rolf wheels, colored tires...awful.
I moved to a P-22 that I had repainted undoing the original patina and putting incorrect decals on it. Again, wrong XTR, V-brakes, tires you'd never find on a Ritchey, Ringle wheelset. Rode great, but not right as a bike.
From there I moved to a P-22 Team. Awesome gold to rootbeer brown fade and my first attempt at a drop bar bike. This bike was ultimately too big for me and the wrong platform for drop bars. It was also missing the correct matching fillet brazed fork. Very awkward looking bike.
I finally landed a proper P-23. Tig welded bike in black. Simple and understated. A decent, user friendly build with some inaccuracies. I enjoyed this bike a lot, but it wasn't a Team bike fillet brazed by Tom.
From there I found an exceptionally clean P-23 Team. Beautiful bike in a steel blue, early serial number bike. But...it was one size bigger than I like and for me, a paint job that was partially too clean to ride and too understated for what kind of bike it was. Still some inaccuracies in the build with the too new saddle and MB-2 level Force stem, Chris King headset. All incorrect for the year of the bike.
For a short while, I had this P-23 Team. The right patina, the right paint...but missing the matching rigid fork and still one size too big for me.
Here's my journey.
I started with a 1995ish Ritchey ST (Softtail). Get in the wrong flow with this bike and it would start to pogo. And with steel's fatigue life (unlike ti)...it was only a matter of time before it would crack. Wrong XTR, Rolf wheels, colored tires...awful.
I moved to a P-22 that I had repainted undoing the original patina and putting incorrect decals on it. Again, wrong XTR, V-brakes, tires you'd never find on a Ritchey, Ringle wheelset. Rode great, but not right as a bike.
From there I moved to a P-22 Team. Awesome gold to rootbeer brown fade and my first attempt at a drop bar bike. This bike was ultimately too big for me and the wrong platform for drop bars. It was also missing the correct matching fillet brazed fork. Very awkward looking bike.
I finally landed a proper P-23. Tig welded bike in black. Simple and understated. A decent, user friendly build with some inaccuracies. I enjoyed this bike a lot, but it wasn't a Team bike fillet brazed by Tom.
From there I found an exceptionally clean P-23 Team. Beautiful bike in a steel blue, early serial number bike. But...it was one size bigger than I like and for me, a paint job that was partially too clean to ride and too understated for what kind of bike it was. Still some inaccuracies in the build with the too new saddle and MB-2 level Force stem, Chris King headset. All incorrect for the year of the bike.
For a short while, I had this P-23 Team. The right patina, the right paint...but missing the matching rigid fork and still one size too big for me.
