Ritchey Road

I thought a few of you might enjoy this. No doubt a few others will cringe.

My passion is with Mtn bikes, no denying that but I recently had the opportunity to pick up an old (by Mtn bike standards anyways) Ritchey road bike. From the serial number and frame features, I am guessing it was built in either 80 or 82. I have been looking for one of these in my size for a long time and am blessed that this one came my way.

I put it together with an era correct Shimano Arabesque 600 group I have but after completing, I decided I wanted to go a different direction.

I already have a modern road bike and a 80's vintage CIOCC. What I really wanted to do was put it together as a bike I could ride on the local logging roads that are a dozen miles from my house. I had been driving there in my car and then riding one of my old Mtn bikes and wanted something that would be a little more user friendly and capable of getting there from my house.

Although not a lot of space, I was able to get some Challenge Eroica tires between the stays. Unfortunately not enough room for fenders. at about 31mm a nice compromise for road and gravel. The build is pretty much a bastard build with whatever road and Mtn bike parts I had in the parts bin to use. Someday when I find the right donor bike, I will put it together properly. For now, I am just enjoying the heck out of riding it.

Anything with Tom Ritcheys name on it is worth a look . I wouldn't have gone for those bars personally (but it's not my bike...) but I love what you're doing with the bike - putting wider tyres on a road bike so that you can explore offroad is an intriguing idea. What sort of gearing are you using?

I really like what you've done with the Ritchey, and suspect the man himself would probably approve as that pretty much what he used to do with them himself.

I tried to do something very similar with a Rourke mtb frame, but ran into all sorts of little problems and ended up sticking with 26" wheels and road gearing, it certainly is fun on the trails.

Rich34":36m8t5i4 said:

Anything with Tom Ritcheys name on it is worth a look . I wouldn't have gone for those bars personally (but it's not my bike...) but I love what you're doing with the bike - putting wider tyres on a road bike so that you can explore offroad is an intriguing idea. What sort of gearing are you using?

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I think the big ring is 52, small is 38. 12-28 6 speed in the rear. I actually will change out those cranks for a set of American Classics as soon as I pick up the proper BB.

About the bars. I hurt myself on my modern Mtb last summer pretty good. After the injury (kneck down into hand), I found the most comfortable of my bikes to ride was my Ritchey TimberComp, which I usually ride 90% of the time in the drops:



When I put the road bike together I was trying to emulate The same cockpit as the TimberComp with full intentions of a tall stem and using the drops for the majority of my riding. It's pretty close but I don't seem to be in the drops nearly as much on the road bike (possibly just a different style of riding. I tend to ride the TC on more trails). I may still switch to a taller stem. I know it looks goofy but I am still healing and I want that hand position that the WTB bars offer.

I actually justified this project as my rehab bike while my neck continues to heal. have still put most of my serious Mtb'ing on hold while exploring the local logging roads on this.

NeilM":276h97tm said:

I really like what you've done with the Ritchey, and suspect the man himself would probably approve as that pretty much what he used to do with them himself.

I tried to do something very similar with a Rourke mtb frame, but ran into all sorts of little problems and ended up sticking with 26" wheels and road gearing, it certainly is fun on the trails.

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Absolutely, Ritchey's are my passion and I certainly had TR's style of riding in mind when I put this together.

Your Rourke sounds a lot like my TC as far as drops on a Mtb.

It was originally going to have SRAM Apex cx set up, but I ran into issues with the GXP BB, as the chainstay are much wider on an mtb. I have a mix of parts at present, which will get tidied up as we go along.

First decent test was 20 miles along a converted railway with my wife on her recently acquired 1991 Marin Bear Valley, both bikes went really well.


Rourke

NeilM":28m32cah said:

It was originally going to have SRAM Apex cx set up, but I ran into issues with the GXP BB, as the chainstay are much wider on an mtb. I have a mix of parts at present, which will get tidied up as we go along.

First decent test was 20 miles along a converted railway with my wife on her recently acquired 1991 Marin Bear Valley, both bikes went really well.


Rourke

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Nice bike!! Did a bit of a double-take at first; thanks to the skinny frame tubes, I needed a lot of convincing it wasn't an out-and-out CX machine until I saw the beefy tyres.

David

David B":4ptwklod said:

Nice bike!! Did a bit of a double-take at first; thanks to the skinny frame tubes, I needed a lot of convincing it wasn't an out-and-out CX machine until I saw the beefy tyres.

David

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Thanks.

That's why I built it up with drop bars (on the suggestion of another RB member), as it really doesn't look like an mtb frame.

Needless to say, it rides like a good'un.

A few different rides. Last night I was chasing the sunset home: