June BoTM II **GET YOUR NOMINATIONS IN NOW**

may as well throw this into the mix.

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, nice xizang Gaf like the alternative colourway with the decals.

Gaf, I don't believe it, that's the same colour scheme I've been putting together for my xizang, I was aiming for next months BOTM. I even just repainted my Bullseye cranks ... a few slight changes needed then

ps. how do you make your sticker sets up? are they cut vinyl? If you have them identified I wouldn't minde the various font names from you.

Stick Legs":uf2l1xiw said:

Please don't take offence Jeff, the Ritchey frame alone makes that bike a true classic. But the gold plating ruins it! If all the fasteners were left in their manufactured finish the bike would look a million bucks, and the gold plating would not take away the beauty of the rose colour.
IMHO!

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I definitely would not have spent the money to do the bike and I agree that it is not the most aesthetically pleasing bike, but I sure do admire the commitment and dollars it took to make it happen! It is kinda like some of the concept cars, not what you'd want for everyday use but it sure is neat to look at.

Even though I dont personally tend to "like" the older style pre 1990 geometry bikes (mainly as it wasn the era of my youth) and also the pre-cnc years, I do like the pink paintwork. The gold bits set it off nice

I just cant get my head around the geometry though, as it does remind me of the old Raleigh Mustangs that you used to see rusting away chained to lamp posts. Thats just me though.

And it definitley deserves being tagged a true Retrobike I guess.

Quality is very nice indeed. Love the bling attention to detail.

I agree with First Flight in that there is huge potential for future bikes using the same principals that have been accepted by the Street Rodder and Chopper boys.
They are taking Retro styling and combining modern technology to create NEW machines. Anyone who has seen what Boyd Coddington has done to "Early Iron" cannot but agree that we are at the beginning of what could potentially be a whole new era of fantastic machinery.

Now where is that CNC milling machine?...Left it around here somewhere.



http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11084
Or maybe not.

Lid":3gljl2uu said:

The big boys wade in and BOTM goes skew-wiff.
So us pathetic stiffs have to compete against "THE"
museum (actually I have never entered)? How many bikes does First Flight have...150-250? Everyone is probably a BOTM.
But wait I wanna see these bikes I dont want to ban them.

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No worries. I only have time to check in every couple of days and most of our bikes are already on our web site. I had seen the BOTM thing and thought it would be cool to put the Ritchey on since we just got it this week.

As for the geometry, remember that these old bikes were based on the old Schwinn cruiser geometry and their primary purpose was to bomb down fire roads. The long wheelbase and slack geometry was perfect for this type of riding. On the East Coast, we don't have the fire roads so the geometry tended to be more "modern" because of the more tight and technical trails. West Coasters, like Ross Shafer, quickly changed their geometry as well for actual trail riding. Bikes like our Ritchey are perfect for what they were designed to do but not really set up for what most folks ride these days.