80s Ridgeback

[zaskarking]

Re: first ridgebacks

Wow Graham superb info , thanks on behalf of everyone on this site I’m sure.
Interesting point about the first entry into the U.K. I had a 2nd hand bomber around 83 and my mates and I would mainly jump plank ramps outside our houses on it.
I think Raleigh had sent an R&D man to the states to see what was going on and the bomber is basically a balloon tyre Klunker copy, the first time we heard the name Mountain bikes was when they started looking like this ridgeback and the stump jumpers .
Anyway an early example of a Ridgeback must be pretty rare I would have thought, but how rare ?
I waiting for someone to contact and say they have one .

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: first ridgebacks

I had a 2nd hand bomber around 83 and my mates and I would mainly jump plank ramps outside our houses on it.
I think Raleigh had sent an R&D man to the states to see what was going on and the bomber is basically a balloon tyre Klunker copy, the first time we heard the name Mountain bikes was when they started looking like this ridgeback and the stump jumpers .

Hi zaskarking. I used to also think that the Raleigh Bomber was a Californian beach-cruiser copy. However based on released late 1970s Raleigh boardroom minutes, the Bomber was actually an attempt to cash in on the 1960's/70s 'Tracker' bike, scrambler-bicycle craze.

Raleigh thought that putting 26.125" tyres onto 'tracker' bike style frame would make the 'kids' want to buy it instead of making their own 'tracker' bikes. (Notice the 'tracker' style cycle speedway bend in the top tube).

 

[focomat 1c]

Re:

Hi zaskarking , I presumed that you had realised that I have a Ridgeback 501 dated to 1986 from the components . You need to find your date codes as mentioned previously .
The easiest way is to look at the front mech , on the rear face of the chain guide plate you will see it marked ' Shimano FD-AL11 ' and somewhere close by a two letter date
stamp .

Shimano components manufactured in 1983 have the year code ' H ' with the month code starting ' A ' for January . So you could expect to find a date code of say ' JB ' for your
bike which equates to 1985 Feb as the earliest date the bike could have been built

The scans I mentioned earlier are also I believe from the Freewheel Catalogue . There is no date information on them , but the price for a complete Ridgeback 501 in the earliest
scan is £ 343.85 ( £ 5 extra for special Paint ) and £ 379.20 for the later scan .

 

[zaskarking]

Re: Shimano codes

Hi Focomat
I did not presume you had a 501 sorry, but great that you do and thanks for sharing.
I have found those stamps, hard to see and small.
The front mech has I A so on what you say is that Jan 84?
The rear mech is IB feb 84?
Shimano EM shifters any thoughts?

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re:

Thanks to Focomat's help in dating the Shimano components I think that we can now identify your bike as a 1984 Ridgeback XT.

Here is a scan of the XT from the 1985 Freewheel catalogue and the only colour option is a darker 'slate grey', so it is not a 1985 bike. Another difference is that the 1983 and 1984 Ridgebacks are fitted with spoke guards and the 1985 ones are not.


Apart from the name, there may in fact be very little difference between the 1983 Ridgeback and your 1984 Ridgeback XT. Given that Beta-Bikes built up the bikes from frames they imported, it is even possible that your bike is made from an unused 1983 frame that was built up in 1984.

I regularly visited Beta-Bikes in West Hampstead between 1984 and 1988. I would have asked them lots of questions had I known that they were the first company to sell mountain bikes in the UK.

 

[focomat 1c]

Re:

My bike also had Shimano EM shifters originally , however they were in very poor condition , so I fitted the improved SL-MT50 shifters which matched
the mechs re quality and were period correct

If you search 'Ridgeback 501' on this site and go to 'Happy 30th Birthday' you can check out my bike

 

[zaskarking]

Re:

That’s a handsome ride you have there !
You had her powder coated or sprayed, it’s a nice colour and these new decals look great, where /who made those ?
So called 501 because of the Reynolds steel, my XT is unknown Cro-moly ?
So do you think you have the only 501 and I have the only XT?

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re:

I finally got around to searching the archives for the scan of the Ridgeback XT page from the 1984 Freewheel catalogue.

Here it is in all its glory....

 

[zaskarking]

Wow Graham that’s great, that’s the one! thank you. Love the photo of the guy riding through a puddle! Hardcore!
Interestingly there are a couple of differences firstly mines green and that says grey only, was it you that said different colours were £5?
Also I have silver bars and stem and the braking surfaces are black on mine as opposed to those machined surfaces.
I also emailed Ridgeback U.K. because presumably they have a museum and thought they might be interested but they’ve yet to reply.

 

[zaskarking]

Anyone hazard a guess at how rare in the UK this is and it's value?