Drop Bar Ritchey Ultra

dirttorpedo

Senior Retro Guru
So I've been wanting to do one of those cool drop bar conversions to a mountain bike and finally got a stem and bars. I went with nitto dirt drop stem and a set of Soma Portola bars. I grabbed some shimano 600 levers & microshift bar ends from my parts bin to finish off the cockpit. Its pretty fugly and the photos are terrible. only ridden it up and down the street - definitely interesting ride. I'm looking forward to tossing some bar tape on and taking it for a longer ride.
Ritchey 1.jpg Ritchey 3.jpg
 
The drop bar conversion thing is about riding it as a mountain bike w/ fat tires on steep trails. Then you realize you may not need a susp fork or bar ends since you can move around the bike much better. Give it a try: it´s a lot of fun.
 
I love that look. Looks as though it could do a long tour as well. Is that a pump peg on the seatstay?
Yes it is. I believe someone said you could order them with one as a small customization. I love the look of it, but there is no way I can fit any of my frame pumps in there so I'm thinking it is sized for one of those mt. zefal sized pumps that were popular BITD for mountain bikes.
 
Very cool.
Thanks. This reminds me I need to take some better photos.

I've also taken it on some slightly longer rides in the neighbourhood and I'm liking it so far - the drop bar brake levers / vintage canti & Ubrake work very well together. I think I should get rid of the fenders and mount some proper knobbies on it.
 
I would lower the brake levers, significantly if you ever going to ride on trails. I have a similar set up on a bike. Ride it from the drops unlike a road bike where most of the time we hang on the brake hoods.
 
I would lower the brake levers, significantly if you ever going to ride on trails. I have a similar set up on a bike. Ride it from the drops unlike a road bike where most of the time we hang on the brake hoods.
While I haven't taken it "off road" yet, that lever position works well from the front of the drops / hooks and gives me an on the hoods position for more casual / hammering the flats riding. I think its pretty similar to how Jacquie Phelan configured her bike BITD. Anyhow I can pull the tape off and adjust if it proves to be sub-optimal after further testing.

I need to do a bit more adjusting on the rear wheel and think through the tires before I give it a real field test on single track.
 
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