7Speed’s 1993 Ritchey P-21 (TIG Welded Frame)

BB and Headset were still buttery smooth. My experience with needle bearings is they are usually more trouble than they are worth and sensitive to even minor misalignment of cups etc, but the WCS headset was no bother at all. BottomBracket.jpg HeadBadge.jpg
 
With a stripped frame a serviced BB & Headset it was time to make it look a bit more like a bike...On went the Pro WCS saddle (around 250g!!) and cockpit, followed by the brakes. I make a bit of a mistake here which I will come back to later.

Tip - when removing old brakes from a frame, label the position you took them from as the posts and brass bushing can wear together leading to a poor fit if you rotate them...
WCSSaddle2.jpg WCSBrakes.jpg rotate them...

BuildPart1.jpg
 
You might have noticed I switched out the black cranks the bike came with for some silver ones with black rings, which just looked nicer to me. The black cranks found their way on to @ratcapa Ritchey P-23.

Apologies for the Ritchey clipless pedals - I don't know what got in to me. I have some WCS versions but still don't feel they fit the bike. I needed wheels sorted and some XT M735 pedals with toe clips....
 
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First Ride...

I guess I forgot how forgiving a modern carbon bike is as the P-21 is super-stiff! A quick spin around the local trails brought out some interesting characteristics. It's a bike that likes to be pushed and very sensitive to steering input (stem was quite long at 120mm so this took some edge off) - pointy and stretched. I also realized I missed steel bikes. There is something about the spring and the whip in the frame when you kick-on that just feels like the bike is eager to go faster still. Clearly not as great on power transfer as a carbon, but I have never been in the category where that really mattered. In short, it's a very aggressive race bike, but springy and lively, giving great feedback- it's got a bit of personality.

The ride was cut short with a consistently sticking right rear brake. Back home I took the brake apart to find the bushing a little ovalized. I had no idea what to do here and went to my LBS where the local mechanic is a bit of an old hand. He switched the brakes around and sure enough - the right rear on the front left brake post ran tight and smooth. All good!
 
Wheels...

I managed to get hold of all the components I needed - most of it NOS. I didn't have much choice on the NOS part - the rims and ultegra 600 26h front hub just were not that common. If anyone wants the Ultegra 600 NOS rear hub let me know - I don't have any use for it.

As I have said previously, I am a very average mechanic. First issue was converting the M732 hub I had from 130mm OLN to 135mm OLN. Luckily @Tootyred was on hand to give me some advice on this (5mm of spacer on NDS side of the axle which gives a wheel with less dish which is an added bonus). Thank you for your patience @Tootyred !

RearAxleSpacing.jpg RearHubSpacing.jpg
 
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Wheel Lacing & Building

With a 28h front wheel and 32h rear wheel I had some choices when it came to lacing - but I wanted to get it original spec correct for the ProElite wheels. I didn't get much joy looking at old catalogues or talking to some of our P-21 owners on the forum. Luckily Wheelsmith UK were kind enough to reach out to Wheelsmith USA. The guys in the US had the old specification on hand - 2 cross front and three cross rear.

Wheel building is well beyond me so I got the local builder to put together the wheels. About two weeks later I got them back. For the early 90s these were LIGHT- around 1600g for the pair.

FrontWheelWeight.jpg
RearWheelWeight.jpg
 
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