This is a Ritchey Montare made in Tokyo Japan by the Toyo factory. They were imported exclusively to Canada; and no where else in the world AFAIR. They were a stop gap measure, at the time, to fill the demand for Ritchey mountain bikes, primarily in Vancouver. (In the early 80's Vancouver consumed 80-90% of Ritchey's domestic production and there was a several month waiting list for frames. Thousands and thousands of these were sold for just under $1000 from 1893? to 1988? They were so popular that bike messengers called them Camaros. In a way it was an answer to Mike Sinyard's upstart Specialized Stump Jumper.
In 1982?, Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey and Jacob Heilbron (Rocky Mountain) went to Japan with designs and ideas. Toyo made frames, Nitto made bars and Araya made rims IRC made tires. Information about mountain biking was also disseminated to Shimano, Suntour, Panasonic and other Japanese bike component and frame manufacturers. (The Deore and Mountech components came from these meetings I believe,) From what I recall, Tom Ritchey, Charley Kelly and Gary Fisher had a falling out over the issue of domestic vs Japanese production of Ritchey Mountain Bikes as a way to grow their company "Mountain Bikes. Tom approved the sale of the bikes in Canada but not in the US. Gary broke away and took the Mountain Bikes name and started selling Fisher Montare bikes, in the states. There was a lot of politics involved but I wasn't really included in it. I was the designer and tester for Rocky Mountain at the time so I had my own problems.
Pip
This bike is truly a piece of the history of mountain biking but it is not very rare. It has an excellent ride and is extremely robust and durable.
Pip
