An Original Ritchey

[Dr S]

I hope after all those years that Attorney still doesn't go out after dark :evil:

Oh well, shit happens.

Si

 

[Repack Rider]

I hope after all those years that Attorney still doesn't go out after dark

How many people get to contribute to the language, and how much longer lasting is that honor? My other contribution is UniCrown to describe a fork with the blades attached directly to the steerer. Ours was originally going to feature a Unicorn stamp for a logo, but then we started going broke and that interfered with the project.

But yes, sometimes I wake up at 3:00 a.m. hating that attorney. Would you like his address?

 

[kaiser]

RR you'll need to write a book one of these days fantastic stuff

 

[Dr S]

RR you'll need to write a book one of these days fantastic stuff

Now that would be a bloody good read for sure.

So. Tell us more CK. There's a bunch of guys with Kunkers riding around Marin County and suddenly yourself and Gary, Tom and Joe Breeze etc start producing these specificly built 'Mountain Bikes'. Much lighter, stronger but not exactly cheap. What was the take up like? Were they easy to sell? How were they received amongst the Ballooner crowd? It must have been a real leap of faith to buy in a batch of frames and componants to build into something that no one really knew there was a Market for?

Si

 

[Repack Rider]

RR you'll need to write a book one of these days fantastic stuff

Now that would be a bloody good read for sure.

So. Tell us more CK. There's a bunch of guys with Kunkers riding around Marin County and suddenly yourself and Gary, Tom and Joe Breeze etc start producing these specificly built 'Mountain Bikes'. Much lighter, stronger but not exactly cheap. What was the take up like? Were they easy to sell? How were they received amongst the Ballooner crowd? It must have been a real leap of faith to buy in a batch of frames and componants to build into something that no one really knew there was a Market for?

The entire thing was accidental. I had got Joe Breeze to build me a bike, Gary had got Tom Ritchey to build him a bike, and the immediate objective, to have cool bikes, was accomplished.

But Tom Ritchey had become fascinated with the subject, and without any encouragement, had made a few more framesets, which he was unable to sell because he lived about 50 miles away from us, in an area where off-road riding had yet to catch on. So he turned them over to Gary, more in desperation than anything else, and Gary enlisted my aid, and we decided we would sell these bikes.

Before Tom built those frames there were a total of fifteen of these handmade bikes, three from Ritchey, ten from Breeze, and two from a framebuilder named Jeff Richman. Gary had asked both Ritchey and Richman for bikes, and Ritchey delivered first, so the Richman bikes went to a local married couple. Gary and I knew a few more people who had the money and trusted us with it while they waited a month for a bike.

Another couple of entities tried to get into the market about the same time, Trailmaster bikes from the Koski brothers, and former motorcycle champion Mert Lawwill with the ProCruiser. The Koski brothers never figured out production, so it took forever to get a bike from them, and Lawwill's design was a handling disaster because his company had no experience building non-motorized two-wheelers.

The bike everyone wanted was a Ritchey, or failing that, a second generation Breezer, but you would get the Ritchey long before you would get the Breezer.

Our business started without a plan, and it never had one, which is why it fell apart after a few years. There were three strong personalities involved, and we had never taken the trouble to document how we were structured, which is a recipe for a short-lived business.

But before the tension of the business took place a couple of years into it, there was a time when my best friend and I worked in a little shop, where we made what we believed were the coolest bikes in the world. You can't have any more fun than that.

I've posted these photos before, but here they are again, a snapshot in the summer of 1979 of the state of the off-road art before we started the business. From left, Alan Bonds' "klunker," the highest expression of the art before custom frames, then my Breezer, Mike Castelli's Richman, and Gary Fisher's Ritchey. This was before alloy 26" rims were available (they arrived in the fall of that year) so steel rims all around.

 

[Dr S]

Great story, you really do need to write that book!

Just a few more questions if you don't mind- what is the survival rate for the Ritchey/MountainBike bikes? Did they last OK, how many were built in total? Were the frames stronger than the Schwinns they replaced and what did they weigh as a frame and as a fully built bike?

Also do you have any more pics of the Richman? I have never seen one before and it's a handsome looking thing. Did he continue to make off road frames after the two initial examples?

Cheers
Si

 

[Poyares]

Repack Rider,

Are you on the avatar picture?
If yes, you looks like a Dead Fan...

Thanks a lot for the article it was great

See Ya.

 

[Poyares]

Repack Rider,

Are you on the avatar picture?
If yes, you looks like a Dead Fan...

Thanks a lot for the article it was great

See Ya.

 

[DM]

CK, thanks for another great thread.
Your contributions are probably the single most informative part of Retrobike.

I love learning more about the origins of mountain biking and I must have watched my copy of Klunkerz dozens of times.

Thanks for contributing.
And the blue Ritchey is fantastic, BTW.

 

[Repack Rider]

Repack Rider,

Are you on the avatar picture?
If yes, you looks like a Dead Fan...

I've been around those guys forever, since I started roadying in 1968, and I've been on a few bike rides with Bobby.

I heard about Gary Fisher from a Deadhead girl in 1971 before I met him, and when we did meet, we ended up at the Grateful Dead office fifteen minutes later. Gary was hanging out with them as a teenager, and before we became roommates he was watching a house for one of the members of the New Riders of the Purples Sage while the band was on the road.