NOTE: AFTER LOOSING THE BATTLE WITH MY PHOTOBUCKET ACCOUNT AND WITH IT, ALL MY PICTURES. I HAVE RELOADED ALL THE PICTURES ON PAGE 5 AND 6. Sorry guys.
I saved you all the anticipation (yea right) of waiting a few years before jumping into a build thread for this project. Well, the time is coming soon to start putting parts on the frame.
From the beginning:
My passion since the 80's has always been Ritchey's. When I first got into collecting, my first goal (but not first project) was to find an early Ritchey to restore. Well, as shown here on RBUK in a different thread, I fulfilled that dream completing the 81 a year ago. Of course once I found the early frame, I knew I needed to find the ultimate of all Ritchey's an Annapurna.
Patiently watching the usual places for an affordable project to come my way, I managed to find a 1983 Competition that was within my budget.
The Competition is a bit confusing, the Columbus SL tubed frame, was only advertised for one year in the Mountainbikes catalog. Labeled as a "C" frame, it predates the Team Comp that would soon acquire that moniker by a year. Outside of the "A" designation the Annapurna has, the Competition holds all the same attributes. Namely the beautifully created Faux lugs at the head and seat tubes. Since it is an 83 model year, the Competition sports a beautifully crafted biplane fork. The Uni crown would not appear for another year.
Looking at the catalog build for the Competiton, there is no doubt, Kelley/Fisher were seeking a lightweight racing steed as they planned out the Competition. Avoiding the newly released Deerhead group that they offered on their other models that year, the Competition basically came with a mix of lightweight road components.
To quote the 1983 catalog:
"For the serious off-road racer the 25 lb. "Competition" is the ultimate in lightweight off-road machinery. The state of the art begins here."
Cyclone Derailleurs, Edco Headset, Suntour thumbies, one piece bar stem clamping into a plug brazed into the top of the steer tube (kinda like an early aheadset), TA double ring cranks leaving no mercy for the out of shape when the trail points up. Possibly the first weight weanie build to be displayed on the pages of any mountain bike catalog.
When I got the frame, it had a miserable amateur bass boat repaint with no decals. This made for an easy guilt free decision to send it in for repaint. Being an 83 and the year of the Kelly/Fisher/Ritchey breakup, I thought long and hard about which way I wanted to go with decals. Yea, I suppose since I am following Kelly/Fisher catalog build, I probably should have gone with Mountainbikes decals, but I already have an 81 that isn't going anywhere soon done up that way, so I opted to go with Ritchey Decals instead. I just got the message the other day from the paint shop, the frame is ready to be picked up.
For the past year or so, I have been busy gathering parts worthy of the fresh paint they will go on, while diligently trying to stay on track with the catalog build. There are a few pieces to the puzzle still missing including a quality set of Suntour MP1000 pedals (anyone?). The wheels are still being built (7X on DA EX freehubs with some first generation IRC Racer X-1 tires). Outside of that, it is almost pretty much there:
As purchased:
Catalog (thanks OMB):
http://oldmountainbikes.com/catalogs/mo ... 983_05.jpg
So, here we go!
I saved you all the anticipation (yea right) of waiting a few years before jumping into a build thread for this project. Well, the time is coming soon to start putting parts on the frame.
From the beginning:
My passion since the 80's has always been Ritchey's. When I first got into collecting, my first goal (but not first project) was to find an early Ritchey to restore. Well, as shown here on RBUK in a different thread, I fulfilled that dream completing the 81 a year ago. Of course once I found the early frame, I knew I needed to find the ultimate of all Ritchey's an Annapurna.
Patiently watching the usual places for an affordable project to come my way, I managed to find a 1983 Competition that was within my budget.
The Competition is a bit confusing, the Columbus SL tubed frame, was only advertised for one year in the Mountainbikes catalog. Labeled as a "C" frame, it predates the Team Comp that would soon acquire that moniker by a year. Outside of the "A" designation the Annapurna has, the Competition holds all the same attributes. Namely the beautifully created Faux lugs at the head and seat tubes. Since it is an 83 model year, the Competition sports a beautifully crafted biplane fork. The Uni crown would not appear for another year.
Looking at the catalog build for the Competiton, there is no doubt, Kelley/Fisher were seeking a lightweight racing steed as they planned out the Competition. Avoiding the newly released Deerhead group that they offered on their other models that year, the Competition basically came with a mix of lightweight road components.
To quote the 1983 catalog:
"For the serious off-road racer the 25 lb. "Competition" is the ultimate in lightweight off-road machinery. The state of the art begins here."
Cyclone Derailleurs, Edco Headset, Suntour thumbies, one piece bar stem clamping into a plug brazed into the top of the steer tube (kinda like an early aheadset), TA double ring cranks leaving no mercy for the out of shape when the trail points up. Possibly the first weight weanie build to be displayed on the pages of any mountain bike catalog.
When I got the frame, it had a miserable amateur bass boat repaint with no decals. This made for an easy guilt free decision to send it in for repaint. Being an 83 and the year of the Kelly/Fisher/Ritchey breakup, I thought long and hard about which way I wanted to go with decals. Yea, I suppose since I am following Kelly/Fisher catalog build, I probably should have gone with Mountainbikes decals, but I already have an 81 that isn't going anywhere soon done up that way, so I opted to go with Ritchey Decals instead. I just got the message the other day from the paint shop, the frame is ready to be picked up.
For the past year or so, I have been busy gathering parts worthy of the fresh paint they will go on, while diligently trying to stay on track with the catalog build. There are a few pieces to the puzzle still missing including a quality set of Suntour MP1000 pedals (anyone?). The wheels are still being built (7X on DA EX freehubs with some first generation IRC Racer X-1 tires). Outside of that, it is almost pretty much there:
As purchased:
Catalog (thanks OMB):
http://oldmountainbikes.com/catalogs/mo ... 983_05.jpg
So, here we go!
