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Need help to identify what looks like an old Ritchey complete bike from the mid 80's

10K views 39 replies 18 participants last post by  girlonbike 
#1 ·
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to mtb too! I recently went back to my parent's house to bring back my old mtb at my apartment. I started to ride a little with it and realized I don't even know which Brand / Model / Year it is for real.

Since then I'm trying to find out more about this bike which may be old but ride greatly!

I have made a little website to keep track of what I discover about my Unknown Bike and need help to fill the numerous blanks. If somebody could take a look here http://unknownbike.iampm.org to study the pictures and information about the bike to help me, it would be very nice!

And yes, I already asked for information at Ritchey Logic ... I did not receive anything helpful but a link to the oldmountainbikes.com's website which I already consulted to find out that I'm stuck at the same place as I am right now.

Thank you very much!
 
#4 ·
richieb said:
Didn't Rocky Mountain Import Ritchey to Canada for a while and create their own lugged Ritchey-Branded frame?

-Richard
I had forgotten about that. Search for an old thread, it came up on this forum a good while back.

There is also the large chance the bike was just built out of Ritchey branded tubes which was very common. There are dozens of brands that have spec'ed Ritchey tubing.

cheers, good luck.
 
#7 ·
There was a lugged Ritchey made in '86 that was imported into Canada only. Here is mine :




More info here also:
http://www.oldmountainbikes.com/cgi-bin/bikes.cgi?bike=6D00168

I have talked personally with Grayson Bain, founder of Rocky Mountain bikes and Tom Ritchey about these lugged bikes and the info can be found on http://www.oldmountainbikes.com under lugged frames

"Ritchey frames that are built using lugged construction were built in Japan by Toyo and imported into Canada by Rocky Mountain Bicycles. These frame were produced in the time period just after Tom Ritchey and Gary Fisher ended their working relationship with each other. Tom, in search of a new distributor for his bikes, contacted Rocky Mountain who offered to sell whatever he could produce. Tube sets went to Toyo, who only built lugged frames, and completed Ritchey bikes were sent to Canada. At roughly this same time other Japanese-made Ritchey frames were being imported into the US, however these were TIG-welded"

Your bike looks to be very simular. I would guess that its a '87 or later by the build and was also made at the Toyo factory and branded a Rocky Mountain
 
#10 ·
Wow! The guy who suggested me to came here on the BikeForums.net was right! You guys kick a$$! Thanks for all the info! Now let me recapitulate.

If I understand correctly, it dosen't look like there is a particular model name for this bike. Am I right? It could be a Ritchey branded Rocky Mountain wich dosen't seem to have more info about but the fact that they came from Japan and was imported to Canada. I'm kind of thinking that I'm searching information that just doen't exists.

I was angry by the awnser I received from Ritchey Logic, but In fact there is just nothing more to say but that It's a lugged frame Ritchey branded Rocky Mountain bike? Am I right again?

I sincerly thought there could be some more info about it. I'm sorry to bothered you guys with this. All the info was on oldmountainbikes.com. Which is, finally, very complete. There was an awesome job made on this website. I'll submit my bike to it as soon I'm certain of the year.

kb11, I can see some similarities with your bike, the biopace, the fork and the fork tube. But there are some diferences like the bar, the u-brakes under the BB ,,, is that what makes you guess it 87 or later?

Thanks for all the info!

Oh I forgot, Boy named SSue, pointed that it could also be another brand who used Ritchey tubings? Or are we now sure of one thing : Its a Rocky Mountain.
 
#39 ·
Wow! The guy who suggested me to came here on the BikeForums.net was right! You guys kick a$$! Thanks for all the info! Now let me recapitulate.

If I understand correctly, it dosen't look like there is a particular model name for this bike. Am I right? It could be a Ritchey branded Rocky Mountain wich dosen't seem to have more info about but the fact that they came from Japan and was imported to Canada. I'm kind of thinking that I'm searching information that just doen't exists.

I was angry by the awnser I received from Ritchey Logic, but In fact there is just nothing more to say but that It's a lugged frame Ritchey branded Rocky Mountain bike? Am I right again?

I sincerly thought there could be some more info about it. I'm sorry to bothered you guys with this. All the info was on oldmountainbikes.com. Which is, finally, very complete. There was an awesome job made on this website. I'll submit my bike to it as soon I'm certain of the year.

kb11, I can see some similarities with your bike, the biopace, the fork and the fork tube. But there are some diferences like the bar, the u-brakes under the BB ,,, is that what makes you guess it 87 or later?

Thanks for all the info!

Oh I forgot, Boy named SSue, pointed that it could also be another brand who used Ritchey tubings? Or are we now sure of one thing : Its a Rocky Mountain.
This is an early japan/ritchey nice tig welds fork not so nice, they use to come loose.
 

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#11 ·
iampm said:
I was angry by the awnser I received from Ritchey Logic

I'm sorry to bothered you guys with this
As for Ritchey, they're in the bike business with the emphasis on business and what good does Id'in a 20 year old bike do them? They don't even make frames anymore. It's what lots of companies do once they get away from their roots. There was a time when Ritchey would have cared but those days are long gone. Shame, ain't it.

Oh don't worry about 'bothering' the forum. Gives us something to talk about in our crotchedy, old age. Besides, I wasn't aware of these bikes and I'm sure many of us learned something. Thanks for showing it.

Pen Guin
 
#13 ·
pinguwin said:
As for Ritchey, they're in the bike business with the emphasis on business and what good does Id'in a 20 year old bike do them? They don't even make frames anymore. It's what lots of companies do once they get away from their roots. There was a time when Ritchey would have cared but those days are long gone. Shame, ain't it.
Actually, they still do produce frames. Steel or Ti, road or cross.
 
#16 ·
iampm said:
If I understand correctly, it dosen't look like there is a particular model name for this bike. Am I right? It could be a Ritchey branded Rocky Mountain wich dosen't seem to have more info about but the fact that they came from Japan and was imported to Canada. I'm kind of thinking that I'm searching information that just doen't exists.
Your best best is to contact Rocky Mountain and ask them if it's one of their bikes. Ritchey (the company) may have had some say in the frame's design, but llittle else. RM would know a lot more about the frame (assuming they made it).
 
#17 ·
laffeaux said:
Your best best is to contact Rocky Mountain and ask them if it's one of their bikes. Ritchey (the company) may have had some say in the frame's design, but llittle else. RM would know a lot more about the frame (assuming they made it).
Okay, I'll try this!
Since some people on other forums told me that it's very strange that there is a u-brake mount on the bike if it's a Ritchey lugged ... Maybe the quest to find out what it is isn't quite finished ...

richieb said:
Something tells me that we'll be seeing this bike on Ebay pretty soon...just a hunch...
Why would I sell it?
If I don't dont' find out what it is, it will still ride awesomely!

Maybe I just won't keep it as a vintage bike.
How to restore a bike as vintage if you don't know what bike it is exactly?

----------------------

By the way guys, do you think it is still worth it to restore the Unknown Bike?
Or should I just put whatever pieces that suites me on it and have fun whit it?
 
#18 ·
iampm said:
By the way guys, do you think it is still worth it to restore the Unknown Bike?
Or should I just put whatever pieces that suites me on it and have fun whit it?
Yes.

Either way, you can't go wrong. You know the approximate vintage, you can spec out parts of that era. Bikes are about fun and if you want to put a V-brake on the front, hey, it's fine if it's fun. Nothing preventing you from going back to period correct in the future.

Keep looking, ye shall find knowledge when the time is right. I like the bike and it sounds like you do too. Cool.

Pinguwin
 
#21 ·
iampm, The lugged Ritchey bike was a '86 only model, it was imported to Canada only by Rocky Mountain. It was a combined project between Ritchey and Rocky Mountain to start importing bikes from Japan. Remember these were small companies at the time and the combined resorces made it possible. I suspect that Rocky Mountain continued to import this bike in '87, putting there name on it, upgrading to U brakes and M730 componets, etc. I dont know what the model name would of been. Grayson Bain would probably be the only one to have that info as Rocky Mountain was bought out years ago. Here is an email address I had for him, not sure if its still good but you can try: grayson@telus.net

Getting info on these old bikes is not easy as the current companies are run by people who were probably not in the business back in the '80's. Tom Ritchey is the only source for old Ritcheys and hes not easily contacted. He doesnt run the day to day operations at Ritchey.
 
#24 ·
I just received an e-mail from Mr. Bain.
Thanks kb11 for the e-mail address ...

I think this awnser finally put an end to my researches :

Hi Pierre-Michel:
It is an original Ritchey ENDURO, designed by me and staff at RMB in 1985, produced in Japan by National Panasonic. It was produced under an exclusive license agreement with Tom Ritchey to finish off the line of higher end handbuilts and Japan produced (TOYO built) TIG welded bikes. Al of our bikes were assembled in Canada including Wheeltech Wheels. The colour was BLACK frame, LIME GREEN forks and decals. Never imported into the USA. Though maybe some made it down there!

Grayson Bain
I'll update the Unknown Bike's website in a couple of hours.
 
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