Paulfs67

Here's my 94 Road Logic, picked it up for $20 at a garage sale couldn't get it into my car fast enough

How I brought it
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after lots of work, all cable guides, brake bridge where rusted through and the seat tube clamp area was badly pitted
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Finally on the road now running DA7800 with Wobler tubs with DA 7400 hubs, such a fantastic ride

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Vonruden

Very nice Paul! I love it when a classic is restored back to it's rightful glory. Looks great.

gomango

Outstanding work Paul.

Way to get after it.

rebelcontender

Fantastic! if you haven't done so already, be sure to post this final pic in the retro roadies- old frames with STI's thread.

Paulfs67

Thanks, I have already posted it there. I couldn't believe my luck in finding this, it was in terrible condition but I'm always up for a challenge and this is a keeper

Lyle Hardin

Wow! My heart stopped when I saw this! I have one exactly like it (but a bit more abused). I bought mine in 1987 at Project Bike in Lafayette, IN (owned by John Cherry).
He was selling it to buy a frame for his new bike. Straight out of college (Purdue) I balked at paying $700 for it, but I still have it and still ride it more than 30 years later!
I'd post pictures, but I don't need to. It seriously is the exact same thing.

eshew

Parts waiting to be cleaned, polished & installed

TenGrainBread 

Nice. Love the old MountainBikes decal.

79pmooney

The more I learn about Tom Richie, the more I respect him. He designed and had built a fleet of cargo bikes for Rwanda coffee farmers to get their beans quickly to the roaster on very poor third world roads. As I recall, the farmers were taught they had a 4 hour window after picking to get their beans roasted, After that, the beans went from some of the world's best to just another coffee bean. Ritchie designed bikes to haul 600 pound loads of beans down a mountain road ~4 miles (IIRC) to the roaster.

We can now go to Starbucks and buy bags Rwandan coffee (at the high end prices). Life changing over there.

Ben

MikeAndJean

Until last March my wife and I rode Tom's first tandem - at least the first tandem he sold. We met Tom in the late 70's on Sunday morning rides led by an interesting guy named Jobst Brandt. At that time we were riding a Bob Jackson tandem. Tom made a tandem for riding with his wife that he let us try out. It had a weird geometry with a very short front top tube compensated for by a very long stem. We didn't like that arrangement but Tom clearly knew how to assemble tubes so we asked him to build a more conventional frame for us.

The year was 1977 and there was a stack of unusual looking frames in the corner of his shop when we picked up our new frame. I believe those unusual looking frames were one of his first orders for mountain bikes.



The photo above was taken no long afterwards. We rode this bike more than 100,000 miles over the next 41 years. The photo below was taken in Switzerland in 1984.



We also rode on a lot of dirt roads. The next photos show us working our way around a landslide on Alpine Road in the Bay Area.



That is Jobst Brandt in the front, also riding a Ritchey. Our last long ride on this wonderful tandem was last Summer. We repeated an easy trip on the coast in Northern California.



The only problem with that tandem was the lack of mountings for disk brakes. We used an old Atom drum brake that I modified with larger flanges that placed the spoke holes outside the diameter of the freewheel, so that we could replace broken spokes on the road. The flanges was drilled for 48 hole rims. The wheel worked great but that Atom drum brake was marginal. This past March we bought a new Breakaway frame from Tom, which we are enjoying.



I also ride a Ritchey Classic and a Breakaway single.

mstateglfr 

That's some fantastic history and great experiences!

mpetry912 

A break away Tandem ? wow that is cool. I have a titanium breakaway and it's a great bike but I have this 1978 Ritchey mountain bike that I've owned for 30 years. It's an old friend and gets ridden occaisionally.

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

merziac

That is one of the coolest bikes, tandem, story I have seen and heard, the new and the old, fabulous!

Thank you so much for sharing.

MikeAndJean

Nice bike. Here is my Ritchey Classic, which I have ridden since 1990.



I also have a steel Breakaway frame, which I have ridden since around 2005. I use to travel to Europe monthly for work. I set this bike up with a fixed gear, using an ENO hub with an eccentric axle on the rear. This bike fit in a airline approved suitcase, weighed 15 pounds complete, and could be setup in about 15 minutes. This let me go for short rides before or after work in a variety of interesting locations. The photo below was taken one early morning in Munster.

Markeologist

Have been perusing BF for info and pix of vintage Ritchey road tandems and I found a picture of MY BIKE...I purchased off CL a few days ago....pix not mine (credit to Icepick Trotsky).

masispecial

My two.
I have had the blue one about ten years, the purple frame came from ebay earlier in the year. I will post more detailed photos when I get organised.

VtwinVince

Unfortunately I only have one Ritchey, this '88 Ascent Comp, which came out of a local collection and had been a wall hanger for some time. All original except for cables.

Markeologist

My new (to me) Ritchey Palo Alto road tandem...my photos this time. Hopefully get a around to a little wrenching this weekend...see what I got here. Going to try and pull the Arai drum and exchange the Sugino rear seat post for a Campy that matches the captain’s set post...the Sugino looks too small in diameter to me. If it is, I sure hope the binder didn’t get screwed up. While I’m at it, I’ll dig out a better stoker saddle. Likely pull timing side pedals to confirm these are proper tandem cranks too. Been digging into details on Ritchey’s early road tandems, this one has the binder bolt in front of captains seat tube and the slot runs on the top tube....most of the pix I see look like the binder bolt is more often on the rear of the seat tube...anybody have any knowledge on this “odd” set up??

fleslider 

I have a late 85 Ascent, I have been working on it getting it restored. this is how i got it, took me a few minutes to figure out it is a Ritchey.

but anyways need to figure out the correct decals to order and find the Araya RM20/ DuraAce Rims that it should have came with!

MikeAndJean

Looks great. The gearing look like a big improvement over the arrangement we used for 40+ years.

It does not look like Tom built this bike for a hub brake; however, you can find the necessary cable stops in the Campy vintage section of eBay. You also will need a cable splitter for the third brake. That last sentence may draw criticism from some tandem teams. I preferred having all brakes controlled by the rider in front. Other teams consider that to be a demeaning arrangement for the rider in back and instead add a third brake lever to the rear handle bars. This arrangement is consistent with the idea that the hub brake is something you use to slow the bike rather than stop it. To me that seems like a mistake in the event of a panic stop. However, this is not your first tandem so by now you have worked out a solution to this issue with your partner.

Go ride this tandem up a hill. Once you do you won't be happy with your other tandem.

Markeologist

Been addressing various issues on my Ritchey Palo Alto tandem, most importantly yanked later Specialized crank that was on stokers drive side and replaced with early Dura Ace to match other three cranks. Also replaced tires, replaced stoker's seat post with a Campy NR to match captain's post, put on a pair of Brooks B17 Imperials, a Silca Imperio pump, and three vintage Avocet bottle cages...Avocet was Palo Alto Bike Shop's own brand. Only had two yellow cages, the third is black and is used to hold my vintage Kangaroo Baggs tool role. The ride of this bike is simply marvelous.

victorm

My 89 Ultra

reconnaissance

Maybe not 100 percent Ritchey but I was tickled to see the rear dropouts on this Bianchi are stamped Ritchey.

Narhay

Really nice resurrection. What is the bungie cord?

mosinglespeeder

This is a great thread, as a modern day owner of Ritchey's, i agree, he is most under appreciated and most humble of framebuilders. My best evidence was we were riding on a charity ride here in the midwest, and buddy next to me says 'hey...thats Tom Ritchey' and sure enough it was. We had a short chat on the road which was the coolest thing ever. We were just friends w/bikes in common which was the best. Nonetheless, that was 20 yrs ago and ever since I have been impressed with his work. BTW: Paul, that was excellent work on that road logic to get it back up and running.