What is Nitanium Richey Logig Specialized MTB !?
 

This nice bike which is not mine turned up at the local thrift in Fairplay CO for a cheap price $200 or less for full info. Ritchey ll
ogic Nitaniuam tubed Spwcialized MTB. Does any one have info on this odd top end MTB or know what OS Nitaniuam is. The bike has mix of top end LX Ritchey logic components except for the crappy seat and pedals.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...07a30e0547.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8e36c2a5e7.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0f5cd2b48e.jpg

It's not the top of Specialized range, but very nice.

The Logic Nitanium tubing is a steel, I think he started with cromoly and added some Niobium and Titanium to the mix.

I'll see if I can dig up the catalog for that year's Rockhoppers.

Welp, no dice on finding the catalog.

Here's the bikepedia page though.

https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/...spx?item=88847

There was also "genius" tubing

and Ibis "Moron" - more on the ends

/markp

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...368df68f3b.jpg

Based on a none science ping test and weight I can tell it is some kinda of OS hard tempered metal similar to 753 or Tange Ultra . It's hard and the bike curbs at 24 or so with nice suspension fork as is and has a OS 30 something seat post. So really light for a vintage MTB with a OS seat post made 90's. If it was my size it would be mine.

The Nitanium Logic tubing was spec'd by Ritchey and made by... Tange? True Temper? I forget, and it may have varied anyway.

Anywho, it was a high-strength, heat-treated steel with Ritchey's thickness and butting profile.

I've always thought that "Nitanium" was Tom Ritchey-speak for "N(ot t)itanium." In other words, it was a dig. Which Tom Ritchey was, and is, known for doing. As was Scott Nichol of Ibis, (AWKA "Chuck Ibis" for reasons that I cannot recall,) he of the Moron tubing, Hakkalugi frameset, and Handjob cable stop.

I didn't know that Ritchey ever allowed anyone else to use the stuff, but Mike Sinyard could certainly have offered him sufficient... incentives... to do so. And nobody has ever diagnosed Tom Ritchey with an allergy to money.

All that said, that's likely to be about as nice of a production steel mountain bike as was being made back then. LX drivetrain, with a Specialized-branded Sugino "hidden bolt" crankset. (I forget the model number, but they were cold-forged, quite light, hella strong, and looked great.) I had the "Ritchey Logic"-branded version on a Cannondale touring bike, and Riv sold them for years. Great crankset.

--Shannon

PS: "AWKA" = "Also Wrongly Known As"

Genius tubing was made and introduced by Columbus in 1991/1992 it was also used in Mountain Bike frames by Peugeot, Binachi,American Eagle and other brands

It is a very good deal for the money :thumb:, just change the saddle and the chain and you have a nice bike

I'm pretty sure it was Tange. I think all the Logic tubing was Tange.

"Chick Ibis" was a psuedonym that Scott used to be able to write articles or letters to the editor. If you paid attention, you knew who it really was (particularly since he owned the bike company Ibis!). But it let him have a veneer of deniability when he was being critical of products or industry practices in the early mountain biking era. By the time mountain biking matured a bit and most products were pretty good, he dropped it. But people remembered it. So "wrongly known as" seems like an odd description.

When it comes to MTB frames, either they are stiff enough to function, light and have decent geometry - or they don't. Unlike road bikes designed for 23c tires, the 'qualities' of the frame tubing are completely immaterial to the feel and use of a bike with with 2" tires.

This bike has many nice details that will increase the joy of ownership. But if the bike is, say, heavy compared to a similarly priced classic MTB, the details become somewhat immaterial.

I had a Nitanium framed TiCycles bike and did a little digging: "Nitanium is a special hybrid non-heat-treated form of Chromoly steel that contains trace elements of Titanium and Niobium" with claimed weights close to aluminum
https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...le-frames.html