1987 Richey Ascent Homecoming
I posted this in the C&V thread and thought I'd share here as well:
This Ritchey is the 1st high quality bike I owned, purchased as a frameset (fuselage) in 1988. With parents help it was purchased frame/fork/Suntour Rollercam & Ritchey stem for $600. I was already riding an 86’ BRC Sierra. Not a bad bike, probably cost $350-$400 back then.
While riding the BRC (before the Ritchey purchase) and enjoying it the bike bug was slowly starting to take hold. A good friend of mine had gone down the road bike path (rather than MTB) and bought a celeste green Bianchi c/w Super Record. After I rode it, I could not believe the high quality of ride it provided. It was like night and day comparing it with the department store 10 speeds I’d grown up with. This bike test really opened my eyes to what was possible using proper high quality gear.
Back in 88’ I pretty much read every bike magazine I could get my hands on. My riding buddies and I slowly made the transition from that BRC level of bike to the higher end models outfitted with Deore XT, etc. Some had GTs, some had Rocky Mountains, I chose a Ritchey. Some of the best days of my life. The riding was in Calgary Alberta (yes, the Canadian prairies). Fish Creek park is a massive valley system carved out by the Bow river and I have many fond memories riding my Ritchey through some pretty great single track there.
I used my BRC as a doner bike with the Ritchey fuselage purchase and eventually outfitted it with M735 brakes and shifting. Yep, it was my baby.
A couple years later I got myself a very sweet lugged Columbus SLX/Campy C-Record Marinoni road bike which I still have today (I love vintage road bikes too).
Fast forward to 2008. My Ritchey has had thousands of miles put on it many of which were as a winter commuter (I cycled 50km a day to work for two years in the 90s) and is getting ridden here and there up on Burnaby Mountain (I moved to Vancouver in 92’). Up on Burnaby mountain my new riding buddies make fun of me bouncing off everything not smooth while they shred the local mountains on their suspension wonder bikes. I finally cracked and picked up a FS Kona all rounder (6” front & rear), something I could still pedal up hill. It’s an amazing bike and it still gets ridden lot’s.
Okay, so pretty long background story but needed to help justify how I could ever have given my beloved Ritchey away: my Dad was giving his Super Record equipped 84’ Marinoni back to his kids (I helped him buy it in the 90s) and my older brother wanted it. Offering up my Ritchey to my brother was the only way I could secure that 84’ Marinoni road bike which was more important to me at the time. I already had my Kona FS MTB, what did I need this Ritchey for?
I built up the Ritchey to a decent spec and gave it away. At least it was still in the family. My brother enjoyed the Ritchey, it gained some horrible parts over the 10+ years under his ownership. Judging by the lack of wear on the red Kool stop brake pads still on it from before I gave it up it never saw a lot of miles.