himespau 

awesome find.

tricky 

Hey, JL, cool! They were in Fremont. They did a lot of custom kit for local cycling and crew teams. Once they closed up shop Bill Davidson moved into the space and is there to this day.

It's cool to hear that they did well with it.

JL: https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6494...7i13312!8i6656

Davidson: https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6494...7i16384!8i8192

merziac

They did very well, they had a dozen e-bikes, several C+V including a 7-11 Merckx on a trainer, a couple of gorgeous Klein mtb's hanging on the bigscreen room wall and plenty more I didn't see, great folks, deal, trip and visit, should have gone on a day when Classic cycles was open and planned for a ride.

tricky 

That's wild, I always assume folks don't make any money in the bike biz. Maybe they sold to a larger custom jersey shop who was just buying the client list.

Btw, awesome score on the Ritchey! That stem and handlebar alone is awesome to look at, not to mention that beautiful chrome frame. Looking forward to the build!

merziac

Tx, we'll see how it goes, some of my plans don't fit so adjusting on the fly. Oldschool will be the rule, you know, because its so cool, and I'm am stocked on it so....

Yeah, Ken said they did very well (as he grinned very slyly), were supplier to several womens pro teams, etc.

merziac

Here ya go, cleaned it up a bit, r-n-red the BB, pulled the seals and greased the sealed bearings for now. Cleaned and sorta polished the crank that was crusty then found the french thread Campy's and put all that on for now also. Next up, Magura levers and hoods in great shape, tight fit but got em on, no clean-up yet, not much to it but the screws are crusty.












You asked for it.

tendency

That bike is sick! A chromed Ritchey?! Sell it to me now!

sheddle

Thanks for those brake shots, I love seeing those in good condition.

merziac

Tx!

Yep, so far I cannot find another anywhere yet, sorry nfs. You ever seen another chrome one, ever?

I haven't completely searched the other thread yet but a google search turns up nada.

It may have been done after the fact, the chrome is good but not perfect so...

Also the decals seem to be in great shape for original.

I would sure like to have the original fork, especially if it was a bi-plane.

merziac

You're welcome, anytime, especially since you are largely responsible for this, your enabling is greatly appreciated.

The brake still needs to come off for a piece by piece scrub but it cleaned up pretty good in place for now and my photography skills didn't get in the way as much as they usually do.

tendency

No, I've never seen a chromed Ritchey before; wonder what the story is.
Just have Tom build you a new one fork - I'm sure you can twist his arm into doing it

merziac

So been meaning to ask, any body ever seen another chrome Ritchey before?

Here's one that finally popped up, 2018, chrome not original.

https://www.bikeforums.net/sale/1190...lf-size-m.html

Anyone, anyone?

merziac

Well I thought he was on here, I know he posted in the Leroica threads a couple of years ago but haven't dug in yet.

I did talk to him for a minute at NAHBS in Sacto, 2017? but nothing he would remember.

You have a direct line to him to weigh in on this?

I would have to think long and hard before having a fork made, especially from him and would need to solve the mystery of this frame before doing it.

Despite my disdain for unicrown, I'm glad this has a nice one and it will have to do for now, at least its lugged.

merziac

Any idea how to do that?

The Golden Boy 

That's kind of a nice bike.

So- remember there was a time when the unicrown was cutting edge, modern and desirable. And the unicrown lug is kind of a sign of that- they didn't trust, or understood that people didn't trust the new technology/idea. That's pretty cool.

merziac

Tx and yep I get it, just not my jam, that and the fact that this probably had a nice bi-plane when it was new makes it a little , oh well, for now.

The Golden Boy 

You think?

I don't know a whole lot about these things- although I'd bet Tom built what people asked him to build... although there's pics of what's supposedly an 84 Ascent with them, the Annapurna didn't get under-chainstay brakes until 1987. Just clicking around for images- I didn't see any 85/86/87 Ritcheys with biplane forks. Again, just quickly looking around.

IMO- a fully chromed bike was going to be the big money guy- that means the fancy newest.

I think your frame and fork go together.

merziac

Maybe, the chrome on the fork is much nicer than the frame and it doesn't "match" in color either. We don't really know what year it is and I haven't found any lugged unicrown Ritchey's yet so.....

Here's one on efbay that they believe to be an 82, same SP clamp/lug, Campy RDO's, stem and bars but has under BB cable guide and no roller cam brake with original bi-plane fork.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15449566069...cAAOSw9fxgv~jR

The Golden Boy 

That's a very important point- A big zoot bike is going to have that real, hand brazed unicrown- as Ritchey was known for.

That being said- I do dig those lugged unicrown forks- it's just so... 'of its time'. Then again, so are the under-stay roller cams- but they're much less cute to me.

habes78023 

Nice score! Every bit of it.

I love when the seller starts going through their stuff looking for what else they can 'unload' onto me. Got a nice Campy 8 speed cassette that way last month.

merziac

Tx!

I got the sense he was holding it back, and then he sensed it was going to take more to get me there. I was just about to offer less than asking until he pulled out the bars and stem, then it was all downhill from there, all good.

tendency

Well, it will likely take some commitment, dedication and $$ to get a hold of Tom. Below are my two suggestions. With sufficient desire one of them will work

1) Head on down to Ritchey design HQ is San Carlos Ca. with chromed bike in tow. Tell them you'd like some info on this museum piece and ideally discuss with Tom to learn the history etc. Charm offensive and bike should do the trick for a meet w/ Tom.
2) Build your new Ritchey up and hit the trails around Woodside, Ca. Sooner or later you'll run into Tom bombing the local trails and the rest will be history. NOTE - this would likely entail a looong mountain biking vacation on the peninsula of SF bay. You won't regret it

Good luck.

merziac

Yeah, not happenin, I have no delusions about this being anything more than an oddity for being chrome with no s/n and beyond that it is pretty standard with plenty of flaws.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly do like it, still paid more than I wanted to but that wasn't really up to me without walking away which also wasn't happenin.

I am not even a mtb guy, rode very few, almost none in the wild but I do like em as long as they are C+V, iconic and, or just plain cool, this one checks all those boxes and a couple more so here we are.

I rode plenty of dirt bikes when I was younger, CZ's, Maico's, Elsinore's, YZ's, Bultaco's and others, it was fun but not my thing, tall, skinny and not very good at it but it helped set the stage for later being pretty good at the drag strip on old KZ 1000's and delivering 1000's of a** whippins there as well as receiving plenty too.

I was hoping you could just call Tom and set it up for me.

tendency

Sorry no direct line However, interesting anecdote I have run into Tom a couple times on the trails around Woodside and the peninsula hence my #2 suggestion. Lived down there for almost 15 years. First time I didn't know who he was just thought he was some cool dude that knew alot about the local trails and mountain biking - until after the fact and my buddy's like 'hey, dont you know who that was?!' .. I was like 'uhhh no?'. good times.

merziac

All good.

I get it, funny how things work out.