1984? Ritchey Mountain Bike.
 

I'm on summer vacation and back visiting my pops. He recently picked up this early Ritchey / Rocky Mountain bike. I've been through the oldmountainbikes site, but the serial number doesn't jibe exactly. It's tig welded. Is this a Japanese made bike, or a USA build? Any other comments are appreciated. Rear wheel, rear derailleur, and shifters are obvious upgrades.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...hoto%25201.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...hoto%25202.JPGhttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...hoto%25203.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-H...hoto%25204.JPG

Japanese built for the Canadian market. There are some Canadian frames on that site in the bike listings page that show similar serials.

Doesn't make it any less of a great rider - awesome find.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...hoto%25202.JPG


That's a cool fork crown lug thingy. It's kind of like a filled in biplane fork!

I think the seller is probably asking too much.

No wait, that's a different one.... but this is on van CL right now isn't it?

Cool find.
What Blirat said.

This is a Ritchey Montare made in Tokyo Japan by the Toyo factory. They were imported exclusively to Canada; and no where else in the world AFAIR. They were a stop gap measure, at the time, to fill the demand for Ritchey mountain bikes, primarily in Vancouver. (In the early 80's Vancouver consumed 80-90% of Ritchey's domestic production and there was a several month waiting list for frames. Thousands and thousands of these were sold for just under $1000 from 1893? to 1988? They were so popular that bike messengers called them Camaros. In a way it was an answer to Mike Sinyard's upstart Specialized Stump Jumper.

In 1982?, Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey and Jacob Heilbron (Rocky Mountain) went to Japan with designs and ideas. Toyo made frames, Nitto made bars and Araya made rims IRC made tires. Information about mountain biking was also disseminated to Shimano, Suntour, Panasonic and other Japanese bike component and frame manufacturers. (The Deore and Mountech components came from these meetings I believe,) From what I recall, Tom Ritchey, Charley Kelly and Gary Fisher had a falling out over the issue of domestic vs Japanese production of Ritchey Mountain Bikes as a way to grow their company "Mountain Bikes. Tom approved the sale of the bikes in Canada but not in the US. Gary broke away and took the Mountain Bikes name and started selling Fisher Montare bikes, in the states. There was a lot of politics involved but I wasn't really included in it. I was the designer and tester for Rocky Mountain at the time so I had my own problems.

Pip

This bike is truly a piece of the history of mountain biking but it is not very rare. It has an excellent ride and is extremely robust and durable.

Pip

Haha. Not the same bike.

Thanks Pip! Great information. Interestingly, we watched Klunkerz today, and I would recommend it to those interested in the origins of mountain biking. It did touch on the Fisher / Ritchey falling out, but didn't mention Japanese production of Ritcheys for the Canadian market.

Was it common to have them tig welded, it seems most of the canadian market Ritchies were lugged?

For reference, here is my '83 Mountainbikes Montare (evidently the US version), as found. It looks very similar.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/IMG_0165.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/IMG_0170.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/IMG_0173.jpg

All the Toyo Ritchey frames were TIG welded. The Panasonic frames were lugged but they didn't have any reference to Ritchey. When he worked for Rocky Mountain, Chris Dekerf, now owner of of Dekerf Cycles, was sent to Toyo to work as an intern. He learned some very special secrets there. Paul Brodie was the first intern at Rocky Mountain under Derek Bailie's reluctant tutelage. He turned out pretty good too!

Pip

I am interested in the Fork crown. It is similar if not the same as on my Schwinn MTB sn BS367823 (February 1981) also on the u/s of the BB and made in Japan.
Refer to the page http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...mtb-frame.html
Is the fork steerer tube stamped and if so is it a Ishiwata or Tange. What is the date under the tube manufacturers name. My Schwinn tubing is Ishiwata dated B.3 although advertising for Schwinn says the forks are Tange.
I do not know how the Ishiwata dating means in years even though I have tried to establish the calendar used, Japanese or English. This type of crown is also used on the Trek 850 referred as a Tange tubing and the dating is similar but dates as February 1983. (Trek also used Ishiwata tubing)
Confused and

Crumbling

Geometry is highly reminiscent of my RM Sherpa.