purebikes 

I picked this up locally and am curious about the model/year. It looks like an 85-88 Ascent but it has a few details that aren't lining up with what I can find online. The serial number is the first mystery as it is only three numbers (705) and doesn't follow the sequencing that I have found on (ritchey.vintagebicycledatabase.com). It is a 17" frame so maybe the 7 is for the size and 05 is the number frame but it is supposed to have a letter first to identify the model. The other oddity is that the bottom bracket looks somewhat fillet brazed where as the other Ascent frames I can find all look tig welded along with the top tube joints. The sticker on the top tube is also the more sought after "Handmade by Tom Ritchey" and not the "Handmade by Ritchey Bikes" that I have seen on some of the others. As a side note it does have a Pedersen SE U-Brake which have heard is one of the nicer versions of the type of brake and somewhat sought after. The other components are Shimano Mountain LX with a newer crankset added.

So what do I have? Any help would be appreciated.













Any info would be appreciated.