Bike Forums - NAHBS 2017 Pix

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I bow and genuflect in the direction of Tom Ritchey and Peter Johnson [I guess that's somewhere around Redwood City (?)] every chance I get...there's no exaggerating their talent or contributions to the art of the bicycle, IMO.

But enough fan-boy-ism, back to my ranting: where did he get those dropouts in 1975?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kobe (Post 19448004)

The Della Santas are amazing, I had no idea he was under $2k for a custom. Do you know how long his waiting list is? I may also need the butterscotch DS lawyers phone number.

I found the images of the Della Santas, the aesthetics of them is right out of the time where a handful of bikes shared a restrained level of aesthetic. One I find appealing.

The Merckx with the Campagnolo shield embossing or incising on the mostly Potenza components was well done.
Valentino should consider similar for a production variant.

Peter Johnson did a presentation at the Classic Rendezvous Weekend last year, and for sure Peter was inventive and seminal and building from a very young age. There was also fer sure a rivalry between him and Ritchey. Peter builds beautiful frames, but it was never his fulltime gig, so good luck finding one.

If you're nice to him, he might build you one...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otis (Post 19449899)

I agree with all that, but you also have to acknowledge Peter Johnson. They were both riffing (or maybe ripping) off each other at the time. And their styles are pretty well intertwined. Pretty amazing for a couple of high school kids. But the wealth of talent (in riders and craftsmen) in that area at that time is phenomenal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otis (Post 19449876)

I've seen a few of those early Ritchey's with positive rise thread-less stems he made for them. I never liked the look of a positive rise stem on a road bike, but you can't argue with the weight savings and better performance of the design. They were definitely original pieces on the bikes I've seen, not a restoration error like the the cable routing on the Confente.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcb (Post 19449885)

Threadless stems date back to at least the French constructeurs. There was no internet in '75, but some French rando/touring bikes made it into Cali, and there were copies of The Data Book floating around. So there was underground knowledge that they existed, both as a concept and in the flesh. Teenager Tom Ritchey decided to build some.

I went on a Ritchey rant on the CR list, I'll paste it in here since Ritchey and his road bikes has come up.

[soapbox]IMHO the '75 Ritchey should've won Best in Show. I think Ritchey's fame from mountain bikes, especially MTB componentry, keeps some of us from realizing his immense talent with a torch. Check out the detail on that frame, then realize that Ritchey's dad taught him how to braze, and he was just one year out of high school when he built it. At which time he had built and sold more than 200 frames!

Jim Merz' father-in-law backed Ritchey when Tom was still in high school, and Jim's brought a high school-era Ritchey to CR events. That frame is chock-full of outside-the-box thinking, at almost every joint and juncture. I think of the '70s as a time when young American builders leapfrogged the framebuilding orthodoxy they first learned and built some remarkable and beautiful machines. And Tom Ritchey belongs way up near the top of that pantheon. Ritchey originally hailed from Cherry Hill, NJ, too, so---go Jersey![/soapbox]

Thanks for correcting me and quite a fascinating insight. That particular bike is a jewel. I've long known of the early French stems using the pinch clamp design but unaware of any US makers until possibly late 1980's with them. ATB only. First ones I recall was a one piece bull moose atb bar clamped to a threaded fork steerer. No spacers for height adjustments nor bar tilt.

Interesting to that he used a longer threaded steerer for the head set, and I suppose just clamped the stem around the threads. Funny too that I now remember when a friend ordered a new P-21 from Ritchey and even in that year, he didn't offer it to him. The marketplace wasn't even into the A-head production and quill's were still the norm.

According to Merz, those dropouts are custom Ritchey.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unworthy1 (Post 19449059)

Thanks for taking and posting these pictures, wonderful to see them!

Now to stir a little controversy: Love seeing any of Tom Ritchey's vintage frames and that red/orange number is true eye-candy, but...1975?
With those short dropouts?
Unless I'm misinformed (no doubt about that) neither Campagnolo nor Gipiemme were selling that style of dropout in 1975, so could these be Tange "TR" dropouts and if so are they the very first run?
Or is the date incorrect?
I've been told that the first date that Campy versions were widely offered is '78 but MAYBE '77 to a very few special (Italian) customers...

And how about that STEM, what's the story on that piece?

Sam Hopkins?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcb (Post 19449885)

Jim Merz' father-in-law backed Ritchey when Tom was still in high school, and Jim's brought a high school-era Ritchey to CR events. That frame is chock-full of outside-the-box thinking, at almost every joint and juncture. I think of the '70s as a time when young American builders leapfrogged the framebuilding orthodoxy they first learned and built some remarkable and beautiful machines. And Tom Ritchey belongs way up near the top of that pantheon. Ritchey originally hailed from Cherry Hill, NJ, too, so---go Jersey![/soapbox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by merziac (Post 19450030)

According to Merz, those dropouts are custom Ritchey.

Thank you for the info!
So TR was even more innovative than we thought: making his own "shorties" before the big guys, and from the looks of them the TRs served as the models for the mass-produced items.