Ritchey Fillet Brazed Road Classic

[sipmeister]

I've been searching this forum for information on older Ritchey fillet brazed road bikes. There isn't a whole lot of information that I can see. Maybe I'm searching incorrectly or in the wrong places. I'm wondering is there a database (here or elsewhere) for serial numbers for that? Catalogs?
The bike I bought was advertised by the seller as a Road Logic, but the frame is fillet brazed and fillet brazed frames by TR were Road Classic, I believe. The bike was a recent acquisition that I picked up on my radar while browsing. Does not have original fork, has been repainted in the distant past, and is mostly set up with DA 7800.
Any information would be kindly appreciated. Thanks .

[rwsaunders]

Good start...he's in the recent edition of Peloton too.

http://www.xo-1.org/2011/01/tom-ritchey-in-his-own-words.html

http://pelotonmagazine.com/interviews/tom-ritchey-american-pioneer-eternal-original/

[sales guy]

My Break Away is fillet brazed. Tom did it for me.

[adampaiva]

Wow great link that first one! I had heard rumors about Tom's work on some of the different Ritchey frames in history. That pretty much solidifies the rumors.

Very happy with my circa 2000 Road Logic, its a forever bike for me for sure.

Good start...he's in the recent edition of Peloton too.

http://www.xo-1.org/2011/01/tom-ritchey-in-his-own-words.html

http://pelotonmagazine.com/interviews/tom-ritchey-american-pioneer-eternal-original/

[fogrider]

I had my eye on a fillet brazed TR back in the day. I ended up with road logic a few years later, it was good bike, but I believe the fillet brazed bikes had a different ride to them. Recently I found a fillet brazed Ron Cooper, and the ride is amazing!

[paredown]

Great interviews and a nice gap filler for the history of especially mountain bike development...

To read it though is to think that only TR did fillet braze bikes (to overcome the limitations of existing lugs, for strength--and even for style), but others had traveled that road including lots of English frame makers who switched to fillet braze construction during WW II because of lug shortages (Holdsworth and Claud Butler come to mind). Someone in the comments mentions owning a Ron Cooper fb frame, and I'm pretty sure that he learned that from the English tradition and not from TR. Then there was the American tradition--Schwinn had been fillet brazing their mid-tier frames since 1938--Sheldon has the story on that:
https://sheldonbrown.com/schwinn-braze.html

The combination of O/S and profiled tubing + fb construction--that was a new deal though.

Still though--I am stunned at how enterprising he was and how early he started. I got my first set of lugs to make my first frame when I was around 20 (around the same time that TR started)--and I never got up the confidence to braze them up....

[William]

I don't know if this directly helps in what you are looking for but the Paceline Catalog Page is your friend... :)

On the Paceline:

Starting at the "Catalogs" sub forum...

Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->The Bicycle Info Project-->Ritchey Bicycles--> Leads to...

The 1986 Ritchey Bicycles And Accessories Catalog (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/ritchey/catalog1986/index.html)

And...

Ritchey Components 91-92 (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/ritchey/catalog1991/index.html)



Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Retro Bike--> Leads to...

Ritchey Archive Page (http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Ritchey+Archive/)


Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Classic Rendezvous-->Leads to...

Tom Ritchey main page with info and a few catalogs... (http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Ritchey_Tom.htm)


Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Biota: The Bicycle PDF Catalog Archive-->Leads to...

Ritchey PDF Catalogs... (https://www.birota.ru/catalogues/index.php?g=b&b=166)






William

[idrinkwater]

I recently acquired a late 70s Ritchey road. It was allegedly brazed in and sold out of his parent's garage. The joints are unquestionably Ritchey.

[adampaiva]

pics please all of you with these old school Ritcheys !

[sipmeister]

My Break Away is fillet brazed. Tom did it for me.

Sweet, that's awesome!

Would be a treat to meet the guy.

[sipmeister]

I don't know if this directly helps in what you are looking for but the Paceline Catalog Page is your friend... :)

On the Paceline:

Starting at the "Catalogs" sub forum...

Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->The Bicycle Info Project-->Ritchey Bicycles--> Leads to...

The 1986 Ritchey Bicycles And Accessories Catalog (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/ritchey/catalog1986/index.html)

And...

Ritchey Components 91-92 (http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/ritchey/catalog1991/index.html)



Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Retro Bike--> Leads to...

Ritchey Archive Page (http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Ritchey+Archive/)


Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Classic Rendezvous-->Leads to...

Tom Ritchey main page with info and a few catalogs... (http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Ritchey_Tom.htm)


Catalogs-->The Bicycle Catalog/Components link page-->Biota: The Bicycle PDF Catalog Archive-->Leads to...

Ritchey PDF Catalogs... (https://www.birota.ru/catalogues/index.php?g=b&b=166)






William

Thank you, much appreciated!

[sales guy]

Sweet, that's awesome!

Would be a treat to meet the guy.

Another super nice guy. When you meet him tho it's funny, he's always on the move. Nailing him down with time to talk is rare. Riding is like the only time funny enough. LeMond on the other hand, you have to literally drag him away from people. He will sit there and let you ramble on for hours.

There are some crazy nice people in the bike world. Tom and Greg are two of the good ones.

Tom hung out for awhile with us last year at Interbike. He had done the frame building class in Britain last year and we had tons to chat about due to that.

He fillet brazed up my Swiss Cross as well. He will do things like that but it's a wait.

[sipmeister]

Another super nice guy. When you meet him tho it's funny, he's always on the move. Nailing him down with time to talk is rare. Riding is like the only time funny enough. LeMond on the other hand, you have to literally drag him away from people. He will sit there and let you ramble on for hours.

There are some crazy nice people in the bike world. Tom and Greg are two of the good ones.

Tom hung out for awhile with us last year at Interbike. He had done the frame building class in Britain last year and we had tons to chat about due to that.

He fillet brazed up my Swiss Cross as well. He will do things like that but it's a wait.


I've got a regular 'off the shelf' Swiss Cross that I really like. Sees the most use from Fall-Spring, rain or shine. That's mighty sweet that MR. TR can still make a frame. It's understandable that it takes a while to get to it seeing he's got a company to take care off.

The only cycling person I've ever met was LA at the Denver airport this past Spring. He was just off in a corner with a ball cap laying low, I guess. I just figured I might as well say hi, despite his past. He did get me (way back in the day) interested in bikes more, but I'm at a point where I ride bikes for the joy of bikes. The thing that struck me and still lingers in my memory, is for a guy of his last name, he had a very weak handshake.
The entire encounter was like 20 seconds and no doubt took him by surprise, but I can say I've met someone I watched as a kid.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with TR and LeMond.

[sales guy]

I've got a regular 'off the shelf' Swiss Cross that I really like. Sees the most use from Fall-Spring, rain or shine. That's mighty sweet that MR. TR can still make a frame. It's understandable that it takes a while to get to it seeing he's got a company to take care off.

The only cycling person I've ever met was LA at the Denver airport this past Spring. He was just off in a corner with a ball cap laying low, I guess. I just figured I might as well say hi, despite his past. He did get me (way back in the day) interested in bikes more, but I'm at a point where I ride bikes for the joy of bikes. The thing that struck me and still lingers in my memory, is for a guy of his last name, he had a very weak handshake.
The entire encounter was like 20 seconds and no doubt took him by surprise, but I can say I've met someone I watched as a kid.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with TR and LeMond.


Oddly, he really doesn't do as much for the company anymore. He's got solid people running it. He does experimenting, prototypes of stuff and brazes up the occasional frame. He rides and flies around most of the time. He spent almost a month in Britain last summer hanging out and attending a frame building class.

[chris7ed]

This might be useful
https://ritchey.vintagebicycledatabase.com/models.php

[Stan Lee]

I recently acquired a late 70s Ritchey road. .

I'd love to see photos as well!

[sipmeister]

This might be useful
https://ritchey.vintagebicycledatabase.com/models.php

I had seen the site before but hadn't explored it fully.

I checked the 'road and cross bikes' section and came across the bike I just bought off of eBay.

https://ritchey.vintagebicycledatabase.com/bike.php?id=285

[tctyres]

I'd love to see photos as well!

+1 Came here for some Ritchey bike pron. Still need it :banana::banana::banana::banana:

[adampaiva]

not fillet, but I'll start w/ my Road Logic...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5578/14429183723_3e47fa6b32_c.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3905/14409009035_844082a087_c.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3881/14409011635_d0cabca3e8_c.jpg

[mayal7]

:eek: NICE BIKE!