About as Vintage as You Can Get

[Repack Rider]

When Gary Fisher and I started selling Tom Ritchey's bikes, it took considerable confidence in two unlikely hippies, because you had to give us the $1300 up front and then wait a month or so.

The first person to accept the challenge was my uncle, an engineer with an international firm who took his bike to job sites all over the world.

20 years ago I told him how collectible it was, and he asked me to find the person who wanted to collect it. That person turned out to be 1995 world MTB champion Thomas Frischknecht, who traded his P-21 for it.

Last week it returned from Switzerland to become the centerpiece of the Ritchey collection now housed in the Captain and Stoker coffee house in Monterey, in which Thomas and Tom Ritchey are part owners. My uncle kept it in flawless condition, and the provenance is clear.

Since Joe Breeze and I were in town for the Sea Otter Classic, we all posed with the bike.