Tom’s love for bicycle began at age 11, when his father taught Tom Jr. to build his own wheels and repair tubular tires. Ritchey used these skills to start a small business repairing tubulars as a means to earn money to buy his first road bike, a Raleigh Super Corsa. When he was 14, Ritchey joined the Belmont Bicycle Club (BBC) and began racing. Shortly after this, he upgraded his bike to a frame he repaired himself, a broken Cinelli “B.” Around this time his father taught him how to braze, and he started repairing bicycle frames for local racers.

By learning to repair/replace other builders’ damaged tubes, Ritchey developed the confidence and skills needed to build his first racing frame. He decided to build his own frame out of a necessity for an affordable, lighter, faster bike. He bought the tubeset and lugs from local builder Hugh Enox at the time for $21, and in 1972 built his first frame, which he raced on that year. On this very frame he won many junior races and titles. Eventually on future bikes he built, Tom won the Senior Prestige Road trophy and the BAR (Best All-Around Rider) in 1973 and 1974 as a Junior. These feats lead to Ritchey being known as the ‘Senior Slayer’, having beaten top Californians (many of whom considered to be some of the best riders in the USA at the time) and former Olympians.

Tom rode for Team USA’s Junior Worlds road racing squad, and then enjoyed a stint on the US National Road Team. In 1976, Ritchey retired from road racing. He continued to race mountain bikes through the early 80’s, competing more recently in races like the Downieville Classic, La Ruta, Trans Andes, Trans Alps and Cape Epic in South Africa.

During his early racing years, Ritchey began building bikes for the Palo Alto Bike shop and its national mail order catalog. In 1974, as his senior year in high school approached, Ritchey had already built approximately 200 frames. It was around this time he honed his fillet brazing or “lugless” method of fabricating frames. Ritchey sought to challenge bicycle industry standards of frame tubing diameter at the time, which was limited by the use of fixed dimensioned lugs. Ritchey’s fillet brazing construction method allowed the choice of larger thin-wall tubing diameters and unique ovalizations to create lighter, stiffer frames. By 1979, Ritchey had produced over 1,000 frames on his own.

San Carlos, California is home to Ritchey Design, recognized around the world as one of the cycling industry’s premier innovators of high-quality bicycle components. Formed in the early 1970s by Tom Ritchey, the company actively designs a steady stream of new products, while constantly improving upon existing components, refining their lightness and durability with untiring drive, we call it; ‘relentless innovation.’ Modern day enthusiasts are very knowledgeable about their choices in the parts upgrade quest, and Ritchey strives to be their very first choice.

The company is well-known for its technical merits through attention to detail during the product design phase, combined with rigorous fatigue testing, resulting in high-quality, road and mountain bike components. Under its Fit Logic philosophy, Ritchey Design offers a wide range of “cockpit” components (handlebars, stems seatposts, and headsets) that help riders custom fit their bikes for a more efficient and comfortable ride. Ritchey Design also offers complete bikes, framesets and a complete line of innovative products including: pedals, carbon wheels, carbon forks, saddles, and tires suitable for professional racers to the serious weekend rider. Additionally it designs, markets and sells a line of “Break-Away” travel bicycles for cyclists on the go.

Simply put, this is as good as composite cycling components get. Ritchey SuperLogic components employ some of the most advanced carbon material currently available in the bike industry, featuring an extremely high tensile strength even for a composite, and a unique-to-Ritchey resin system that dramatically improves toughness and fatigue life. SuperLogic is state-of-the-art in terms of materials and construction techniques available, with a stiffness-to-weight ratio (and pricetag) to match.

The Ritchey WCS (World Championship Series) line is the gold standard for lightweight, bombproof race parts and cutting edge innovation. The rainbow stripe WCS logo represents the numerous world champions that have won on Ritchey.

Ritchey Comp level components are designed to bring competition-worthy components, with the kind of performance and reliability you expect from Ritchey, down to a price that everyone can handle.

Ritchey RL1 products are designed and built for the budget-minded cyclist looking for components to upgrade their current ride or to complete their next build - without compromising on the confidence and quality for which Ritchey products are known.

Other Ritchey Innovations:

• Modernized mountain bike geometry by departing from slack angles of balloon tire bikes to steeper seat angles for more efficient pedaling position.
• Butted and tapered Unicrown forks.
• Bullmoose bars – first integrated bar stem combo, a drastic improvement in steering control.
• Pressed seal bearing and Cartridge-style bottom brackets – to allow for proper bearing loads while reducing weight.
• Vector Force Analysis Tire designs – parabolic curve to achieve highest traction moments.
• Front / Rear specific tire tread patterns.
• Compact Rescue Tool for minimalists.
• Break-Away travel bikes.
• Dual Spring release tension system for pedals.
• 2x9 drivetrain.
• 3-D and 4-D net shape forging for superior alloy and carbon parts.
• Logic Butted spokes with elongated center sections to reduce weight.
• Logic Headset with differential bearing sizes upper/lower.
• Bias cut steer clamps for stems with opposing bolts for clamping delicate carbon and lightweight alloys.
• Biomax Ergonomic handlebars.