Tom Ritchey

[1] Ritchey is a US pioneer [citation needed] in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport.

Ritchey started a small business repairing tires to earn money to buy his first road bike, a Raleigh Super Course.

He bought the tube set 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.

These feats led 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 U.S. at the time) and former Olympians.

During his early racing years, Ritchey began building bikes for Palo Alto Bicycles and its national mail order catalog.

Ritchey sought to challenge bicycle industry standards of frame tubing diameter at the time 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.

Ritchey often cites his friend, the late Jobst Brandt as being crucial not only to his development as a cyclist and component designer, but for his deep passion in off-road riding.

Ritchey says he was influenced by the late John Finley Scott, who encouraged him to build a bike for years with 650b wheels and tires.

Breeze returned to his home of Fairfax, CA and told Gary Fisher of Ritchey's intentions to build a 26" "ballooner."

Because Ritchey had years of custom frame and component manufacturing experience, he was uniquely suited to tackle and establish many of the new designs and standards this new breed of bicycle would require.

The informal business lasted about three years, with Ritchey building the bikes in the mountains of the south bay peninsula while Fisher and Kelly sold them out of Fairfax and Marin.

With the new era of fillet brazing he pioneered,[citation needed] and the new uprising of TIG welded frame production, Ritchey knew that condensed, force-direction butted tubing would produce steel frames that would be lighter and stronger than common butted tubes previously manufactured.

The legendary frame builder and fabricator Paul Brodie has cited Tom Ritchey as one of his first influences: Paul Brodie said in an article for thespoken.cc "However, two weeks later a red Ritchey Team Comp with matching red Bullmoose Bars showed up and totally blew me away.

Ritchey designed a geared cargo/coffee bike, capable of carrying heavy loads, to help the Rwandans, especially the coffee farmers in the rural areas of Rwanda, get their crops more efficiently to washing stations.