The story of Tom Ritchey – and his eponymous bicycle company – reads like a history of modern American cycling. As a road racer in the early ‘70s, young Tom, the son of an engineer and avid tinkerer, was often found winning on bicycles that he himself had made. As he experimented with frame building and component fabrication he maintained a focus on making lighter weight parts both strong and reliable. As that decade faded into the 1980s he and his buddies were already spending considerable time riding dirt roads and mountain trails and making the tougher equipment needed for them – in turn innovating what we know now as the mountain bike. His ideas were so good that many major bicycle brands sought to put his Ritchey Logic stems, bars, pedals and more to build their own complete bicycles with. Mr. Ritchey then steered away from frame building to concentrate on great quality components to be used at the highest levels of the sport.
While being deeply involved in the bike industry Tom still finds the time to log thousands of miles and claims that many of his best ideas come to him while pedaling. When inspiration for a new product comes to mind he can be found back in the workshop making the initial prototypes come to life. Anything he creates is thoroughly tested by Ritchey team riders and independent facilities to ensure that hs new products exceed industry standards. Years ago he added the word Logic to his company’s name because he feels that anything bearing the Ritchey mark has been developed out of necessity and not just following current trends in the bike world.
