Check out our specification chart for each Ritchey bike by model and year.

From the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

“I’ve always been addicted to nature and the freedom to experience it,” writes Tom Ritchey. That attitude, combined with “getting burned out on road racing, and liking for more interesting riding,” sent him on his way to being one of the foremost mountain bike engineers to date.

“ I started trail riding on skinny tires in 1972 – 1978, then designed the first trail bike in 1977.” In 1975, he won the Prestige Road Trophy, and placed in the Junior Road World Championships in Warsaw in 1974. Joe Breeze and Ritchey met in 1978 and through modifications to road bikes, developed the first widely accepted and available mountain bike. Making the “true mountain bike a well thought out and respectable bike rather than the ‘mongrel’ it had been until then,” is probably; his largest general contribution to the sport

Specifically, single diamond construction, oversize tubing, 130 rear end, oval S.T., reinforced seat collar, slotted cable stops, Bullmoose bars, Unicrown fork, and single bend chain stays all were Ritchey introductions that are still today’s standards.

Ritchey was the first to work with Suntour and develop their MTB group, then Shimano to develop their Deore group. He also helped in the introduction of Tange tubing, Araya rims and IRC. 

Richey has won the award of Bike of the Year, and is highly respected having two decades of frame building experience.

Tom Richey’s professional goal is to strive for quality rather than quantity in all his creations. Tom lives with his wife Katherine and their three children in Redwood City, California.