Here for the Ritchey content, Willet!! Gorgeous bike and what a story… On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 8:35:52 PM UTC-8 WilletM wrote:
> > With apologies to James for pursuing a tangent within his thread about > Suntour rollercams, I offer the following, well, follow up about the > Ritchey Annapurna-- > ***************************** > > First off, I will say with much admiration that I LOVE the stories in this > forum nearly as much as I do the bicycles. Hearing and seeing concrete > details about bikes and builds and rides and historical info about RBW and > other related topics are intensely of interest to me. Some, on topics that > are off the beaten path of my particular bicycle journey, I mostly ignore > or just glance through quickly, while others capture my attention as I > savor them word for word and pic by pic. Our friend Jason F., a prolific > purveyor of sumptuous Bombadilian bike porn up there in the PNW, fits > squarely in my "to be savored" file. > > In light of the above, I will offer up below some additional pics of the > Ritchey Annapurna, and then below that, for those folks who might enjoy the > stories as much as I do, some additional details on how the Annapurna made > its way to me. > > [image: Dinner 013.jpg] > [image: Dinner 010.jpg] > [image: Dinner 011.jpg] > > And now, the story. > > Back in the early 90's, in Lincoln, Nebraska, I did business at Deluxe > Bicycles with Tom and Pat and Greg, all of whom could very fairly be called > retro-grouches. They idolized (and promoted and sold his products) Albert > Eisentraut and were big fans of vintage Campy and steel road frames, etc. > One customer of theirs, Michael S. (whose brother, coincidentally, was sort > of an indie rocker during the earlier days of MTV and whose music videos > were in heavy rotation at times), had previously had custom ordered/built > by the Deluxe guys both the Annapurna and the Cinelli Supercorsa. He let > the guys know that he was looking more of an every-day casual rider and > wanted to sell/trade the Ritchey and Cinelli to make that happen. One of > the Deluxe guys fixed me up and I did end up buying/trading for the two > bikes. Michael did let me know that he had some spare parts in a box at > home, and I eventually (and oh so fortuitously) ended up with both the > spare Annapurna fork and also the fillet-by-Tom stem that you see in the > pics. > > And I've owned both bikes for the 25-30 years since then. Back in the > early 2000's, I sent both the Annapurna and the Cinelli to the MOMBAT (MTB) > museum on sort of a casual/handshake/indefinite loan, since the Annapurna > is quite rare and has a particularly desirable build kit on it. Jeff > Archer, the proprietor of MOMBAT, was great to work with and I would check > in with him by email every few years just to make sure he had my current > contact info in case he decided to discontinue the museum enterprise. > Everything about that arrangement worked out great-- until Jeff was > tragically hit by a car and killed in 2016. I found out about that by dumb > luck when I clicked on a link at mombat.org six months after the accident > and was just trying to look at some pics of vintage bikes. Imagine my > surprise/horror when either the link didn't work or there was some other > glitch (I forget which), and I only found out about what happened to Jeff > after doing some additional research online. Long-story-not-so-short, I > eventually was able to get both bikes back, but only after scrambling to > find ten-year old pics and emails to prove the handshake agreement that I > had had with Jeff. > > I (admittedly) included more details above than anyone on the forum > probably cared to read. I did so in the hope that the "provenance" and > pics of the Annapurna will continue to exist in the aether in case a bike > nerd in 2050 googles "Ritchey Annapurna" in the hopes of tracing a rusty > frame he found in his grandfather's attic. Good luck to you, kid. Be > careful with those WTB rollercams as they may be worth something someday. > > Willet M. > > > On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 7:30:40 PM UTC-7 Scott wrote: > >> +1 for Ryan's request for more pics >> >> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android >> <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature> >> >> On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 6:29 PM, Ryan >> <ryte...@mts.net> wrote: >> >> I know this is a Rivendell forum...but show us more pictures of this >> lovely bike , please >> >> Hope everyone is safe and warm and managing to enjoy family time in the >> holidays in this challenging weather >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 8:14:41 PM UTC-6 iamkeith wrote: >> >> Winner winner, chicken dinner. That's one of the nicest bikes I've ever >> seen. Good trade! >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 6:27:06 PM UTC-7 WilletM wrote: >> >> >> I don't get a chance to share pics of my Ritchey Annapurna all that >> often, but this is a good illustration of the pricey WTB rollercams front >> and rear, with the rear being chainstay mounted. This frame was originally >> built up with a Campy Euclid gruppo, but the original owner (who must've >> been flush with cash, is all I can think) decided to bling it up with WTB >> and other top-of-the-top-shelf items, which necessitated also ordering a >> second Annapurna fork with rollercam mounts in the correct positions. >> >> Back in the early 1990's, I was in the right place at the right time and >> traded a nice-but-nothing-too-special Bridgestone RB-1 and $600 for this >> Annapurna and a mint Cinelli Supercorsa with Campy NR/SR. Those were the >> days. >> >> Willet M. >> >> >> >> [image: Dinner 015.jpg] >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 3:23:37 PM UTC-7 James wrote: >> >> This is encouraging information! Thanks for sharing the knowledge. >> Hoping to see the bike this week >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 1:48:12 PM UTC-5 Greg J wrote: >> >> James, if the picture you attached is the actual bike you're looking at, >> those are the nice ones. You should have no issues with those brakes. >> They work great, they take normal brake shoes, and there are plenty enough >> of them for spare parts (although they're pretty well built). Good luck! >> >> Greg >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 9:54:22 AM UTC-8 iamkeith wrote: >> >> Those can be great brakes. You're fortunate that the posts are located >> on the seat stays. Most often they are on the bottom of the chainstays and >> are difficult to work on just because of lack of space. There are two >> slightly different versions of those sun tour brakes, with one generally >> being considered superior. I don't know enough to identify which yours is >> but there's info out there. There are also U-brakes that look like giant >> frame-mount center-pull caliper brakes, which use the same mounting >> standard, but I don't know that they're an improvement at all. They're >> bulky and have limited clearance. There are also super sought-after roller >> cams made by WTB/Charlie Cunningham/DKG machine, but they'd be a couple >> thousand dollars each IF you could even find them. The sun tours are a >> licensed version of those, and are pretty neat for a runabout hobby bike. >> >> On Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 10:39:26 AM UTC-7 James wrote: >> >> This isn't a Rivendell related question, and for that I apologize, but >> ya'll are the most bike-savvy people I "know". I see a lot of value in a >> cheap, knock-around, lock-up-anywhere bike, so I have my eyes on a local >> Schwinn High Sierra. It has roller-cam brakes and I have know experience >> with those. What is yawls experience with roller-cam breaks and due to the >> placement of the mounts on the frame, what other brakes may be compatible? >> The mounts seem higher on the frame than cantilever mounts. Would center >> or side-pull brakes work? What other options do I have? Thank you >> >> Picture: https://imgur.com/0IqjRl1 >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/be398ae5-7474-46e1-812e-79b62addc64an%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/be398ae5-7474-46e1-812e-79b62addc64an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/fbf5b87a-baca-4a04-a529-7ba9850c388en%40googlegroups.com.
