Wayback When-sday: 1988 Ritchey Outback

Welcome to another installment of our semi-regular series on the old bikes that we love, cherish, and keep in our homes daring anyone to label them clutter or junk. Have a bike you want to share? Let us know about it here.

It's been hanging from the rafters in our basement for about 5 years and it has moved all over the country with us. "It" is a 1988 Ritchey Outback mountain bike frame and fork, the mountain bike that my wife, Golden Brainard-Moore started mountain bike racing on for the first time in the late eighties.

What kind of bike are you sharing?

1988 Ritchey Outback, an off road touring bike. Originally equipped with Shimano XT (the first year of indexed shifters, thumbies) with Campy track pedals, campy short toe clips and Binda straps, Selle Italia saddle and I had these great Sidi cyclocross shoes.

Are you the original owner?

Yes

How did you come to own the bike?

My boyfriend at the time had worked for Ritchey and he called up some guys he knew and got it for me.

What makes this bike special to you? What memories or special moments do you have associated with this bike?

It was my first nice mountain bike, I basically learned how to ride on it. I did my first race on it. It originally had chainstay u-brakes on it and Tom Ritchey brazed cantilever studs on the seatstays for me. I was given a Bridgestone MB-3 by a shop after this one. I became Expert National Mountain Bike Champion in 1992 or 1993 on the Bridgestone and then turned pro with Fat Chance.

Do you still ride this bike?

No.

*note - Golden retired from professional mountain bike racing in 1999. Her palmares include representing the USA at the Women's Elite Mountain Bike World Championships five times, a win at the NORBA National Series Race at Big Bear, in addition to the rare opportunity to devote yourself to racing your bike and getting paid to do it.

Downtube derailleur cable stops are pretty rare these days...

Ovalized seat tube meets the bottom bracket for added lateral stiffness

Fastback seatbinder with rack braze-ons and cantilever brake cable stop

This frame was tig welded in Taiwan by "Ritchey Trained" builders. 

If you love 'em, you ride the hell out of 'em. That's why it doesn't look immaculate!

Unicrown rigid steel fork

Wayback When-sday: 1993 Titus FCR

Welcome to the first installment of our semi-regular series on the old bikes that we love, cherish, and keep in our homes daring anyone to label them clutter or junk. Have a bike you want to share? Let us know about it here.

In the furthest recess of the shop, you'll see a small titanium mountain bike frame hanging from a hook on the wall. A large downtube sticker identifies it as a Titus and a smaller sticker on the top tube shows its model designation as FCR.




What kind of back are you sharing? 1993 Titus FCR (Full Custom Racer)

Are you the original owner? Yes

How did you come to own this bike? I was Titus Titanium's first sponsored cross country mountain bike racer. They had a downhiller and me.

What makes this bike special to you? What memories or special moments do you have associated with this bike? It was built to custom specifications for me. I can get on it at any time and it just fits.

Do you still ride this bike? Why or why not? No. It's a 26 inch wheeled bike and it's built around a different suspension fork standard than what is available now.

Please share anything else you would like to about this bike and your experiences with it. It was built originally for cantilever brakes. Titus rerouted the cable stops to accommodate v-brakes. Titus also shaved the bottom of the headtube to accommodate the move from a 63 mm travel Rock Shox Mag 21 Ti to the 80 mm travel Rock Shox SID.

Dropouts were cut with a water jet from Titanium billet. Look kids!
No disc brakes!

Head tube/Down tube gusset added after a crack appeared.

Kinky...