Athletes - Tom Ritchey

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	Athletes - Tom Ritchey

Tom Ritchey is a master bicycle frame builder, designer, welder and founder of Ritchey Design. Like many of mountain biking's founding fathers, he is also an accomplished road and mountain bicycle racer in his own right.

Early pioneering years

Tom was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1988. Tom was has been producing bikes for his own company, Ritchey Design Inc., and for other bicycle companies since the late 1970’s. The majority of the bikes were mountain bikes; however, he has produced many road and cyclocross bicycle frames. The majority of his frames have been constructed from high quality steel alloy tubing; however, he has produced frames made using tubing of aluminum and titanium alloys and frames made using both carbon tubes and titanium tubes. .

Tom began his notoriety in the bicycle world welding frames for Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelley's MountainBikes company. After that concern went its separate way, he created his own frame and bike component company: Ritchey. Ritchey bike frames have always been known for their ultra-light weight and aggressive racing-oriented designs. Tom is also known as an early innovator of designs: for example he was making threadless headsets years before other companies patented the design and began manufacturing such designs.

Current production

Tom Ritchey no longer makes a full line of frames, but he continues to be a leading innovator in bicycle design and engineering. One of his most notable recent designs is the "BreakAway Bike," a line of racing-quality road and cyclocross bikes that separate into two halves so that they can be packed in a standard suitcase for ease of travel. Since most airlines charge almost one hundred dollars each way to take a bike on a plane, this is a very enticing feature to those who travel often!

Tom is known for his trademark 'handlebar' mustache, his close relationships with racers who've represented his company (particularly Thomas Frischnekt, current marathon world champion, who's ridden for TR for decades) and his friendly demeanor.

Quotes

"My bike is my office"

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Tom Ritchey ]

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