Ritchey pickings

A few watershed moments in the life of Tom Ritchey

Two-man electric vehicle

Here is Tom aged 13 sat in an electric vehicle made from a steel chassis he brazed with help from his father. ‘The motor was taken off a junkyard starter motor. The weak link was the three-speed Sturmey Archer gears. I was always rebuilding that hub.’

Woodsie 650b bike

Although fellow Californian Joe Breeze is credited with making the world’s first mountain bike, another fellow, John Finley Scott, is credited with building the first knobbly tired, multigeared off-road bike in 1953, and in 1977 he commissioned Ritchey to build this one.

Jobst Rides

‘Jobst Brandt took us on these epic rides, 100 miles, but he lamented ever showing us those dirt roads. It was his secret world. All these riders suddenly came along and the friendly waves from landowners became shouts of “Go home.”’

Klunkerz

The off-road scene is murky, but it’s widely accepted the first mountain bike races were Repack, held up Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, and ridden on bikes like this, a modified Schwinn beach cruiser with balloon tyres – bikes known as ‘klunkerz’.