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Ritchey launches new Outback gravel/adventure bike at Eurobike

Steel framed bike aimed at adventure and gravel bike riding

​Ritchey used Eurobike to unveil its brand new Outback, a steel-framed adventure and gravel bike that slots between the SwissCross cyclocross race bike and Ascent touring bike in terms of geometry and purpose. 

- 6 cool and interesting bikes from Colnago, Moots, De Rosa, plus Mike Hall's Tour Divide winning bike

Ritchey Outback - 3.jpg

It’s a totally new bike and has a frame made from heat treated Logic steel tubing, and has been one year in development. Tom Ritchey still owns the company and is very much involved in the product development and direction of the what the brand offers, and it's only when he's happy with the final product that it gets put into production.

Ritchey Outback - 2.jpg

The geometry suggests a bike designed to be fast and stable on a variety of surfaces, with a bottom bracket that is lower than a cyclocross bike - the BB drop is 70mm. The frame is offered in five sizes from 49 to 59cm. It has 12mm thru-axles are used at both ends and it has opted for post mount for attaching the disc calipers to the frame and fork. If you’ve heard road.cc editor Tony’s woes about flat mount disc brakes then the decision to use the more easily adjustable post mount doesn’t seem such a bad decision. 

Ritchey Outback - 8.jpg

The brand new carbon fork is very rare in that it has a straight 1 1/8in steerer, the skinniness of the head tube really stands out in the modern era of tapered and oversized head tubes.  Tyre clearance is about 38 to 40mm, depending on rim and tyre brands and combinations. 

Ritchey Outback - 6.jpg

You’ll notice a lack of mudguard and rack mounts, and there’s very much deliberate - it’s intended as a fast performance alternative to the Ascent, which does come with all the mounts you need for adoring the frame with mudguards and panniers. All cables are routed externally. 

Ritchey Outback - 9.jpg

The pictured bike is still a final development model, in fact, it was finished and painted only days before the show. Final production bikes should be available in early 2017 and it’s only offering this complete bike, with Ultegra and WCS equipment, for £3,000 - we’ll confirm prices and spec details once we get back to the UK.

Ritchey Outback - 4.jpg

The other big news from Ritchey is that it’s going to start selling complete bikes. It’s in the process of establishing a network of about 10 dealers around the UK from where it will offer a range of five complete bikes.

The bike here is wearing Ritchey’s new Alpine JB gravel tyre, which will be available in widths from 28 to 35mm. 

More new products from Ritchey soon...

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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7 comments

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Lungsofa74yearold | 8 years ago
0 likes

Absolutely stunning. Want angry... 

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reippuert | 8 years ago
1 like

Break-Away version please...

I was one click away from getting a swiss cross  disc for adventure touring earlyer this year... but got a custum ti rig instead for two reasons: BB drop, no throu-axle.

my third wish didnt materialize due to cost: a travel bike. SS couplers are very expensive  and adds quite a bit of weight but can be retrofitted, ritcheys break-away coupling is cheap, light and brilliant in its simplicity but limited to Richey's stock frames - though i have found a few American custum builder who's licensing it. 

 

Avatar
DeanF316 | 8 years ago
0 likes

I have a Ritchey Logic road bike and it is awesome. Looks stuning and the ride and handling are sublime. More I ride it the more I like.  Beats my mates F8 Dogma up hill lol.  

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bendertherobot | 8 years ago
0 likes

Ta, thought as much, would be weird to ditch the foundation of the quite lovely fork from the Swiss Cross. 

Avatar
Ad Hynkel | 8 years ago
2 likes

I like Tom Ritchey's way of thinking. No jumping on all bandwagons, "what still does the job? I'm doing that ", a proper engineers approach. Be interesting to see what the fork costs (and weighs) on its own, lots of straight steerer frames out there in want of a disc front end replacement.

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bendertherobot | 8 years ago
0 likes

Steel fork?

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David Arthur @d... replied to bendertherobot | 8 years ago
1 like

bendertherobot wrote:

Steel fork?

 

Carbon. The word that went missing from that sentence.

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