Tom Ritchey

Tom Ritchey

Tom Ritchey (* 1956 ) is a bicycle frame builder and designer. He is the founder and owner of Ritchey Design . Together with Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher, he is considered the inventor of the mountain bike .

Mountain bike

With friends Gary Fisher and Joe Breeze, Ritchey rode old bikes down the mountains in California in the early 1970s . Gradually, the technology of these bikes was modified in such a way that higher and higher downhill speeds were possible on increasingly difficult terrain. Since there were no bicycle parts for off-road bikes at that time, parts from the motocross area were used or manufactured by the company. The increasing need for these parts led Tom Ritchey, Charlie Kelley and Gary Fisher to found the company Mountainbikes. This was the first manufacturer of parts and complete mountain bikes.

Ritchey design

Tom Ritchey separated from Mountainbike in 1983 and started building his own bicycle parts and frames with Ritchey Design. Many innovations in the mountain bike sector can be traced back to Ritchey Design, for example the mountain bike clipless pedal . Today, Ritchey Design focuses on building bicycle parts and designing bicycle frames.

Web links

• Ritchey Bicycle Components
• Björn Scheele: Tom Ritchey , in Bike magazine on May 4, 2006, accessed on August 21, 2016
• Tom Ritchey's 40-Year Ride , documentary about Tom Ritchey in the video channel of Bike Magazine, accessed on October 27, 2018 (18 minutes, English)