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Does anyone know who is building this frame? I know BITD there were 2 versions of the P-series bikes, those designed by Tom Ritchey and those built by him each identifiable by the sticker on the down tube or seat tube.
I dont think these ones will be built by him to be honest but for the reasonable moola he is asking for them surely theyre not built in Taiwan. Not that theres anything wrong with being built in Taiwan but for £750 id expect it to be at least outsourced to a decent frameshop the way Mountain Goat now do with Sycip and the way Lynskey builds for everyone and his dog.
Made in Taiwan according to the sticker on them
So you have one or have seen one then?
seen one, and from the bike show release a while ago:
Ritchey is re-entering the mountain bike market with its P-29 29er, which can be run with gears or as a singlespeed thanks to integrated sliding dropouts. The steel frame will retail for $999 and builds up to 23 pounds complete, or 21 pounds as a singlespeed. MTBR has the details on the frame as well as a video walk-though with Sean Coffey here. BikeRumor’s got even more photos, here.
Despite this decal indicating otherwise, BikeRadar’s James Huang rightly points out that production bikes will not in fact be hand-made by Tom Ritchey. He did fillet-braze the show frame, but the bike-buying public will be getting TIG-welded frames from Taiwan. Tom Ritchey addressed the topic of bikes he’s personally built among other things in a recent (and lengthy) Q&A over at the Rough Riders blog.
Taiwan...I built the one in the shop. Strangely the 650b one looks nicer. We'd have a Swiss cross as well but they sold out :0(
Rorschach, is the Swiss Cross as nice in the flesh as it is in pictures?
ok cheers for that. Now i have my next question and this one is more for opinions i guess. How skinny are those chainstays?? again BITD Ritchey frames were not built to last.
Tom was quoted on saying something like they were light race frames and if they lasted a season he was happy with that. They look damn skinny those things but surely if you have a production bike you cant have that attitude nowadays.
There's a few builders in Taiwan where I'd be happy enough to spend £750+ on a frame if the design / tubes etc justified it.
P29 will be CEN rated now and that includes pedal / drive twist fatigue as well as the better-known front end test. The Tange dropouts are an functional unknown to me but look nicely made up close.
Isn't CEN a European thing? Not sure at all so please educate me, i take it any bike sold in Europe has to meet this criteria?
The dropouts look identical to paragon ones but with nicer adjusters.
The P29 certainly is'nt as skinny/fragile as the original P21-that sits in the cafe at work.
Only saw a swisscross briefly at core...it was luuuush.
It's not 'new' new, I think the P29er was released last year. I very nearly bought one recently. Man they just look fast.
I think the fade gfx on the P29er look better than the newer style on the 650b variant.
CEN is a Euro thing but I'd be suprised if the Ritchey frames ignored it, most US brands that are made in Taiwan / sold in Europe comply now.
Yes, made by maxway in Taiwan.
LBS has sold 2 of the 29ers and 1 of the Swiss Cross. The owner is pretty picky and very detail oriented. If he likes them enough to sell, then that's a pretty good vote of confidence IMO.
I ran into one of the 29er owners on the trails and he was happy with it, but had only ridden it a few times at that point.
My P20 has lasted 13yrs so far....
Bit of a thread revival, but the P29er now looks like its got normal dropouts. The sliding ones were ugly in my opinion. Similar paint job to the 650b which i thought was the best in the range
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Are you already considering your next new bike purchase P20?!
Tasha did enquire about buying me one! I do like the P29er though. It will have to wait....
Naturally its still nice but I don't like the bent seat stays much. Mine is getting the Rigid SS treatment when I get home 😈
Now thats a tasty burger ^^^^ 8)
Agree with P20 that the adjustable dropouts were ugly.
It didn't seem cricket to have a Ritchey branded frame and non Ritchey dropouts - it would seem that thats now been corrected.
Any news on price?
Don't know, it was in the image dump on pinkbike
The fade paint on the 29er looks much better than the 26er or 27.5er IMO.
@ P20 that is a lovely bike. As someone who has just bought his first 29er (I know, late to the party) I'm really sold on them just 3 rides in!