Ritchey is synonymous with both high quality steel bike frames out of the mind of Tom Ritchey himself, and of reasonably priced performance alloy cockpit components. Both sides had new goodies on display in Taipei, from new curvy alloy bar shapes for upright mountain Kyote, to all-road dropbar Butano bikes, plus a new aero Chicane stem, new affordable Zeta wheels, and a refresh of the BreakAway, with all other bikes to get a more modern look in 2019 as well…
Ritchey performance alloy cockpit components
Kyote MTB bar
The biggest departure from what they’ve made before is the Comp Kyote (pronounced Coyote) mountain bike riser bar. Obviously its distinguishing feature is a generous 27.5° of backsweep for comfortable control of anything from your single speed to adventure touring bike.
Besides just adding a ton of sweep, the 35mm rise Kyote first sweeps the bar forward so when you replace a standard flat bar, your hands will end up in the same position front-to-back relative to the stem. The Kyote is a super wide bar too at 800mm, with Ritchey saying it leaves plenty of room to cut to fit for riders who want something a bit more narrow. The 31.8mm bar has a nice wide section at the clamp so you can attach accessories like a GPS, lights, or bag setup too.
The Kyote will be available in a few weeks, and for now only comes in this $40/42€ Comp Kyote level bar made from 6061 alloy. Ritchey says the single 355g Comp bar is a bit of a test to see the demand for the new shape, but is open to making it in lighter, high-end materials too.
Butano dropbar
The Butano is Ritchey’s new gravel & adventure bike bar. Meant to go fast, it takes a compact drop (73mm reach, 118mm drop) and adds a gentle 12° outward flare from the hoods to the drops for stability & comfort off-road.
The Butano is available in 38-46cm widths, measured c-to-c at the hoods. By the time you get to the ends of the drops the bar adds four centimeters, then measuring 44-52cm outside. Up top the bar also gets a small 4° backsweep after coming away from the clamping area. Like the Kyote, the Butano has 100mm of 31.8 clamping area to fit the stem plus accessories for your dropbar adventure.
The bar does not feature internal routing, but is drilled for compatibility with Shimano’s newest Di2 bar end junction box.
The Butano bar will be available in two versions starting later this month. The 7050 alloy Butano WCS sells for $95/100€ with a weight of 275g for a 42cm bar. Or the 6061 Butano Comp which adds around twenty grams, but cuts the price down to $50/53€.
Baquiano dropbar
Ritchey had another bar called the Baquiano on display in Taipei as well, showing it for other bike companies to check out. It’s essentially the same shape as the Butano without the little backsweep on the bar tops, meant to hit a slightly lower price point. The Baquiano is now OEM-only, so expect to see it pop up on complete gravel bikes next season, and maybe hit the consumer market after that.
Chicane aero stem
The Chicane is Ritchey’s latest take on the hard-working forged aluminum road bike stem. Designed to chip away at the drag on the front end of your bike, the Chicane uses a hinged faceplate with rear-facing bolts and a more sleek overall profile.
A big part of that is a new-for-Ritchey hidden internal wedge-style steerer tube clamp, which is then covered by a flush-mount, snap-on magnetic top cap.
The result of the aero design is that all bolts seem to disappear for a clean look, but also the back of the stem gets rid of the bolts and point shaping most likely to come in contact with your knees. Ritchey claims the design is just as stiff as their other current non-aero designs.
Of course the proprietary top cap means you need to cut your steerer perfectly, and cannot install a spacer above the stem (as pretty much every stem & fork maker actually recommends for a secure clamp.)
Update: We talked more with Ritchey about the setup, and they said that the Chicane was specifically developed to not need an extra spacer on top. The stem’s steerer clamp stack height is increased over their core C220 stem to offer more secure clamping. And the internal wedge steerer clamp was also designed to provide smooth clamping over a larger area of the fork’s steerer tube, alleviating any concern regarding use on carbon steerers. Ritchey tested it extensively with carbon steerers, and assures us it won’t be an issue in regular installation.
They also sent over this small detail photo of the stem with its low-profile top cap. The cap works just like any conventional top cap to compress the slack in the headset, but sits flush down in the recess on top of the stem to be covered by the magnetic cover with the Ritchey crest logo on it above.
Claimed weight is rather heavy at 175g (100mm) for this forged, but not machined 2014 alloy stem with steel bolts. That’s a good 50g over a WCS C220 stem of the same material, or 70g over the forged & machined 7050 alloy WCS C260.
The WCS Chicane aero stem will sell for $105/110€, and comes in 90-130mm lengths for 1.125″ steerers. It is pretty much exclusively targeted at road bike builds since it will only come in a -10° (80°) version and cannot be flipped.
Logic-E headset & integration solution
Also a part of that Chicane setup is Ritchey’s new Logic-E headset & integration solution. Designed to help cleanly integrate Di2 & STePS wiring, Ritchey has a new headset with an internal channel to get the wire inside the headtube even on frames that are not drilled for Di2. While this is again most important for OEMs looking to create an integrated solution (either external of the stem or together with special spacers), it could also be nice for cyclists looking to upgrade an older bike to Di2.
Comp Zeta wheels
On the rolling stock front, the new Comp Zeta wheels offer a ton of value for road, gravel, even some light XC riding. With a 19.5mm internal, the rims are hooked & tubeless-ready (requiring tape) with a shoulder bead-lock.
The build uses Ritchey’s alloy Comp level hubs with standard j-bend flanges, 6-bolt disc interface, sealed cartridge bearings, 64-point engagement, and an alloy freehub body, plus DT Swiss spokes & brass nipples.
Disc brake wheels have a claimed 1750g weight (795g front, 955g, rear) and will sell for approximately $380/420€ when they land mid summer 2019. A rim brake version is also coming at the same time for roughly $280/320€ offering even more value.
2019 Ritchey Logic Break-Away & other steel frames refreshed
As for the Ritchey frames, for 2019 it is going to be a simple refresh. The always popular Ritchey heat-treated, butted chromoly steel Break-Away Road frameset is the first to get the new look in black & tan.
Gone are the more traditional panels, in favor or a new single color look with just one main logo on the downtube.
Then the new design adds the logo contrast color on the inside of the accompanying fork blades with an inverted Ritchey logo. The new 2019 Break-Away Road frameset is already available in Ritchey’s revamped EU website, with direct to consumers sales in both the US & Europe for $1600/1700€
The rest of the bike line is slated to roll out with the more modern look this year as well. We’ve seen new paint jobs for the Road Logic , Swiss Cross, and Ultra, with more on the way.
Oh, and if you want to buy one of those new black Break-Away Road framesets or anything else currently in stock, Ritchey is offering a one-time 15% off discount on your entire first new order at on their newly expanded/revamped consumer-direct e-commerce site. Check out the details here and order before April 30!
