Help me choose the parts for a 2020 Ritchey Outback

[Sacke]

Hello all,

I have been thinking about getting a gravel bike for a while now. I would love to get your help on choosing the components for the bike.

The biggest motivation has come from doing a few all-day rides, sometimes over 200km, in the Cevennes mountains in the South of France, and seeing all the small unpaved roads that shoot off in all directions. They are just begging to be explored on one-day mini-adventures.

On the road, I have a 2016 Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0 Disc with 28mm GP5000 TL tires, which is a fantastic bike for those long days.

The Ritchey Outback is meant to open the possibilities of taking those adventures onto the roads that are unrideable with a road bike.

I mean to keep this bike for a long time and just have a good time with it.

My wishlist:
* Harmony between components - stiffness/feel (frame + wheels) - wheels that are "right" for a steel frame.
* Set up for mountains with climbing on occasionally steep (12-20%) gravel roads.
* Classy, understated and reliable.
* Set up with 700x42mm tires

Questions:
- Go full USA with SRAM + Zipp components?
- Go for Italian with Campy Ekar?
- Go reliable and practical with Shimano GRX + whatever wheelset...

I would be tempted to go for Campy Ekar for something different, but what wheels, seat post, stem etc would I combine it with for a non-mixed look?

If it's lightweight, great, but it needs to be reliable and nice to look at - because it is sort of my 40 yrs present to myself at the same time.

Any thoughts? Known issues with compatibility, considering my intended use with extended climbing included?

The frame.

[jemima]

I think silver (satin/matt) would look good on that green. It is no lightweight but you could start with the Ritchey Classic C220 84D stem.
Or the Zipp Service Course silver stem, which has a more subtle flat/white look.

Zipp Service Course 70 XPLR Gravel bar silver.

In silver/matt again, perhaps a TA Specialites alu crankset. Rings to suit your gearing.
Many of the TA rings come in silver also, including the smaller bcd (climbing) Chinook.

Aerozine Taiwan do some carbon cranks with coloured spiders e.g. blast green.
They also have cheaper alu arm options in colour.


Silver rims would look good but its too bad the Syncros Silverton SL wheelset didn't remain in that matt silver prototype

Alt to silver rims, I think a 3k twill carbon rim would look good with the flat frame; add a touch of pattern. If a Tune Speedneedle Marathon worked for your rear, its yellow'ish/green twill rail would be a nice match.

CarbonTi hubs in Acid Green colour.

[Discodan]

I agree Silver would look great, really carry that classic theme through. The only problem is it limits your choice as most kit is black, silver AND gravel starts getting harder still and obviously excludes things like carbon posts.

What about staying with the Ritchey theme? I'm hankering for a Outback breakaway and a build with Ritchey cockpit and Ektar would be awesome, regional matching of components be damned

[kervelo]

In case you want to stick to the silver scheme, HED wheels just recently released a silver version of their gravel wheels.
https://hedcycling.com/products/emporia ... r-edition/

It may be quite challenging to find a quality drive train in silver.

[Sacke]

Zipp Service Course 70 XPLR Gravel bar silver.

In silver/matt again, perhaps a TA Specialites alu crankset. Rings to suit your gearing.

Silver rims would look good but its too bad the Syncros Silverton SL wheelset didn't remain in that matt silver prototype

Alt to silver rims, I think a 3k twill carbon rim would look good with the flat frame; add a touch of pattern. If a Tune Speedneedle Marathon worked for your rear, its yellow'ish/green twill rail would be a nice match.

CarbonTi hubs in Acid Green colour.

Thank you! Lots of products that I was not aware of and worth considering!

The Syncros Silverton SL wheels look awesome! Although the modest price of 3500 euros and no way to do a roadside repair may put them out of consideration.

The Zipp silver bar with Zipp or Ritchey stem looks like a good option.

I have been thinking about tanned leather coloured saddle and bartape as well.

Imagining the bike components and colours being inspired by classic menswear. What coloured tie/shoes/accessories would you choose with a light green suit?



I will get to try the shop owner's bike this weekend. (that was assembled a bit with stuff that he had on hand, i.e. the temporary Ultegra cranks)



Looking at this, and thinking about the silver coloured HED wheels that Kervelo mentioned... I think it might make the difference.



Black wheels and silver stem+seatpost look a bit mismatched now that I think about it.

In case you want to stick to the silver scheme, HED wheels just recently released a silver version of their gravel wheels.
https://hedcycling.com/products/emporia ... r-edition/

The black groupset could fit ok, if the rest of the metal stuff are silver and a green frame with classic Ritchey bottle cages in matt metal finish.

[Sacke]

While waiting for the LBS (http://www.morganbicycle.fr) to hear back from the French HED distributor, we tried what it would look like with silver colored wheels.

It definitely adds to making it look like a vintage bike... but I am not 100% convinced. Hmm... This might be a bit trickier than expected.

It might look better to go all black for all, except the frame.

[Steve Curtis]

It might look better to go all black for all, except the frame.

This, definitely this.

Sorry to say this but at the moment it looks like a 90s mountain bike ( in a bad way ).
I think flat black for everything is the way forward.


I should add that I had a frame in a very similar colour that I wanted to use silver components.
It just didn't work out as there just wasn't anything on the market that colour matched and not a single brand did everything I wanted.

[Sacke]

Sorry to say this but at the moment it looks like a 90s mountain bike ( in a bad way ).
I think flat black for everything is the way forward.

Yes, and understated in a 90's MTB kind of way just reminds me of why it was something that was better left in the past...

Back to the drawing board.

Found this that gives a good indication what a full black + green frame would look like.

[Steve Curtis]

I think - just a personal opinion, skinny steel frames need skinny components.
Things like stems need to be steamlined and delicate ( looking ) or else they look bulbous. The uno 7 is good for this, as is the Thomson x2.

Desticked Reynolds ATR wheels look great too.

[Steve Curtis]

This surely straggler looks ace. Nice blend of colour

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/457467274650099033/

[gSporco]

How about the following color schemes:

Option 1: Black, Green and White: (Black Comps and Cockpit, Back Wheels and Tires (white lettering), White Bar tape and maybe WHite Saddle and bottle cages)
Idea is to play off the the white logo

Option 2: Black, Green, White and Brown: (Black Comps and Cockpit, Back Wheels, Brownwall Tires, Brown Saddle and Bar Tape, and White Bottle cages)

I like the idea of going with Silver, but I think its introduces some issues with other colors.. Unless you go with custom cranks like White Industries, you will be stuck with Black or Gunmetalish groupset, I feel that will clash with Silver stem, post and bars against the green, black and white..

To incorporate silver I would consider getting custom foil silver logos to cover the white Ritchey logos.. I feel if you can eliminate the white, you can better incorporate silver.. In that case I would go with brown walls, brown saddle and bar tape.

[jemima]

@sacke,

I feel if still going with the (mostly) silver theme, an all-black tyre on silver rims/spokes looks right, rather than a tan-wall.
A little bit of reddish/brown (like those shoes) looks good; too much clashes (tan-wall next to black).

Don't know why I forgot about the eeWings all-road titanium crank. That would work nicely, but $$$. That could go with their 'silver' 2x spider (if bcd suits rings) and TA silver (Chinook?) rings for example. Or the Aerozine green 2x spider which I think has the same (Sram DM?) mount pattern.

ControlTech has the tiMania bar which is supposed to be right up there in the most flexy/compliant bars. Not a gravel bar as such (zero? flare), but offroad the compliance should be really good.

A ti post look would match well. I've tested a couple at my 60kg weight and really didn't find their compliance any special though. Plus they weigh a bit. You can get fairly lightweight alu/scandium inline posts in various colours including silvers, but you might need to combine one with a fairly flexy saddle to get best compliance mix.

Was trying to think what would go with that green (and white/silver). A pretty light shade of pink/orange.

It would be nice to drop the wheelset weight as much as reasonable (carbon), but if you were ok with the weight of those silver gravel wheels above, the money you save on those over carbon could be put toward the eeWings! You mentioned this would be a bike for a long time, so if you think about spreading the eeWings cost across those years, the price comes out pretty good; it makes good sense

Edit: the Ingrid alu gravel crank in titanium colour would look nice also. Much cheaper than ee.

Too bad the 27.5 Onza Porcupine white don't fit. Would look good with silver rims.

[Sacke]

I tested the bike today... and it is one fun bike.



I was reading some reviews after riding and these are some of the better ones.

The Radavist "The Ritchey Outback is an instant classic" https://theradavist.com/2020/12/the-rit ... t-classic/

Bikepacking.com https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2020-ritc ... ck-review/

Some quick observations

The good stuff
Smooooooth. The bike really soaks up small and bigger bumps really, really well. The Radavist talks about the stacked spring effect in his review, which resonates a lot with me.
Fun! The faster you ride, the more fun this bike is. On a gravel road that had been very damaged and reshaped by rain, I found myself looking for all the shapes that I could jump off, and the Ritchey felt safer to jump with than many mountain bikes that I have ridden down the same descent.
Springy! The Bike Sauce review on YouTube said "this is honestly the first steel bike that feels like what I would expect steel to feel like"
Stable I was filming a part of the test ride for a couple of friends, only holding the handlebars with one hand while holding my phone in the other. The bike was surprisingly easy to steer and control, even with one hand off.

The bad stuff
Doesn't like being ridden uphill while standing. You know how some bikes feel like they tell you "why don't you just sit down and spin?"... The Ritchey is like that. Not to be ridden uphill with brute force.
External cables. They don't matter when riding (apart from aesthetics), but when cleaning the bike afterwards, I remembered why internal cables are so nice. Not scraping fingers on cut-off zip ties holding down the cables... placing the rag between the cable and the frame to dry the bike etc.

What I think would be an ideal setup
Stiff, light wheels... The Zipp 303 Firecrest with the bike were really nice. At 1352g for the pair, a perfect companion with the bike.
2x setup, or choosing lower gearing in a 1x setup to enable spinning up the steeper stuff.
700cc wheels - at least for my use with potentially a significant part of the riding on asphalt.

Questions
What would the bike be like on a long 5+ hours ride? Would the frame be more or less forgiving for tired legs than a modern carbon frame like the Aspero/3T/Open UP?
Considering the price point... Would a Giant Revolt Advanced be as fun and cabable, in a much ligher package?

Will still have to think about it and test a couple of other bikes to understand what fits my use in the best possible way.

I am in no hurry.

I like this process of considering options, and I will most likely test the Ritchey at least one more time over a longer ride. Just to understand how the bike feels as the body gets more and more tired. That will be a pretty significant factor when thinking about the all-day rides I am planning to do with the bike in the Cevennes-mountains.

[paulderrick]

Great looking hike. I'm hoping to get one soon.