35 years MTB History Project - Ritchey Ultra

2021, time for a new build. And this time, I wanted to share my early passion for mountain biking. It actually started in 1986, when I owned my first mountain bike. Since then I followed this sport relentlessly, and had the chance to whitness the 90's, sometimes referred to as "the golden age of mountain biking". During those times, every year saw a lot of innovations: some did not survive any real usage while others changed the sport forever. In the early 90's, aluminum frames where hype. One man was still believing in steel, and his World Cup riders helped him prove he was right, winning a lot of podium and overall titles. And the colors of these frames were worldwide known: Tom Ritchey handcrafted his P-22, P-21 and P-20 team models and the riders had the privilege to have the famous Blue/white/red color scheme. So in 2021, when a friend of mine found a Ritchey Ultra frame in Team Edition Color, an idea popped up: why not build a Neo Retro Bike? A build with components following today's standards, ready to get smashed at without compromise, but every component has to be a tribute to one of those former innovation days.