Written by: Lanolin (Ritte Racing)

Snobs.
Back when aluminum and carbon fiber started arriving in bike shops there was a distinct “steel is real” backlash. People described aluminum as “harsh” and “dead” and carbon as just plain “dead.” Frankly, they were right. Cruising around on a well-made steel bike feels wonderful. But when it came to racing the things up 10 mile long, 6% average mountains, steel’s added weight and flexibility just couldn’t match the new impostor materials. Steel bikes were well-made and beautiful and a pleasure to ride, but the racers had to set aside the nostalgia and go with what worked for them.

Spencer personally inspects every Bosberg

Now, 15ish years later we’ve all pretty much embraced the virtues of carbon and the more snobby of us have moved onto the next thing to be snobby about: buying a carbon bike that was hand-made in the same zip code as the business address. Bikes like Time, Cyfac, (some Colnagos?) and Parlee, for example, are some of the few carbon bikes actual made by French, Italian or American hands. Those bikes are wonderful, no doubt. They’re as perfect as two-wheeled, human-powered transpiration gets. But they come at a price most dedicated racers simply can’t afford or justify.

Cyfac. Seriously nice bikes. Made in France by French people. It honestly doesn’t get much better than that.

Where’s your bike made?
Even many of these companies, and then the vast majority of all other reputable, long-standing brands, have their bikes, wheels and components manufactured in Asia. Fact is, most of the bikes you covet in the bike shop were made by Chinese hands… And there’s nothing wrong with that. Yes that sweet Cervelo or Pinarello, BMC and even the American workhorse Cannondale were made in China.

The R3 SL. Great frame. Made in China. $4000 for frame only.

The Marketing Game.
There are really amazing frames out there and there are really crappy ones. But if you compare magazine ads and pay-to-play reviews, every bike sounds like it’s the best most innovative thing ever. Many manufacturers are so desperate to sound like they belong in the ranks of the actual elite builders that they invent terms to make pre-existing technology sound like their own. I want to be clear on the point that many of the builders who this shit still offer perfectly great bikes. But most of these bikes just cost a lot and it’s easier to make it sound like your money is going into crazy expensive technology rather than crazy expensive marketing and dealer networks.

RockRacing’s “Fifth Generation Technology” is up there with the equally genius marketing euphemism “pre-approved.”

The Ritte Bosberg:
The reason why I’m bringing all this up is because the Ritte Bosberg is, of course, made in Asia. It was primarily designed by a Taiwanese engineer named Eugene Yeh and customized to Ritte’s specifications. The manufacturing and painting itself is done in one of the best factories China and then it’s sent to us for assembly. The frame is monocoque and tube-to-tube technology using T800-30T, M40S-40T and T700-24T high modulus carbon fiber. It’s got all the latest features, like a tapered head tube, BB30 and seat mast. A medium frame with an uncut seat mast weighs about 1000g, the fork with uncut steer tube is 350g. Bolt on SRAM Red and some racing wheels and you’re at about 14.5 pounds.

And that’s it; it’s technology that does the job well. No marketing speak. No pretending it’s our proprietary technology. 0% bullshit. 100% go.

I want to make one thing very clear: nice racing bicycles might look like art, but they are designed to be tools. If a bike is stiff, compliant and light, climb well, descend confidently, sprint quickly and then not rattle your bones apart after 6 hours in the saddle, then it gets an A in my book. If it looks beautiful and is sold at a low enough price that you can actual race on it, well then that’s an A+. You can spend more if you want, but it’s not necessarily buying you a better bike.

The Bosberg in Action

Ritte Cycles is brand new and there are now only 30 Bosbergs on the road, but every one of those racers has been blown away by its quality. The Bosberg has been described as having the stiffness of a Cannondale System Six with the stability and ride quality of a Colnago Extreme Power by a rider who owns both. And after personally riding 10,000 miles on the Bosberg and it’s prototypes I can back up that claim.

Belgian Champion Edition

Would I rather build my bikes right here in Santa Monica? Absolutely. But then there would be no way that racers could get an amazing and beautiful frameset for under 2,000 bucks. That is the niche Ritte aims to fill. It’s not about marketing, it’s about filling racers’ needs to have an A+ bike.

Stay tuned, Bicycle.net will be testing the new Ritte Bosberg and writing up an indept review.

Party,

Lanolin
RitteRacing.com