Ritchey Breakaway road

I've always had a hankering for a steel Ritchey Logic since I first saw pics of the current model. I couldn't justify 'just another road frame', and didn't like one enough to get rid of something already in use. What I did have a space for was a road bike with couplings however, for future travel plans. So when this came up I leapt on it, it sort of ticked both boxes! Originally it was owned by an MTBer, who bought it to do some road training, it's never actually been used to travel. Plans are for a conservative ultegra build to check how it rides, then we'll see after that.

Oh and ignore the thomson, I just chucked that in to hold it together.

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That's nice, I always liked those Logic frames.

Whats the geo on that? Looks long....

What size?
And may I be so bold as 1st dibs if you ever get rid, and it's my size.
Bloody love a bit if Tom's work.

Have the Road logic frame, Love it, its become the 'nice' bike even though it actually has shone with 28s on stupid unpaved stuff I should not have been doing on a road bike. If the clearances and frame quality are the same, you'll love it.

Really interesting system for snapping a bike in to with the intention of putting it back together. We have built some bikes under licence for another firm, and they are a very clever system, much lighter than s and s, and much easier to deal with. The only issue I have heard of is big/ powerful people twisting the two ends out of line in use. In no way catastrophic, and easy to resolve, but wouldn't happen with s and s. Cool bike.

Likewise i have taken to just riding my logic anywhere and it far exceeds any expectations of it will fall in half . Its the go to nice bike by a mile . Those breakaways i'm sure will ride just as nice plus its not the plain white as well.

If you see a 49 let me know ?

Cool frame! A white seatpost could actually work on this, contrary to 99% of all other frames.

Any idea about wheels yet?

@jontea @Fahrgestell
It's a 54cm, but yes it is long 54. It is also totally different geo to the only chart I could find online. An email to Ritchey with the frame number confirmed it as an early model, which had much more aggressive reach and stack, it is also very much a compact geometry frame. I have not built it up to measure properly or fit it to me yet, however just putting a pair of wheels on for comparison it has about a 20mm longer wheelbase than my 54cm system six (evenly split between front centre and rear centre).

Noted re dibs, however don't hold your breath. It's almost certainly a keeper if it fits.

@coldharbour
Good to know. I'm not big by any stretch so hopefully won't have that issue. Nice that the concept is well thought of.

@Tijs
I thought the same re post, tempted by a Ritchey alloy WCS link in wet white. I would have thought alloy would be better given it's structural?
Also planning to use a pair of hand built 32h DA/CXP33 wheels I have sat around for the moment. Hardly lively wheels, but good enough for now.

Hope you can get it to fit. Bloody lovely, look forward to seeing this progress.
I'll undib meself then, it'll be too long for me.

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Well apologies for the lack of updates. Ive been slowly collecting parts in the background, however with a 14 month old daughter, I dont really have much spare time to document every little update.

Anyway, here is the in initial build. I ended up with a mix of 7800 DA and 6600 Ultegra, I still favour the ergonomics of these groupsets. I decided to fit the cable couplers, even though the bike isnt going overseas just yet, if only to see how well they work. Time will tell, not convinced I totally trust the brake cable one. Frame reach is long, however a 110mm stem and inline post should help. Saddle to bar is 5mm longer than my SystemSix, but I dont want to push the saddle any further forward on the post (KOPS etc). Also not convinced on saddle colour choice in hindsight, may just get another plain black Antares.

Maiden trip planned for this afternoon once the ground has thawed.

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If you ever ending selling this,consider me committed to buy :)

Couldn't resist a pic of it 'broken'

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Looks great.

What's the ride like?

It's such a more elegant solution than those coupler things.

Awesome. Never heard of these frames before.

I think it's a keeper! Apologies to all those who have expressed an interest if it wasn't to be. I did a little 15km loop on the SystemSix earlier then did the same ride on the Breakaway. The SS felt really lively and nervous to start with, but then thinking about it, I've only been riding my Straggler for the last few months. The position was fine once I'd made a couple of adjustments once out, raising saddle etc. Going straight from the SS to the Breakaway I was expecting it to feel much less taught. I think I was expecting it to feel a bit floppy being a coupled bike but there was none of it. It wasn't as punishingly stiff like the SS yet it still felt taught. It did have that quality steel feel though where it just purrs and zings along the road. For the same given effort, there was next to no difference in pace either. I didn't do any hard efforts or sprints saying that, but then it's a travel bike, not a crit bike. Lastly I should mention that the cable couplers were fine, for the duration of a short ride at least. I did one hard brake application early on to test the rear, no issues.

I think I need a holiday to try it properly now.

Sweet rig! Have always liked the Breakaways! I have a Road Logic, and i love it. They are up there with the best modern steel mass produced frames for sure.

Someone should start a Ritchey appreciation thread.

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@joel_austen and @hoops, both wonderful bikes. More pics of both please.

amazing! Did you paint the headset cups?

Not my thread to be clogging up with pics of my bike!

@amey ... the headtube has integrated bearing cups, and I painted the top part of the headset, so I gues it does make it look like a fully painted headset.

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Cheers @hoops. I'm really liking the integrated look of yours with the painted components. Fair play for painting a brand new frameset!

Good call on starting a Ritchey thread, I may just do that.

Whats the tyre clearance like on yours? Just won one on eBay, and very very excited!

For anyone interested, I've just decided to sell my own Ritchey Breakaway.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/292783/

Only just seen this reply, sorry for the delay.
So far I've only fitted 25mm tires on 21mm wide rims, the clearance is huge. I reckon 28s would comfortably fit, not sure about 30s.