The Ritchey Montebello is a new lightweight, fast randonneur-style steel frameset for long-distance riding, spotted at this year's Sea Otter Classic in California.
Featuring 36mm tyre clearance with full-cover mudguards/fenders or 40mm without, the bike also has mounts for a front rack and dynamo lighting – key accessories for serious audaxers.
Ritchey marketing manager and keen audax rider, Fergus Liam, tested a prototype Montebello at Paris-Brest-Paris – a gruelling 1,200km randonneur event that runs every four years.
Full figures weren’t available at the time of writing but the geometry is slightly more relaxed than the Ritchey Road Logic and Road Logic Disc, to better suit endurance riding.
The Montebello is built with Ritchey’s proprietary triple-butted steel tubing, with the brand's signature fastback-style seat cluster and custom thru-axle flat-mount brake dropouts.
The latter were updated last year and are now used across all of Ritchey’s road and gravel disc framesets.
The custom-forged 1-1/8in head tube is machined to reduce weight. Headset bearings fit straight into cups on either end of the head tube.
The frame is paired with the all-new Brevet fork, which will also be available separately.
In addition to mudguard mounts, the rack features two threaded bosses on the outside face of each fork leg. These can be used to mount a rack or additional bottle cages. The brake cable is routed externally but dynamo cables are routed internally.
As with Ritchey’s other bikes, the Montebello is only available as a frameset. It’s expected to be available from August in all territories for $1,599 (international pricing TBC).
Ritchey Montebello key details
- Steel road bike designed for long-distance audax and randonneur riding
- 36mm tyre clearance with mudguards, 40mm without
- Mudguard mounts
- Front rack mounts
- 27.2mm seatpost
- 68mm bottom bracket
- Heat-treated, triple-butted Ritchey Logic steel tubing
- Forged and machined straight 1-1/8in head tube
- Custom flat-mount dropouts
- 100x12/142x12mm thru-axles
- $1,599
