We looked at the restoration of this 1984 Ritchey Annapurna through a series of videos earlier this year, and today, we’re sharing a full Beautiful Bicycles gallery documentation of it, along with a brief quote by Tom Ritchey himself. John takes a look at this esquisite emblematic example of the quality work leaving the workshop of Ritchey below!

Before we start off with this one, I want to encourage you to check out these articles for the backstory on Ritchey, Palo Alto Bikes, and the early mountain bike models Tom was making:

• 1980 No Serial Ritchey Mountain Bike
• Vintage Bicycles: 1982 Ritchey Tamalpais Mountain Bike
• 1983 Ritchey Everest MTB: A Happenstance Acquisition
• 1983 Ritchey Everest Restoration With a Touring Package

This 1984 Ritchey Annapurna falls within the same “A” bike lineage as my 1983 Everest, which I restored last year. The “A” bikes were the finest examples of a handmade Ritchey frame, with higher-end head tubes and frame finishing. The Ritchey Competitions eventually morphed into what Tom called the Annapurna.

1986 and 1988 Ritchey Annapurna pages supplied by The Ritchey Project – this 1984 Annapurna features a 72º seat tube and 69º head tube per my calculations…

Annapurna Bilam, aka Faux Lugs

The Annapurna is the longest-running, small-batch, limited edition, highest-end bike Ritchey made in the 1980s and 1990s. It features impeccable finishing and epitomizes what the workshop of Tom Ritchey was known for. These frames took up a lot of finishing time, but the result was well worth it.

Later, Annapurnas were marketed as “luxury sports” bikes, but the first-year bikes were continuations of the Ritchey Competition, the finest bike to leave Tom’s shop in the early 1980s. When I brought up this 1984 Annapurna on a recent video call with Tom, he had this to say:

“I don’t know how many Annapurnas I made. They were a pain in the neck. I did them just because I loved mixing things up in the workshop… In fact, most of them were Competitions in my mind. Or an evolution of what I thought the Competition ought to be. The early ones like you have are what I call Annapurna Competitions. There was a window when I was formulating the best way to construct a Competition and landed on the Annapurna with a unicrown fork.” – Tom Ritchey, video call, 2024

The reason these bikes were a literal pain in the neck for Tom is the method of construction. Bilam construction originated in the 1950s with the French constructeurs and was popularized by UK builder Claud Butler. It’s when you fillet braze a “faux lug” together with brass. These aren’t lugs in the traditional sense. Lugs dictate frame geometry, but what if you want to adjust angles outside of what lugs are offered while maintaining the aesthetic of lugs?

That’s where bilam construction comes in. Tom did bilam in a different manner than others. He would take the tubes, for, say, the top tube and down tube, and slide them into a metal “faux lug” sleeve that was cut and shaped to look like a lug and was slightly oversized from the down or top tube. He would then miter both together to fit onto the head tube. From there, the tubes get tacked together before filling the joint with lots of brass.

If you’re interested in seeing bilam construction played out in a workshop, Paul Brodie just posted a great video showcasing this construction technique.

The Annapurna’s fillets were very generous, also indicated by the large diameter fillet radii found specifically on the Annapurna’s fork at the cantilever studs.

1983 Everest fillets versus the 1984 Annapurna fillets…

From there, each and every brass joint was filed down with a mix of air and hand tools to a smooth finish. A bilam “faux lug” is no stronger than a fillet-brazed connection; it’s all about the looks!

A 1983 Competition frame and fork retailed for $1,200, or $3,785.24 in 2024.

Other Construction Notes

Tom’s framebuilding techniques he refined in the late 70s continued to influence his fillet and bilam bikes well into the 1980s. One signature is the ovalizing of the seat tube at the bottom bracket. In doing so, he achieved a few things. The first being stiffness. These tubing diameters were still very much in line with what was being used on touring, cyclocross, and road bikes. Oversized tubing wasn’t developed until the 1990s, so in the early to mid-1980s, Tom was modifying his tube sets to make his bikes robust enough for off-road riding.

He would also do this to the chainstays while avoiding dimpling them for tire or chainring clearance. Here, this 1984 Annapurna clears a modern 2.3″ tire and a triple crankset, all with a 111 mm square taper spindle. Granted, a lot of that has to do with the slightly longer chainstay length found on these 1980s frames.

If you recall the original Bullmoose design, or as the Ritchey marketing material calls it, the Twinstrut, which clamped to a “stub” that was silver brazed into the steerer tube, this design is the next step in the evolution. Showcased in the second YouTube video in my restoration, this Double Expander system was developed by Tom. It features a dual quill design with a 45º wedge in the steerer and another in the Bullmoose clamp.

The result is a stunning, minimal attachment with no protruding hardware.

In ’84, Tom abandoned his signature biplane fork crowns in favor of the “Unifork” design. Now, he could fillet braze the blades onto the steerer, eliminating painstaking hours of finishing work in hard-to-reach tight spaces found on the biplane fork crowns. These Uniforks might not be as striking as a biplane, but they are lighter and offer unique ride quality.

Because if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, Tom’s handy circlip bottom bracket design remained a staple signature of his frames through the mid 1980s. This system allowed for the largest possible bearing to be pressed directly into the shell and they were held in place by a circlip that slid into a groove. These cartridge bearings could be whacked out with a hammer, rebuilt, or replaced and re-installed with minimal waste and effort.

One of the ways you can tell a 1980s Ritchey frame has its original paint is the decals were put over the clear coat. As such, they often display evidence of heavy use over years of riding. What’s impressive to me is that they still remain after 40 years! Plenty of frames showcase cracked and peeling frame decals, often an indicator of their time spent outside.

Ritchey frames were coated in DuPont Imron paint. This automotive polyurethane wet coating is incredibly durable and even after four decades worth of riding and UV exposure, polished up to a nice shine. New old stock Imron 3.5 is still a choice paint coveted by many builders today.

Build Kit Notes

This bike has a mix of period-correct parts with a few upgraded pieces of componentry. In 1983, Shimano released the M700 “Deer Head,” the first complete mountain bike groupset, including hubs and cantilever brakes. Still, even though they were a rare spec, the Dura Ace low-flange hubs could be found periodically on builds, as well as Mafac touring cantis.

Shown here, the Mafac ACS arms were made by American Cycle Systems, Inc. of Monrovia, CA. ACS bought the tooling from an auction when Mafac France closed its shop in the early 1980s and continued making brake arms in the US.

When I first received the bike, it had dry-rotted Magura brake boots that disintegrated upon removal. What was left, however, are some stunning sun-bleached Shimano brake levers, further adding to the magnificent patina of this frame.

Interestingly enough, the previous owner of this bike installed Shimano Deore 1987 SIS indexed shifters and a Deore rear derailleur in lieu of the Deer Head friction mech. If I didn’t already have a number of Deer Head-equipped bikes, I would have swapped it out for the more period spec, but indexed shifting is nice on a vintage bike, especially when it’s set up correctly! Another “future” part was the 105 headset, from the later 1980s, undoubtedly used for its low stack since this fork’s steerer was cut rather low. Yes, the headset’s plastic dust seal is cracked!

 

 

Riding

In case you missed the final video in my Vintage MTB Restoration Series, here it is. I shot this video in our neighborhood trail network, the perfect location to ride a vintage bike like the Annapurna. If I only have an hour to ride at the end of a busy day, I’ll go to these swoopy, dusty trails to enjoy a pleasant pedal.

Parts to Whole

With a long rear-center, XC-oriented geometry, and plentiful tire clearance, this 1984 Annapurna is a dream to ride, even forty years later. Unlike the later Annapurnas, which were marketed more towards “luxury city riding,” the early ‘Purnas still had some trail pep to their geometries. What’s nice about this bike is its beausage. The components and frame aren’t precious feeling, like some restoration projects can end up feeling, and its ride quality is the reward offered to keep it rolling for another forty years.

Build Spec:

Year: 1984
S/N: 2A4
Frame: Ritchey Annapurna
Fork: Ritchey Annapurna Unicrown
Stem: Ritchey Fillet Brazed Bullmoose
Headset: Shimano 105
Bottom Bracket: Press-in Phil Wood 6003DDU
Handlebar: Ritchey Fillet Brazed Bullmoose
Shifters: Shimano Deore XT M730
Front Derailleur: Shimano Deore XT M700
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Deore XT M730
Brake Levers: Shimano Deore XT M700
Front Brake: Mafac ACS
Rear Brake: Mafac ACS
Crankset: Shimano Deore XT M700
Chainrings: Shimano Deore XT M700
Pedals: MKS XCii
Hubs: Shimano Dura Ace 7400
Rims: Araya RM-20
Tires: Ultradynamico Mars 2.3″
Wheel QR: Shimano Dura Ace 7400
Seatpost: Suntour XC
Saddle: Cinelli Unicanitor
Seatpost QR: Shimano
Grips: WTB
Cogs: 6-speed Shimano Dura Ace
Chain: KMC 8 Speed

Many thanks to Tom and Fergus from Ritchey for the hangs and chat!