Ritchey just sent over a little teaser of their 2015 product line in the form of an all-new, WCS carbon version of the Bullmoose one-piece bar/stem combo.
As the story goes, in 1978, Tom Ritchey raced the Repack Downhill in Marin, CA, on a borrowed bike. Supposedly, he was killin’ it, en route to sure victory, when halfway down the rough descent his bars slipped and rotated, forcing him to stop and fix it. “My time was not that far off from the winner, even considering the stop,” Ritchey said, “I thought, all I need is a better handlebar and stem and I can win this thing.”
To prevent such misfortune in the future, he modded his existing steel stems into a one-piece triangulated shape welded to a handlebar. It became stock equipment on his first mountain bike (and many others) during mountain biking’s early days.
Now, 35 years later, it’s back…
The new WCS Bullmoose gets a much lower profile, but it keeps the triangulated design that makes the unit so stiff and strong, taking advantage of the light weight and vibration damping offered by carbon fiber. An alloy steerer clamp is bonded in to insure a solid connection to the rest of the bike.
Five stem lengths and three widths are available (stem x width):
- 70 x 720mm
- 80 x 730mm
- 90/100/110 x 740mm
Claimed weight is 280 grams for the 80×730 size. They should be available this fall for $299.95. Now, have a peek at its predecessor:
