Ritchey almost slipped this Break-Away Outback past us, as it didn’t make it to Eurobike in person. But while we had a chance again to get a couple of mixed-surface rides in on the steel framed Outback with Tom, they also have a newer carbon version of the do-it-all gravel adventure bike that uses Ritchey’s own downtube & seat cluster couplers to break the bike down and pack it in a suitcase for travel.
Ritchey Break-Away Carbon Outback gravel travel bike
Owning steel & titanium cross & mountain bikes myself with S&S couplers to achieve the same ease-of-travel goal, I always lamented the fact that it was hard to get an all-around carbon travel bike. Sure Ritchey makes a Break-Away carbon road bike…
But if I’m traveling with a bike I want the freedom to ride any surface I can encounter. And the Outback platform seems like a perfect starting place for that.
We’ve been chasing Ritchey to get some more info on the new bike. And while they don’t have a photo of the bike packed in its case yet, we do have the full details.
The bike gets the identical adapted gravel geometry based on the steel bike and comes in the same five size range from XS-XL.
Update: It seems that Ritchey has not yet updated their website with the proper geometry table. Our Ritchey contact has confirmed that the data we are showing here is the actual geo for the bike, which uses a measurably more aggressive (read: long & low) fit with slightly steeper angles and higher BB than the steel bike. They are working to update the website with the data we have.
Break-Away details
At a claimed 2.01kg for a large complete frameset (frame, fork & axles) it is almost the same weight as the steel bike without the couplers bonded onto the carbon toptube, seattube & mono-seatstay. (The large Steel bike with frame, fork & axles claims 2.17kg.)
That’s also only 200g more than the Break-Away road setup, even with the move to disc brakes, thru-axles, and big clearance for 40mm tires.
Break-Away Carbon Outback frameset tech details
The Outback Break-Away is available only as a frameset for $3150/3200€ (including the soft travel case & cable splitters.) Build it up into whatever adventure bike you need. It uses a standard 68mm threaded BB, a 27.2 seatpost, and includes a removable braze-on front derailleur mount for clean 1x or 2x drivetrains.
Cable routing is all external to simplify packing the bike down. For derailleur cables you can use Ritchey’s in-line cable splitters. Ritchey would typically build the disc brake bike up with mechanical calipers so you can put splitters in the brake cable as well (and there is downtube & under chainstay routing for that.)
But they have also included hose guides for routing hydraulic brakes along the top of the chainstay that work with either reusable guide clips or zip ties for one time use.
At first it looked like the carbon Break-Away bike would share the same gravel fork as the steel Outback. But the carbon bike actually gets the newer standard of flat mount brakes front & rear meaning it is another new fork. No official word yet if or when any of these new forks will be available separately, but Ritchey has been known to offer premium 1 1/8″ full carbon forks available in the past. So we’re hoping to see the WCS Outback fork offered as well.
The new carbon Outback Break-Away frameset is making its way out to Ritchey’s distribution channels as well type, and actually already available in the US in some places. In Europe this new carbon travel version should both begin shipping out to buyers by mid October 2017, when the steel Outback will be hitting the dirt as well.
