Los Angeles-based Ritte has a sense of fun, even naming itself after Henri ‘Ritte’ Van Lerberghe. This Belgian rider led the 1919 Tour of Flanders, stopped for a few beers before the finish and still won. Chapeau!
That’s not to say the Snob isn’t serious – it is. The polished and painted stainless steel frame is a thing of beauty, mixing TIG-welded tubes with fillet-brazed detailing. The welds are perfect, the fillet brazing a clever use of the welder’s art when dealing with thin-butted tubes. Mass-produced? Forget it. Each frame takes a day to make.
- Highs: Smooth and accomplished ride
- Lows: Racy gearing
The stainless KVA MS3 steel that Ritte uses is newer to the market than the likes of Columbus XCR or Reynolds 953, but it is highly respected by framebuilders and more affordable than rival rustproof metals despite being made in the USA.
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This is a classy Snob, with a polished frame and perfect welds
The Snob will be compared with Genesis’s Volare 953. Both are available as framesets for £1,999 and have very similar geometry, bar the Ritte’s 25mm-taller head tube. In this guise it’s more cruiser than racer, though the Snob also comes in a racier ‘R-Fit’ version with a 2cm shorter head tube.
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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