Design, Evolution, and Life Cycles of carbon bikes
The Esprit, our first new carbon model in over half a decade, was released last year. To some, that long lifecycle would be worrying - to us it is indicative of the people for whom our bikes resonate and our design philosophy.
We’ve found that many of our riders are keeping their bikes much longer than is “normal” within the high end cycling market. We’re not looking to sell our best customers a new bike every year - this has meant our focus is on building the best quality product we can that’s designed for the long haul. We’ve never worried about model years, rushing products to market, or keeping up with trends - instead we strive to produce bikes that serve us well and iterate them over time.
The Esprit follows this philosophy. We took our time developing this bike - years of prototyping and refinement, seeing where component standards landed, where wheel and tire standards went, and building a chassis we see as suitable for the way road cycling is evolving. Over the last year, many of you have gotten aboard these new Rittes and we’ve been thrilled to see it!
We’ve gotten a lot of excellent feedback from riders, reviewers, and even the ever-tough-to-please internet commenters.
And for us, that sort of review encapsulates a lot of what our goal with this bike has been. It’s a bike that’s enjoyable to ride - it’s a big reason our bikes tend to stay in service for quite a while. So rather than launch a new model every 3 years and try to supersede our own products, we’re focused on building a bike that’s current and modern for longer and iterating it where we can.
Nearly all of the Esprit feedback has been very positive and, as you might expect, some has been gently critical. We are always receptive to feedback - if you care enough to tell us what you think, we want to listen. A few noted that the bike’s price kept it out of reach - and we understand that, we aim to deliver excellent value at any price point. As a brand new, flagship product with high quality processes, the best materials available, and a zero compromise approach the Esprit was never going to be inexpensive. We simply wouldn’t be able to create a bike that’s been praised for its combination of comfort, confidence, and speed by aiming to build the most affordable bikes out of the gate.
However, as with any product, manufacturing efficiencies can be found over time. This leads to quicker, more consistent, and more affordable production. That’s where we are with the Esprit currently - it’s a product that was initially very time and labor intensive to produce to the tolerances and standards we wanted. But, we’ve gotten things dialed in and reduced production labor times, lowered scrap rates, and improved the surface consistency out of the mold. All areas we knew we’d be able to improve upon. What does that mean for the ride quality, weight, and end product performance? No changes - it’s the same bike that we’ve been so happy with over the last year. For most of our competitors their products have a predetermined life span and any production efficiencies gained over this life span go towards their profit margin rather than being passed on to the customer. We do things a bit differently.
In this model we can pass along some of those efficiencies to the riders in the form of a lower purchase price when we make updates. The Esprit is a bike that we intend to stick with for the foreseeable future - and the current model will stay in the lineup and be known as the Esprit Classic.
If you ended up on this blog post from our email newsletter, you probably noted that part of our 2024 goal is to drive better value with our products and a lower entry price point for the brand. More on that in the near future, but The Esprit is a focus of that goal too.
Colors:
The Esprit initially came in two colorways - a Ferrari Red and a Raw Carbon Belgie Black. We quietly added a Bright Orange two months ago. These three colorways will remain until they’re sold out.
Available to order today, and shipping in April, are our two newest colorways: Velvet and Tri-Blue.
For any keen eyed observers, you’d probably noticed blues were missing from the launch lineup of the Esprit - having been a feature on the previous three generations of Ritte carbon road bikes. But it’s back in an all new layout for a limited time.
Velvet is a new palette for us featuring deep, tonal purples with gold logos in an asymmetric layout much like the newest Tri-Blue.
Build Specs:
Along with the lower frame and chassis pricing, we’re offering builds starting from just $5,995. These bikes will still have full carbon wheels, integrated 1 piece bar/stem, and top end finishing kit from Vittoria and Selle Italia just like our higher spec bikes.
The $5,995 Esprit Classic comes with either SRAM Rival AXS or Shimano 105 Di2 and our OTHR Evrywhr 40 wheels (you can read about those on the OTHR website here). The OTHR seatpost and OTHR Integrale one piece barstem from our top spec bikes is continued here.
No compromises in frame, components, or finishing kit. This isn’t a lower-tier frameset with compromised parts - it’s our best frameset, and a spec we truly believe in, at our best price yet. You can see the full spec for each bike on the Esprit Classic collection page.
