The SaTir

...i'm lucky enough to have a handful of nice bikes but if i had to pick only one (god forbid!) it'd be my ti satyr w/ a set of 650b's for the dirt and 700c's for the road.
ps that's my bike in the top pic :)

I love this bike. After a string of bad luck on carbon gravel bikes, I saw the Satyr Ti and immediately had to try it out. After 2 seasons on this bike I can say the ride is great and confident, it's perfect for any gravel ride big or small. But what really sold me on the Satyr, was a rocky and rough descent during The Last Best Ride in Montana. I made it down a gnarly steep logging road descent that hit almost 50mph and thought "if this bike can handle that, at those speeds, it can do anything."

Rivaled only by how happy I am with my Satyr 2 Ti. The team at Ritte was friendly, thoughtful and helpful at every turn. They’re quick, if not instant, response to any questions or ideas kept me happily and excitedly involved in the process, every step of the way. And it continues well agreed delivery! My Satyr Ti is better than I hoped it would be. I fall more in love with it on every single ride. Thank you Elijah and everyone at Ritte!

The short of it: if you are looking at a titanium gravel bike, buy this bike.
The long of it: read along, I'll divide the review in: ordering, evaluating the frameset, riding the bike.

Ordering: A friend knew that I was looking for the "perfect" gravel bike and thought that there was no need to look elsewhere than the Ritte Satyr Ti. I was quite convinced when his Satyr Ti arrived and I could look at the impeccable frame (although it was not completely finished, my friend had designed a beautiful color scheme that was going to be painted by a local master), and a subsequent conversation with Elijah at Ritte sealed the deal. Elijah knows about bikes and materials, listened to my questions/doubts, and provided answers and feedback in buckets. Although the Satyr Ti starts as a semi-custom project to keep costs reasonable, he went out of his way to make sure that the geometry would fit my measurements. I sent him the geometry of my two favourite road bikes from two masters of the trade, each with his own philosophy (one being Tom Kellogg), and Elijah modeled them with Bike-CAD to make sure that the Satyr Ti geometry would match at the three relevant contact points; he determined that required using the headtube from the next size up, which was a no-cost change. Along the process, there were multiple examples of Elijah's expertise, but one telling story speaks to Elijah's aesthetics: I told him that I was planning to use an old beautiful titanium seatpost that had been polished to a shiny finish, and he suggested that I go with the matt sandblasted finish coupled with polished logos (polished logos are shinier than the more standard brushed finish). I was so pleased with Elijah's involvement in the process that I asked to have a logo of his signature on the frame, along that of TK...

The frameset: The frameset has an amazing level of craftsmanship with jewelry-like welds and a silk-like finish; they use some of the best Ti fabricators in the industry and needless to say I asked that there should be a logo of Oscar Camarena's signature on my frame (custom logos and some additional mounts for fenders were a minor upcharge). However, the best feature of the frame is its classic beauty; the proportions of TK's geometry are timeless, perfect and "just right". In fact, many features of the frameset are "just right" for the purpose, such as oversize headtube for external headset (it does not make any sense to have an integrated headset for a frame that needs to take lots of abuse from terrain), T47 bottom bracket (which coupled with the port for cables on the downtube makes for a superclean build with internal cables), beefy but nosuperbeefy chainstays, and the use of the beautiful and functional Enve Adventure fork.

Riding: Titanium done right is perfect for a gravel bike and the Satyr Ti is a great execution. On pavement, with slick tires, the Satyr Ti is a super comfortable bike that leaves you fresh after long rides; on gravel, with knobby tires, it transforms into a very capable bike that floats over bumps in terrain. This is a consequence of TK's magics and how the bike has been designed: the front end is superstable and precise, due to the combination of oversize headtube, Adventure fork and large diameter downtube, whereas the rear end works as a sort of "natural" (for titanium) shock absorber, taking advantage of some flexiness built into the chainstays (and I imagine seatstays). Some flexing of the bottom bracket is felt when standing on the pedals, but not when pedaling hard in the saddle. I have not taken the Satyr to single tracks, but my friends have and when their Satyr is equipped with 2" wide tires, they do MTB-like stunts. My conclusion is that it's probably impossible to build the "perfect" gravel bike, because gravel means different things to different people, but the Satyr Ti may be the closest to perfection with its "just right" design.

This bike is pure excellence. From the design and component selection to receiving and shredding gravel, road and some single track, My whole experience with Ritte has been an awesome journey. It’s fast but comfortable for long days exploring the vast network of roads Pisgah has to offer. My other bikes have gone unridden since I’ve received the satyr. It’s really that good.