The Ascent name has wandered through Ritchey's catalog since the mid-1980s, first as a mountain bike and later as a rugged tourer. Its current form leans into adventure — a TIG-welded, heat-treated, triple-butted Ritchey Logic steel frame paired with a matching steel fork, built around either 27.5" or 29" wheels and clearance for tires up to 2.6". The frameset doesn't pretend to be a road-going gravel rig with skinny tubes and skinny rubber; it's a steel platform that accepts drop bars for long mixed-surface days or flat bars for trail-oriented exploration.

Geometry sits closer to rigid mountain bike than modern gravel, with a 70.5° head tube angle and 425mm chainstays that keep the bike planted under load without dulling the steering. Stack and reach scale across four sizes — 572/370mm at the small through 628/397mm at the XL — giving riders room to dial in fit whether they're running a drop bar with a longer stem or a swept flat bar with something shorter. The result handles like a touring bike that remembers its mountain bike lineage: stable when loaded, willing when empty.

Mounts cover every reasonable use case. Two bottle cages live inside the main triangle, a third triple-mount sits under the down tube for cargo cages or oversized bottles, and the steel fork carries multi-purpose three-pack mounts on both legs along with rack, fender, and dynamo light mounts. Front and rear fender mounts and full rack mounts at the seatstays and dropouts make four-season commuting or loaded touring straightforward. Fork payload is rated to 3kg per side on the multi-purpose mounts and 10kg total across the eyelet mounts.... Read More