Earlier this year, I was blown away by the quality of the first Ritchey I’d ever ridden, the P-29er. I love that bike. I consider it my sole personal rig, and it serves me well, as I’ve bikepacked and raced it to great success over the last year. Among other things, it was a testament to the quality I’d heard was consistent with Ritchey but hadn’t experienced until then.

So, when I caught up with Fergus Tanaka, marketing manager of Ritchey US, at Philly Bike Expo this spring, I was intrigued to see what he’d ridden there. An all-black test mule, it presented as the kind of bike I’d fallen in love with before moving to North Carolina. With an almost-level top tube, a long and low position, and short chainstays, the Ritchey Septimer is a gravel bike in the mode of a road bike. After taking it outside for some photos, I inquired about testing. Though the bike interested me, I wondered if it would make sense in a place that demanded a more capable bike than the kinds I’d ridden in Florida.

During the months I awaited my test sample, further doubts about the Septimer plagued my mind. What concerned me most was the frame’s main material—carbon. Though I’d spent plenty of time on carbon components, I’d never put meaningful hours on a fully carbon bike. Ritchey has a storied history of making some of the best steel production bikes on offer; would the positive sensation I felt on the P-29er be ruined by what I’d heard of carbon? Would a bike this aggressive even be suitable for the Pisgah National Forest? In my Ritchey Septimer review, I sought to find out.

Storied Septimer

The Septimer gets its name from a pass in Switzerland that Tom Ritchey’s mentor, Jobst Brandt, challenged him to find. It’s an idyllic Roman pass that sits atop many cyclists’ bucket lists and speaks to the bike’s larger purpose. A machine refined for climbing and long, ambitious days in the saddle, and a means of getting to your dream roads and rides. The Septimer features Ritchey’s signature Break-Away design, which allows the main frame to split into two pieces and fit nicely in a case supplied with Break-Away purchases. Using a clamp near the bottom bracket and a three-bolt design that makes the seatpost a structural component of the frame, the entire bike packs nicely into the case.

Fun Fact: One of the testing machines at Ritchey is named “Jobst.”

Though I didn’t get to do much traveling with the Septimer, packing and unpacking during the review process was a breeze, and less anxiety-inducing than the typical “brown bike box and pray” method I’ve become accustomed to. That said, as Fergus was keen to remind me, “The Septimer is not a travel bike. It’s a bike that travels. We believe our Break-Aways shouldn’t be relegated to the one vacation a year they might see. They’re daily drivers that can pack up whenever you’re ready or wanting to travel.” That sentiment was consistent with my experience, and while I’ll elaborate on this later, my skepticism about how the Break-Away system would affect the frame was entirely put to rest after the first few rides. It’s seamless, and although the structural nature of the seatpost makes dialing in the saddle height a bit of a pain, the bike’s ride feel is unaffected by the design.

Build Kit

• Frame: Ritchey Septimer
• Crankset: Praxis Carbon Cranks, 40t Garbaruk Chainring
• Derailleur: SRAM Apex AXS
• Shifter: SRAM Apex AXS
• Cassette: SRAM XPLR 11-44t
• Wheelset: Ritchey Zeta
• Tires: Goodyear Connector 50mm
• Headset: Ritchey Sealed Cartridge
• Handlebar: Ritchey Butano Carbon
• Stem: Ritchey WCS Carbon
• Saddle: Ritchey Cabrillo
• Seatpost: Ritchey WCS Carbon
• Brake Calipers: SRAM Apex Hydraulic
• Rotors: SRAM Centerline 160mm

While the Septimer is only available directly from Ritchey as a frameset, the provided build kit made sense for someone looking to get the most out of the bike’s travel-ready potential. Given the frameset ships as “electronic only,” with external mechanical guides available as add-ons, I think this is what the folks at Ritchey expect people to run. With the circles of electronic groupset and carbon bike frame owners likely overlapping a fair bit, it’s a reasonable assumption—albeit one that concerns me as a proponent of mechanical groupsets. I’ve spoken extensively about my distaste for electronic shifting, but from a performance perspective, the supplied Apex AXS groupset performed well. Save for having to charge the derailleur, a horror I can hardly begin to describe, it was without fault during my review period.

Although the bike can handle both 1x and 2x setups, the clearance between the 40T chainring and the chainstay is tight. The 40T felt about right with the supplied range at the back, and I imagine most interested in the bike will likely spec something with 42T or fewer. However, it’s worth noting if you’re someone at the higher end of the performance range and looking to run a 44-46T single ring. Aside from that, the real standout of the supplied build was the Ritchey Butano Ridge bars. The bars are not in the mold of a bikepacker’s kit, as they prioritize aerodynamic styling over function for attaching bags and devices, but for day rides and gravel riding, they worked exceptionally well. With just enough flare to give solid control in the drops, the flattened upper of the tubes is what made the difference on long days on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Ritchey Septimer Geometry

Compared to the other gravel bikes I’ve ridden this year, the Septimer is closest to the Fairlight Secan 3.0. With a long and low position, the Septimer is actually slightly more accommodating than the aggressive stance demanded by the Secan in size 54R, with the caveat that the Septimer features a more typical sizing range. Without the granularity of Fairlight’s R and T sizing, the medium-sized Septimer struck a balance between the two, leaning more towards R sizing in terms of angles and measurements.

The Septimer is outlined in white, while the Fairlight is in black.

That said, regarding ride feel, this bike handled differently from the Fairlight. I attribute this to both the longer headtube and chainstays, which help the Septimer feel more relaxed when in the drops and leaned forward on technical terrain. The Fairlight is a rocket ship. Controlled and compact, it demanded a lot due to its stance and wheelbase, whereas the Septimer provides more comfort and control in that department. It doesn’t have the bottom bracket height to be labeled a cross bike, but the added stability made it feel like one by comparison. It is more agile at low speeds, and the more stringent tire clearance—the Septimer tops out at a true 50mm on both the frame and fork—allowed it to avoid the slightly cramped feeling gravel bikes can sometimes suffer from when given 2.25” clearances.

To that end, I’ve spoken a lot about my preference for bikes in this genre to top out in the 2+ inch range. With the quality and quantity of tires available in sizes 2.1” and 2.25”, I think it provides these bikes the utility they advertise and future-proofs them to a certain extent. That said, it’s all a matter of context. Though initially disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to cram 2” tires into the Septimer, riding it with the supplied 50mm Goodyear Connectors surprisingly never felt dissatisfyingly insufficient. Perhaps due to the slightly longer wheelbase, it never felt out of place on the lighter singletrack I ventured onto, and it was one of the more capable gravel bikes I’ve pedaled in rocky, rooty, steep sections.

Classic Carbon

Though this isn’t the brand’s first full-carbon frame, I really enjoyed the approach they took when designing the look of the Septimer. With aero, race-oriented carbon gravel bikes dominating the market, Ritchey chose to make the top tube, seat tube, and down tube more akin to the circular tubes consistent with steel bikes. While this eliminates the aerodynamic gains yielded by larger, square-like profiles and eliminates the possibility of inner frame storage—something I understand to be a significant advantage for modern carbon and even alloy offerings—the styling pays homage to Ritchey’s history as a steel bike company. It gives it a distinct silhouette against other carbon gravel bikes of a similar spec. The frame feels like a mesh between old and new, as the bottom bracket and rear stays have a more amorphous, carbon-like design. According to Ritchey, the rear is a single piece of carbon, which provides greater stiffness and necessitates the look.

The simultaneously strong and forgiving rear was discernible, as I was pleasantly surprised by how the bike rode. With mixed feelings about carbon as a frame material, I went into the review period thinking I wouldn’t enjoy the “deadness” I’d experienced on short forays with carbon frames and forks. And while the ride quality takes longer to suss out, there is something uniquely palpable within the Septimer. It doesn’t yield the same “planing” feel sometimes consistent with high-quality steel tubesets, but it does maintain a ride sensation that will resonate with those who have ridden steel bikes before. The best way I can describe it is that it is muted in contrast to the more palpable feel of tuned steel tubing.

All that said, after some big days out on the Septimer, I get it. I understand carbon bikes. I didn’t feel all that much faster in the immediacy (though Strava says otherwise, with some PBs and even a top two attained on the Septimer), but the physical toll a full carbon bike takes on a huge day or consecutive rides during a bikepacking trip is far less taxing in comparison to what you end up feeling on something like steel or even alloy. The full build came in at around 21 pounds, all in all, with a relatively basic alloy wheelset and heavy, durable tires. With a fancier build kit, you could parse that down to below 20.

While Out Bikepacking

I once joked to Logan and Lucas that the site should be called “MountainBikepacking.com.” While I’m surprised they still hired me after that clanger, the dumb joke spoke to the kinds of bikes it seemed the editorial staff tended toward as an outside viewer. A year in, I now understand why. Although I still love my gravel bikes dearly, I understand why trips into areas that aren’t rural Florida are a lot better on either a modern mountain bike or, at the very least, an ATB.

Determined to make gravel bikes work, however, I was pleasantly surprised with the upgrades to Ritchey’s WCS carbon fork. Unchanged in appearance, the new WCS fork includes a threaded fork crown, adding key, load-bearing capacity to a crucial area of the bike. I didn’t know this until I asked Fergus about it a little while into my review period, and, after cramming enough equipment for an overnighter between a small front bag, two Restrap Hiplok panniers, a frame bag, and a large seatpack, the threaded fork crown allowed me to add a small Nitto Mark’s rack to the Septimer. It was a game-changer, as I could then run something like my trusty Swift Zeitgest off the front, adding tons of storage.

That said, this is still a gravel bike. The bags smooth out some of the harshness consistent with carbon on rough terrain, but overloading the bike doesn’t bode well for multiple reasons. The eyelets on the fork, including the crown, are all threaded, and exceeding the weight capacity would be a disaster. But, aside from that, I’d say the bike prefers a lighter load. It didn’t suffer any major handling issues when loaded as such, but I could tell I was having to put in a lot more effort to keep the bike in line. Technical terrain, especially when loaded, was less enjoyable and more worrisome. I think this is mainly because I concentrated a lot of the load on the fork, and something like Tailfin’s Speed Pack seems to work better on racier gravel bikes like this one, but it’s not designed to handle massive loads.

Future Forays

After months of riding the Septimer, I feel more optimistic about a few things. For one, carbon, at least executed as such, is much better than I imagined it to be. I don’t know if I’ll ever take the plunge on a personal carbon bike, but my experiences here made me feel more positive about its use as a primary frame material. Second, after doubts about whether a bike that looked like the kind I would love performed so well in my new, more challenging home, I’m optimistic about where gravel bikes are going.

Often decried as a fad, the look, feel, and utility of a bike like the Septimer make me feel as though we’re finally hitting a point of equilibrium in the now-mature category of modern gravel bikes. They’re clearly not ‘80s mountain bikes, cross-country bikes, or road bikes with big tires. They’re a category all their own, refined to offer a heck of a lot in a fun and interesting package. In my experience with the brand, Ritchey will likely always sit near the top of the pile in terms of what they produce, and the Septimer is no exception.

• Model Tested: Ritchey Septimer, Medium
• Actual Weight: 21lbs
• Place of Manufacture: Taiwan
• Price & Manufacturer’s Details: $3499 (includes travel case) at Ritchey

Further Reading

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