Ritte Satyr and Phantom — Best Steel Bikes

The Satyr gravel and Phantom all-road feature custom Reynolds steel tubing.

On March 1, 2019, Bicycling published the news that Tom Kellogg of Spectrum Cycles would stop taking orders and retire. But while Kellogg may be stepping away from building bikes, he's not decamping to Florida to play pinochle.

That's because Kellogg is lending his extensive geometry- and frame-design experience to help another brand dial in its newest bikes. Kellogg's 2019 partner is another small and funky brand: Ritte.

This isn't Kellogg's first consulting gig. In 1987, he famously helped Merlin—founded and run by a bunch of mountain bikers—design its first road bikes. The Merlin road bikes bearing Kellogg's signature on the chainstay would become legendary.

For Ritte, this is somewhat of a rebirth. The brand launched in 2010 and attracted some buzz for its laid back and irreverent vibe (see video below). But after some initial success, the brand seemed to go into stasis. It never went away, but for well over a year its products and website didn't change. And then, seemingly from out of nowhere, Ritte drops two new bikes designed with help from one of the world's most influential and accomplished frame builders.

When asked for comment about this sudden roar back to life, a Ritte representative provided a statement to explain the company's situation. "Like many children, Ritte grew up too fast and hit a few speed bumps," a portion of the statement read. "Now set for the next stage of growth, Ritte has a strong following all over the world and is still independent, privately owned, Los Angeles based."

You’re welcome to your own interpretation, but I read that as, "We were broke, but some wealthy people invested in the business so we’re making bikes again."

The bikes are the Ritte's new Satyr (gravel) and Phantom (all-road) steel bikes. I was able to pull Kellogg out of his paint booth and ask him a few questions about the new bikes, and his association with Ritte.

Of his un-retirement, Kellogg says, "The plan is for me to do very part-time work for Ritte. You know, if Trek or Specialized would have asked my advice on something… I don't think so. It's not my thing. The one thing that really clicks with me is that, even though they’re running a business, [Ritte] really don't take themselves terribly seriously. They take the bikes really seriously, but they don't think they’re making nuclear submarines. They know what they’re doing, and I really like that."

Kellogg's "very part time work" on Ritte's new Satyr and Phantom included laying out the geometry, working with Reynolds on the 725 steel tubesets, and having a hand in the design of the frames.

Of the geometry, Kellogg says he wants all riders to experience the same ride and handling. "I’m trying to make all the sizes work for the people they fit in a very similar manner," he says, adding that he ensured the jumps between the six-available sizes—extra-small through double-extra-large—are consistent.

He also pushed Ritte to agree to allow him to use more than one fork offset. Many brands use the same fork for all frame sizes for simplicity and as a cost-saving measure. But Kellogg—obsessed with geometry and bike handling—wouldn't abide such shortcuts. Ritte acquiesced: Smaller sizes use a fork with more offset, larger sizes use a shorter offset fork, providing Kellogg more freedom to refine the geometry.

In one such instance, Kellogg "under-trailed" the gravel bike (a medium Satyr has less trail than a medium Phantom). "When gravel gets big, the front end tends to get thrown right and left," Kellogg says. "When you under-trail a bike, it tends to autocorrect. It's self-centering." He says this makes the bike less tiring to ride because it requires less attention.

The Phantom and Satyr's tubing is more customized than the typical production steel frame. The 725 steel is not Reynold's off-the-shelf tubeset, but a custom drawn to Kellogg's specifications for the Satyr and Phantom. Kellogg also employed size-specific tubing for each frame with the goal of providing riders of all sizes the same ride feel and handling characteristics.

The all-road and gravel frames share some tubes and design details, but Kellogg gave Satyr a torsionally stiffer top tube than the Phantom to make the gravel bike's front end "a little bit tighter." Another difference: Because they are longer, the Saytr's chainstays needed to be stiffer than the Phantom's, Kellogg says.

Kellogg is not making these Ritte frames—they’re hand-welded at a factory in Taiwan—but the master craftsman's name is on the frame, so he is invested in the quality of the frames. Based on what he's seen so far, Kellogg says he is satisfied with the factory's craftsmanship.

Ritte's Satyr and Phantom are available to order now, with shipping expected to begin the second week of January. They’re sold as a frameset with an Enve carbon fork ($2,250) or as a complete bike. Both are offered in three complete builds, with a choice of gearing and bar/stem/post dimensions, and prices that start at $3,800. Custom builds and paint are also available.

The overall feature set of both frames is the same. Built with Reynolds 725 butted chromoly steel tubing, the Satyr and Phantom have a T47 bottom bracket shell, tapered head tubes (Phantom 1 ¼" taper, Satyr 1 ½" taper), 12mm thru axles (100mm front, 142mm rear), braze-on front derailleurs, and use flat mount brake calipers.

Brake hose and shift housings are full-length and run internally through the frame—the frames may also be provisioned for wired-electronic shifting. A bit of trickery was needed around the bottom bracket to execute the all-internal run: The BB shell is bulged in the center to create space, with a unique chainstay bridge creating an enclosed pathway from the BB into the stays.

When I expressed concern about this bridge accumulating debris, a Ritte representative responded, "The chainstay bridge is sloped away from the seat tube for this reason - in our testing it didn't accumulate any more debris than a tube bridge."

The Phantom has 32mm tire clearance and two bottle cage mounts; the Saytr has 43mm tire clearance and gets fender mounts as well as a third bottle/cargo mount under the down tube.

There's a fresh Satyr built with Shimano's awesome GRX800 group ($4,600 as built) in my garage. Once I get enough time on it, I’ll get a review and pictures posted.

A gear editor for his entire career, Matt's journey to becoming a leading cycling tech journalist started in 1995, and he's been at it ever since; likely riding more cycling equipment than anyone on the planet along the way. Previous to his time with Bicycling, Matt worked in bike shops as a service manager, mechanic, and sales person. Based in Durango, Colorado, he enjoys riding and testing any and all kinds of bikes, so you’re just as likely to see him on a road bike dressed in Lycra at a Tuesday night worlds ride as you are to find him dressed in a full face helmet and pads riding a bike park on an enduro bike. He doesn't race often, but he's game for anything; having entered road races, criteriums, trials competitions, dual slalom, downhill races, enduros, stage races, short track, time trials, and gran fondos. Next up on his to-do list: a multi day bikepacking trip, and an e-bike race.

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