Do I need a P-29er or an Outback?

Contents

Outback vs. P-29er
What’s the difference between mountain biking and gravel riding?
When you need a P-29er
When you need an Outback

Both the P-29er and the Outback are off-road bikes for transporting you both physically and metaphysically (you’ll agree that cycling is transcendent). But the two bikes have left you at a crossroads. You want a bike that will unleash adventure, or climb like gravity is just a suggestion, or descend faster than its shadow, and/or serve up speed and/or endurance no matter where you roll. Ultimately it’s your unique preferences that will make the difference in your choice. Here's how to know if you need a Ritchey P-29er or a Ritchey Outback.

If you find yourself at a proverbial fork in the road once the pavement ends, both the Outback and the P-29er are designed to be ridden off road. Here’s where you should ask yourself if your chosen path will take you for an epic ride experience over mixed terrain, or will it dive into a maze of singletrack?

A note on Ritchey’s range of bikes.

If Ritchey’s range of bikes were to be viewed as a continuum, each subsequent model picks up where the limitations of the previous one start to become obvious. For example, tire clearance for the Road Logic goes up to 30c and can handle a hard pack surface; however, if your riding explores more broken pavé and gravel, then the Outback rolls in with wider tire clearance and more off-road capability. When the terrain gets too rough and rocky to pick a passable line, then the P-29er takes over for the Outback, and so on.

Tom Ritchey designed the Outback to take on a variety of terrain, either as a loaded bikepacking rig or a race-ready ultra-endurance whip. It is highly customizable according to its purpose and offers practical and adaptable features. For instance, the Outback’s rack and fender mounts help to keep things dry, and to expand the load-carrying capacity for longer bikepacking adventures. Tire clearance has become a decisive feature on gravel bikes, where width and tread often indicate what the bike is intended for. The Outback’s 700c x 48mm or 650b x 2.0” tire clearance can perfectly manage most any gravel roads throughout the world, like the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan, the North American Continental Divide, or Spain’s Camino de Santiago. Tom doubled down on the Outback’s practical performance by giving the bike an all-carbon fiber Ritchey Adventure Fork with multi-purpose mounts.

The P-29er could easily slip into almost any mountain bike or gravel event because of its built-in “go anywhere” attitude, which mirrors Tom’s own off-road ethos. However, the P-29er’s origin as a cross-country mountain bike is evident in its frame geometry (not too slack, not too rigid), its standard Boost spacing, and its 2.3” tire clearance. As a vector for demonstrating one’s singletrack skills, it doesn’t get much better than the P-29er.

TIP: As gravel continues to defy definition, the P-29er is prepared to adapt. For instance, install a purpose-built rigid adventure fork — perhaps add a flared drop bar — and get a bike that can more than handle bigger and burlier gravel rides.

Mountain biking and gravel riding have each outgrown their rigid identities of what they are, and, while their definitions keep evolving, they’re in agreement about what they are not: road cycling. What’s underneath the wheels has a defining influence on bike design, but good design doesn’t change. The flawless alignment between bike and rider to experience off-road riding is the hallmark of both a well-designed P-29er and an Outback.

If you tend toward narrow, twisty and technical trails that require dexterity, then the P-29er will fulfill your aspirations. If you want to access new kinds of adventure, new expressions of athleticism, and simply new ways to enjoy riding a bike without needing special skills, the Outback will grant you access.

You go out of your way in search of singletrack and when you find it, you don’t just ride the trail, you study it, attempt the obstacles, fail some, so you go back and try them again until you clean them. The P-29er is your intimate partner and your most ardent supporter because mountain biking is an endless pursuit of skill-building and fine-tuning your technique.

Faster than mountain bikes on the road and better than a road bike at handling varying terrain off-road, the Outback inhabits all the clichés: “the Swiss army knife of bikes, jack of all trades, two-wheeled multitool” etc. and while this may be becoming less true as gravel bike models find their niches in racing and touring, they have more versatility than road and mountain bikes combined.

Get an Outback if you want to ride outside the limits…of town, city, and road networks. If you need inspiration to make routine routes new again, get a P-29er.

Ritchey creates gravel bikes for enjoying the thousands of kilometers, miles, leagues etc. of unpaved roads meant for farming, logging, rural transit, or unmotorized access, which can be found lacing the continents worldwide. Ritchey’s mountain bikes continue to help define the sport of mountain biking for those riders who still like to climb, learn new skills, rip descents, and “send it” on singletrack.