Ridley 2017 brings pro level tech to the masses

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Ridley’s goals for its 2017 range were to expand and improve the offering for its women’s bikes along with the introduction of multiple disc platforms and to improve on component specifications across the board and improve value for money.

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• André Greipel’s Ridley Noah SL

The line-up has now been announced and Ridley product manager Bert Kenens told us, "We’ve chosen components to improve performance and lower weight at many price points. For example, we’ve switched from Shimano’s RS500 chainset, which is a very good component, to the new 4-arm FSA Gossamer, which is 10 percent lighter, for our mid-level bikes and also because it's designed around press-fit BBs we don’t need an adaptor like we would with Shimano, which also reduces weight."

Ridley’s component partner 4ZA has also introduced a new entry/mid-level wheel, the RC23SL, which effectively replaces the RC31 and is a massive 300g/0.6lb lighter — which should make a decent difference on Ridley’s more affordable models.

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The rim shape is all-new too with a wider 18mm internal width and is tubeless ready. The RC23SL is lighter by 20g/0.04lb than the equivalent Fulcrum Racing 7 (1,763g/3.8lb), and 50g/0.1lb lighter than Fulcrum's Racing Sport.

Women’s bikes

Ridley has seen a lot of growth in women’s bike sales and was keenly aware that it needed to expand its offering across the board. This led to the engineering team researching what women need from a specific bike design.

The women’s range is now made up of the Liz SL, Aura SLX, Aura ALX and Jane SL

Design changes for 2017

Aero road

We don’t make special bikes for our pro riders, they get given bikes from the same stock as we sell

The more affordable Noah and Jane

Another element helping to reduce the price is a change in the fork, it’s still aero but is a non-split fork design

Ridley Helium X and SLX

In short, we will not take out the last gram if it would compromise the handling of the bike

Ridley Helium X/Aura X

Ridley Helium ALX

Ridley Fenix SL and SL Disc

The front triangle remains unchanged however, and obviously there’s a new thru-axle fork too

Ridley Fenix ALX and Liz SL

Ridley X-Trail

The one significant change is a modified fork, which switches to the just about accepted industry road standard 12mm thru-axle over the previous year’s 15mm

Ridley Dean

Ridley X-Night

Ridley Bike Valley

With brands like Lazer, Ridley and Bio Racer all involved in the initial investment it wouldn’t surprise us if they kept the R&D advantage of such a facility to themselves

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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