Originally Posted by
amallagh
I purchased a Ridley Noah Fast frameset in November 2024 through Ridley's online Configurator Tool including custom paint job, and the bespoke aero seat post and one piece Aero N1/G1 carbon handlebar/stem that is common to the top end builds for the Noah Fast and Kanzo Fast.
The frame set was delivered to my local Ridley dealer at the very end of 2024 and I collected it on 1st week of 2025. Since then I have discovered some fundamental engineering design failures specifically in their Aero N1/G1 handlebar stem. Ridley response to these fundamental failures has really astounded me, so I think it is important that potential customers are aware.
Firstly the bespoke aero profiled steering tube top cap is made of plastic. It cracked across the thin section to the front at just 1.5Nm (see 1st picture). I got a replacement online. It did exactly the same thing. The material is simply unsuitable for the application and the component is not fit for purpose. I contacted Ridley via the local dealership and they failed to respond for several weeks despite several reminders. Because this was stopping my bike build, I took the matter into my own hands and fabricated an identical profiled cap in 6061 T6 aluminium. This took some considerable time and some expense, but it works perfectly (see last picture). On looking online I found I was not the only person to experience this problem and there was even an online seller making the caps for sale in aluminium for exactly the same reason. (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276772212460 - I had a detailed discussion with the seller and they experienced the same problem with the plastic cap and the failed 2 hole stem nut I describe below)
Secondly the bespoke aero profiled 2 hole nut on the stem clamp is made of an unknown grade of aluminium and the stainless M5 bolts stripped the threads out of the aluminium nut at 5.0-5.2Nm despite the stem clearly stating on it '6Nm' (see 2nd picture). I got hold of a replacement original online at the same time as the top cap and it did the same thing. The component is simply not fit for purpose and the aluminium can not take the prescribed 6Nm torque specified on the stem. Again I got no response from Ridley so took it upon myself to manufacture the same component out of Grade 5 titanium after doing a full engineering design assessment to confirm that the M5 threads in titanium would be able to take the prescribed 6Nm torque (see 3rd picture). This engineering design assessment confirmed that aluminium was not a suitable material for the 2 hole nut in the specific design application for this stem including all the applicable materials, lubricated threads, actual thread engagement length, small angular loads, etc. See Link.
( https://www.futek.com/bolttorque/metric )
I passed all the design verification information and all assumptions and input data to Ridley with full pictures and details in an attempt to help them, and to get their response because they has clearly made fundamental design errors in the material selection for these 2 crucial components that are fundamental to the safety of the supplied frameset.
The dealer was not getting appropriate responses from Ridley so I escalated this via the owner of the dealership chain. This was 4 weeks after the problems were first reported and the response from Ridley astounded me given the overwhelming evidence provided. The response of Ridley was that they had not experienced any problems and they suggested that I had simply over torqued the top cap and stem nut and suggested that I get a 'professional' to do it. The information provided to them was overwhelming including references to others that have experienced the same issues and the fact that I am an experienced engineer and used a calibated torque wrench. They are simply ignoring the evidence and stating that they are not aware of any failures. I suppose if you ignore any customer feedback then you can claim you have never had any failures 😉
It gives me no pleasure to write this, but given Ridleys response I thought it was important that other potential Ridley customers are aware of Ridley basic engineering failures. This was my 3rd new Ridley bike since 2020 and I have had minor quality issues with these other bikes, but nothing as fundamental as what I have experienced here, and Ridley's response was simply astounding given the information provided to them and I was regular Ridley customer. They really didn't case. Buyer beware.
I appreciate the thoroughness of your troubleshooting - well done. However, I think even 2-2.5 Nm is excessive for headset bearing preload. When installing stems, I place the stem and give it a couple of gentle taps with a short piece of 2x4 to ensure that the stem/spacers/bearing “stack” is bedded in and all the components are in full contact. After that, I install the top cap, which needs only the lightest torque with a hex key to preload the stack before tightening the stem bolts. I haven’t done this with a torque wrench, but I’d be amazed if it’s even 1 Nm. However, this gives me free-moving play-free steering every time.