Ridley Excalibur ride report
Our team got new frames this year and we ended up going with Ridley as opposed to any of the others that offer a pro type deal. Got the frames last week. Being a paint shop, we expected good paint, but they're beautiful. Fit and finish is as nice as, and a bit nicer in terms of some of the details, than my Orbea that this frame replaces.
(About the Orbea- it's a 60c Ultrafoco Carbon. Steel with carbon seatstays. Smooth as smooth can be, especially under my 190 pounds. A bit heavy, but again, I'm 190 so an extra couple of pounds is no biggie. But I won't miss it on the new bike.)
Got the frame, fought to take old, seized or cross threaded parts off of the old ORbea, and rode the Ridley for the first time on Saturday. Rode it like I stole it. Training with some Cat II's (I'm a V). On some short but steep climbs in southern OK. Chip-seal roads, occasionally sketchy asphault and some dirt. Great 3.5 hour ride and a great opportunity to test everything that the bike can do.
And it can do a lot. Holy crap. I was a mile into the chip-seal before I realized that I was on chip-seal. Like butter this bike, but quicker and stiffer in the BB. It sounds like marketing crap, but the bike rides like those cyclingnews reviews say every carbon bike rides. Stiff, compliant, climbs like a scalded cat chasing a nap, descends like a lead-encrusted rock, handles like it's glued to velcro rails and the whole thing. I am truly amazed. It's not just the material, I know, but it does speak very well to Ridley's design. Not a crazy light climbing bike, either, which is great for me. But, with my regular old Record/Velocity wheels, it comes in at 17.65 pounds. Race wheels will knock it under 17. For a large frame (58.8 top tube, basically a 60c).
The thing about the ride is that I'm running the same bars and stem, same wheels and tires, same saddle and pedals that I was before. That's about as much as I can hold constant to compare this bike to my old one, and it's incredible to me how smooth the Ridley is. It handles the high frequency stuff better than the Orbea, and I was steering into asphault ridges and bumps to feel it soak them up.
Going up the climb, it was solid. Coming down I ended up behind a truck, and even on a just over 2 mile descent they were taking it very, very easy. I didn't get a chance to push it as much as I would have liked, but if I was in better shape than I could have climbed it again and tried the descent unimpeded. But, cornering was as good as everything else with it.
I haven't seen too many reports on Ridleys, so I thought I'd throw this out there. All in all, and especially for the price (even at or near to MSRP) it's a great bike.