Ridley

Fenix SLiC Disc 105 Road Bike

1,000 mi review

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Size Bought:

M

Weight:

170

I've put about 1k miles on this bike, so I thought it would be helpful to review. For context, this is my 3rd Ridley frame, along with a 2016 Noah and 2019 X trail. We’ll start out with the positives. The bike is gorgeous, especially if you can spare some coin to mount carbon wheels. I wanted an enduro frame, and was worried that I would lose some zip compared to the Noah (their racing frame). The marketing is true, the Fenix SLIC frame seems every bit as stiff and spry as my Noah, a bit lighter too. Just like the other Ridley frames, this thing is tough, and solid over pavement and gravel. The Shimano 105 group set is smooth and perfect for this frame out of the box. Plenty of low end gear, though I do start to spin out a bit on the down hill. Do not be jealous of your friends that paid more for the Di2, except for one reason I’ll get to later. Now the negatives. The Xtrail had some built-in shielding in the frame near the brake disc. I never paid much attention to this until I was wrestling the rear wheel back on to the Fenix over the derailleur and chain and took out a big chunk of paint on my frame with the rotor. So this is on me, but I’m not sure why Ridley would drop that nice little feature to protect the frame during tire changes. Learn from my mistake. The bike came with a 120mm stem, which I didn’t expect. Every other ridley I’ve had came spec’d with 110mm stem, which means the cockpit was a little stretched out for me. Normally, not a big deal, except…. this frame has fully internal cabling, including the handlebars. This is clear in the picture and a feature of the SLIC, but I didn’t fully anticipate the consequences of this setup. Because the cabling goes through the handlebars, stem, and down the steerer, there is no way to swap the stem without completely rebuilding the bike, cables and hydraulics. Which leads back to my point about the downside of the 105 group set. Things are going to get very dicey when it’s time to swap shifter cables. My Noah had internal cabling, but not through the cockpit. I did all of my own maintenance on that frame for years. I have no idea what sorcery was used to get the cabling through this frame. Unlike the Noah there is no access port below the bottom bracket. If you buy this ride, have a good mechanic or pray that YouTube develops some good tutorials, because cable swaps are going to be a bear. Finally, all my Ridley’s have had a black matte finish. I’ve used frame bags on all of them without a problem for long rides. However, whatever finish was on this one was pretty scratched up by a simple frame bag on the top tube. I’m not sure if Ridley changed their finish, but that hurts to see on a new bike. So a few points I wish I had known. Overall love the bike and way it rides.