Ridley

X-Ride/Shimano 105 Disc Complete Bike

While carbon fiber has quickly become the material du jour for elite level ‘cross race bikes, there’s still a committed group of racers who prefer to ride aluminum frames. And when your bike handles as well as the Ridley X-Ride 20 Disc Complete Bike, it’s easy to see why. The triple butted tubeset yields a ride that’s both spirited, and surprisingly smooth, while the oversized tapered head tube keeps the steering precise when the ruts start getting deep. And with a sensible build kit that’s ready for a season of circuit laps, you’d be forgiven for asking why you need anything fancier.

The X-Ride’s 7005 aluminum tubeset features an aggressive triple butting profile, which yields thicker walls at the welded junctions, for strength, with the weight and ride quality advantages of a thinner tube in the middle. The geometry is nearly identical to the X-Fire, which is built around classic Continental handling. It maintains the relaxed head angle and higher bottom bracket, for aggressive cornering in the dirt. The bottom bracket is slightly higher than the X-Night, which gives it a more responsive feel for those of us with mortal handling skills. A short wheelbase keeps the handling lively, and it means that you won’t have any issues throwing it into turns at full speed.

In addition to the aggressive butting profile, the X-Ride’s aluminum tubeset sees external tube forming intended to help it cope with the stresses of cyclocross. Specifically, the down tube gets a horizontal squash -- giving it greater weld surface at the head tube -- and manipulation on the vertical plane to provide maximum weld surface at the bottom bracket shell. When you factor in the slightly flattened portion at the bottom of the top tube, which enhances carrying comfort, the X-Ride’s race-bred heritage is obvious. But since you’ll want to ride it pretty much everywhere, it gets dual water bottle mounts to enhance the versatility.

Ridley outfitted the X-Ride 20 with a built kit that’s ready to handle a full season of racing. The 4ZA Oryx disc fork is built entirely out of carbon fiber, for superior strength, and the tapered head tube fights chatter under hard braking. The build kit consists of Shimano’s 105 group for the shifters, cassette, and rear derailleur. 105 is a proven, reliable performer, without a painful price tag when a season’s worth of mud-paste finally takes its toll on moving parts. The crankset comes from FSA, with a ‘cross-optimized 46/36 spread, while braking is handled by Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes. The cockpit consists of 4ZA items, which forgo flash for rock-solid reliability, and leaves you some greenbacks to cover those race entry fees.

The Ridley X-Ride 20 Complete Bike is available in six sizes, from 48 to 58cm, and in the color Black/red.