00:00Climbing bikes aren't dead. We're here at the Uno X truck at the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alps
00:05and we've just spotted a prototype Ridley and it looks more like it's designed for climbing
00:10than their current road race bike the Ridley Noah Fast 3. So let's go and take a closer look at
00:16it.
00:18Now obviously there's no official information about this bike yet because it's only a prototype
00:23and Uno X have two of these bikes here at the race. Now what we do know about it is
00:28that it's
00:29got far less deep tube profiles than the Ridley Noah Fast 3 which no doubt means it's going to
00:34be used on some of the more hilly and climbing stages. As for tyre clearance it looks like it's
00:40got absolutely loads so this bike is fitted with a set of 28 mil Grand Prix 5000 TT tyres and
00:46there's
00:46loads of space in there. I reckon that's got at least space for 34 mil tyres so maybe we'll see
00:52this being used at classics and things like that as well. One of the things that I find interesting
00:56is this sort of design here you can see it's deeper here where the seat post goes in it's deeper
01:02here
01:02than it is down here. It's got very slight seat stays and this mounting system is reminiscent of a
01:08I've had a cube which got a similar sort of design where the seat post bolts clamp from the back.
01:13As with many riders here at the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alps it's got a zero offset seat post and this
01:19looks a lot
01:20like an S-Works mirror saddle albeit they've definitely removed the the specialised logos from it.
01:27It is quite interesting to see though they've got it mounted quite far back despite using that zero
01:31offset seat post and then this one's got a full SRAM group set full SRAM red and like many of
01:37the riders
01:37they're using quite a large cassette so this is a 10 36 tooth cassette at the back although it is
01:43still
01:43dwarfed compared to the chain ring on this TT bike which is a 60 tooth wow. So I've been having
01:52a think about where this new bike might fit into Ridley's range so their current road bikes consist
01:58of the Noah Fast 3 and then the slightly lower tier Noah 3 those are both aero bikes and then
02:04you've
02:04got the Falcon RS which aims to be an all-rounder and then the Griffin RS but that's a more
02:10relaxed
02:11endurance style geometry. Now as this is a bike being raced here at the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alps
02:16alongside the Noah Fast 3 our best bet is that this is either an updated Falcon RS or a completely
02:23new
02:23full climbing focused model. Now I reckon I'd put my money on the former as the current Falcon RS was
02:30released in 2023 and three years is often about the amount of time that bikes stick around before an update.
02:37So if we compare those two frames and it's clear that the Belgian brand has used skinnier tube profiles
02:43which is usually for two reasons lowering weight and adding compliance. Now at 830 grams for the
02:49Falcon RS frame it was by no means a heavy weight but by cutting out 100 grams or so they
02:55would bring
02:56it far more in line with the current competition the likes of the Specialized Tarmac S8 and the
03:02Cannondale Super 6 for example. Now if we put the Falcon RS side by side with the new bike then
03:07you
03:07can see that there's a whole host of changes. The seat post is slimmer, the top tube looks less bulky,
03:13the seat stays look slimmer too. That usually is for rear end compliance and looking at this new bike then
03:19I'm going to put my cards on the table and say that Ridley are going to call it the Falcon
03:23RS. They're going
03:24to bump up the tire clearance from 34 mil to maybe 36 mil to keep it ahead of the curve.
03:30They're going
03:31to keep the UDH, that was already ahead of the curve, shed around 100 grams from the frame and a
03:36few
03:36from the fork whilst trying to keep it as aero as the current Falcon RS. So when might we see
03:42the new
03:42bike? Well if Ridley repeat the same release timeline as they did with the Falcon RS then we can expect
03:48to
03:48see this for sale in the autumn around September time but obviously there's no confirmation on that
03:54just yet but if you do want to see lots more unreleased bikes and all the latest cycling tech
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04:41in the
04:41description below. I really do like this new Uno X paint job they've obviously stripped all the paint
04:47off of the bikes bar a few little red bits and a few uh they look like contours on a
04:53map that's no doubt
04:54to try and save some weight and get them all down to that 6.8 kilo UCI weight limit also
04:59looks like a new
05:01bar that's a Nimbus Pro Ridley have worked with Dada to manufacture a lot of their latest bars such as
05:07the
05:07ones on the Noah Fast 3. This one it's hard to tell but I think that's a new bar for
05:14this bike and
05:15interestingly Ridley haven't gone for the sort of speed sniffer design it's quite a conventional
05:20traditional looking head tube on this bike. Another little detail is on the fork legs the
05:26brake is sort of almost recessed into the fork although by no means to the same extent as it is
05:32on the Ridley Nerf R3. Now the Ridley Nerf R3 was one of the most impressive bikes that I rode
05:38last
05:38year it was one of the best surprises if this rides anything like that then they're onto a winner.
05:44So let me know what you think of this new Ridley prototype we don't have a any idea of what
05:49it's
05:49called yet because the UCI sticker just says prototype so no clues on the name but uh yeah let
05:55me know what you think of it down in the comment section below and uh would you choose this over
06:00some of the more established brands let me know in the comments below
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