In 2007, I remember distinctly when Brandon showed up at a Wednesday Worlds on a Time cyclocross bike with brake levers made from carbon fiber. “Dude, you’re riding Campy?” I said as they were the only products we’d seen at the time with carbon levers. “No, check these out! New from SRAM. It’s called Force.” And so the relationship began with the company and before we knew it, we were ALL on the groups. I’d never seen anything like it before in terms of adoption.

Fast forward and SRAM has played a major role in the Boulder Cycle Sport Ambassador’s team success. Multiple National Championship wins (4), State Championship wins (2) and countless podiums, crashes, mud-fests, gear changes later, and we’re still shifting to success with SRAM.

This year SRAM has a new twist on their top of the line group, SRAM Red. The twist is to black it all out! The BCS team’s “A” bikes are all dialed in with SRAM Red ‘Black’ with “B” bikes being equipped with the Force group. We finally have the bikes together and a few races under their belts, and before they get sullied with the wear and tear of a season, I wanted to show the Ridley X-Fires in a state with their SRAM bits hanging in their miraculously-clean splendor.

The 58cm Ridley X-Fire complete with SRAM Red, Ritchey cockpit/seat post, FSA RD-800 wheels, Time ATAC pedals and Selle San Marco Concor seat weighs in at 17.04lbs. Sensible bomber parts, insanely light weight.

SRAM Red ‘Black’ CX rings…46 x 38 in 130bcd.

The Ridley X-Fire for 2012 uses a completely sealed carbon shell bottom bracket requiring SRAM’s PressFit 30 bottom bracket system supporting BB30 cranks.

The SRAM Red Black Front Derailleur. Note the grub-seal placement where it exits the internal cable routing boss.

Another angle of the front derailleur exiting the internal cable routing. The seat clam is a 34.9 supplied in this case by Ridley via their 4za brand.

The SRAM Red Black rear derailleur will glide itself up a variety of SRAM PG 1070 Force cassettes ranging from 12/26 to 12/28.

Another view of the SRAM Red derailleur.

Ritchey supplies us with bars and seat posts. This year opting for the Curve style bar (44 c-to-c in my case).

The SRAM Red shifter remains essentially the same in 2012 with new larger graphics to ensure people can see what you are riding!

We are once again using SRAM’s Avid Ultimate Shorty brake this year. These have extra-special meaning for us as their creator Chris “Shotty” Shotwell is a dear friend of ours. Read more about the genesis of the brakes here.

The cockpit of the Ridley X-Fire and its integrated FSA headset. Chatter resistant and stout at 1-1/8 to 1-1/4”. I am also on my tried and true Ritchey 4-Axis stems (120mm).

The Ritchey WCS Carbon 31.9 ‘One Bolt’ seat post (zero off-set in my case) is remounted on 1000’s of times a year, nary a slip to be had.

We are using the slippery Gore Ride-On sealed cable system within the internally routed cable ‘tubes’ of the Ridley X-Fire.

The Gore kits ensure that nearly ever cm of cable is sealed from lever to their end point…as seen here on the front brake. Note that internal routing requires more housing than come with certain cable kits so ensure you are aware of this before building your bikes.

The arrows ready to be slung into action this 2011 season. HUP!