Almost two years ago, Dubba and I were out on a ride, discussing all things cross (which is an every day occurrence and usually doesn’t even require a ride…) and we started talking bikes. “What brand do you think resonates with cross?” he asks. “What would you want to ride? Products that are absolutely cross-specific. No gimmicks.”

My answer was one word, two syllables:

“Ridley.”

And so, it was done. Boulder Cycle Sport engaged with QBP and the Ridley Brand and fairly quickly, ratcheted-up sales of cross bikes to passionate folks. Simply put, customers ‘got it’. They see the Ridley products and they ooze speed, agility, mud shedding…they ooze Belgium.

Last year the Boulder Cycle Sport Team rocked the X-Night, an amazing, awe inspiring piece of engineering, Internal/fully sealed cabling ensured I literally never changed my cabled the WHOLE season. The integrated seat mast kept things stuff and fast. See my posts here about the X-Night experience.

And so in this 2nd year of carrying the product, the Boulder Cycle Sport Cross Team has a yet again an amazing opportunity to race their 2011 X-Fire product. I’ve just got ‘er built up, so let me take you through the highlights:

• All carbon frame and fork, roughly 1400 grams (mine is a 58)
• Super stout 1-1/8 to 1-1/2” heat tube/FSA head set.This is a new change for the 2011 X-Fire taking on this attribute from it's sibling, the X-Night.
• Traditional seat post (31.6) versus the seat mast the X-Nights have.
• Replaceable rear drop out.

As for the grouppo, again, an amazing array of sponsors help the team with equipment to stand the absolute extremes we face during cross.

SRAM/Avid

• SRAM Red drive train including sealed RideOn cabling. We’ll be opting for 12/26 Force cassettes however due to their mud shedding abilities. 46/38 rings on the crank sets.
• Avid Ultimate Shorty brakes. These are just so flipping amazing, I will devote a post for them specifically. Stay tuned.

Ritchey:

• Bars: WCS Classic bend
• Stems: WCS 4Axis Wet black.
• Seat Posts: WCS no set back carbon single bolt.

Wheels are all personal choice for the Team, so I will use a mix of FSA RD 800 and 488’s with a blend of Dugast rubber. Mainly Typhoons but we have Rhinos as well this year for the badness should she come. And she will.

Here is the bike built up. Just about 17.5 lbs in my large/man sized bike. Enjoy. More reports as I get more saddle time and if you are my size, ask me to ride it!

Katie. She's more artist than anything. Details the bike with love.

The bike all built.

SRAM Red cockpit with Ritchey Classic bend bars.

SRAM Red cranks and my trusty Time ATAC pedals.

The engineering artworks themselves: SRAM/Avid Ultimate Shorty brakes (front)...

...and the rear brake.

K-Edge Chain watcher.

Massive mud clearence for our now '33c limit' tires (My 34 Rhinos fit just fine)

One extremely clean cockpit.

Boulder Cycle Sport was honored to be one of the first shops (if not THE first shop) in the US to get a sneak peek at the 2011 Ridley Cyclocross bikes we'll be rocking with this upcoming season. Our friends from QBP including good friend Steve Bobusch made the trek down from Minneapolis (ironically bring US great weather from the mid west) to allow the Boulder Cycle Sport and Blue Sky Racing Team s/b BCS 'cross team and a slew of cross geek friends to review some great Belgian products: Ridley bikes and Lazer Helmets. 

World Champ Štybar's (say: Shteebar) incredible 2011 X-Night complete with SRAM Red grouppo and new Avid brakes.

Steve "Sev-ee" Bobusch of QBP showing off the new and incredibly light Lazer Genesis and Helium products.

It would be Belgium without some Belgian Bubbles. Dubba showing some of the night's booty.

Dan Farrell checking out the simplicity of the Lazer's ratcheting system. It truly was SUPER easy to find and spin the dial to adjust the helmet.

The new 'price point' Ridley X-Ride. Sub $2K aluminum goodness.

National AND Colorado State Champion...oh AND terror to European Master's crossers...Pete Webber scoping out, ahem, one of my X-Nights, freshly dragged out of the cellar for the event and to help folks with sizing. Pete will be rocking the Ridley's this season. Hup!

We are indebted to the support Ridley and QBP provide the Boulder Cycle Sport 'cross team. Obviously we can vouch for the quality of the product and hope you check 'em out at your local dealer. Double hup!

See the full slideshow and all the antics here...

The Ridley's have treated me unbelievably this seson.  A way better arrow than the Indian shooting it. The X-Night is a pretty sophisticated bike and is one of the new-generation frames featuring a carbon seat mast in favor over a seat post. This adds rigidity (especially in large frames like my 58cm) while reducing overall weight.

Out of the box, the X-Night's seat mast must be cut to the rider's appropriate height. The frame comes with a number of shims of various thicknesses as well to get very precise on the positioning. After cutting and getting my seat height dialed, my first couple of mounts and re-mounts demonstrated a noticeable "pop" emanating form the seat mast. A little concerning to say the least yet I couldn't diagnose the problem.

At Interbike, I had the privilege of meeting the Ridely bike crew from Belgium and their US counterparts from QBP and talked through my issue. Very quickly they walked me through the process and I wanted to share that with you as well, family of Ridley X-Night owners.

If you have a 'just-out-of-the-box' X-Night, ensure your shop has this set of instructions for ensuring proper cutting:

In my case, these were followed but even a super slight deviance from the required tolerance can result in the audible popping noise. Essentially, the issue results from the top of the mast not properly sitting in the 'bay' of the aluminum mast clamp. A remount will occasionally cause an ever so slight 'pull' from the top of the mast and yet another occasional mount will 'pop' it back into place...thus the audible noise.

The solution to eliminating the pop is a simple one however and comes direct from the Ridley engineering team and is practiced by both the Fidea and Sunweb Projob team mechanics on their rider's X-Nights in the Motherland.

First remove your seat mast clamp. Ensure you thoroughly clean the inside of the aluminum clamp and the contact area on the seat mast.

Next, use the recommended carbon/aluminum assembly paste which is Tacx (red compound). FSA and Ritchey also make what appear to be the same paste (and is probably all made in the same factory regardless...).Use an acid brush and coat the sides and top of the carbon.

Re-attach the seat mast clamp and tighten to the prescribed tolerances (inscribed on the seat mast clamp itself).

Voila you are done! I have not experienced the popping since I added the compound.

Bike one moments after she was all done up and built. I cruised 'er around Elks and thus the lovely sweat stain smack dab in the middle of my chest. Sweet. Check out more bike p(o)rn videos on Boulder Cycle Sport's YouTube channel. 

OK, ‘cross fans! Bike 1 is done! The BCS crew helped with this first 2010 Ridley X-Night like a true team. Mike D on the tire gluing, Dwayne on the main build and Jeremiah on the finish, carbon cutting, etc. All said and done: 17.01 lbs! Boing! Awesome and an absolutely perfect fit. The team did a phenomenal job. Bike 2 is waiting in the wings for its build. Double boing!

The goods….

Like buttah, baby. DT Hugi 240’s, DT 14/15g spokes on Mavic Reflex tubular rims with Challenge Fango 34’s glued up all nice-like.

A close up of the FSA headset hardware.

SRAM Red and Force mixuture. Stay tuned for 2010 SRAM Force bits!

A close up of the seat mast hardware. I cut roughly 40mm of carbon. The hardware you see here comes with a set of shims of varying thickness to dial in the height exactly right. And if the need to sell the bike is required, you can essentially use these shims to build back ‘up’ all the carbon you may have cut off.

SRAM Red levers and TRP EuroX Magnesium brakes.

This is the K-Edge chain watcher. Pretty ingenious device. More reports later after I have time with it under fire. Note that it is mounted to a Shimano braze on clamp adapter.

And the X-Night with FSA-800 Carbon wheels an Challenge Grifo XS file treads. 17lbs of Carbon bling.

Hmm. It appears so. Ik Sven's finger prints are all over this bad boy. According to Ernesto:

For the 2010 we are proud to introduce the NEW carbon Cross frame, the PRESTIGE. This new cross frame has been developed with the input from former World Champion, 9 time Super Prestige winner Sven Nys.

The front triangle is a HHM (High Modulus carbon) monocoque with polygonal section on the top- and down tube, it has a curve between the inside of the top and seat tube, this for better comfort when carrying the bike on the shoulder. The rear triangle is lugged.

Stability, speed and weight are key components to the PRESTIGE.
The PRESTIGE will be available in 6 sizes, (50 to 60 with).

Beefier than the C-50's and the first advancement I've seen of their carbon cross mainstay for a decade.

I'm not sure what's with all that curvy carbon by top and seat tubes. Sort of ridonculous and unnecessary carbon. I'm digging the traditional horizontal top tube though. I will never understand sloping top tubes on cross bikes...

I'll take my Ridley X-Night's though any day in a head to head beauty contest. I'm probably just in lust at the moment though...but I can't stop messing around with the frames! Bike 1 built this weekend. 

The lightest palette likely ever delivered to Boulder Cycle Sport rolled off the delivery truck last week! That, of course, was the highly anticipated palette of Belgian carbon goodness I spoke about in earlier posts. X-Nights, X-Fries, Crossbows and other goodies were unpacked and assembled for the show room floor including my highly anticipated X-Night frames. When they were 'presented', I got super weepy. Absolutely gorgeous.

I brought 'em home and proceeded to whip out the tape measure. The sizing (58cm) in my case was a 1/2 cm difference from my Rock Lobster frames but my ‘actual’ positioning on the bike will  be nearly identical. The geometry is more slack than the R.L.’s with a slightly higher BB so I’ll more or less end up in the same position…which for me is very ‘forward’ to enable me to be on top of the pedal stroke (think how you power on the flats on top of the stroke) and not necessarily behind it (think how you position yourself when you climb...e.g 'pulling' the stroke).

I wanted to take the time to show off the details of the frame before I get them built. There are SO many details here in the X-Night it’s worth a closer look. So without further adieu, and with the help of my Nikon, check out the X-Night with me!

The 2010 Ridley X-Night in her full glory. All carbon with aluminum sleeves for the bottom bracket, headset and rear drop outs. Claimed weight is 1.25kgs/2lbs 12oz. My 58cm is closer to 3lbs. Compare that to my 3.01 lb Scandium Rock Lobster (~58cm). Oh, and don't forget that includes the 'seat post!'

The paint scheme is unbelievable. They are not just decals applied but carefully sprayed graphics with a good helping of clear coat.

The BB30 bottom bracket on the X-Night assists with q-factor fairly dramatically. I will be running my 2009 SRAM Red cranks utilizing an aftermarket SRAM adapter to insert into the BB30 so I can use my standard BB's from last season (my wallet thanks me).

Freudian? Indeed the seat mast if STIFF! It will be cut to my dimensions and likely the last thing we’ll do when the bike is built.

The X-Night features INTERNAL cable routing! YES! Finally someone listened. You can see the front derailleur cable’s exit hole just above the bb shell. Instead of a roller (used when cables are mounted on the top tube and run down the seat tube, around the roller and up into a traditional road derailleur), the X-Night features this ingenious cable stop seen above.

One burly a_ _ fork! The X-Night’s Oryx fork is maddeningly stout and stiff. It features a 1.25 (upper) to 1.5 (lower) carbon steerer tube making the steering precise and brake chatter virtually non-existent. This is a common problem when using carbon forks and exacerbated with carbon wheels. Even with toe-in capabilities on some of the more progressive brakes like the TRP EuroX Magnesium's, chatter on carbon forks is notorious. The Oryx erases this. 

Another shot of the beautiful paint scheme.

The entrance for the front derailleur internal cable routing. There is an entirely sealed kevlar ‘pipe’ that your cable runs through completely sheltering it from mud.

Quick: What’s missing? See bottom of the post for the answer or try and guess!

Rear tire clearance by the bottom bracket is enormous. Seen above are size 34 Dugasts which leaves ample room for mud clearance. 

And even more clearance by the seat stay yoke where mud often collects due to the brake arms. 

The Oryx fork is no different. Again, mad clearance even with big tires.

If you watch any of the race coverage in Belgium, you know how peanut buttery the mud can get. Hamme Zogge’s course as an example is notorious derailleur shredder and has killed the chances of many a ‘sure winner’. The X-Night has thoughtfully included an ingenious replacement mechanism for BOTH drop outs (not just the derailleur side!). The are made of a plate of 7000 series aluminum bolted on ensuring the stiffness of a non-replaceable hanger with the practicality of a replaceable one.

ANSWER: No bottle cage bosses! This bike is a pure race breed. Super PRO.