If you're ever lucky enough to spend some time in the wind tunnel, you'll learn an interesting fact at the outset: When the brainiacs at the tunnel controls assess a reduction in drag due to positional or equipment changes, they do so in a unit of measurement you might not expect: grams. Contort your body or shave down your componentry to gain added invisibility to the wind and you'll be told you've lowered your drag by X grams. Grams. The same grams we use when we weigh seatposts and saddles and bars and stems. It isn't some sort of analogous metric where aerodynamics is conceptually twisted to correlate to weight. It's all one in the same: They're the unified forces of resistance that slow you down when you wish you were going faster. What does this mean to a cutting-edge frame manufacturer like Ridley? It puts them at a crossroads in the development process. One option is to take the easier road and design a big-tubed, thin-walled carbon frame that'll easily fall in the 900g range to satisfy the marketplace's undeniable craving for bikes whose static weight amazes. The other option is the harder sell: An aerodynamic frame sculpted to knife through the wind with minimal drag. Here is reality: Build a frame with low enough drag, it'll deliver all the performance advantage of a lighter frame, while being indisputably faster at big-ring speeds. With their Noah, Ridley has done just that: They've taken the road less traveled to engineer a bike whose performance goes well beyond the "Omigod" factor of a 900g frame. Rather, it satisfies in a slightly less visceral but more reasoned manner. When we look at the Noah we swoon at both its beauty and the smarts of its design. And the more we gaze, resonances of two of our favorite bikes in the marketplace become more apparent: One is the Cervelo Soloist Carbon. Not unlike the Soloist, the Noah's tubeset -- its seat tube in particular -- is designed first and foremost to reduce drag. The seat tube cut-out on the Noah appears to be straight off a TT bike, and the way in which your rear wheel tucks snugly behind the seat tube to shave away grams of drag is vital for making you faster for a given power output. The other frame we're reminded of when we see the Noah is Scott USA's lovely Plasma TT frameset, as ridden by the professional Saunier Duval team. Like the Plasma, the Noah utilizes an integrated seat tube/seatpost. We will literally cut down the carbon fiber seat tube of the frame based on your saddle-to-BB measurement. You'll use a custom Ridley seatpost cap that seamlessly mates to the seat tube. You get ~4cm of seatpost height adjustment once we make the cut. The use of this integrated seat tube/ seatpost maximizes the aerodynamics of the Noah frame, minimizes the weight and it offers added frameset stiffness when you're putting the bike under serious in-the-saddle pressure, and of course it looks like a million bucks. While a handful of aero-minded TT bikes utilize this design, the Noah is the only road racing frame in the market that goes to this extent to optimize its aerodynamic profile. Beyond the aerodynamics of the Noah is its stiffness under power. While the integrated seat tube/seatpost goes a long way to add stiffness when you're in the saddle, the Sharp Edge Design and monocoque construction of the Noah give it an overall rigidity and resistance to torsional flex far exceeding anything you'll feel on a lugged carbon frame. Its tapered head tube -- it's 1-1/8" at the top and 1.5" at the bottom -- makes it a sprinters delight (paging Robbie McEwen!) But being aero and stiff doesn't come with a weight penalty: The Noah tips the scales at 1100g, but don't forget that this incorporates the integrated seat tube/seatpost. (Add the weight of an Easton or a Campy seatpost to your 900g frameset of choice, and you end up in a similar weight range.) If you build it with the most common high-end componentry we sell, your Noah will tread at the UCI's 6.8kg bike weight limit. Given the aerodynamic edge the Noah provides you, it's no wonder that Team Predictor-Lotto chose the Noah for the 2007 Tour de France. It's the exact frame ridden by Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans. The Noah comes in 5 sizes from Extra Small to Extra Large. Given its compact geometry, we strongly suggest that you focus on the virtual top tube length as you make a determination of the proper size. The Noah comes with a beautifully painted-to-match Ridley 4ZA monocoque full carbon fiber fork and a proprietary FSA integrated headset. It requires an English bottom bracket, and a braze-on front derailleur. It has a 5-year warranty from manufacturing defect. Please provide us with your BB-Saddle Rail height in the "Comments" section of our order form so we can properly cut down the seat tube for delivery. One final note on sizing: On all sizes the top of the seat tube is 235mm above the center of the top tube, not including seat mounting hardware.
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