"It was true cyclocross. After two laps my bicycle weighed 10 kilos more because of the mud."

This off-the-cuff comment by 2005 Cyclocross World Champion Sven Nys after a World Cup race in Wetzikon, Switzerland might rank as the perfect summary of just how savage 'cross racing can be. Nothing you can do on a bike quite equals the sustained violence you get in 'cross, and no other discipline makes the same paradoxical demands on your bike: On the one hand, you need a bike that can withstand rocky, rutted courses better suited for a brutish 4" travel full-suspension mountain bike. On the other hand, since you have to dismount and essentially clean-and-jerk your bike over your shoulder 20 or 30 times per race, weight matters because you feel every last gram of it (whether it's bike weight or mud weight) as the race wears on.

With the X-Night, Ridley offers a cost-be-damned solution for the 'cross paradox. Its full carbon fiber construction is built in a monocoque design in order to maximize its strength, its impact resistance (in case you miss when you try to bunny hop a barrier!), and its resistance to torsional flex. Ridley employs the same "Sharp Edge Design" tubing configurations they perfected with the Damocles and Noah road bikes -- the day-in, day-out race bike for Team Predictor-Lotto. In comparison to traditional round tubes, Ridley's unique tubesets give their carbon bikes unmatched strength-to-weight in the cyclocross marketplace. They can shave every unnecessary gram from the frame, resulting in an overall weight of 1.32kg. That's just an ounce or so more than some of the best loved road bikes in the marketplace, such as the Colnago C50, the Cervelo Soloist Carbon, and the Ridley Damocles. It's the stiffest, strongest, carbon 'cross bike in the world, and it'll give you the same advantage it gives Team Fidea pros Bart Wellens and 2006 World Champion Erwin Vervecken.

The X-Night is available in Black Carbon with White and Grey highlights. It comes in even sizes from 50cm-58cm. One superb detail of the X-Night is its Ridley Python carbon fiber 'cross fork -- the most respected fork in the 'cross marketplace, and one you'll see on countless brands of pro bikes. It has a stiffness and lightness that mirrors the qualities you get from the X-Night itself, and it allows the X-Night to track through technical courses (at both low and high speeds) with unmatched precision. It also comes with an FSA integrated 1-1/8" headset. It requires a 31.6mm seatpost, a 34.9mm front derailleur. It has a 5-year warranty from manufacturing defect.

2008 Ridley X-Night Pricing
	Frameset	Record / Chorus	Centaur / Dura Ace	Ultegra SL / Red	Force / Rival
X-Night	$2499	4904 / 4536	4026 / 4833	4123 / 4830	4188 / 3851

2008 Ridley X-Night Geometry

Seat Tube c-c	Seat Tube c-t	Top Tube	Head Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Angle
50.0	52.0	52.0	12.5	73.5	72.0
52.0	56.0	53.5	14.5	73.0	72.0
54.0	58.0	54.5	16.5	73.0	72.0
56.0	60.0	56.0	18.5	73.0	72.0
58.0	62.0	57.5	20.5	73.0	72.0