Competitive Cyclist

RIDLEY EXCALIBUR

The Excalibur is Ridley's best-selling race frame for good reason -- many good reasons, in fact. Some of it is self-evident: At 1100g it's a light frame at an unmatched price with no sacrifice to stiffness or performance. Unlike the triangulated "Sharp Edge Design" you find on the Damocles, or the super-aero tubes of the Noah, the Excalibur is built in a monocoque design with oversized round tubes. Here's a good tip for you: If you're interested in assessing the likely stiffness of a frame without even riding it, inspect the girth of its tubing junctures -- that's where the tale is told. It's analogous to a suspension bridge or a tall tree, where beefy ends give the structure as a whole resistance to torsional flex. Take a long look at the headtube/down tube juncture and the down tube/BB juncture of the Excalibur and then utter one big "WOW."

While you might look at the Excalibur and think it's a mere kermesse bike -- the sort of "grip it and rip it" rocketship suited for little more than the warp speed circuit races so popular throughout Ridley's homeland of Belgium, think again. It was the team bike of the UCI Continental Pro Team Unibet. Unibet riders cracked the top-20 in 6+ hour epics such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, as well as a host of other rough-and-tumble spring classics on the worst roads of Belgium and northern France. Team Unibet knew the secret of the Excalibur: Its oversized tubing gives it top fuel racing-like acceleration and resistance to flex, but it won't brutalize you when you head out the door for a 5-hour cruise in your 53x19. The tradition of the Excalibur in the professional peloton is upheld to this day, as the team Contentpolis-Ampo tears up the Spanish race calendar. Spaniards or not, they showed off their Belgian-like hardman skills by nearly winning the sprinters jersey in the murderously difficult Tour of the Basque Country.

If you're like many folks we know, you might find yourself in a bit of indecision trying to choose between the Excalibur and the Damocles. What's our advice? It boils down to your priorities. The Damocles offers a decidedly more race-focused ride quality where flat-out stiffness is seen as more asset than liability. On chip-and-seal country roads the Excalibur provides a more mellow ride. Not unlike the legendary Cervélo R3, the Excalibur has slender seatstays specifically designed to damp road vibration. It really does work -- and on an epic ride it makes a real difference. That's not to say that the Damocles is a jackhammer. It's stiffer, but the stiffness you'll feel on jarring roads is no more noteworthy than what you get from almost every other carbon frame in the marketplace. In fact, if most of your riding is less than 2 hours you might possibly prefer the Damocles' sharp responsiveness to the power you put into the pedals.

This distinction aside, you'll be hard-pressed to find another carbon bike in the Excalibur's price class built with such care (both structural and aesthetic), with similar lightness, durability, smoothness and with anything even closely resembling its pro pedigree. It's a thoroughbred that has many of the markings of framesets priced well over $2,500. Its sub-$2,000 price tag is a fact that grabs people by the scruff of the neck on a daily basis here because we offer no other carbon frame (from any brand) that gives you equal bang for the buck.

The Excalibur is available 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 frame comes with a beautifully painted-to-match Ridley 4ZA Excalibur monocoque full carbon fiber fork and a proprietary FSA integrated headset. It requires a 31.6mm seatpost, an English bottom bracket, and a 34.9mm front derailleur. It has a 5-year warranty from manufacturing defect.

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2010 Ridley Excalibur Pricing

2010 Ridley Excalibur Geometry

Size	Seat Tube c-c	Seat Tube c-t	Actual Top Tube	Effective Top Tube	Head Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Angle
XS	44.0	48.0	51.0	52.5	13.0	74.0	72.0
S	47.0	51.0	53.0	54.5	14.5	73.5	73.0
M	50.0	54.0	55.0	56.5	17.5	73.0	73.5
L	53.0	57.0	57.0	58.5	20.5	72.5	73.5
XL	56.0	60.0	58.5	60.0	23.0	72.5	74.0