RIDLEY NOAH - 2011

It's easy to get obsessed with shaving grams from your bike, but do you give much thought to grams of drag? With the Noah, Ridley has given aerodynamics just as much consideration as the static mass of the frame. Here is the reality: Ride a frame with low enough drag, and it'll deliver all the performance advantage of a lighter frame, while being indisputably faster at big-ring speeds. 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.

The latest generation Ridley Noah shares the same proven aero features as the first-generation version -- including an aero downtube, an aero seat tube that extends into an integrated seat mast, plus a rear wheel cut-out. What sets it apart from its predecessor is its use of Ridley's R-Flow technology. As we all know by now, drag increases exponentially with airspeed, which means small changes to reduce your drag will have a disproportionately positive impact as your speed increases.

R-Flow technology focuses on one specific issue of bicycle aerodynamics: According to Ridley, your wheels produce 8x more drag where they pass through your fork and seat stays due to the turbulence of the colliding air masses there. The Noah is built to minimize this drag thanks to its use of long, slotted airfoils built into both the fork legs and the seat stays. These airfoils direct oncoming air away from the turbulent areas near the wheels.

The story of the Noah goes beyond R-Flow. Ridley used oil mapping in the wind tunnel to isolate spots of turbulent airflow. And where structural limitations kept them from re-sculpting the frame, they apply a textured surface treatment for boundary layer control. Ridley calls it "R-Surface paint", and our affectionate shorthand here is "aero paint". These thin stripes of texture are amazing: They purposely trigger a known amount of turbulence that re-energizes lost boundary layers, ultimately re-establishing laminar flow and minimizing drag. In other words, they carefully create an airflow mess in order to make an unprecedented cleanliness. Airflow control is why you see vortex generators on jets, and why you see dimples on golf balls. And it's exactly what Ridley does with their R-Surface paint.

The Ridley Noah comes in five sizes from X-Small to X-Large and is available in seven colors. Given its semi-compact geometry, we strongly suggest that you focus on the effective top tube length as you make a determination of the proper size. The Noah requires an English bottom bracket and a braze-on front derailleur. It includes a 120 gram seat clamp assembly that allows an 18mm range in saddle height and comes with 1mm micro-spacers for small adjustments. (Ridley also offers an aftermarket clamp that provides 40mm of height adjustment.) With the frame weight at less than 1200 grams, comparison with other bikes are favorable for the Noah as you save some weight for the seatmast/clamp assembly. In the end, there's virtually no weight penalty whatsoever. Given the aerodynamic upsides of the Noah, the fact that weight is a non-issue makes it that much more appealing.

Please provide us with your BB-Saddle Rail height in the "Comments" section of our order form so we can properly cut down the seatmast for delivery.

One final note on sizing: On all sizes, the top of the uncut seatmast is 235mm above the center of the top tube.

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