Ridley

Helium C10 Ultegra Complete Road Bike - 2015

The book of Ridley's Helium C10 Ultegra Complete Bike is written in clean, smooth lines that aren't often seen in the carbon frame industry. It's a frame that doesn't need dramatically swooping tubes, junctions, and the inevitable acronyms that accompany them to prove its quality. Instead, everything about it — from the frame to the drivetrain and wheels — lets a rarely seen quality of straightforward functionality do the talking.

The Helium's namesake element happens to be one of the lightest on the periodic table, and the design of the frame reflects this, with a size medium weighing a claimed 880 grams. Ridley hit this low weight by blending two moduli of unidirectional carbon, 30T and 24T, in a strategic lay-up designed to keep weight down without sacrificing durability or stiffness.

The Helium's thin, slightly flattened seatstays and standard 27.2 millimeter seatpost prove that these designs, contrary to the industry's marketing materials, are just as valuable to a comfortable ride today as they were when the need to sell new model years pushed other manufacturers to "innovate" with bizarre shapes and materials. The rear triangle devours road noise and bumps like Helium's halogen cousins gobble up other molecules' electrons.

The Helium C10's low-weight emphasis and no-nonsense functionality carry over into the groupset, which is a complete Shimano Ultegra affair except for the slightly heavier but ever more durable 105 cassette. Some manufacturers save overhead on the crankset, opting for a sub-par third party or proprietary option, but Ridley sticks to its guns and ponies up with the new semi-compact, exceptionally stiff, four-arm Ultegra cranks — easily one of our favorite pieces of kit for 2015. The wheels are Fulcrum's redoubtable Racing 5s, and if you have yet to experience the increased ride quality of 25 millimeter tires, then Continental's robust Ultra Sports will instantly win you over.