Ridley

Noah Fast Road Frameset

Ridley's been on the forefront of aero road frames, having a slippery Noah aero frameset in its arsenal for over a dozen years. A favorite among the sprinters of Ridley sponsored teams, Noah frames helped Robbie McEwen pull on the green jersey at the Tour as well as later versions piloting André Greipel to numerous race wins. The frames became very popular as it not only helped the fast men achieve faster terminal velocity in the sprints, it allowed them to conserve energy by reducing their power expenditure over the course of a 3-week stage race, extremely important for a thicker, more muscular rider to go into the last week relatively fresh. The industry took notice for sure and now every brand has an aero frameset in its arsenal. The Noah has received updates along the way too as Ridley engineers gained insight while developing new aerodynamic structures learned from in-house computer aided design, finite element analysis, and wind tunnel testing, along with real-world feedback from its sponsored pros on Team Lotto Soudal. This latest version of Ridley's fastest road machine, the Noah Fast Road Frameset, brings a host of details boosting stiffness, comfort, and aerodynamics while losing some grams in the process.

The new Noah Fast is a stunning machine indeed. Every line, shape, curve, and detail is designed with aerodynamics in mind. While we're used to seeing Ridley's dedication to aero details in the past stem from integrated seat masts, cutouts at the fork blades and seatstays to reduce turbulence, and hidden, integrated brakes, this new design eschews such features as the engineers have learned how to build a faster Noah thanks to the firm investing in a state of the art wind tunnel (along with a couple of other Belgian brands in a collaborative effort dubbed "Flanders Bike Valley") and the time spent there. What we do notice immediately with this updated version is an ultra-slick seat post clamp, and an all-new fork, designed to work with the intergraded handlebar and stem combo to hide the cables.

The key piece to this new fork design is Ridley’s new F-Steerer. Instead of a traditional round steerer tube, the profile on the Noah's steerer resembles that of a half-moon curvature, allowing Ridley to route the housing, sans the front brake housing on this model, fully internal. Cables are able to run from the controls, through the integrated handlebar and stem and sneak down the side of the steerer tube where it's out of harm's way and doesn't interfere with turning the bar left to right. We're not sure exactly how much drag is saved by hiding the housing, but we really like how it gives the bike a clean look. Ridley claims that the redesigned steerer not only allows for the internal housing, it also increases its lateral stiffness for surefooted descending and wag-free sprinting. Final fork aero touches include small wings just aft of the dropouts to improve airflow and a crown that slots in nicely with the headtube and downtube.

One returning feature is Ridley's F-Surface Plus technology that we've seen incorporated on previous Noahs and its time trial model, the Dean. Essentially, it's the application of a textured surface that's akin to dimples on a golf ball, that's strategically placed in high-pressure areas. The dimples create a tiny bit of turbulence causing the airflow to stay better attached the object and follow the shape of the tube. This allows the frame to simply slice through the air and works even better the faster you go.

To this, Ridley adds its F-Tubing, essentially fluted indentions on the leading edge of the Kammtail aero downtube. These notches, much like the F-Surface treatment, tricks the air into becoming more turbulent causing the passing air to better follow the shape of the tube which improves its aerodynamic efficiency by minimizing wind drag, letting you go faster with fewer watts to the tune of a 4.03-percent savings at 50 km/h. Additionally, the blunt Kammtail shape also helps minimize frame weight while increasing stiffness.

Ridley claims that the new fork, seatpost, and handlebar saves around 250 grams over previous Noahs letting you build up this rim brake version very close to the UCI weight limit without the need of super lightweight (read: fragile) components, for a bike that's simply faster everywhere. Based on Ridley complete builds of the Noah Fast rim brake version versus the disc, it comes in at around 500g, or just over a pound lighter. Ridley claims the disc is a tad bit more aero, though, so choose your most desired terrain or attribute accordingly. New Lotto signing Caleb Ewan will certainly enjoy the increased stiffness of the bottom bracket and head tube over its predecessor, helping to channel every watt from the cranks directly into the rear wheel on those fast sprint finishes. And thankfully the days of speed and aero efficiency being mutually exclusive of comfort is gone and the new lowered seat stays offer a bit more vertical compliance for all-day comfort.

Ridley continues to source its carbon fiber from Toray, renowned in the cycling and aerospace industry as a provider of the world's highest quality carbon fiber. For this model, Ridley uses 60T-40T-30T High Modulus Unidirectional Carbon and places the most pliable 30-ton where it's needed for frame flex, comfort, and resiliency and 60-ton where boosting frame stiffness is necessary.