Ridley

X-Trail Ultegra Complete Bike - 2017

All-surface adventuring is having a moment, building from a niche discipline and morphing into a popular mainstream activity that has opened up a whole new perspective on cycling. This is unquestionably a positive shift in the industry that's getting more people on bikes and generating more available bike options, but we also understand that the sudden popularity has left some of us searching for a way to find our own unique ride to stand out among the crowds. To address this, we've partnered with Ridley to bring a special edition of the 2017 X-Trail Ultegra Complete Bike to life in two unique colorways that are guaranteed to shine no matter where your ride takes you.

As with the standard X-Trail Ultegra, this bike pairs the legendarily precise and reliable shifting of Shimano's Ultegra drivetrain with powerful hydraulic brakes. The combination breaks free from the limits of pavement to embrace all manner of tarmac, gravel, and even washboard single track.

Despite its big, gravel-bike footprint, it's important to stress that the X-Trail isn't a dumpy noodler. Ridley shapes the X-Trail's frame using ultralight unidirectional carbon, equipping the frame to offer quick accelerations and a stiff, responsive ride for everything from pannier-laden weekend trips to off-road segments in gravel/enduro hybrid races. Subtly asymmetrical, the Oryx Disc fork is carefully reinforced on the left leg to allow it to more efficiently bear twisting forces applied by disc brakes, and with a 15 x 100mm thru axle in front and a 12 x 142mm in the rear, the frame achieves confidence-inspiring stiffness throughout.

As implied by the above, the X-Trail is a melting pot of frame geometries. The result resembles a road bike more than a classic cyclocross bike like the X-Night; it has a lower bottom bracket, shorter chainstays, and a stack/reach combination that leaves riders in less of a shoulder-intensive, slammed racing position. In contrast to its road racing frames, Ridley extends the X-Trail C30's head tube by 10mm, bringing riders into a more upright position to accommodate longer training and touring rides rather than racing exclusively. It's only slightly more aggressive than the Fenix, in fact, but unlike its endurance road cousin, the X-Trail is designed to be run with tires up to 40mm wide on more rugged terrain.