Imagine your team bike sponsor develops one of the most aggressive-looking aero bikes on the market, only for the sponsorship gods to decide it’s time for a change of bike sponsors. That’s exactly what happened to the Uno-X Mobility riders, some of whom got to enjoy the wild new Dare VA-AFO this season, but with the team changing to Ridley for next season, riders’ days on that new bike were numbered.
But in good news for Kristoff Korner fans, Ridley has been cooking up a wild new aero bike of its own as seen on this photo shared by the CyclingSpy on Instagram. So wild that if you squint your eyes a little, you might not even notice a difference between it and the new Dare the team left behind.
The new Ridley is an update to the brand’s dedicated aero platform, the Noah. How do we know, you ask? Well, the big clue is it says Noah Fast on that massive head tube; more on that in a bit.
Last updated in 2021, the current Noah Fast had plenty of notable aero features, including a front wheel-hugging down tube, a rear wheel-hugging seat tube, and a horizontal integrated stem. This new Noah takes aero features and dials them up to 11 as evident in this photo that emerged from an Uno-X team bike fitting session.
Most notable among the updates is a huge, truncated head tube that seems to maximise every millimetre permitted under the UCI 8:1 aspect ratio rule, which governs the maximum depth-to-width ratio of frame tubes and was relaxed since the Noah last had an update.
But it’s not just the depth of that head tube that is noteworthy, but also the dropped top headset race, which sits below the top tube for a time trial-esque inline stem and top tube when assembled …. provided the rider is sufficiently able to ride with a slammed stem position that is.
As the rider in shot is seemingly getting a bike fit, the team hasn’t yet cut the steerer tube or routed the hoses. As such, we can clearly see the new Noah also uses a D-shaped steerer, most likely a carry-over of the “F-steerer” used in the new Falcn RS reviewed by yours truly last year.
Interestingly, this Uno-X rider is clearly using a two-piece bar and stem (again perhaps for fit purposes), but another photo we have seen shows the new Noah with an integrated carbon bar stem.
Sticking with what’s new up front, the new fork blades have a slightly deeper aero profile, as you might expect from a modern aero bike. Interestingly, though, the new Noah down tube now sits well behind the front wheel. If we were to guess, Ridley has likely integrated its “fork diffuser” concept first introduced on that new Falcn RS and more recently used on the new Astr RS gravel race bike.
Ridley claims its fork diffuser design reduces drag by reshaping the rear of the fork crown to create a taller, open channel that energises airflow and minimises turbulence. Ridley says this decreases drag on both the fork and down tube.
Speaking of the down tube: Woah, Ridley has gone wide and truncated on this, presumably an attempt to hide the water bottle behind the tube profile.
The new seat tube has gone the same way, with a new, much deeper, and presumably truncated profile. The seat stay-to-seat tube interface has also been updated with a shelf-like profile extending out behind the seat tube. The seat stays themselves also had a radical overhaul, with Ridley ditching the minimal-profile stays on the outgoing bike in favour of this more-profiled design.
Last but not least, the chain stays also got a makeover, and, you guessed it, they too have gotten much larger. That’s likely in search of stiffness gains rather than any aero gains. Although, you can bet some stiffness gains from the new chain stays, which likely allowed designers to reduce the width of the seat stays, so you could perhaps argue there is an indirect aero gain as well as an increase in stiffness.
Finally, if that Falcn RS is anything to go by, expect this new Noah Fast to feature a UDH rear hanger, and although we can’t see it here, expect to see a rather tall, beefy, and no doubt aero-aiding bottom bracket when the bike officially launches or when more spy shots become available.
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