Ridley

Fenix Carbon Ultegra Complete Road Bike - 2015

The Ridley frame at the heart of the Fenix Carbon Ultegra Complete Road Bike is proven on the hellingen of Flanders and the Napoleonic-era stones of the road to Roubaix. It's seen the podium of one of cycling's monuments. It's been at the pointy end of the peloton for years. With this special build that we managed to get our hands on, it's now equipped with the kind of kit that we prefer for our own recreational and training rides. The mix of Ultegra and 105 components is admittedly unlikely to feature under Greipel and his Lotto-Soudal teammates, but for any aspiring racer who hasn't quite signed a contract, this Fenix is the ideal stage for building form, racing, or both.

The key to the frame's limitless ride is Ridley's artful layup of vibration devouring 30 and 24 ton unidirectional carbon fibers. While the harsher, purely weight-focused frames in Ridley's line use 50 to 60 ton moduli, the Fenix's carbon strikes a balance between smoothing the road and promoting rigid efficiency. Potholes, cobblestones, and other road hazards — which may feel like repeated hammer blows to the kidneys on 60 ton carbon — take on all the disagreeability of crosswalk paint. We do occasionally tire of wantonly riding over road obstacles, though. In such cases, the stiff, tapered head tube nets responsive steering to dodge through debris with ease.

Comfort and handling aside, the Fenix is meant to get angry when the road turns up or when you start turning the screws. The built-up bottom bracket junction, PressFit 30 bottom bracket, and burly chainstays address power transfer needs, ensuring that comfort doesn't come at the cost of a uselessly wagging drivetrain spine during hard efforts. The seat tube is also squared-off at the bottom with gradually softening edges as it rises to the seat collar. In our experience on this frame, that shaping makes for less lateral flex where we're putting power into the road and a more compliant ride across everything from buzzing chip seal to particularly punishing railroad crossings.

Finally, it's worth noting again that the build kit featured here is not the same that we see on the Fenix ridden to the 2013 Flanders podium by Roelandts. It's also worth noting that he didn’t buy that bike himself and that, if he laid it down in a criterium, for example, he wouldn't be responsible for replacing the drivetrain. While the Ultegra shifters and rear derailleur are the build's highlights, the 105 components' affordability and Ultegra-esque operation recommend them for the abuse of daily training and racing. In fact, many of us at Competitive actually prefer 105 on the bikes we ride during winter base miles on chip seal or while racing 'cross in the fall and violently twitchy criteriums through summer — all of which are situations where the Fenix frameset's blend of comfort and power excel.