Review: Is the Ridley ASTR RS the way forward for gravel race bikes?

Ridley’s new gravel bike will grow to be a blueprint for a way one of the best gravel race bikes will probably be designed over the following handful of years. That’s a powerful solution to start a evaluation, I do know, however I need to seize your consideration as a result of though that assertion is nothing greater than my very own opinion, I actually need it to be true. 

As we lead into the UCI Gravel Worlds, Ridley is immediately asserting a motorcycle that was first sighted on the often-dubbed ‘unofficial gravel worlds’, Unbound Gravel, in June. Team Classified-Ridley rider, Piotr Havik, was given the bike simply 10 days previous to the race and regardless of having the Kanzo Fast at his disposal and dialled in, he determined he needed to race the brand new bike. He completed 4th. 

Coincidentally, I too completed 4th once I rode this evaluation pattern on the British Masters Gravel Championships, a 90km undulating race over tough floor on the finish of August. On the identical day within the elite races, Annabel Fisher rode hers to victory within the ladies’s race (technically 2nd behind Alison Jackson however as a non-Brit, she was ineligible for the title), and Toby Perry rode his into 2nd within the males’s race behind Connor Swift. 

The bike in query is the Ridley ASTR RS, a motorcycle that, put very merely, pairs an aerodynamic body with slender handlebars, large tyre clearance, first rate weight, and a geometry that pairs an extended wheelbase with a racy, aggressive match. Couple that with the brand new SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset (in my particular take a look at spec) and you’ve got an enormous inexperienced test in opposition to every merchandise on my gravel race bike wishlist. 

Ridley says it’s a mixture of the Kanzo Adventure, with its extensive clearance and lengthy wheelbase, and the aero wants of racers in gravel occasions with extra technical terrain and better common speeds comparable to Unbound, the Traka and Big Sugar. Interestingly, it is not set to switch the Kanzo Fast however fairly will reside alongside it within the vary.

Why I believe it is the longer term

There’s no denying that gravel bike racing is getting quicker because it will get extra critical. The profitable common velocity on the Men’s Unbound, for instance, has grown by 2mph in simply 4 years. The quicker it will get, the extra aerodynamics issues. It’s the explanation we noticed Lachlan Morton carrying a skinsuit with an inbuilt hydration bladder at Unbound 2024, for instance. 

But gravel remains to be comparatively gradual in comparison with highway racing. Where the lads’s professional highway peloton speeds are actually approaching 50km/h, the quickest gravel racers are averaging extra like 35, and most novice racers extra like 30. Aerodynamics nonetheless issues rather a lot, however the resistant drive of airflow is smaller. 

Then when you think about that the tough surfaces of gravel programs imply that absolute rolling resistance is considerably greater than on the highway. The breakdown of the forces performing in opposition to a rider is massively totally different. Aero nonetheless issues most, however that proportion of rolling resistance is far greater. When it involves optimising your setup for a specific course, tyre alternative is crucial.

With wider tyres typically providing decrease rolling resistance, it is smart that the broader you go, the quicker you may be. The rougher the course, the more true it will grow to be, and it additionally enables you to run decrease pressures, lowering your probability of punctures and enhancing grip in corners. Obviously, there is a restrict to this; fats bike tyres will not be the following frontier of efficiency, however the trade has but to choose simply how extensive is optimum. The present development is someplace round 40mm, however the ASTR RS goes a lot wider. 

Plenty of bikes at the moment supply one or the opposite. The BMC Kaius 01, for instance, pushed the envelope with aerodynamics – its 36cm handlebars the massive differentiator – however the 44mm tyre clearance remains to be fairly limiting. The Lauf Seigla goes the opposite means, going all-in on tyre clearance with house for 57mm, however the focus for the body is extra on vibration absorption fairly than aerodynamics, and should you purchase it in a measurement L or XL you may get frankly ridiculous 44cm extensive bars. Sorry Lauf, however I actually dislike extensive bars.

On paper not less than, the Ridley ASTR RS is the bike doing each of these issues nicely, with none actual detriment to weight, and as nicely get into under, it interprets off paper and into the actual world fairly properly. 

Design, specs, and the way they have an effect on the journey

The base of the brand new ASTR bike is a semi-aero body that would not actually look misplaced on the highway. There’s no main aero trickery, only a easy mixture of aerodynamically profiled tubes and total I believe it appears to be like first rate. 

There are two variants of the brand new bike. The ASTR RS is the higher-spec mannequin you see right here. This take a look at mannequin is the top-spec mannequin within the vary, priced at €11699 (worldwide pricing to be confirmed), however this mannequin begins at €7299 with GRX Di2.

Meanwhile, the ASTR (with out the RS suffix) is a extra entry-level mannequin with a lower-grade carbon fibre layup. This bears a really related silhouette, however with a spherical seatpost fairly than the D-shaped publish on the dearer mannequin, and lower-spec fashions include a two-piece bar and stem, fairly than a one-piece possibility. The worth right here begins at €3299 for a mechanical 2x Shimano GRX setup and rises to €6299 for 2x GRX Di2.

The tyre clearance on each fashions is 700 x 52mm, or 29 x 2.0in mountain bike tyres. That’s not the widest in the marketplace, so far as I’m conscious that crown goes to the Lauf Seigla as talked about above and the 3T Extrema Italia, nevertheless it’s nonetheless probably the most progressive round. 

Both are suitable with 1x and 2x groupsets, though the latter possibility reduces the tyre clearance all the way down to 47mm. The ASTR RS is suitable with digital groupsets solely, whereas the ASTR can be workable with mechanical groupsets. 

Probably the simplest solution to comprehend the place of the ASTR in Ridley’s lineup, and within the wider market, is to check the geometry to the Kanzo Fast and Kanzo Adventure. 

You can see that the top angle and chainstays match the Kanzo Fast, serving to it to copy the quick dealing with and responsiveness of the bike, however the seat tube angle and wheelbase are extra alike the Kanzo Adventure, a motorcycle which was initially designed to be steady and surefooted for long-distance rides and bikepacking. When you pair that with a concentrate on protecting the load down for racing, with mounts just for bottles and the aero body baggage designed in conjunction by Apidura, you begin to get an concept of what this bike is about. 

And at 890g for an unpainted medium body, it isn’t the lightest in the marketplace nevertheless it’s aggressive.

Up entrance, the ASTR RS (and higher-spec ASTR fashions) are given a one-piece cockpit. In the case of my take a look at bike, that could be a Nimbus Pro from Ridley’s in-house element subsidiary Forza. At 36cm extensive on the hoods and a 2cm flare to 40 on the drops, it places you in a quick, aero place when rolling alongside the flat terrain, however with out compromising on leverage within the drops while you’re descending technical terrain. 

Paired with the ergonomics of the brand new SRAM Red AXS hoods, management of the bike felt wonderful, and given their form and my choice to angle them inwards barely for ergonomics, the space between the ideas of the hoods on my take a look at mannequin, in its race-ready state, was a very-progressive 31cm. 

My take a look at bike was paired with DT Swiss GRC 1400 wheels which have a 24mm inside rim width. I actually like DT Swiss wheels normally, and the GRC 1400 are among the many greatest gravel wheelsets round, however there are extra progressive choices. The 24mm inside profile is now not thought of innovative, so their inclusion feels considerably at odds with the bike’s in any other case progressive nature. When I paired the bike with Zipp’s 303 XPLR SW wheels (with their 32mm inside rim), the bike turned much more succesful and surefooted. 

My esteemed colleague Tom has already lined the professionals and cons of these wheels in a separate evaluation, so I’ll save my ideas on these. You can learn his ideas in our Zipp 303 XPLR SW evaluation.

Just just a few weeks in the past, my native cyclocross season opener (dry and quick, principally a grass crit) was an ideal take a look at to show that the longer wheelbase wasn’t holding the bike again on twisty terrain. Those annoying banked hairpins the place you repeatedly go up and down the identical financial institution are normally my nemesis, however the Goodyear Inter XPLR tyres gripped brilliantly and both my bike dealing with expertise had reworked, or the bike was making me look good. I do know what my cash’s on. 

Every week later, with the DT Swiss wheels again on the bike, I took it to North Wales to race the 112km Graean Cymru UCI World Series race. With a pair of two.0in Vittoria Terreno Dry tyres and Vittoria’s Air Liner Light inserts fitted, I felt just like the bike may roll over something and every part. 

The floor was very tough, with bits of damaged brick and paving stone strewn at random throughout the already-rocky gravel fireplace roads. Despite deliberately taking dangers on tough strains at greater speeds to make up gaps on descents that I’d earlier misplaced on climbs, I did not endure a puncture all day, and though that sounds extra like a optimistic evaluation for the tyres, it would not have been doable with out a bike with such extensive clearance. 

Moving onto the aero efficiency of the bike, I’m not going to fake I may really feel it being quicker, however every part I find out about aerodynamics would argue that it’s. As we discovered in our current wind tunnel superbike checks, round 80% of my whole frontal space when driving is me, with solely 20% coming from the bike. 

Looking on the 20% portion, the design of the bike matches all of the frequent themes with fashionable aero bikes, with well-shaped truncated tubes, a one-piece cockpit, dropped seat stays and a D-shaped seatpost. Although I’ve not examined it empirically, I’m assured it’s inside the ballpark of what aero gravel bike needs to be. That ballpark would possible imply it is inside the margin of error of testing anyway, though once more, I recognize that is primarily based on assumption fairly than proof.  

More importantly, focussing on the 80% – me – given the ASTR RS places me into an extended and slender place, it is secure to imagine it is web quicker than an equal bike with much less optimum geometry or extensive handlebars. 

What I’d do in another way

With all of the positives I’ve talked about to date, you are most likely considering Ridley has backhanded me a clean cheque. Sadly, a lot because the Facebook commenters prefer to counsel as a lot, I do not receives a commission by manufacturers for my critiques. I most likely would not drive a Peugeot if I did. 

To restore a way of stability, listed here are just a few negatives I must name out concerning the bike that cropped up throughout testing. Namely, just a few construct high quality issues that I’d be sad about if I’d paid for the bike.

Hopefully, most of those will not make it to paying prospects, as I’m advised my bike is a pre-production pattern. 

Firstly, the dealing with of my entrance disc brake mount was miles off, which means it took an age (and numerous submitting) to get the entrance caliper to sit down parallel to the rotor. For whereas I believed I’d be racing with that annoying ‘ting ting ting’ of rotors touching pads, and it took two hours to repair, however fortunately I finally obtained it to sit down straight. 

The second is a slipping seatpost. Thankfully this did not occur throughout any of the races I did, however on a few earlier take a look at rides, the advisable torque wasn’t sufficient to maintain it in place, so a liberal quantity of carbon paste and a slight overtorquing was wanted. It goes with out saying that I would not advocate going past manufacturer-recommended torque specs your self.

The third is fragile paint. On the rear seatstay, a reasonably innocuous knock from a multitool when eradicating the rear wheel was sufficient to take a chip out of the paint. Not a considerable one, nor one that may actually have an effect on the bike in the long term, however I can think about considerably larger knocks from stones flicking up, and common knocks like this shortly start to make a motorcycle look worn. Importantly, it is solely occurred this as soon as, regardless of having raced it on a number of events, so perhaps I’m overanalysing that one chip, however I’d nonetheless hope consumer-facing merchandise would have a barely harder coating. 

The last adverse is one thing that can positively make it to customers, and can both be a complete non-issue or a dealbreaker: the press match backside bracket. Because of my impending races, I selected to swap the underside bracket out for a CeramicSpeed model, and I’ve not had a single concern with it creaking or changing into contaminated. But given the regularity of water and grime ingress when driving gravel, particularly contemplating the poor manufacturing tolerance elsewhere within the body (the disc brake mount), I fear this would possibly result in the dreaded press-fit creak over time. 

Verdict

I preserve my opening line that the ASTR RS will grow to be the blueprint for gravel race bike design. The solely query left unanswered is whether or not 52mm clearance is extensive sufficient, or whether or not, with larger clearances, wider tyres on wider rims, and a greater understanding of how they stability in opposition to aerodynamics, gravel bike tyres ought to go wider nonetheless. Only time will inform. 

I do know that Ridley is not the primary model to acknowledge that aero issues in gravel, neither is it the primary to allow large tyre clearance, however for anybody searching for a gravel race bike proper now, I believe the ASTR RS is the present forefront of what is obtainable when you think about each of these approaches collectively. 

It’s quick, it handles excellently, it is snug, mild, and surefooted but nimble. Sure, there are just a few minor issues that can hopefully be ironed out by the model, however total, it is an amazing race bike and one I’d fortunately commit to purchasing.