the past is the past, the present won’t last, but the

THE PAST IS THE PAST, THE PRESENT WON’T LAST, BUT THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS...

www.fast-concept.com

A SHORT SUMMARY OF RIDLEY’S GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGY

Whenever you hear the word ‘fast’, your pulse starts racing. That’s probably also why this catalogue caught your eye. You’re intrigued by speed and aerodynamics. Basically, you’re a human speed machine, living life in the fast lane. That’s why you might not have the time to flip through the whole catalogue. So here’s a short summary of our new groundbreaking technology. In other words: the ‘fast’ version of our FAST-concept.

Most brands work in the same way, only focusing on streamlining the bike with droplet shaped tubes. For us, this is only the beginning. Our engineers, in their constant strive to develop the fastest bike in the world, analyzed aerodynamics to the bone. Throughout years of in-depth wind tunnel testing, they discovered 3 major issues that cause drag and restrain the speed a bike can obtain. They found a solution for each one of them. The result: the FAST-concept. A tripod concept containing 3 groundbreaking technologies.

F-Splitfork™: jet foils which draw air away from the spokes, and counteract on turbulence generated by the wheels. Result: speed!

F-Brake™: the first real integrated brake! The first brake that makes you faster.

F-Surface™: a textured surface applied to strategic locations on the frame, letting air travel smoothly around the frame instead of detaching and creating drag.

Want to discover more about this innovation that will shape the future of bike technology? Please read on…


Let us introduce you to the “Holy Trinity” of the bike industry: Weight, Stiffness and Speed. These are the three important aspects manufacturers take into account when developing a bike. It is also with this trinity in mind that Ridley has developed its 3 major ranges over the years : the strength range (focusing on durability and impact resistance), the stiffness- to-weight range, and the aero range.

To define the right forms for these different ranges, Ridley always follows one of nature’s, and architecture’s, golden rules : “Form follows function”. Simply stated: the way something looks should be determined by its purpose. Na-ture, and its way of optimizing everything through human evolution, is sub-lime proof of this principle. So it is with this golden “form follows function” rule in mind that Ridley has developed its range over the years. In other words: we used the examples found in nature’s past evolution to shape the bike industry’s current and future evolution.

How did this “Form Follows Function” principle shape Ridley’s 3 major ranges?

Strength: In 2002 we started our carbon strength range. We introduced the conic oversized headset (now an industry standard) and our specific diamond tube shape, nature’s strongest form.

Stiffness to weight: To reach high stiffness with minimal weight and create a perfect balance between performance and comfort, round tubes and flex seat stay are nature’s answer.

Aero: As to optimizing aerodynamics, nature has the perfect answer in the form of the well known droplet shape. Therefore, the tubes of our aero frames are designed with the droplet shape in mind. However, trying to approach the droplet shape as good as possible was just the beginning. Ridley’s engineers took it even further in their quest for groundbreaking innovation. Their strive to develop the fastest bike in the world led them to analyze bike aerodynamics to the bone.

Result: the Fast-concept, a new groundbreaking innovation that will shape the bike industry’s future aero technology.

RIDLEY: “FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION”: SHAPING CURRENT AND FUTURE BIKE EVOLUTION.


THE FASTEST BIKE IN THE WORLD: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

Why does Ridley focus on aerodynamics?

For many years, the goal of most bike manufacturers has been to develop a bike as light as possible. Yet in this field, most of what can be done has been done: reducing bike weight even further would endanger a rider’s safety. That’s why UCI-rules state that the weight of a professional racing bike has to be at least 6,8 kg. So as the weight of a bike has been finetuned to its fullest potential, the bike industry had to look elsewhere to improve bike performance.

The stiffness of a bike maybe? Also in this case: what could be done, has been done. Making bikes even stiffer would make them totally uncomfortable to ride and very hard for the riders body to handle.

So for us the most important feature is the speed of the bike. Our goal has always been and still is to develop the fastest bike in the world. The aerodynamics of a bike have a huge impact on the speed a rider can obtain on his bike! Fortunately, contrary to stiffness and weight, the field of aerodynamics still offers an enormous range of possibilities for improvement.

Aerodynamics is the field where future bike technology will be shaped!

That’s why aerodynamics have been Ridley’s point of focus during the past 6 years. In 2006 we started developing our aero range, which was launched in the Tour de France of 2008. Result: a time trial win, a sprint stage win and second place in the general classification. During the following years, our engineers kept analyzing and finetuning aerodynamics to the bone. Their mission: develop the fastest bike in the world.

Result:

MIS

SION

AC

COM

PLIS

HED


THE F.A.S.T.-CONCEPT: REDEFINING AERODYNAMICS

Did you know that at a speed of 40km/h, more than 2/3 of the total power a cyclist has to deliver is due to air resistance? So needless to say that the aerodynamics of a bike have a huge impact on the speed a bike can obtain!

Ridley was one of the first in the bike industry who realized the importance of the aerodynamics of a bike and started developing its own aero technologies. During the past years, we have build several proven and patented technologies .

You might think: “nice, but so do the other brands.” Indeed, nowadays you hear many bicycle brands talking about aerodynamics. Everybody is aware that this is indeed the field were future bike technology will be shaped.

However, most brands work in the same way, just focusing on streamlining the product. Of course ‘streamlining’ is important. It is after all the beginning of the development of an aero-bike. But it’s just that: the beginning. Unfortunately, this is also where most brands stop, putting the complete and sole focus on streamlining.

At Ridley, we start were the others stop. Streamlining is only the start of further redefining aerodynamics!


SHAPING THE FUTURE BY STARTING WHERE THE OTHERS STOP …

Our starting point: a perfectly streamlined bike, optimized on stiffness.

With this perfectly streamlined bike in hand, our engineers started looking for the real problems causing drag, the natural resistance force that is restraining forward progress when cycling. If you are riding solo, you spend about 70% of your energy overcoming this resistance!

When testing our products in the windtunnel, our engineers discovered 3 major issues increasing drag. In order to make the bicycle faster we had to work on these issues.

Result: the FAST-concept.

A tripod concept containing 3 major groundbreaking technologies, each working on a different field of the bike. Put them together and you get the fastest bike in the world.

F-Splitfork™: jet foils which draw air away from the spokes, and counteract on turbulence generated by the wheels. Result: speed!

F-Brake™: the first real integrated brake ! The first brake that makes you faster.

F-Surface™: a textured surface applied to strategic locations on the frame, letting air travel smoothly around the frame instead of detaching and creating drag..


Most turbulence created by the bike is caused by the wheels (and spokes). At the top of the wheels the spokes are moving forward while colliding with the frontal wind. This causes a major turbulence, creating drag and slowing down the bike. With our splitfork we guide the incoming frontal air away from the spokes and create in this manner an airstream, away from the wheels. In this way, we reduce the interaction of the airstream with the spokes which results in reduced turbulence and drag.

Windtunnel Test results:

We started our windtunnel test with standing wheels. Then we saw that the best competitor fork had less drag than our F-Splitfork™. Obviously such a test is Non-Significant, because when you ride a bike the wheels are always turning. So we performed a second test with the wheels turning:

Final conclusion:Drag is increasingly lower on the F-Splitfork™ as wheel speed is increased. The F-Splitfork™ has 7.44 % less drag then the competitor fork used in this test. The data shows the Ridley F-Splitfork™ out-performed the competitor's forks.


spoke spoke

air air

Driving direction Driving direction

STANDARD FORK AERODYNAMICS RIDLEY F-SPLITFORK™ AERODYNAMICS

Test#

13

Test#

24

fork

F-splitfork™Competitor fork

fork

F-splitfork™Competitor fork

blades

doublesingle

blades

doublesingle

Wheel

standingstanding

Wheel

turningturning

Drag [N]

19.418.8

Drag [N]

19.921,5

Difference [N]

1,60

Difference %

7,44%

Setting a new industry standard by creating a groundbreaking innovation : the first real integrated brake !

There is off course no doubt about the necessity of a brake on a bike! But this brake, like other bike components, creates turbulence and causes drag, restraining the speed a bike can obtain. That’s why it has been one of the main goals of bike manufacturers to integrate the brakes as much as possible.

Until now, many efforts have been made, yet no one was able to truly integrate the brake into frame and fork. Following years of in-depth testing, we therefore started developing our own brakes and integrated these into the frame and fork itself.

The result: the first real integrated brake. This innovative setup results in less drag and cleaner lines: a faster, sleeker and better solution.

In other words: the first brake in the world which makes you faster!

If you see the picture of this unique brake system there’s no need to tell the aerodynamic advantage of this brake. Normal brakes, which are obvious undesirable obstacles in the airstream, create turbulence while the position and shape of our speed brakes reduces the air resistance to a very minimum. Moreover, creating the brakes like this, we are able to lengthen the F-Splitfork™ from dropout to fork crown, giving the bike even more of an advantage.



Noah Hellium road bike Difference in %

Duration 234 sec 237 sec

14,11 Watt 4,66%

Average speed 40,2365 Km/h 39,82103 Km/h

Average power output 293,5903 Watt 299,3928 Watt

Corrected speed 40 Km/h 40 Km/h

Corrected speed output 288,8602 Watt 302,9721 Watt

Average heart rate 139,9514 bpm 143,5264 bpm 3,57 bpm 2,49%

Track Test

Following tests are performed on a closed track, so we can compare our windtunnel test result to a "riding" test. The rider keeps a constant speed and we measure the Watts needed to reach the speed, as well as the heart rate.

Noah vs roadbikes Track Test

Conclusion:

On the Ridley Noah you need to pedal 14,11 Watt less than on a normal road bike to reach a speed of 40 km/h. Beside your heart beat goes down by 2,49% which was between 3 and 4 bpm for our professional testrider.

Noah vs Noah FB (Fast Brake) Track Test

Conclusion:

On the Ridley Noah FB with the NEW integrated brake you need to pedal 6,08 Watt less than on a normal Noah to reach a speed of 40 km/h. Besides your heart beat goes down by 2,64% which was about 3 bpm for our professional testrider.

Final Conclusion

With the Noah FB you save more than 20 Watt (14,11 + 6,08) compared to a normal road bike, while your heartbeat goes down by more than 4%. This means that the track test proves our windtunnel results, our FAST-concept bikes make professional riders faster and conserve energy.

Noah Noah FB(Fast Brake) Difference in %

Duration 234 sec 233 sec

6,08 Watt 2,10%

Average speed 40,2365 Km/h 39,86221 Km/h

Average power output 293,5903 Watt 280,026 Watt

Corrected speed 40 Km/h 40 Km/h

Corrected speed output 288,8602 Watt 282,7817 Watt

Average heart rate 139,9514 bpm 136,2597 bpm 3,69 bpm 2,64%

The

firs

t re

al

inte

gra

ted

b

icyc

le

bra

ke:

F-B

rake

™

Our integrated brake (F-Brake™) has 5 major advantages:

Better aerodynamics:

The head tube in the front of the bike is in direct contact with the frontal wind, without a major caliper in the front which acts like an obstacle and causes turbulence.

The turbulence caused by the integrated brake arms is minimal because of the aerodynamic shape and the position behind the fork crown.

The proven advantage of the F-Splitfork™ increases, due to the fact that the split section in the fork can be increased in length from drop out to the fork crown.

Saving weight: The average high-end alloy brake caliper weighs about 300gr. The F-Brake on the contrary is carbon and part of the frame/fork.

Better braking performance: The brake is part of the frame structure, and not a caliper bolted on a fork. Two parts bolted together always have minimal movement. Our integrated brake has virtually no movement and therefore very consistent in brake power without losing “movement” power.

Less maintenance needed.

More easy to adjust: you can “open” your brakes on the handlebar.


•

•

•

The frontal wind has to “pass around” the tubes of the bike, and has to change its direction to follow the profile of the bike. To make it easier for the airstream to follow the profile of the bike and stay close to the bike, the tubes are designed in a droplet shape.

However, even then it's not possible to keep the airstream in touch with the frame at every location. At sudden locations the airstream releases the frame, creating a wake on these locations which increases the drag. Therefore we did extensive wind tunnel testing and used oil mapping technology to locate the places where the wind releases the frame. To avoid the airstream releasing from the frame on these locations, we apply a structure surface on well defined locations in order keep to the wind close to the frame. Which in its turn, reduces drag. Once again optimizing the speed a bike can obtain…

Windtunnel Test Results:


Velocity [kph]

5055606570

Std PaintDrag [N]

5.967.048.479.9611.33

F-Surface™Drag [N]

5.726.818.069.5310.84

difference

4.03%3.27%4.84%4.32%4.32%4.16%Average:

Conclusion: Ridley F-Surface™ paint reduces drag at any speed, with an average of more than 4%.

STANDARD PAINT

F-SURFACE™

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the past is the past, the present won’t last, but the

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