Hi All - new to the forum (hello!) and trying to do my research before I throw down the money for a new bike. I am looking to purchase a road bike (I've ridden mountain in the past and currently have a Trek Hybrid) but want the ability to ride the gravel trails in the forest preserves around my house, with the option to do longer rides, such as RAGBRAI as well.
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\nI've ridden Trek my entire life and have no complaints, but haven't found one of their bikes necessarily suitable for what I'm looking for. So I'm now Looking to broaden my horizon a bit and have narrowed down my choices to the Ridley X-Trail CR2, Jamis Renegade Expert, and Specialized Diverge Comp X1 (hopefully those are good choices!?). I've also thought about the Niner RLT but a few local bike shops have told me the other options may be better.
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\nAny thoughts on which bike may be a better fit and provide a real mix to do road and gravel? Any specific items I should think about? Is there one that provides more for the money (all are between $2100 and $2500 from what I've seen advertised).
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\nThanks so much in advance!!
I really only know about the Ridley, which I have and love (CR1? - ultegra level). I have friends with the Specialized who love it and I hear good things about the Jamis as well. Doubt you can go wrong. Hopefully you can have the ability to hop on each one before needing to make a decision. Seeing them in person is always nice too. I upgraded my crankset, stem, post, and seat but there is no way for me to act like those were in any way necessary.
Some people complain about the sizing of the Ridley. I don't personally understand it, but it is worth double checking the geometry or even better riding it. I could not be happier.
When comparing similarly priced bikes, make sure to check all the components. Full build kits are rare nowadays and things like brakes pads, rotors, cables, stem, bars, seat, tires, wheels, bottom bracket, etc... can all make a big monetary difference.
Good luck. Likely 3 or more good options and no real wrong decisions.
I am having a hard time being able to see / test ride the Jamis and Ridley (you would think this would not be a problem in Chicago-land area) and that is part of the trouble I am having choosing between the three. I hate to make my decision based on only reviews, so having your opinion and others is very helpful!
No problem. Feel free to ask any specific questions you may have. There are definitely not a lot of the Ridley's out and about. All our local (Portland, OR) bike shops that are Ridley dealers are unable to stock it. The only "local" store we have is Performance Bike which is thankfully very close to me and has great deals. I am still not sure how much if any service work I will rely on them for, but time will tell.
I've got the Ridley X-Trail as well - the Performance Bikes CR1 (Ridley C30). It's a great bike. With a couple of sets of wheels you can ride about anything on this bike.
The above post is correct re geometry - on both the Ridley site and the Performance site they have the wrong length for the effective top tube length. On the Ridley site they just switched with the actual top tube length. That said, they seem to run large. I'm a 53cm on road and usually a Medium and sometimes a Small for bikes that size that way but was XS in the Ridley. When I got mine the X-Trail was so new that no one had any. But my dealer had the Fenix, with very similar sizing and geo, in S & XS so was able to test ride those.
I don't have any experience with the Jamis but have a few friends w/the Diverge - all in carbon. In my opinion, both the X-Trail and Diverge would make very good road bikes. Their geometries are very similar to their fondo bikes - Fenix and Roubaix. So very road oriented but with room for wider tires. But, before you decide on the Diverge, do some research on the SCS rear hub system. It's pretty much a proprietary system. It is well engineered so if you ride your bikes stock this may be ok. But if you like to fit aftermarket wheels it will likely be a problem.
I think I would agree with your dealer re the Niner RLT. That is, it seems designed more for the off road side of the spectrum including bikepacking. That said, I won an eBay auction for the IMBS Special Edition (Steel) bike back in December. It's been a long wait but it shipped yesterday and should be here Monday. I'm really excited to get it as it will be my first 1x bike, it has room for much larger tires than the Ridley and I'm curious how the steel rides.
Another bike to consider is the GT Grade. Performance has a really good price on these - in carbon w/a very nice spec for about $2,000 (and points worth an additions $200). Another friend bought one of these and has been riding it everywhere for the last few months. It was his first and only road bike up until last week so has a couple thousand road miles on it as well as quite a few on dirt.
Thank you everyone, this is very helpful.\n\nI went and checked out a Jamis Renegade and wasn't as impressed as I was with the Ridley. I think I've now chosen the Ridley X-Trail and now it's just trying to figure out the right size. Based on Ridley's size chart, I am exactly between a medium and a large. My local bike shop mentioned to go with the smaller size, but I tend to prefer a little bigger.\n\nAny thoughts on sizing this out? I saw DrSpoke also mentioned they may run a bit large, so possibly the medium is the right size for me? I worry my preference is based on not really riding a road style bike in the past and that I don't quite know how it should feel / fit yet.\n\nAlso does anyone know if I can put a rear rack on the Ridley X-Trail? I'm not sure if I should, and my local bike shop mentioned I shouldn't, but I tend to like to ride with extra storage for my long rides.\n\nThanks much!!!!\n\n
I sized mine just like I usually do with most road bikes these days - effective (horizontal) top tube (ETT) length. So use that as your guide and not XS, S, M, L etc. as those are pretty meaningless. Also, stack and reach are very good measurements for sizing and/or to compare bikes.
As noted, the Ridley site has their measurements backwards. I wrote them an email letting them know about this and they replied admitting their error but still have not corrected it on their site. So you need to switch the measurement for "Top Tube Length, Horizontal" with "Top Tube Length, Actual" to get to the correct ETT measurement. And Performance uses the same incorrect number for "Eff Top Tube" on their site as Ridley. Accordingly, the X-Trail in XS has an effective top tube of 52.5 cm and the S has a 54.5 cm. Since I generally ride a road bike with a 53 cm top tube I went slightly small and chose the XS. And if fits me perfectly. The smaller size of course has a lower stand-over height which I like and often use when off road riding. And the stack height is generally shorter on the smaller frames which gets the bars lower which you may find useful for road riding.
Both my friend and I purchased our bikes from Performance when they had their 20% Performance Points promotion. So that can make the savings even better. Not sure when the next one is but I'd ask if you buy from them. Or, if they don't have one in stock, then order it during the promotion. That would be $560 on the Ridley (CR1) and $400 on the GT. That's enough to perhaps get a 2nd set of wheels and/or some gear. I used mine for some Di2 parts, a fluid trainer and some other miscellaneous parts.
Well, it's pretty basic geometry. If you visualize a triangle with the 3 sides being the seat tube, actual top tube and the effective (horizontal) top tube, then because of the angle of the seat tube the effective top tube has to be the longest side. That is, for bikes with sloping top tube the horizontal top tube length must be longer than the actual top tube length. In fact, that was touted as one of the advantages of the sloping top tube - that is was shorter than a horizontal top tube and accordingly weighed less. If you look at a geometry chart from any manufacturer you will find this to be true. But on the Ridley chart it is the opposite and is incorrect. I wrote to them regarding this and they admitted the error to me.
So I'm not sure what you measured though I can only assume it's the actual top tube length and not the horizontal. Also, by it's nature, the horizontal is a virtual measurement.
The Ridley X-Trail is amazing! I own two other Ridley road bikes, a 2006 and 2008 Excalibur, both larges. I bought a large CR-1 thru Performance. It fits like a 58. It took me a week or two to get used to the length of the bike but now I love it. I bought it to ride in the Oregon winters and it has been a dream. It handles better then any other bike I have ever ridden. I have a 3 mile gravel trail climb with a 2 mile rocky approach out my back door, the trail tops out onto a blacktop road at the top - the bike handles each surface flawlessly. Forget all the garbage about sizing, it is very consistent with all Ridleys. I would set a bit of money aside to upgrade the seat and seat post and stem and handle bars.
Thanks Jamin. If you don't mind me asking, how tall are you? I know each person is different in their preferences, but just trying to get an idea since I can't actually try a large until I would buy it and have it shipped to me.
I am 6'1 or 6'2 and riding a large. Happily. Definitely the right size for me. I am using my cross shoes and Shimano XTR pedals which makes me a little taller than my sidi ergo carbon road shoes with speedplay pedals.
I still have not resolved my exact bar placement yet. My road bike numbers and cross numbers are slightly different and this seems like it will be slightly different than both as well. No real surprise there I guess. Largest issue though for me has been cosmetic and whether I want to run some spacers under with a negative rise stem or less spacers and a positive rise stem. Really doesn't matter how I get my bars where I want... except for the cosmetics, but darn I can't decide. I have tried + & - 6 and 10 degree stems and am looking for a zero degree to make the decision all a little easier. I am definitely finding that I prefer this bike with higher bars and less drop than road... although maybe not to the extent of my cross setup. I am not one of the ones who uses the same position on road and cross.
For what it is worth, Ridley suggest 186 cm as cut off between Medium and Large frames.
jamin wrote:The Ridley X-Trail is amazing! I own two other Ridley road bikes, a 2006 and 2008 Excalibur, both larges. I bought a large CR-1 thru Performance. It fits like a 58. It took me a week or two to get used to the length of the bike but now I love it. I bought it to ride in the Oregon winters and it has been a dream. It handles better then any other bike I have ever ridden. I have a 3 mile gravel trail climb with a 2 mile rocky approach out my back door, the trail tops out onto a blacktop road at the top - the bike handles each surface flawlessly. Forget all the garbage about sizing, it is very consistent with all Ridleys. I would set a bit of money aside to upgrade the seat and seat post and stem and handle bars.
I have to agree. I've ridden pavement, gravel roads, fire roads, packed single track & rocky single track. I've used it on long road rides, fast group rides, urban adventure rides, wilderness adventure rides and paved descents at 50mph. It basically can do everything.
All you need is an appropriate tire. I've used the OEM Challenge Gravel Grinders in 38c, Vittoria Open Pave in 27c and Schwalbe S-One in 30c. The Schwalbe is amazing in that it matches the bike well as a do everything/ride anything tire.
Thanks Alembical, appreciate your height and other info. You raise my exact issue, I am exactly 186 cm and that's where I'm struggling with what size to get. I'm sure either would work, but when I spend this much I want to make sure I get the right one. That's where I tend to lean toward getting the large one and will most likely go that way.\n\nThanks everyone for the information. The support on this site, to get this much information in less than 48 hours is wonderful - I am very impressed.\n\nCheers.
Only photo I have of the bike on my phone now is this one. This is the highest bar setting I have tried, but one that I am actually liking. I would not want to be on a smaller bike, running more seat post, more offset, running a longer stem or needing more headset spacers, but we are all different. I have also slammed the bars and can not imagine needing a shorter headtube for this kind of bike. My road bikes have 11 cm of drop and this is obviously much less.
I ordered a CR1 from Performance. They didn't have one in stock so they suggested I order one and try it. The smallest size they had was an XS. The bike arrived and I love it. The only issue is I think an XXS would be better for me. I'm 5' 4" and although I can adjust the XS to fit me, it's right at the limits. An XXS would be better. Now, the challenge is finding that size! BTW, I weighed the CR1 XS stock, without pedals, and it was 20.1 lbs.
Bike geometries are so confusing to me, I just recommend trying to find one and check it out. Bike frames are not triangles and this has a longer headtube than most, add in the large fork rake, and one degree steeper seat tube than head tube and I get confused by all the numbers and what they mean. That said, I can't imagine being on a smaller or a larger frame than I am. I could likely make them work, but hard to believe either would be better for me personally.
An easy way to avoid the confusion of the various factors related to top tube length, head and seatpost angles and such is to compare Stack and Reach for different bikes. Most geometry charts now include these. Stack is the vertical difference between BB center and head tube top, and Reach is the horizontal difference. This gives you a better way to figure out the relative contact points.
Even with this, it can be confusing, like the Reach on my Large AWOL is considerably greater than what I usually want. But that bike is meant for a shorter stem, which perfectly compensates for the difference.
Thanks again everyone for the support. I ended up going with the Ridley X-Trail in a large and should have it in the next week or so. I'm now looking at some pedals, any suggestions to go with this bike?
