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First (Real) Look – Ridley Noah FB Aero Road Bike

Written by Tyler Benedict
7 Comments
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We posted the videos earlier, but the real deal just arrived and all the Journos jumped from the lunch table to photograph it. I’ve got tons more photos and details coming online later, but here are the basics: $5,395 frame/fork only, coming around the U.S. in April-ish 2012 and there are only 500 being made in this year’s production run, with about 25 allotted for the states.

 

What makes it special? Jump past the break and see, it’s pretty cool…

 


The 2012 Ridley Noah FB (Fast Brake) is the first bike with both front and rear brakes completely integrated as part of the frame as fork. Above, the rear brakes are part of the chainstay seatstay with tension adjust springs to fine tune spacing and alignment.

 

 


The front brakes are part of the fork, which has a heavily reinforced crown. The design allows them to bring the slits further up the legs, though, which they claim reduces turbulence by pulling rough air created by the spokes at the top of the wheel running against the wind out of the fork and around the legs to the tubes, where their ‘F’ surface smooths the air more and keeps it flowing closer to the frame and avoiding your legs.

 

More coming…
Tyler Benedict
11,281 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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Chris
Chris
13 years ago

The integrated brakes are nothing new. Stork released a TT bike with them a year ago, and Canyon showed the 0.05 with them 4 (?) years ago. I seem to recall someone doing them even earlier than that, but I can’t recall their name atm.

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David
David
13 years ago

Brakes built into the fork/ frame are not new, but here the fork/ frame IS the brake, i.e. the brake pads attach directly to a structural part of the fork/ frame, rather than to a brake arm that is itself attached to the fork/ frame. Look at the fork – it splits vertically behind the crown, with the two sides separated at the top; the brake pads are attached to these elements, which are pulled together by the brake cable, thus pressing the brake pads against the rim.
Very clever! I just wonder how such a long lever-arm (much longer than a normal brake’s arm) resists the pull of the brake pads when activated – mind you, they’re much beefier than a normal brake arm.
Very clever – one of those things that seems obvious when you see it, yet no-one had thought of it before…

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Bike Hermit
Bike Hermit
13 years ago

Above, the rear brakes are part of the chainstay

you mean seat stay?

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steve m
steve m
13 years ago

Not my cup of tea- but clever and ballsy. You are paying extremely big bucks for the time and effort though…..

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Turbofrog
Turbofrog
13 years ago

I think it’s pretty cool, to be honest.

But it just goes to show how dramatically the UCI has hamstrung the development of the sport with its rulebook. You can spend a thousand hours tweaking the aerodynamics of a diamond-frame bike and you’ll still be miles behind a well-engineered aerofoil monocoque like the Lotus 110, BP Stealth, or Zipp 3001, a fundamental design that has had millions, if not billions, fewer R&D dollars spent on optimizing it.

And I daren’t even mention recumbents…

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CliveDS
CliveDS
13 years ago

Cant wait to get a ride in on one of these – I can’t help but think it’s going to take a few try’s before the brakes work better than standard calipers but once the kinks are out it makes perfect sense.

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CrshepDDS
CrshepDDS
13 years ago

Just ordered yesterday. My dealer says I’ll have the only one in the Upper Midwest. I really don’t think it costs much more than most top-of-the-line framset, Pinarello, Time, etc. I like the intergrated brakes as well as the color scheme. I don’t plan on using the brakes much anyhow, except on group rides if I even use it for that. Mostly though I intend to race with it and train on my Time Ulteam. This bike is totally bitchin!

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