Ridley is ready “from race to trail” with two all-new modern carbon mountain bikes. The first is this lightweight Probe RS hardtail. The bike leans clearly towards a performance or even racing focus. But with contemporary geometry and the ability to run a 100mm or 120mm fork, this hardtail looks capable of tearing up some more technical trails, too…
Ridley Probe RS carbon hardtail mountain bike
Ridley is back off-road, blending light race-ready carbon construction with capabilities to cover everything from your local singletrack loop to World Cup cross-country and marathon racing.
Developed for weight weenie XC performance MTB hardtail purists, the Probe RS is all about being light & efficient, yet it still has room for up to 29er x 2.4″ tires With a claimed weight of just 760g (unpainted M), the hardtail was built to fly up the climbs.
Interestingly, this new carbon Probe RS hardtail is also manufactured in Portugal, with Ridley calling it the first of many new European-made carbon bikes to come.
XC hardtail geometry
The new hardtail gets contemporary long, low & slack geometry that promises efficient climbing and capable descending over most technical terrain, with a decidedly XC focus. It comes in four stock sizes (S-XL). The Probe RS comes spec’d with a 100mm fork, but riders looking for a bit more fast trail riding could pick one size larger frame, a shorter stem, and swap in a 120mm fork.
Probe Tech Details
The new Ridley XC hardtail gets a 31.6mm seatpost and stealth dropper routing.
The hardtail sticks with conventional internal cable routing, via ports in the sides of its downtube.
It gets a flat mount rear disc brake, Boost spacing, a future-proof UDH mount for your derailleur, and a PressFit BB92 bottom bracket.
The carbon mountain bike frame also has a bunch of bottle cage mounts – two sets inside the main triangle, plus under the downtube and on top of the toptube – more like what we’d expect on a bikepacking bike (which may suggest some adventure versatility here, too?
Ridley Probe RS – Pricing, options & availability
Ridley mountain bikes get plenty of component customization opportunities in their online configurator, letting you build up a lightweight Probe RS into your ideal XC to Trail hardtail.
Pick raw or blue metallic colors, build kit, and components with complete bikes starting at 4000€ with a SRAM Eagle mechanical build kit, or from around 5800€ with an AXS wireless build. New
Probes will go live in the online configurator in January 2023, with the first deliveries being made in the spring.
