I am pleased to welcome two new Ridley X-Night SL Disc CX bikes to my armoury for this season. With a paint job designed by yours truly and a mixture of components chosen to suit personal preferences, this bike is the definition of 'my dream machine'. I am very grateful to my sponsors on Montezuma's Race Team for helping to make this build possible during such a tough year for the bicycle component industry, huge thanks to Ridley, Rotor UK and Madison UK. The FrameStarting with the frame: This is the Ridley X-Night SL Disc size 48, in the Team design with colours "Deep Dark Blue'' and "Metallic Silver" (Matt finish). A simple but stealthy design. The X-Night frames are designed specifically to be versatile and to ride well in dry or muddy conditions. Having ridden on X-Nights for most of my cyclocross experience I'm well used to how they ride and am very comfortable with the geometry of the frame, especially when carrying on the shoulder (a horizontal and flattened top tube for this is ideal). Weighing in at about 7.9kg (pre-mud bath!!) and with a carefully curated geometry; sharp accelerations, cornering and hopping hurdles are much more easily attacked. Ridley have designed this frame specifically for CX conditions meaning that the rear and front forks have an increased amount of space for less mud pick up, reducing the risk of clogging the wheels. The SpecOn to the moving parts. This season I've upgraded to electronic shifting with the Shimano GRX Di2 set up, this is the first time I've ridden Di2 on CX bikes. The GRX rear mech comes with a clutch (originally used on MTBs) meaning that when riding with a single ring set up the chain is less likely to jump off as the chain slap is reduced. Therefore, it is very useful if riding rough terrain. Additionally, electronic shift means that the faff of constantly indexing gears due to wear or threading new cables mid-season has gone, as adjustments can simply be done through the E-tube app. However, I know many people out there still reject the idea of Di2 on a CX bike and I can understand their reasoning: What if you run out of battery? What if something disconnects internally? Surely electronics and pressure-washers should not be anywhere near each other? All totally valid questions...electronics and pressure-washers should definitely NOT be near each other, which is why all the important parts are tucked safely away within the frame. It's a bit of a pain to fit all the cables at first, yes ,but once in place no need to touch or adjust anything, it does its job from the safety of within the frame. Due to the lack of bike parts in the industry it meant that Ridley could only sell us the frame and forks; sourcing the rest of the parts and building it ourselves. On a positive note, my dad and I both now know how the internal routings of the bike work and fit together, useful to know! In terms of gear ratios, I am riding a 38T Rotor ‘Narrow-Wide’ front chainring (meaning it's not necessary to have a chain catcher) and depending on the layout of the course I can either ride 11-32T or 11-36T cassettes on the rear. I will also be using a 160mm front disc brake and a 140mm disc on the rear, the theory being that within our team we all have the same set up, so we can all interchange wheels without any hassle. CranksBoth bikes are set up with a different form of 170mm Rotor crank: the Vegast and the INpower. We decided on the Rotor power crank this year, instead of a Stages power crank (like I have previously used), one reason being that the battery is an AA battery and is held within the axle. As a result, it is easily accessible when it needs replacing and much less likely to be susceptible to water damage (CX is a power crank murderer...RIP). Wheels and TyresI'll be riding on the same wheels and tyres as I have the previous few seasons, moving them from my last bikes to the new ones. I ride on Profile Design carbon wheels with 38mm rim depth, weighing in about 680g (front) and 920g (rear), without tyres on. Therefore making them very light but also very durable, over the years I've put these wheels through hell and they're surviving incredibly well; only having to replace the wheel bearings after each season. For tyres, through many seasons of racing I have worked out I have a personal preference for the Dugast Tubs and am very lucky to have a few tyre choices depending on conditions. My go to choices would be: Muds: Dugast rhino Intermediate: Dugast Small Bird Dry: Dugast Small Bird or on very unlikely occasion the Challenge Grifo XS Spare: Challenge Limus (will use if incredibly slippy mud but not thick, however not a choice I reach for usually) Training wheels: Challenge Grifo, my theory here being that if I train on tyres with less grip I will be used to lack of grip and hopefully improve my skills, so that when I use tyres with more grip I can push my limits more. Opinion so far....Having ridden them for just over a month by now I've just got used to position and grip, any doubts about Di2 that I had are gone and I'm really enjoying riding just a single ring on the front. The bikes ride smoothly and respond well to every small movement (not in a twitchy way), making the handling efficient and direct. I really have fallen in love with them and once again I am Incredibly grateful to Montezuma's Race Team and the people at Madison UK, Rotor and Ridley for helping source parts during the current state of the bike part industry. Thank you :)
Thanks for reading and let me know your opinions and questions on my socials! Amy :) x
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