Exciting News

Very exciting in fact.

The news is that I finally, finally have a new TT bike. And this is it.

What you see here is a Ridley Dean FAST.

Ridley is a very well established brand out of Belgium and is absolutely huge in Europe but has less of a presence in Australia. They provide bikes for the Lotto-Soudal team in the Grand Tours, they provide bikes for the Belgium Olympic Track team etc. You get the idea, they know what they are doing. They have actually been distributed here before, but just not very loudly (despite being ridden by Cadel Evans for a number of years and Tours). That all changed earlier this year when the brand changed distributor in Australia. With that change the brand is effectively being rerolled out across the nation. As part of that roll out Ridley Australasia has agreed to let me be an ambassador for the brand, starting with me riding the Ridley Dean at my next race at Challenge Iskandar Puteri.

See I said it was exciting.

For me the news is exciting, not just because I have a shiny, new, beautiful toy to play with, but also because it is a toy that I am immensely impressed by. Ridley is a brand that has always grabbed my attention me with the thinking behind their bikes. Have a look at the Noah for an example of a superbly executed aero road bike. That aero know how is part of what makes the Dean such a cool bike. Yes it has a slickly executed, aerodynamically clean front end and all the other aerodynamic features you would expect for a top end TT bike. But you also get some very cool innovative stuff like the F-Split Fork and the F-surfaces. Features that show a company that understands aerodynamics and is willing to think outside the box to improve.them. Add in some supreme build quality (the frame is made in Italy) and you get one very cool bike.

So far I have only had the one ride (a very wet one at that) on the bike this morning, but I am really looking forward to getting to know the bike a lot better over the coming days in preparation for racing up at Challenge Iskandar Puteri next week. Once I get to know the bike a bit more you better believe that a bike review will be coming up.

Till then I fully intend to spend some time enjoying this machine.