Ridley Grifn can be set up for everything from road to gravel, and commuting to bikepacking adventures
(Image credit: ridley)
Ridley has launched its latest bike, the Grifn, which it says you can use to ride a range of terrain both on and off-road. Ridley classifies the Grifn as an all-road bike and it’s designed to fit in its range between the Fenix SLiC endurance road bike, the Kanzo Fast gravel race bike and the Kanzo Adventure gravel bike, that’s designed for tougher off-road excursions.
Ridley says that a medium size Grifn frame weighs 990 grams unpainted, a fork 445 grams and complete bikes around 8.5kg for a Shimano GRX Di2 gravel-oriented spec.
The Grifn should be able to handle a range of gravel riding (Image credit: ridley)
Gravel-ish geometry
As you’d expect for a bike designed to be able to hit the gravel, the Ridley Grifn has wide tyre clearance: 38mm with a 2x set-up, 40mm when set up 1x and 32mm with mudguards. Ridley reckons that a 30-32mm tyre is best for road riding and 35-38mm for smoother gravel tracks.
There’s more to the bike’s geometry than just wide tyre clearance though, with a 1021mm wheelbase for a size M frame that’s halfway between the Fenix SLiC’s 992mm and the Kanzo Fast’s 1026mm. The head tube angle splits the difference at 72 degrees versus 73.5 degrees for the Fenix and 71.5 degrees for the Kanzo Fast.
The chainstay length, at 420mm, is also an intermediate between the Fenix’s 410mm and the Kanzo Fast’s 425mm, while the bottom bracket drop is greater than both at 73mm versus 66mm for the Fenix and 72mm for the Kanzo Fast.
The result, says Ridley, is a bike that is more nimble than its gravel bikes and with a more aggressive feel when accelerating and cornering. At the same time, with a slightly higher stack of 587mm than the Fenix SLiC’s 565mm, but a similar 391mm reach, the Grifn is designed for a more stable and comfortable, less tiring ride over long distances than Ridley’s endurance road bike.
Ridley follows the trend for one piece bars and stem and cable integration (Image credit: ridley)
Versatile configuration
Like the best gravel bikes, the Ridley Grifn has all the mounting points for load-lugging. That includes the usual three-bottle cage mounts, with the two sets of down tube mounts having triple bolts so that you can vary the cage’s position. You can bolt on mudguards (Ridley has its own custom version designed by mudguard specialist Curana) and there is also a top tube bag mount concealed under a panel. This doesn’t look to be weathertight and so might accumulate dirt.
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Ridley includes internal dynamo cable routing through the right fork leg and through-frame routing for a rear light cable, so you can set the Grifn up with a hub dynamo and lighting for long-distance rides or just for hassle-free commutes.
Ridley uses its F-Steerer cable/hose-free integrated cockpit for the Grifn. The new Cirrus Pro bar/stem has a 16-degree flare and a shallow 120mm drop. It says that the flat tops give an aero advantage when riding faster, although it’s not claiming aero benefits for any of the bike’s other features. There’s a standard 27.2mm diameter round seatpost, for example.
Another advantage of concealed hoses is that it’s a lot easier for the bikepacker to fit a bar bag. There are four size options for the Cirrus Pro cockpit ranging from 90/380mm up to 120/420mm.
Th top tube bag mounts have a neat cover when not in use (Image credit: ridley)
Four drivetrain options
Ridley will offer the Grifn in four different set-ups, two for road and two for gravel riding. They all have double chainsets, although you can remove the front mech hanger for a 1x set-up. Ridley uses a Universal Derailleur Hanger for the rear mech, an MTB standard that means that you shouldn’t need to hunt too far if you break yours. You can also spec a Classified Powershift rear hub with a single chainring for extra gear ratios without the front mech.
Road set-ups are available with Shimano 105 11-speed mechanical priced at £2,909 / €3,199 or 105 12-speed Di2 priced at £4,279 / €4,699.
Go for a gravel configuration and there’s a choice of either Shimano GRX600, with the bike priced at £2,909 / €3,199 or GRX800 (with GRX600 cranks) priced at £3,819 / €4,199.
There are five sizes available from XS to XL.
If you don’t want a stock configuration, you can custom-configure your Grifn spec and colour choice with Ridley’s online bike builder or buy frameset-only.
Double chainset or 1x drivetrain options are available (Image credit: ridley)
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
