You’d think that being a mile from the heavily disguised and fortified Ragley Design HQ we’d see a lot of Ragley prototypes whizzing past on the canal path, but no. We have to trawl around the internet like the rest of you in order to find the really juicy stuff. Unlike most people, though, we also have Brant’s phone number so we can call him to confirm details before making wild presumptions based on a quick look at a photo.
So, first, here’s the bike:
And now for the facts:
This is a mechanical prototype of the new Ragley FS. This is similar to the mules that are made by many other companies. Their purpose is to check that mechanically, the bike and the suspension bits all work as they should. This is done without particularly paying attention to the fine details of the rest of the bike and certainly not to the aesthetics. This bike, therefore, isn’t geometrically correct, and things like the angles and handling will be looked at in further prototype runs, but the suspension system is near-enough what the final models will have when they’re launched at Eurobike in September.
The suspension uses a Dual Link system, developed by Ragley and its Taiwanese factory that is very experienced in the suspension field. The shock is ‘floating’, although the lower link moves the shock laterally, rather than vertically. Interestingly, and getting the thumbs-up from most of the Singletrack test-crew is the speccing of disparate travel. So there’s more travel at the front than the rear; a concept we’ve found to work very well on modern bikes.
There will be two different travel versions: a 100/140mm bike and a 130/160mm bike. Pictured is the 130mm rear bike (though in keeping with the rough and ready nature of this prototype this has a 130mm fork, not a 140.)
The finished range will have two 26 and a 29in and all will feature disparate amounts of travel
There we are…
See www.ragleybikes.com for information on its 2011 range – and keep your eyes on Singletrack for more juicy stuff in the coming months.
so you need a higher bar / head tube on a slacker angled frame ideally? and a reba 120mm maxle with the travel dropped to 100mm. sorted. 29er forks are only 20mm longer per travel than 26″.
I like even travel as it’s most likely to have a constant geo under heavy compression, but even a 40mm mis-match is more even than an average HT so there’s no reason why not and the mismatches that i’ve ridden i always liked.
HT’s ride pivoting around the r wheel which is a good teqhnique thing -look at BMX racers manualling through rollers- so a mismatch FS can encourage this. all good.
the bike looked good in a field the other day, testers were happy..
Lyrics, Angleset, big front tyre.
http://www.shedfire.com/2011/04/01/ragley-proto-fs-updated/
Why 140mm or 160mm fronts? Aren’t most “trail” forks 150mm these days? I assume that the 100mm frame will be for 130-150mm forks like the Blue Pig?
Personally I was hoping for 120mm rear 150mm front but I guess that makes the longer travel version harder to market.. Maybe Orange will finally make the ST4 the bike that people want them to make or Banshee will put bearings on the Spitfire.
rebas are 33mm longer in 29er mode so the overall diff would be 53mm shorter to what the bike i ride was designed around if i dropped a pair of those by 20mm. a high rise bar and a steep stem would be altering things like bar height from the ground but in other ways,killing it by having a bb low enough to catch my single ring on pebbles! A slacker headtube would be going in the wrong direction too.
If it’s anything like Brant Richards’ previous incarnatons this will be a goodun and I’ve just bought a 5!
“Why 140mm or 160mm fronts? Aren’t most “trail” forks 150mm these days? I assume that the 100mm frame will be for 130-150mm forks like the Blue Pig?”
I’ve been having just these discussions in my own head, and with other people over the past few days.
Certainly the weight difference between Revs/Sektors and Lyrics, for instance, is quite considerable, but then the ride difference is also significant.
I am pretty confident that the 130mm frame will work happily with 150-170mm, and the short travel with 120-140 or even 150mm. A bit of testing to do yet on those aspects.
Then it’s just a matter of nailing BB height, sag, ride height, that kind of thing.
Lots of riding then 🙂
Brant – can you confirm that the seat tube will be mostly un-interrupted? I.e. the rocker pivot will be mounted in front (Turner Horst link style) rather than through (Giant reign style).
oi Richards, lets have a looky at the mud clearance on the arse end please? my “saving for a five” fund has got all twitchy!
Brant – I’ve got a spare 140mm fork and parts for a build, send up a frame and I’ll test it for ya and give you a direct comparision to a 5.
“Then it’s just a matter of nailing BB height, sag, ride height, that kind of thing.”
and building one from 4130 instead of recycled Special Brew cans.