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Ridley Ridley Established 1997 Tessenderlo Belgium

Ridley bicycles started out as one man, a very promising racer who decided to turn his hand to making and painting frames with the Bioracer company. In those days Bioracer did not just make top notch clothing, they also had a department that designed and manufactured custom built frames - and it was there that a young Jochim Aerts developed the skills that would mark him out as an exceptionally good frame builder and bicycle maker.

In those early days it became clear that Jochim had two major talents. He was a highly skilled craftsman who could turn his hand to making just about anything, and making it to a very high standard; and he had ideas and designs that simply could not be made by continuing to work for someone else making traditional type frames of the period using steel and aluminium alloy tubing.

It was not long before Jochim set up on his own under the brand name of Ridley. The name is an homage to top movie director Ridley Scott. One of the first products to come from the newly founded Ridley bicycles that would really shake up the bike world was the Damocles. A full carbon fiber composite frame and fork that was designed not to be the lightest chassis in the world, but simply to be the toughest, stiffest, and strongest of its kind, while still managing to end up not far from 1kg for the weight for a 56cm frame.

The Damocles has gone on to be one of the most respected carbon composite frames available if you are looking for something that will stand up to plenty of abuse, and over time it hasn't really changed drastically. Ridley have let the design evolve rather than re-invent it ever year. It still features the Ridley "strength" tubing with unusual triangular section, and the replaceable dropouts are still there too. Unlike most bikes there's not just a not a replaceable rear derailleur hanger but complete replaceable dropout assemblies.

The Damocles now sports a 1.5in bearing head-tube at the bottom, and 1 1.8" at the top, and some neater cable routing - but the Damocles has been about improving something that is already good, and Ridley have taken the slow and worthwhile way of doing this.

Ridley's latest additions to the road bike line-up have been the Dean and the Noah. The Dean is their time trial bike, and the Noah is a more traditional road bike, but with attention paid to the aerodynamics using the knowledge that they gained through designing and making the Dean. Dean and Noah, if you're wondering, are the names of Jochim's children.

Ridley are working on a new headquarters at the moment where they can bring everything they currently do into one building. There are plans to build their own wind tunnels, one for working on scale models, and one for working on full size bicycle and rider combinations. There will also be a fully automated warehouse with computer controlled stock picking, and an even bigger research and design area. There wouldn't be much room left over for fancy offices, but then the people who work at Ridley are not interested in much other than making great bikes - a posh office would only end up having tyre marks on the floor anyway.