So tired of it.So they called a bike Kanzo? Biggest marketing marketing ploy ever. The front end of this new Ridley Kanzo Fast is certainly simple and streamlined.You probably notice no external shift or brake cables at all. It's over 17 watts better than a regular gravel bike. @Mike Love, the word “Kanzo”, as per Ridley, supposedly has nothing to do with the Kaw Nation, unlike the original name for DK. You can ride this bike on the road as well as in the field and that makes it so enjoyable. Ridley has talked up the carbon blend of the upcoming gravel race bike as being a happy medium, so you no longer need to choose stiffness OR comfort.
Kanzo, or canzo, is a word that dates back to the times of the troubadours, who were singers and poets in the Middle Ages. Ridley hasn’t gone down the adventure bike route here. That’s no accident, and likely something they pulled directly from the Built up, we can see the complete mockup with the same rubber cap over the seat clamp, the small aero fork flaps behind the front axle.Nowhere is there any accommodation for external cable routing, and no chance of running a front derailleur.Ridley hasn’t been stingy with the details. The Kanzo Speed is actually an all road bike with its comfortable geometry and eyelets for the mudguards.
Ridley officially claims that the max tire size of the new Kanzo Fast is 700c x 42mm, which is maybe on the narrow side of gravel these days (but up from the 38mm of the Kanzo Speed).With that said, they’ve already been sharing a photo of one of the Kanzo Fast prototypes fitted with 45mm Riddlers, and the frame drawing they share has more than 52mm between the chainstays, so that figure is likely conservative.On the topic of geometry, a Medium frame is set to have very similar overall geometry to the current The toptube is more sloping than the current Kanzos, likely to expose an extra 20mm of seatpost for some extra bump-eating flex, also helped by an even lower integrated wedge-style seatpost clamp set into the toptube. Many aftermarket stems will probably fit so long as they have a cutout through both the stem and steerer clamp areas, and I assume many do, if only to keep the weight down.Lost me at aero.
F-Technologies The Kanzo Fast is designed with the same aero mindset as the Noah Fast. Their stories moved entire communities, who hung on their every word.Just like the troubadours, we want to encourage our Ridley riders to go out and ride their bikes, to discover new places or rediscover what they thought they already knew.The Kanzo Speed is actually an all road bike with its comfortable geometry and eyelets for the mudguards. And it all starts with our choice of raw materials…
Ridley claims that, at an unspecified speed, the Kanzo Fast saves 17 watts over an “ordinary gravel bike” and is within 4 watts of the Noah Fast “across all the yaw angles”. Ridley’s Kanzo Speed combines a carbon frameset with Shimano’s GRX gravel-specific groupset. The Kanzo comes in different models – a high-speed race version, an entry level alloy version & an electric assist – Ridley have truly covered all the bases! It worked so well for bottom brackets At least the fork doesn’t require a special headset, except the headset cap and expander. Other than that looks pretty good. The general idea seems to still be that there are Watts to be gained, even at slower gravel speeds. We certainly have had our interest piqued. The maximum tyre size is 38mm, making this more suited to mixing road and gravel sections. And in this case the stem probably doesn’t need to be proprietary, and maybe it isn’t. On return to their home villages, they would tell the inhabitants about their adventures using three different genres. With its maximum tire clearance of 38mm, you can explore gravel roads perfectly, but a normal road tyre also fit nicely on it.
All thanks to F-Tubing, F-Wings and perfect aero details. So tired of it. We love learning the technology and celebrating innovation at every level -from crowdfunded start ups to major global brands- and sharing it all here with you!Get Bikerumor’s top stories delivered straight to your inbox every week!Bikerumor.com reaches close to one million passionate cyclists per month. Based on all the hints we’ve seen them dropping over the last week or so, it’s likely that the Ridley Kanzo Fast get an official reveal any day. Notice the seamless integration of the fork into the frame.