Ridley Grifn RS review: a rapid gravel all-rounder that falls short on the roughest terrain

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The original Ridley Grifn was intended to be all the bike you’d ever need. Offering the best of both worlds, it was light and agile on the road, with the chops to cut it on the dirt too.

The new Grifn RS ups the ante, with increased tyre clearance, reduced aerodynamic drag and less weight. It'll set you back £6,715 / €7,398.

Could the Grifn RS be the one-bike-for-all solution many have been looking for?

Ridley Grifn RS frame details

The changes to make this an ‘RS’ Grifn are subtle but important.

Firstly, the fork has a new shape around its rear, which is claimed to accelerate airflow, in turn causing the air to pass the down tube faster.

Ridley says this reduces aerodynamic drag by as much as 5 per cent compared to the original Grifn at 36km/h (22mph).

Then there’s a new race-bike style seat-tube profile with a rear-wheel cutout. This is topped with a dedicated aero seatpost, again intended to help reduce aero drag.

The original Grifn had a standard 27.2mm-diameter seatpost, opening up the possibility of a gravel dropper post, which is missing here.

Ridley has addressed the trend towards larger-volume gravel tyres, increasing capacity to 42mm, up from 40mm in 1x guise on the original.

Ridley has also looked at the construction and carbon fibre it uses. Optimisation here is said to have led to a reduction in frame weight of up to 195g (in a size medium), with a claimed weight of 826g, plus 414g for the fork.

The Grifn RS sports a Universal Derailleur Hanger rear dropout, making it compatible with SRAM’s new 13-speed Red XPLR AXS groupset.

The frame has proper mudguard mounts, alongside three sets of bottle cage mounts, each with two positions.

The underside of the top tube and top of the down tube see mounts for frame bags, and topside there are bento box mounts, which are hidden under a cover when not in use.

The frame and fork have dropped the internal dynamo light routing of the original.

Ridley Grifn RS geometry

The new Grifn's geometry is unchanged from the original bike – and is one of its many strong points.

The 72-degree head angle represents a slight reduction over a standard road bike.

The 73.5-degree seat angle on my large-sized test bike is, however, classic road-bike stuff. The 614mm stack height is in the realm of sporty endurance bikes, as is the long 403mm reach.

By using a cut-out seat tube, Ridley has been able to maintain a 1,043mm wheelbase and 420mm chainstays, despite the increase in tyre clearance.

On paper, the geometry numbers mark the Grifn RS out as very much in the all-road, endurance camp rather than being an out-and-out gravel machine.

Ridley Grifn RS build

Ridley offers five stock builds for the Grifn RS, three aimed at gravel riding with two 1x SRAM groupsets and one 2x Shimano GRX build. It also offers two road-oriented builds, with either Ultegra Di2 R8100 or SRAM Force AXS.

Go into Ridley's online configurator and you have a further six options, including a SRAM 1x setup combined with Classified’s Powershift hub.

This Grifn RS was built with SRAM’s Force XPLR AXS groupset in a very racy configuration, combining a 46-tooth chainring with a 10-44t 12-speed cassette.

The wheels come from DT Swiss, in the shape of the gravel-specific GRC1400. This high-grade aerodynamic gravel wheelset weighs in at a claimed 1,366g a pair.

The 30mm-deep aero carbon rims are tubeless-ready (and arrived set up tubeless by Ridley) with a broad 32mm external width and a hooked profile that’s 24mm wide internally.

The rims are built onto DT Swiss straight-pull 240 EXP hubs with a 36-tooth ratchet freehub for a 10-degree engagement angle.

The wheels are wrapped in Vittoria’s Terreno Dry gravel tyres. Here, it’s in the skinniest 35mm width, compared to the 40mm versions found on the Rondo Ruut CF1 G2 I tested alongside the Ridley.

The Grifn's proprietary aero seatpost is topped by Selle Italia’s compact SLR saddle.

Up-front, Ridley’s component brand Forza provides a gravel-specific one-piece bar and stem.

The cockpit is compatible with Ridley’s F-Steerer system, which routes the brake hoses internally down into the head tube. It keeps the front end clean and makes handlebar-bag fitting simpler.

The flared cockpit has an effective 120mm stem length with a 42cm width (measured centre-to-centre), a compact 120mm drop and short 70mm reach that flares out at 16 degrees.

The tyres are set up tubeless as standard, and the bike is supplied with an integrated out-front computer mount, plus two bottle cages.

It’s a quality, lightweight build, coming in at 8.01kg.

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Ridley Grifn RS ride impressions

The Grifn RS is a fine machine and it’s a very fast one too – in the right conditions.

It's rapid on tarmac – the combination of endurance road geometry, low weight and taller gears than your average gravel bike means it can even hold its own against an endurance road bike.

The combination of the 46-tooth chainring and smallest 10-tooth cog makes for a 125in gear when running 35mm tyres. In comparison, a standard endurance road bike's tallest 52/11t combination with the same tyre size would be 124in.

At the other end of the scale, when climbing, an endurance bike with a 50/34 chainset and 11-32t cassette would give an easiest gear of 29in – the new Grifn's 46/44 gives 28in.

It therefore has the equipment to work on tarmac and potentially trails too.

The bike's ride position and steering feel are road-bike like; it was by far the fastest bike among its test cohort, covering the smooth ground between gravel sections on my test rides quickly.

Thanks to the relatively skinny tyres and lightweight wheels, it was also the best climber on tarmac and smoother gravel.

On a seriously steep fire-road climb on one of my favourite test loops, the Grifn RS enabled me to attack with real gusto.

Point-to-point on relatively smooth gravel, the RS is one of the fastest bikes I’ve ridden. It’s a match for dedicated gravel race bikes such as BMC’s Kaius and Factor’s Ostro Gravel in that respect. Even in this high-end build, it's significantly cheaper than both of those bikes.

The Grifn RS does have a chink in its armour, however. Get onto a rougher doubletrack scarred by farm vehicles and it’s a rather jarring experience.

The frameset stiffness that’s so welcome on the road and princess gravel gives you something of a beating when the ground gets choppy.

The slender tyres, set up tubeless, do their best to mitigate some of the chatter but get overwhelmed. The net effect is that when the going gets rough, the RS can only be piloted slower.

It’s exacerbated by the front end which, because of the narrow tyres and stiff wheels, tends to tramline.

It wants to follow whatever trough or track it finds, which is manageable on straight unmetalled roads and smoother dirt, but less easy to handle on sheep tracks or rooty woodland tracks.

I found myself more often than not wrestling the Grifn’s front end, trying to keep it in check.

From the Ridley stable, the Kanzo Adventure is far better suited to this sort of terrain than the do-it-all Grifn RS.

Ridley Grifn RS bottom line

The Ridley Grifn RS is a fast and fun gravel bike in the right conditions.

If your aspirations are long, fast forest fire roads, byways and towpaths, the RS is more than capable. If you aspire to go a bit further afield, there are better off-road options.

However, if you want a bike for both gravel and tarmac, the Grifn RS is one of the finest versatile all-roaders available.

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