Ridgeback Expedition review

The Ridgeback Expedition may seem a touch off-road oriented to be your first choice for a commuter bike, but that's no reason to discount it.

The included rear rack adds practicality and the steel frame is strong. Along with the wide, tough tyres on the 26in wheels, there’s comfort to spare.

Full-length mudguards and bar ends offer you extra handholds and both will come in handy on commutes, weekends away and month-long expeditions.

Ridgeback Expedition frame details

Who needs aluminium or carbon fibre when you've got good-old steel – which is what Ridgeback has used for this UK-designed touring bike's frame and fork.

The TIG welding is tidy enough and the tubes are predominantly skinny, though the seat tube is slightly oversized.

All the cabling is routed externally, which makes for a slightly cluttered look, but it does make it easier for a bike shop – or a vaguely competent home mechanic – to attempt maintenance duties.

The elegant curved steel fork has fittings for a low-rider rack, while the frame has pretty much all the bosses and fittings for touring, bikepacking and cycling to work.

There are bosses galore on the down tube and seat tube, with a further pair on the underside of the down tube.

It has fittings for mudguards (fitted with fenders), rear rack mounts (with a rear rack), a nurse's lock and a steel plate for a rear kickstand.

The only thing missing here is bento box bosses on the top tube.

Ridgeback Expedition geometry

The Ridgeback Expedition, as the name suggests, has touring ambitions, so it's no surprise to find its geometry is laid back.

The wheelbase comes in at a mighty 1,076mm in my medium test size.

Throw in a fairly short top tube and a slack 70-degree head angle, and you have a bike with an upright riding position and handling that's the inverse of ‘twitchy’.

Fundamentally, this is exactly what you want when you're racking up steady miles commuting or touring.

Ridgeback Expedition specifications

Ridgeback has seemingly stepped back to the world of mountain bikes in the 1980s.

The Shimano triple crankset seems as retro and old-school as I am, but there are good reasons for it.

On long, challenging rides, you want to be riding at a consistent cadence, with the widest range of gears possible – especially lower gears. Having three rings makes this possible.

Unlike the three bikes I tested it alongside – the Specialized Sirrus X 3.0, the Trek FX 3 Disc Equipped and the Croix de Fer 10 flat bar – the Ridgeback comes with cable-actuated (rather than hydraulic) disc brakes.

These are vastly better than 1980s-era side-pull 'brakes', though they're not a match for hydraulic disc brakes.

However, they are powerful enough, even if they require more effort on your part, and they offer good control regardless of the weather.

I'd find these mechanical brakes easier to fettle than a hydraulic setup.

The 26in wheels also hark back to the earlier days of mountain biking, but again they make sense.

There are still loads of tyre options available and Ridgeback has gone for some toughies, in the form of 1.75in-wide Schwalbe Marathons.

Ridgeback Expedition ride impressions

‘Regal’ just about sums up the Ridgeback Expedition's ride.

With a weight approaching 15kg, you're never going to be flying along, and climbing will inevitably be steady and sedate rather than speedy.

Most importantly, it’s suitably stable whether the bike is unloaded or loaded, and once up to speed, I felt akin to a king of the road.

It’s noticeably slower than a road bike, but this isn't an issue if you use towpaths rather than speedier tarmac routes.

The handling is leisurely and controlled. The slight rise to the bar puts you in a commanding position with great visibility – you can enjoy your surroundings and have a sense that other road users can see you.

The inclusion of bar ends is also a win. Over a commute of a few miles, not being able to shift your hand position isn't that much of an issue, but as the miles mounted up, I found the alternative forward-facing handholds a real boon.

If your commute is on tarmac and you're not carrying all your earthly belongings, you could shed a little weight by going for slightly slimmer tyres, while dropping the rear rack and the mudguards for some of the year.

You're never going to turn this into a weight-weenie pleasing flyer, but you could lose a little excess, keeping the Schwalbe tyres for bigger, longer adventures.

Ridgeback Expedition bottom line

This may look like overkill for a commuter bike, but for one of my former routes to work, which included 20 miles a day on a towpath that alternated between muddy and dusty, it would have been perfect.

The riding position is tall, the ride super-comfortable and the wide-ranging, old-school gears ensure you'll be able to hit the perfect pedalling cadence at all times.

The Ridgeback may not be your everyday commuter bike, but it's a very sound choice if you're looking for one bike to cover day-to-day commuting on poor roads, or even unsurfaced routes, and then take it away for adventures.