Ridgeback Flight 04

Ridgeback's Flight series has been around a good few years in its various guises – Ridgeback Genesis, Genesis Day and now Ridgeback Flight – and has always been a stable of good quality bikes. The newest range looks set to continue the good work, and the Flight 04 is a good higher end, lower maintenance commuter for urban jaunts.

Previous model ranges have tended to be more towards the road bike end of the hybrid market, with the emphasis on low weight and high speed. The 09 range still promises high performance but the mix of gear is a little sturdier, with the introduction of disc brakes and, on the Flight 04, the eight speed Alfine hub gear. At £899 this is not a cheap bike, and you get some very nice kit for your money.

For a start, you get the top-of-the-range triple butted ALX9 Aluminium frame from the range-topping Flight 05. It's exactly the same frame, so there's no horizontal dropouts, and the Alfine hub gear runs with its matching chain tensioner. Purists won't like this much but save for the risk that you'll bend it around town it doesn't reallly make any difference, and indeed it makes the rear wheel easier to remove and set up.

The hub gear is laced with stainless spokes into an Alex XD-Lite rim, and the wheelset is good-looking and very strong. Obviously the Alfine rear hub adds to the weight of the wheelset but they're not overbuilt as so many wheels are on bikes of this ilk. The wheels come shod with the excellent Continental DuraSkin 28c tyres. Shifting is taken care of by a TapFire reversed trigger shifter (thumbshift to a higher gear) and stopping by Shimano's SLX MTB discs.

This isn't the first Alfine-equipped bike I've ridden and if there's one main criticism I have of the system it's that the take-up can be a little vague. It seems to work much more smoothly if you ease off from a standstill rather than jump on the pedals, which is fine most of the time, but not ideal for sprinting away from the lights. Sometimes it feels like the hub gear is struggling to transfer the power that the excellent frame can obviously cope with. Other than that I found the Alfine unit very well behaved. The spread of gears is good, the Flight is geared reasonably low but I'd rather be missing the big gears than the little ones on a bike such as this. It's fine for anything up to fast cruising, only spinning out on dowhnill sections or on the flat if you're pushing.

Hub gears are generally lambasted for being less efficient than derailleurs but on a town bike they make a lot of sense: They're low maintenance, your chain will last longer and you can change gear at a standstill. Anyway, the Flight wasn't measurably slower on my 2.5 mile commute than my usual geared hybrid, which weighs about the same. I really don't think efficiency is a big issue, at least not unless your commute is a long one. There is a tipping point, where the extra bulk in the rear wheel and the slight efficiency loss mean you'd be noticeably slower than on a derailleur bike; for me it's probably between 10 and 15 miles. If your commute is that long, though, you'd probably want something lighter and more aggressive than the Flight anyway.

The ride, position and handling of the Ridgeback were spot on for a short commute. The long stem gives plenty of cockpit room without the bike feeling too racy, and the steering is precise – the fork feels nice and stiff – and fairly neutral. The Conti tyres are superb, giving masses of grip and surviving various encounters with broken bottles. Another highlight is the brakes: Shimano's SLX units are among the best I've tested. They're incredibly powerful but they don't grab, the modulation is just right and they really inspire confidence.

I didn't like the saddle, I found it very unforgiving and it would have been nice to find a carbon 'post underneath it. This is a bike that costs £900 and most people that'll be buying it will be putting their own pedals on; I'd have rather seen the money spent on the cheap alloy caged pedals put into a decent carbon seatpost to take a bit of sting out the ride. That's not to say the ride is bad; when I swapped the saddle for a favourite perch I was perfectly happy. The frame is lively, the wheels good and the tyres excellent.

If you want to add 'guards and a rack for the full all-weather experience then it's a pretty straightforward job though it's a good idea to go for a disc-specific rack as the callipers can foul the bottom of a standard one.

Verdict

Overall the Flight 04 is a very likeable bike well suited to urban journeys and fine for some longer rides too. It's not without its foibles but as an overall package it's well specced and good to ride, and the low-maintenance transmission will appeal to many commuters.

Flight 04 Gallery...