Ridley has announced a new version of its Kanzo Adventure gravel bike, said to be capable of taking on everything from bikepacking trips and ultra-cycling races, through to “unexpected singletrack”.
Ridley first entered the gravel market in 2015 with the X-Trail, saying it was attracted to the discipline because it sat between the brand’s cyclocross heritage and road bike range.
The X-Trail was renamed the Kanzo Speed when Ridley released the first Kanzo Adventure in 2019, and the Kanzo Fast aero gravel bike followed in 2020.
While these three bikes already covered a wide range of gravel riding, Ridley says it decided to redesign the Kanzo Adventure to fit the more adventurous and technical end of the gravel spectrum.
Instead of making changes to its existing Kanzo Adventure, Ridley says it started from scratch, developing a ‘white paper’ on what an adventure gravel bike should be.
And the result of this? The new Ridley Kanzo Adventure features more progressive geometry than its predecessor, has more than 12 mounts for bottles, bags and accessories, can fit wide mountain bike-style tyres and has internal routing for dynamo lights.
The Kanzo Adventure is available now in three standard builds, with prices starting at £3,159 / $4,589 / €3,475.
Mountain bike inspiration
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Ridley says the Kanzo Adventure’s carbon fibre frame has a mountain-bike inspired geometry.
This is becoming a familiar claim in the world of gravel bikes, with Cotic, Sonder and Surly recently releasing bikes based around mountain bike designs.
Ridley decided upon the Kanzo Adventure’s geometry in a novel way. As Ridley owns the Eddy Merckx brand, it asked the builder of the steel Eddy Merckx Corsa to create a steel frame with the geometry of the Kanzo Adventure.
This enabled Ridley to be confident it had got the right geometry before opening carbon-fibre moulds, which is an expensive process.
The Kanzo Adventure’s head tube angle is one-degree slacker than the Kanzo Fast, which Ridley says helps make the new bike more confident and stable on rougher terrain and steep downhills.
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Ridley says the seat tube angle on the Kanzo Adventure is steeper than on the Kanzo Fast to provide better balance, even when travelling at high speeds and when the bike is fully loaded with bags. Ridley also explains this means you can put more power on the pedals when climbing and retain traction.
A longer wheelbase and lower bottom-bracket drop are also said to help create a more stable riding position than Ridley’s other gravel bikes.
The reach of the Kanzo Adventure is longer than the Kanzo Fast, but this enables Ridley to fit a shorter stem on the new bike, making the handling more responsive. Again, this is becoming a common trend on some of the latest gravel bikes, including the new Trek Checkpoint.
The Kanzo Adventure’s head tube is kept shorter than on Ridley’s other gravel bikes, to accommodate the suspension gravel forks that have begun to appear on the market, such as the RockShox Rudy.
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Ridley says that as suspension forks are longer than standard forks, the short head tube means riders can fit gravel suspension to the Kanzo Adventure with less interference on the bike’s fit.
Ridley has also designed the bike so there is clearance for 2.1in mountain bike-esque tyres mounted to 700c wheels.
Speaking to BikeRadar, Ridley described large tyres as a ‘must-have’. While this should help the Kanzo Adventure take on more technical trails, Ridley says it also made the design decision for a more selfish reason.
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Based in Belgium, the Ridley team ride a lot on sand. The wide tyres enable the Kanzo Adventure to better ‘float’ over this terrain, especially when it is dry and loose.
The Kanzo Adventure features dropped chainstays, allowing Ridley to accommodate those wide tyres while maintaining clearance and running the 1x chainrings now common on gravel bikes.
In fact, the Kanzo Adventure is only compatible with 1x drivetrains – there’s not a double crankset in sight. Ridley says it was confident to make this change, citing the fact that nobody now questions 1x in the world of mountain bikes.
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While some brands are offering gravel bikes with the option of 650b wheels, Ridley won’t be doing this with the Kanzo Adventure.
Ridley explained to BikeRadar that it sees the option of 650b wheels as a way to increase tyre clearance retrospectively, but it has designed the Kanzo Adventure for larger tyres from the start.
Ridley says riders could fit 650b wheels to the Kanzo Adventure, but this might result in pedal strikes due to the lowering of the bottom bracket.
Finishing the mountain bike theme, Ridley says it tested the frames to MTB rather than road standards, with the focus during development being on durability and strength rather than creating a lightweight build.
Ridley says the unpainted frame in a size medium weighs a claimed 1,250g and the fork weighs a claimed 499g.
12 mounts and counting
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To make the Kanzo Adventure suitable for bikepacking, Ridley has placed over 12 mounting points across the frame for bikepacking bags, bottles and mudguards.
There are three mounts on the seat tube and four on the down tube. As a result, riders can fit bottle cages in a high or low position, out of the way of any frame bags.
On the underside of the down tube, there are three more mounts for either a bag or another bottle cage. Ridley says you can fit a 750ml bottle in a cage mounted to the underside of the down tube without any interference with the front wheel.
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While the position of these mounts might seem rather arbitrary, Ridley stresses that it went through various stages in deciding on their exact position.
The brand says this means riders don’t have to resort to hacks or mounting systems such as Wolf Tooth’s B-Rad to make all their equipment fit on the frame.
There are two more mounts for a bag – or bento box – on the top tube. These are recessed into the frame and come with a cover so they don’t interrupt the lines of the Kanzo Adventure and aren’t on show when not in use.
To further up the carrying capability of the Kanzo Adventure, Ridley has placed three mounts on either side of the front fork.
Ridley says each side of the fork can carry up to 3kg, leading to a potential 6kg total.
If you use the mounts on the fork in conjunction with the front fender mount to fit a lowrider front rack, Ridley claims the fork can carry up to 9kg.
Ridley has reinforced the inside of the fork to make carrying these weights possible.
Dynamo lights and Classified
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Ridley says flexibility is an important aspect of the Kanzo Adventure and it has designed the bike in a way that allows riders to customise it to fit their needs.
In a bid to increase the bikepacking potential and versatility of the Kanzo Adventure, Ridley has designed the bike so you can route cables from a dynamo hub internally.
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There is an opening on the inside of the fork for a cable from the front wheel and a second opening on the fork crown, which is paired with a mount for a dynamo light.
The opening at the top of the fork comes with a rubber bung in case you are not using a dynamo hub.
There is another opening on the top tube so you can run a cable from the top of the fork back into the frame and out at the seatpost for a rear dynamo-powered light.
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Ridley says it went to these lengths so riders can avoid using tape or cable ties to guide any cables across the bike.
Like the Kanzo Fast, Ridley says the Kanzo Adventure can fit a Classified rear hub. This uses internal gearing to replicate a 2x gearing system, in case riders want a wider gear range than a 1x setup allows.
Integrated cockpit
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The Kanzo Adventure comes with an integrated cockpit, running all cables and tubes internally.
While this might seem an odd choice for an adventure bike majoring on versatility, causing extra maintenance for little noticeable gain, it’s not unheard of on this type of bike. Orbea’s Terra gravel bike, which has similar terrain-spanning ambition to the Kanzo Adventure, also features fully internally routed cables.
Ridley, like Orbea, says that it opted to run cables internally to make mounting bags to the handlebar easier. It also says this stops cables from getting squashed under any bags and damaging the frame’s paintwork.
Ridley has freed up space in the head tube for cables and hoses by using a D-shaped steerer. However, it says if you decide to fit a suspension fork to the Kanzo Adventure this will mean using a round steerer tube.
Consequently, cables and hoses will have to be run externally around the cockpit, but there are entry points for them to run internally through the frame.
Ridley Kanzo Adventure geometry
| Size | XS | S | M | L | XL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seat tube angle (degrees) | 74.5 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 73.5 |
| Head tube angle (degrees) | 70.8 | 70.8 | 70.5 | 70.5 | 70.5 |
| Chainstay (mm) | 435 | 435 | 435 | 435 | 435 |
| Bottom bracket drop (mm) | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Seat tube (mm) | 470 | 495 | 520 | 545 | 570 |
| Top tube (mm) | 513 | 532 | 551 | 573 | 595 |
| Head tube (mm) | 115 | 140 | 165 | 192 | 215 |
| Wheelbase (mm) | 1,024 | 1,041 | 1,065 | 1,088 | 1,107 |
| Stack (mm) | 546 | 569 | 591 | 617 | 639 |
| Reach (mm) | 379 | 387 | 401 | 415 | 426 |
Ridley Kanzo Adventure specs, prices and availability
The Ridley Kanzo Adventure is available now in three standard builds, with either Shimano or SRAM groupsets and finishing kit from Ridley’s in-house brand, Forza.
You can customise the paintwork, wheels and build via Ridley’s online configurator.
Prices for the standard builds start at £3,159 / $4,589 / €3,475 and rise to £4,459 / $6,469 / €4,899.
Ridley Kanzo Adventure SRAM Rival 1
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- Frameset: Kanzo Adventure frame with 4ZA Gravel Disc fork
- Groupset: SRAM Rival 1
- Cranks: SRAM Rival, 42t
- Cassette: SRAM PG-1130, 11-42t
- Handlebar: Ritchey Butano II COMP
- Stem: Forza Stratos
- Seatpost: Forza Stratos
- Saddle: Selle Italia Model X Superflow
- Wheels: Forza Norte Gravel, 24mm internal width
- Tyres: Vittoria Mezcal TNT, 44mm
- Price: £3,159 / $4,589 / €3,475
Ridley Kanzo Adventure Shimano GRX800 1x
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- Frameset: Kanzo Adventure frame with 4ZA Gravel Disc fork
- Groupset: Shimano GRX800 1x
- Cranks: Rotor Vegafast, 42t
- Cassette: Shimano M8000, 11-42t
- Handlebar: Ritchey Butano II COMP
- Stem: Forza Stratos
- Seatpost: Forza Cirrus alu-carbon
- Saddle: Selle Italia X-LR
- Wheels: Forza Norte Gravel, 24mm internal width
- Tyres: Vittoria Terreno Dry TLR, 47mm
- Price: £3,639 / $5,279 / €3,999
Ridley Kanzo Adventure Rival XPLR
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- Frameset: Kanzo Adventure frame with 4ZA Gravel Disc fork
- Groupset: SRAM Rival eTap AXS
- Cranks: SRAM Rival, 42t
- Cassette: SRAM XG-1251, 10-44t
- Handlebar: Ritchey Venturemax
- Stem: Forza Stratos
- Seatpost: Forza Cirrus alu-carbon
- Saddle: Selle Italia X-LR
- Wheels: Forza Levanto Gravel Carbon, 23mm internal width
- Tyres: Vittoria Terreno Dry TLR 47mm
- Price: £4,459 / $6,469 / €4,899