What started off as Ridgeback and then became Genesis is now Ridgeback again. Confused? Don’t be, it’s all pretty straightforward. Genesis launched off the back of Ridgeback and their flat barred bikes (they claim to have been the first…) have been well received over the years. More recently, Genesis have started branching out into MTB and the decision has been made to keep going in that direction, so the flat barred stable has been returned to the mother lode. Renamed Flight for 09, the bikes have a slightly chunkier urban feel to them, though they still look on the quick side of the spectrum. The high end 05 model sports 10spd Ultegra transmission, discs and sensible finishing kit and Ridgeback reckon the final bike is under 21lb. We couldn’t check with the road.cc scales of justice because the bike was bolted to the stand and the allen keys had gone walkies. They’ve also slackened the headtube and the more relaxed geometry is apparently more friendly on the road, but we’ll reserve judgement on that till we’ve actually ridden it. Ridgeback’s decision to go with discs (the Genesis range was exclusively V-brake) is an interesting one; most of the really fast urban machines have opted to keep with the lighter Vs. Again, we’ll see how it affects the ride when we can get our hands on one.
The Genesis day range has been retired save for the Day One, which is reincarnated as a Reynolds-tubed singlespeed with ‘cross tyres in the ‘quirky’ supporting Genesis non-MTB lineup which also includes the excellent Flyer.
Further down the range the bikes are more Sirrus/FX – like, with good road kit and mini-Vs, but there’s also a nice hub geared model, the Flight 04.