OFFICIAL TYPE WORDS:

New from Ragley, another slight-off-the-wall frame that makes sense in a new way. Taking 29in wheels (that roll over things nicely), Ragley designers decided to focus on rigid handling, with a rigid only 29in frame. Designed around easily-obtainable 440mm forks (typically used for suspension corrected 26in wheels), the TD-1 gives an unashamed head down, ass up race position, race proven in enduro races under the wheels of the Ragley team riders (podium finishes at Sleepless in The Saddle and Strathpuffer).

Hand welded in the deep south of the good old US of A, by the girls at Lynskey Performance (they have lots of female welders), with cold worked and butted tubing, sliding dropouts for wheelbase tuning or singlespeed use, and Ragleys 3-finger chainstay bridge for huge mud and chainring clearance.

OFFICIAL “stream of conciousness”:

So – a rigid 29er? Well – you can do that to any 29er out there right, just by adding a rigid fork… So why can’t you add a suspension fork to this? Well… it’s simple. The 29ers that our team riders used to ride (from my old company) – they always rode them rigid. And I thought that fitting a long “suspension corrected” rigid fork was just silly. Especially if you’re not a giant… and whilst lots of 29er riders are very tall, having a very tall fork does hinder stand over for smaller riders. And it’s extra weight, extra flutter, extra bending moment…

So – whilst we realise that it puts us in quite a small niche, we decided that a 29er that was only designed for shorter rigid forks would be quite fun. We picked 440mm as that’s a very common length for “quality” rigid forks for 26in wheeled frames – it’s  the length typically used when replacing 80-100mm travel 26in suspension – and happily, fits a 29in wheel in just nicely.

It also works if you approach it from an “I want a rigid bike” thing too – 29in wheels work great on rigid bikes. Much better than 26in ones. And even, “I want a singlespeed rigid bike” – the bigger wheels roll better – so in lots of ways, this is our perfect rigid singlespeed(able) bike – it just happens to have 29in wheels.

Anyhow – to the bit I keep getting asked – So can you run a suspension fork on here? Well… it won’t give you cancer, or stop the world turning, but really, slackening the head angle a degree and a half and adding 3/4in to the BB height isn’t a great way to get the most from a frameset that we thought about the numbers on. But it’s your frame if you want to. It’s about the same as running a 180mm Freeride singlecrown fork on a 100mm race bike. And I’m a big fan of Biker Build-Off and American Chopper, but I mean really… please don’t.

Dropouts are Lynskeys take on P-type ones. We added our Fat Chance tribute “pointy bullet” ended caps, and you’re good to go for Rohloff, singlespeed, gears – I think they even do a Maxle back end. You get an SS dropout and a geared dropout with the frame – Lynskey and others sell the Rohloff one if you want it.

Component sizing is simple – 34.9mm seat tube that’s shimmed internally for a 27.2mm post – it’s skinny cos we like springy posts, and you’re not going to be running a “dropper” post on this frame. No. Really. The 16in frame will take a big bottle on the downtube and a small one on the seat tube. The top tube has a nice little oval profile to help vertical compliance. It’s butted too. The DT is cold worked with a tiny bend near it’s end that does cool things to stress in that area. I think it looks great.

Top tubes are LONG. I have an aversion to long stems. We reckon perfect is 70mm on a 16, 80mm on an 18, 90mm on a 20. And yes I know I’m measuring stems in mm and frames in inches, but sorry. It’s what happens. Odd isn’t it.

Frames come with sticker kits with a couple of decal options. And we sell these seperately. Finish is Lynskeys new “industrial brush” finish – so it’s not mirrored, it’s kind of wire brush simple… I like it like that and it saves us all some money. If you want it shiny, just spend some evenings with the brasso.

We’re now losing count of the number of podiums it’s been on. Dave and Jase, our endurance racers, recently hammered out over 200 miles each in 24hrs on their TD:1 proto’s, coming 2nd and 3rd at the OSMM 2010 24hr solo race. And that’s just one race. These bikes HAMMER. But equally, I know riders who love them set up singlespeed, a bit more bomber, and great for evening rides, day rides, whatever…

Thanks for looking, even if it was just to laugh and think that’s not for you. We know it’s not for everyone, but that’s fine by us, and we’d rather sell some things to make people smile or stare, rather than some design by committee “cookie cutter” concept that just ticks boxes.

Geometry

Size/Model	TT	H/A	Seat Angle	Chainstay	BB Drop	BB Height	Head tube	Weight
Ragley TD-1 Titanium 29er/16″	23.5″	72˚	73.5˚	17.4″	2.5″	12″	4″	3.4lb
Ragley TD-1 Titanium 29er/18″	24″	72˚	73.5˚	17.4″	2.5″	12″	4″	3.4lb
Ragley TD-1 Titanium 29er/20″	24.5″	72˚	73.5˚	17.4″	2.5″	12″	4.5″	3.4lb