£3,599 Endurance all-roader that blurs road and gravel
Dual geometry
● The head angle is 73.1° in the high setting, or a slightly more relaxed 72.3° in the low setting, while the seat angle steepens from 73° to 73.8°
Bossing it
● There are twin bottle bosses plus threaded bosses on both front and rear dropouts for mudguards
Wide-rubber ready
● Tyre clearances are huge in both 650b and 700c versions (47mm and 38mm respectively)
Weight 9.76kg (XL) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano GRX (46/30t, 11-32t) Brakes Shimano BR-RX410 Wheels Rondo Lit Finishing kit Rondo stem & seatpost, Easton EC70SL bar, Selle San Marco Shortfit saddle, Vittoria Terreno Zero 650b x 47mm tyres,
RONDO IS KNOWN FOR DOING things differently. Its debut bike, the Ruut, was the first to feature its patented Twin Tip fork, where you flip an insert in the dropout to switch between high and low positions. It was used to brilliant effect on the aero-road-come-gravel-racer, 2019’s Bike of the Year-winning HVRT.
With the Brutalist-looking Ratt, Rondo has again pushed the boundaries with 47mm-wide slick tyres and 650b wheels. The kinks at the fork, top-tube and skinny seatstays are to provide comfort-improving compliance. The fork also features the Twin Tip dropouts that change the geometry from a ‘low’ all-road position to a ‘high’ on-road position. The Ratt has full internal cable routing, entering through the stem, including capacity for a front dynamo. Rondo claims a Medium frame weighs 1kg.
Switching it up
The ‘low’ 50mm setting on the fork helps the bike mimic a typical endurance road bike, but adds grip and comfort thanks to the wide 650b tyres (yes, plus weight and some inertia, but Rondo claims this is offset by the smaller wheels). In the low setting, trail is a super-short 43.05mm (over 10mm shorter than an average race bike). In the longer 60mm setting, the trail is 58.25mm, similar to an all-road-biased endurance bike or
even a gravel bike. Head and seat angles also change when you flip, as does the reach. Add in the relatively short wheelbase of 1,037mm and short 420mm chainstays, and the Ratt has a sporty set-up.
The CF2’s build is based around Shimano’s GRX 400 groupset. The gears have ample range, and will get you up the steepest climbs. The shifting, at the rear at least, is crisp, a
