Ragley Blue Pig Review

The Blue Pig has been around for 10 years and has always been a hardcore hardtail that is happiest going flat out into technical and steep trails. For this latest version, Ragley has made some changes not only to the geometry, but also by increasing the rear hub spacing to boost 148mm and the rear triangle tubing now has more compliance to give a little more comfort and forgiveness while retaining stiffness under power.

Geometry is longer, lower and slacker than most, as you would expect from a hardcore hardtail. The head angle is 63.75° without sag, so will sit around 65° sagged, spot-on for an aggressive hardtail. Chainstays are not as short as possible, to give some balance to the long front-centre of the bike. Finishing touches include ISCG 05 tabs for a chain device and internal dropper routing.

Sitting upfront is the chunky RockShox Yari RC Forks. Known for a stiff chassis and supple suspension movement, the Yari is essentially a more affordable version of the revered Lyrik. The Yari shares the same chassis as the hard-hitting Lyrik that is seen on the very top end Enduro bikes. The main difference between the two is that the Yari uses the very capable Motion control damper unit, whereas the Lyrik uses the Charger damper (a relatively easy upgrade). The rest of the fork is identical, they share the same DebonAir spring and bottomless tokens.

The DebonAir spring allows the fork to be run quite hard but keeps small bump compliance. This helps with a hardtail as all the shock and forces through the frame will be taken by the fork, keeping the fork high in its travel maintains a slack head angle and avoids the bike diving at the front end in the steep stuff, especially under braking. Overall the Yari is perfectly suited to the budget and intention of the Blue Pig.

The groupset is a full Shimano affair, with the 1x11 SLX set up. SLX sits above Deore and below XT in the Shimano MTB groupset hierarchy. SLX has long been the workhorse of the range, benefiting from trickle-down technology of the higher tier groupsets, you could argue that modern SLX is the XTR from a few years ago. The 1x11 set up is solid, light, strong and reliable. The M7000 series brakes are spot on and offer ample stopping for the vast majority of riders and terrain. The 32t chainring matched to a 42t cassette, aided by the inherent climbing ability of a hardtail should give the rider ample tools to tackle long and technical climbs. Finishing kit features an ever-reliable FSA headset, Ragleys own short 50mm stem, 780mm wide 15mm rise bars and a cable-actuated no-frills dropper post from Brand-X.

At the heart of the wheelset are the no-nonsense Formula hubs, while not the most exciting part of the build, they are solid performers that are easy to service and maintain. Laced to these are the great Raceface Ar30's. Wide and modern rims that give tenacious grip on the trails.

The rims are cased in WTB Rubber, the Vigilante up front with it's wide 2.5 aggressive tread looks mean like a motocross front tyre, ready to dig in. The rear is the faster rolling Trail boss, again from WTB. The wheelset is tubeless-ready and should set up relatively pain-free.