I picked up a Compact last week to use as a crit bike and a poorer-weather bike. My other roadie is a Cervelo S2. I've had 4 rides on the Ridley now, including a couple fast group rides and and a couple of easier rides.
It's got a more smooth ride than some of the other aluminum bikes I've been on and is actually fairly snappy. I think that the big tube shapes contribute to the responsive ride as well as the shorter wheel base. It does feel more sluggish on a longer, steeper climb, but isn't terrible. One thing I like about my S2 is the fact that the angles are fairly consistent across all sizes, which is nice for me being a shorter guy; the seat angle on the Compact is steeper, so it took me a little more playing around to get it feeling dialed in. I do feel only a slight bit more of the rougher road surface than I do on the S2, but that could have just been the terrain I rode as well.
In all, I'm really pleased with the purchase and think it's a fantastic value. My choice was to either buy this, a Cervelo S1, or a Giant TCA Alliance. I was going to buy the S1 or Giant simply for shop loyalty, but they couldn't get either in for a while. Now I'm glad that they couldn't. I'll enjoy riding the compact as much as I enjoy riding the S2 (other than the components......Rival is fantastic, but I do notice a marked improvement with the Force I have on the S2.). I'll be trying my Zipp 303s on the Compact later this week and may post an update on ride quality after that.
~Jason
