The Piglet is the littlest of the Ragley range designed around a 120mm fork. Its slack geometry gives a truly confident and inspiring ride.
Ride & handling: Not the lightest bike but capable of lots of trail fun
The Piglet can drown in superlatives. It’s well priced as a frame only; is well thought out – from the slack angles to the speccing of the dropper-post-compatible seat tube and beyond; and it's reassuringly well built rather than anorexic and flexy.
More importantly, it’s a rider’s bike: it will take you into the hills for big yomps but will do so with a sparkle of mischief wherever the trail points. This twinkle imbues you the confidence that it will take the knocks, and we frolicked off lips and grabbed air where we’d normally be more restrained.
It's no big-hitter, as its Blue Pig X sibling is, but for a general cross-country/trail bike for singletrack lovers it's a great choice. It won’t suit everyone though, and although it’s fine to pootle on, it rewards riders who take it by the scruff of the neck.
It doesn’t build into the lightest complete build – our test bike with lightweight bits including a RockShox SID fork weighed 11.2kg (24.7lb) – but it's well balanced and rides lighter and more nimbly than the scales suggest. And for the money, we’re not complaining.
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Video: Riding the Ragley Piglet and Blue Pig
Frame: Simple yet well thought out chassis; complete builds available
Built from butted ‘Fat Head’ chromoly steel tubing – which is externally and internally relieved to reduce weight and boost strength and stiffness – the Piglet inherits many of Ragley’s design cornerstones, including the unique three-finger chainstay that maximises tyre clearance for up to 2.5in treads; bridgeless seatstays; 30.9mm seat tube; and bolt-on cable and hose routing.
It’s a simple yet well thought out frame which will appeal to riders who like to have fun on the downs yet still ride all day. It gets one set of bottle bosses on the down tube but the seat tube is free for unrestricted dropping of the seatpost.
The box head gusset behind the head tube is necessary to pass the CEN frame test, but the Piglet’s designer Brant Richards explains that “it also makes the front of the bike torsionally stiffer under load, so the bike tracks better through the rough with less twisting”. On the trail – and combined with a QR15 screw-through fork – the front end does feel reassuringly direct.
If you don't fancy the frame-only option, the Piglet is available in two complete builds – Piglet X7 and Piglet X9 – with either 120mm or 130mm forks for £1,075 and £1,499 respectively.