‘Don’t endure, conquer,’ Trek proudly shouts.

The key with its Domane range, including this alloy-framed, disc-braked ALR4, is that it’s designed to positively plough across the roughest road surfaces.

The high-end carbon race versions of this model have won the cobbled Classics of northern Europe since they were launched in 2015, but wide, 32c tyres and Trek’s IsoSpeed decoupler at the rear end should provide all-day comfort for all comers.

Frameset

Trek’s 200 Series aluminium is, in the company’s own words, ‘formed into sophisticated tube shapes for maximum strength and minimum weight.’

We’ve ridden lighter alloy frames but it certainly is an elegantly constructed frameset.

A slightly curving, flattened top tube, in common with the rest of the tubes, features very neat welds.

The difference between this top tube and other brands’ is that its swooping line towards the rear hub and almost seamless junction with the seatstays is punctuated by what Trek calls an IsoSpeed decoupler, which allows it to flex (almost imperceptibly) when met by harsh road surfaces.

The cables – with the exception of the rear brake hose, which is routed through the down tube – are all externally routed.

The front brake cable is zip-tied to the fork leg while the mech cabling is exposed along the underside of the down tube, meaning it’s open to attack from road grime flung up by the front wheel.

Trek’s endurance geometry employs a fairly tall head tube and relaxed head angle of a measured 71.7°.

A seat angle of 74.4° forces the rider over the front end for decent leverage.

Groupset

The Domane runs a groupset largely comprised of Shimano Tiagra equipment. It’s a step down (and heavier) than 105, but durable, reliable and easy to use.

A 50/34 compact chainset is matched to a 10-speed, 11-32 cassette, which offers a wide range of ratios for arguably any terrain, while the shifters/brake levers are Tiagra-level RS405 hydraulics.

Finishing kit

It’s no surprise to find Trek’s own Bontrager kit splashed across the Domane. At this price range, you expect sturdy alloy gear, and that’s exactly what you get.

Bontrager’s own Affinity Comp is one of our favoured seats. Flat-topped and all-day comfy, it’s a cracking choice.

Wheels

Bontrager’s tubeless-ready TLF rims are laced to unbranded hubs running sealed bearing units. These are fixed to the frame by way of 12mm thru-axles, rather than the usual quick-release skewer.

The intention is that this makes both ends less prone to flex, so the pads don’t rub on the brake discs.

Bontrager Hard Case Lite rubber wrapped around the alloy rims, in whopping 32c diameter, adds further comfort credentials to the Domane’s build.

The ride

There’s no escaping the fact that, in this aluminium guise, the Domane feels a little weighty. But that doesn’t preclude it from providing a decent ride. In fact, its all-up bulk of 9.86kg works for it in some respects.

The long wheelbase and relaxed steering geometry lend it a solid feel in the opening miles of our test, with little effort needed to turn at speed.

It certainly feels built for long distance, but how will it fare in the comfort stakes?

What soon becomes apparent is that the Domane isn’t as sluggish as its geometry and weight would have you think.

The sturdy chainstays do an admirable job of delivering your watts to the rear wheel, and the bike really does respond well to hard efforts.

Slightly less surprising, given the ALR4’s raison d’être, is that it’s possessed of almost otherworldy comfort.

The level of fatigue we felt was noticeably less than on so many bikes we’ve ridden on our test loop over the years, even when getting back into some shape ourselves after a winter diet of mainly After Eights and beer.

The long length of exposed seatpost works in unison with the frame technology to isolate the saddle from any harsh jarring, while the high front end and steep seat angle put us in a position of utmost comfort for hours on end.

The weight does start to show on the hillier sections of the ride, but a 32-tooth cog on the cassette does maximise progress.

This being a wide-ratio 10-speed set-up does mean that the jump between gears is fairly pronounced at times, however.

Of note is the fact that, even under heavy load, we don’t experience a single rub of pad on disc, thanks to the solid thru-axle set-up at the front and rear hubs.

The Domane can’t deliver race-like cornering ability, but does give its pilot stacks of confidence.

The contact patch of its reasonably quick-rolling Bontrager rubber is immense, given their 32c size, while the deep bottom bracket drop (vertical distance between bottom bracket and wheel hub) effectively lowers your feet – and centre of gravity – which translates to a feeling of peerless stability when cornering.

It might not drop into a turn like a sharply set-up racer, but once it’s keeled over, it tracks a line with precision allowing you to take diabolical liberties in terms of corner speed and lean angle.

The brakes can be used to gently scrub off speed on the entry to downhill corners, and meter your speed once you’re leant over, such is their delicate touch.

However, when the time comes to panic-brake (thanks, Mr Pheasant!), the force with which they can be applied means you can actually feel the front tyre deform as it’s nailed to the tarmac.

There’s a heck of a lot to recommend this bike to any rider aiming to boost their fitness while having fun.

Ratings

Frame: Almost otherworldly levels of comfort. 9/10
Components: Reliable Tiagra groupset, great hydraulic brakes. 7/10 
Wheels: Tubeless-ready rims and 32c tyres are on trend. 8/10 
The Ride: Incredibly stable, great for cornering at high speed. 9/10

VERDICT

A solid, stable and superbly comfortable bike, the Domane ALR4 Disc ensures you'll have plenty of fun while building your fitness in the saddle. 

Geometry

Spec

This project between two of Italy's most revered brands will see Bianchi manufacture a Bianchi for Scuderia Ferrari road bike range. 

Certain to carry a pretty price tag, both Bianchi and Ferrari will provide teams from their respective Research & Development Departments to develop models within the project. 

Both brands certainly hold a racing pedigree in their respective fields. Bianchi have provided Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winning bikes for the likes of Fausto Coppi and Marco Pantani whilst Ferrari have led the likes of Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher to multiple Formula 1 titles. 

With this being said, both have struggled to produce success in their respective sports as of late. Bianchi have not taken a Grand Tour victory since Pantani's Giro-Tour double in 1998 whilst Ferrari last won the F1 championship in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen.

This will not be Ferrari's first experience of collaborating with a Italian bike manafacturer, as they produced the V1-r aero road bike with Colnago back in 2014.

This followed a wider trend of bike and car manufacturer collaborations. In 2013 Lamborghini launched a €25,000 BMC for its 50 year anniversary whilst McLaren have been working with Specialized since 2010. 

Bianchi for Scuderia Ferrari aim to present their high-end range of bikes to the public at this year's Eurobike show in Germany in August.

Chairman and owner of Bianchi Salvatore Grimaldi proudly announed the project stating 'We strongly desired this collaboration with Ferrari. Working together will allow us to develop new products shaped by the mix of top-class knowledge and expertise from the two parts, creating successful and innovative models just like Bianchi and Ferrari have always done'

Grimaldi further stressed whilst there is no time limit on this partnership, he expects it to last a few years with an expansion into mountain, city, children and E-bikes possible. 

In developing the L'Etape, Dolan set out to create a bike that’s lightweight, responsive and comfortable, and (in its own words), ‘the ideal weapon of choice in a variety of disciplines, from general riding to road racing.’

The trickle-down of electronic groupset tech from Dura-Ace to Ultegra has allowed Dolan to piece this bike together for a very palatable £1,815, and even cheaper options are available if you specify different finishing kit and wheels when you order.

Frameset

Dolan’s L’Etape frame is a masterclass in swooping lines. The shape of the sloping ovalised top tube is mimicked below in the oversized down tube, and also in the shape of the curved seatstays, which act like dampers to minimise vibrations.

The straighter, beefed-up chainstays are more purposeful, with the intention of keeping flex to an absolute minimum along the drive chain.

It’s at their tips where we encountered the only niggle in the build, in that the Di2 cable has just a little too much slack in it.

You could cable-tie it to avoid snagging it in transit or when negotiating the bike in a packed garage, as electronics groupset cables are less forgiving than traditional steel cabling when they take a knock or pull.

Speaking of cabling, it’s all internally routed. This frameset is compatible with both electronic and mechanical set-ups, but a neat rubber bung plugs the hole on the right of the down tube that would otherwise accept a mechanical derailleur cable.

The sloping geometry of the bike results in a compact rear triangle, which should improve the power delivery.

A measured head angle of 72° puts the bike firmly in the ‘quicker-steering endurance bike’ category, while a short head tube of just 125mm gets you low over the front for more committed riding.

Groupset

A set of Shimano Ultegra Di2 shifters work on a 50/34 Ultegra chainset and 11-28 cassette, and both front and rear mechs are electronically operated and self-trimming.

This means (theoretically) there’s no maintenance required to get perfect shifts every time. Ultegra brakes grace both front and rear.

Finishing kit

A combination of all-alloy kit is used at the L’Etape’s contact points.

A 400mm diameter Deda Zero 100 handlebar is clamped to a Zero 100 alloy stem, of 110mm – an instantly comfortable and well proportioned set-up for our size 44 bike (the 44 referring to the length of the seat tube in cm, not the top tube!).

Selle Italia’s comfortably padded Flite Team Edition saddle tops the alloy Alpina seatpost (the only decidedly basic piece on board).

Wheels

Mavic’s Aksium wheelset is right at the bottom of the French firm’s range of endurance hoops. They’re solid performers but do weigh 1,880g, and that's before you’ve even fitted tyres and tubes.

The fitted Continental’s Gatorskin tyres are 23mm in diameter. They're perhaps not the first choice for many riders, but in all our years of testing, we’ve never punctured a Gatorskin; they’re all-year favourites.

The Mavic rims’ 17mm internal diameter will take much wider rubber if you want to slap some 25s or 28s in there for increased comfort. 

The ride

We spent a good 10 minutes going over the Dolan before our maiden voyage, for no other reason than to see where costs have been cut.

Beyond the fact that it’s running a KMC chain rather than Shimano, there’s nothing obvious to report.

A bike whose spec seems too good to be true for the price might just have the performance to back up its spec sheet too.

There’s a willingness to the Dolan that makes it a joy to ride – and especially to ride quickly.

The Mavic wheels take a little time to catch up with your demands of them, especially if you’re doing sprints or going for a KOM on a local climb, but once they’re spinning up, they’re more than capable of helping to propel you along rolling roads.

And it’s on these kinds of lanes that the bike excels, as well-timed electronic gearshifts help you carry every last bit of momentum up short rises, and make full use of the bigger gears down the other side.

The Di2 electronic shifting is a boon on longer climbs, thanks to the fact that the system will endure ham-fisted up-changes when it’s time to get out of the saddle and shred your legs to the summit.

The lightweight nature of the bike means it’s very much at home on a slope, but the excess rotational mass it carries in its wheels and tyres again let it down slightly in this area.

The Ultegra braking set-up is as good as you’d ever need on a road bike and – while you’re better off not grabbing a handful as you’ll need to get those wheels up to speed again soon after – when it comes to gradual stopping power, they’re truly excellent.

Ergonomically, this is one of the most instantly comfortable bikes we’ve thrown a leg over in recent months, with the handlebar diameter and stem length a perfect fit for the frame size and our 5ft 9in height.

It’s as comfortable when riding on the drops as when tapping along chatting with mates, and the overall package has almost everything it needs to encourage hard riding.

Despite the Dolan’s relatively conservative geometry, it actually feels a little nervous at lower speeds thanks to the very low front end.

However, once the speed picks up, this initial twitchiness disappears, and is replaced by responsive performance that’s right up there with any bike we’ve tested at double the Dolan’s price.

There’s a little harshness from both ends, but nothing we couldn’t live with. This is likely down to the straight-set carbon forks and unyielding alloy seatpost.

Continental’s 23c tyres, in performance terms, meanwhile, never let us down. They’ve long been favourites of ours, for their all-season ability.

The whole package holds together as a machine on which you could happily smash out a mid-length sportive, or take to the races.

It’s a versatile package that’s highly specced and particularly capable. We’d swap out the wheels for something lighter and more performance-oriented for more serious forays into competition, but that’s just about the only change we’d make.

Dolan have a Mavic Ksyrium Elite option at an extra £300, which will save you 300g and could be well worth considering if you’ve a little more cash in the kitty.

Ratings

Frame: Ergonomically splendid. Makes for a very comfy ride. 8/10
Components: Ultegra Di2 all the way. Impressive! 10/10 
Wheels: A bit on the chunky side. We'd recommend an upgrade. 7/10 
The Ride: Impressively responsive at higher speeds. 9/10

VERDICT

It has its flaws, but the Dolan L'Etape deserves plenty of credit for offering a carbon frame and Shimano Ultegra Di2 for sensible money.

Geometry

Spec

See related 

Fast and furious: Inside the world of time-trialling

When Pinarello released its rear sprung K8-S back in 2015 it was to much fanfare. In between the top of the seatstays and the seat tube was a miniature elastomer-based shock that gave the rear of the bike up to 10mm of vertical travel, tuneable through swapping between elastomer inserts or variable squidginess (the technical term).

The shock’s rebound was also tuneable, via turning a ring above the shock that tightened down on the elastomer, effectively preloading the make it even firmer.

Today, Pinarello have gone one better, yet it’s done so rather quietly, launching the Pinarello K10-S Disk almost under the radar.

Eagle eyed Classics viewers would have seen a curious appendage on the K8-S’s shock at this year’s Paris-Roubaix, and now, it seems, Pinarello has finally released it to the masses.

Step forward the Electronic Suspension system. Yes, that’s the only name we can find for it now – although ‘eDSS 2.0’ and ‘Electronic Dogmas Suspension System’ were terms bandied around the prototype, but as it says on the tin, the rear damping of the all-new K10-S is electronically controlled using a series of accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors that automatically change damping, rebound and spring rate as the the surface dictates.

Smooth road? The sensors will detect this and firm up the shock for better pedalling efficiency.

Cobbles? The sensors will set the shock up to iron out the bumps.

We believe there is a remote lockout via buttons on the handlebars. Oh, and there’s also disc brakes, the new down tube junction box mount for Di2 and Pinarello’s 3X Air bottle mounting system, which basically means you can drop the position of the bottle cage on the down tube to make the bottle itself aids aerodynamics.

All this really pales into insignificance though. The big story here is Pinarello pushing suspension on road bikes even further.

Is this the future we can all look forward to? And when will we get a fully sprung road bike (again)?

We’ll keep you posted with more details as we find them.

£TBC, pinarello.com

This feature was produced in association with Scott.

This year’s Tour de France was bookended by individual time-trials that proved crucial in deciding the outcome of the race.

The Plasma 5 RC Team Issue was the bike Orica-Scott relied on to keep riders like Simon Yates in overall GC contention.

The bike you saw on the WorldTour stage looked slightly different to the one pictured, due to stringent UCI regulations governing what can be deemed a structural part of the bike, rather than a fairing, but that is part of the beauty of the Plasma 5’s design. 

‘All that’s required to make it UCI legal is to take off the integrated water bottle and the storage box,’ says Scott’s UK sales manager, Keith Murray.

‘Getting that UCI legal frame sticker was a big deal for us. But as you see it here it’s completely legal for domestic time-trial and ITU [International Triathlon Union] events.’

Scott’s proven Plasma platform has been further refined for this its fifth generation, thanks to input from leading aerodynamicist Simon Smart.

Scott uses the same HMX carbon fibre for the frame construction as it does for its flagship super-light Addict road bike, which enables the Plasma 5 RC frame to come in at under a kilo.

‘There are plenty of road bike frames weighing more than that,’ Murray points out. 

Personalised fit options include two different stem heights (0mm and 45mm stack), three base bar configurations and up to 75mm of height adjustment in the armrests.

This should ensure the Plasma 5 RC is as versatile as it is fast.

Scott Plasma 5 RC Team Issue
Groupset: Shimano Di2
Wheels: Enve SES 7.8 front, Drag2Zero disc rear
Finishing kit: Profile Plasma cockpit, Scott Plasma HMX seatpost, Syncros RR1.5 TRI saddle
Weight: 9.32kg
Price:£11,300 approx as pictured
Contact: scott-sports.com

KTM isn’t a name you’ll see too often on the roads of the UK, but it’s by no means an obscure or minor brand.

It’s particularly popular in its home country of Austria, where it has been producing bicycles since 1964, although it’s perhaps better known for its high-powered motorcycles.

The bicycle and motorcycle arms of the company are now separate entities after a split during the 90s, but they seem to maintain a consistent brand aesthetic.

Which means that whether your KTM is motorised or pedal-powered, there’s a good chance it will come in a striking arrangement of orange and black.

When this Revelator Prestige arrived in the Cyclist office, some of my colleagues declared it to be an eyesore.

As for me, I think the paintjob is rather dramatic, and a pleasing departure from the all-black frames that have become ubiquitous at the top level of road bikes.

Quite apart from the colour scheme, I was also excited to get hold of this bike as I’d ridden previous generations of the bike and loved them – especially the 2015 version.

I was keen to see what an extra two years of development had done to the Revelator.

Playing with the big boys

This Prestige version of the Revelator is KTM’s flagship offering and comes bedecked with components straight out of the top drawer, including the newest incarnation of Shimano’s electronic Dura-Ace groupset and a set of DT Swiss RC38 Spline carbon clinchers, which would set you back over a grand on their own.

It’s a bike pitched at the very top end of the racing and speedy sportive market, but at a price that compares favourably with the likes of Trek and Specialized.

For example, at £6,000 the Revelator Prestige carries a specification not dissimilar to the Specialized S-Works Tarmac Di2 but at a saving of over £2,000.

What KTM doesn’t have compared to the big names is a presence at the top of pro cycling, but it has made some tentative steps into racing.

It is co-sponsor of the catchily named Team Delko Marseille-Provence KTM, a French team that races on the Pro-Continental circuit.

But it’s fair to say KTM bikes are rarely seen at the major events – although organisers of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire, where the team finished with four riders in the top 20, might have something to say about that.

The Revelator plainly worked well in Yorkshire for the KTM team, so I was fully expecting my comparatively average abilities to be enhanced by the Revelator when I took it for its first test ride.

New, not improved

These days we’re all looking for stiff, light and responsive bikes that transfer power – however much or little we can actually produce – as efficiently as possible into forward propulsion.

The Revelator managed this pretty well, especially once I was up to speed and sitting steady in the saddle.

While I can’t vouch for the aerodynamic qualities of the frame, it is certainly shaped to cut through the air, and the bike seemed to hold speed with relative ease.

It was when I got out of the saddle that the problems started. The 2015 Revelator Prestige was superb, with a less striking design than the current bike but near-faultless performance.

That frameset was overhauled for 2016, and the revised design has carried over into 2017, but somewhere in the transformation something was lost.

Whenever I stood hard on the pedals, either on a sharp climb or sprinting on the drops, I could hear (and feel) a metronomic scuff as the rear brake pad came into contact with the wheel rim.

It’s a common problem among bikes where the rear brake calliper has been positioned behind the bottom bracket, rather than the usual position on the seatstays.

Press hard on the pedals and the flex at the bottom bracket brings the brake pad into contact with the rear wheel – a problem that’s only exacerbated if the wheel is particularly stiff and doesn’t flex in line with the frame.

It became obvious immediately that the Revelator’s bottom bracket was not as stiff as I’d expect from a race bike.

I like my brakes sharp, so I wasn’t very happy at having to adjust them to create a bigger gap between brake pad and wheel rim to avoid the pads rubbing.

Trying to get to the bottom of what was happening, I swapped in a pair of super-stiff Shimano Dura-Ace C35 wheels.

The outcome was even more brake rub as the frame flexed but the rear wheel didn’t, resulting in the pads catching the rim more than before.

As an aside, I did notice that the bike accelerated up to speed a bit quicker with the Dura-Ace C35 wheels.

I switched back to the DT Swiss wheels anyway, however, mainly because they match the frame so much better. These things are important.

Coming in at 6.98kg on the Cyclist scales, the Prestige is impressively light when it emerges from the box.

Pedals and bottle cages do add a chunk of extra weight, though, meaning the bike I tested was light by comparison to most road bikes, but heavier than many of its competitors in the top-tier bracket.

However, I would discourage KTM from attempting to shave extra grams from the frame by reducing the amount of carbon fibre.

For me, I would happily accept a bit of extra beef to stiffen up the rear and create a more spritely ride. It would pay greater dividends on the climbs than a bit less weight and, more importantly, it would get rid of that damn brake rub.

How the frame evolves next will be key to KTM’s hopes of ongoing success in the market for WorldTour-ready bikes.

It has proved it can do it with the excellent 2015 Revelator, so it should only require minor tweaks to make a bike that will stand shoulder to shoulder with the big name brands, yet still deliver value for money in this pricier area of the market.

Verdict: An almost race ready machine, but the KTM Revelator Prestige Dura-Ace Di2 falls short of its potential 

Specification

This feature was produced in association with Cervélo.

There are few names that embody the notion of pure speed like Cervélo.

The Soloist arguably created the aero-road concept in 2002, but it was in the time-trial arena that the Toronto-based company cut its teeth, debuting the outrageous Barrachi TT bike in 1995, followed by the first iteration of the P-series a year later.

‘That was the P2,’ says Cervélo’s Alex Croucher. ‘Wind-tunnel testing was at the heart of that project, and two decades’ worth of experience later, it remains at the core of our design process with the P5.

‘Things are even more advanced now – we use a life-size mannequin based on a 3D scan of [former pro] Dave Zabriskie that sits and pedals the bikes in the tunnel, so the P5 is optimised for a rider in the real world, not just to win aero tests.’

As such, Cervélo claims the P5 is ‘6-11 watts faster than rival time-trial superbikes’.

This is in part down to a wheel-hugging frame that creates an almost homogenous shape to slice through the wind, and a smartly integrated cockpit designed by sister brand 3T.

It says a lot for the Cervélo’s aero credentials that it has become the go-to choice for British Cycling’s track programme.

‘BC ride a variant of the P5 on the track – the T5. So that’s how fast this bike is. However it’s not just enough to make a fast bike, it also has to ride well,’ says Croucher.

‘With that in mind, we’ve built around our proprietary, wide-stance BBright bottom bracket to increase pedalling stiffness, and used a seatstay design similar to our S-series road bikes to add vertical compliance.

‘Our motto is “aero is always on”, but there isn’t much point in that if it doesn’t actually benefit the rider out on the road.’

Cervélo P5 Three
Groupset: Sram eTap with Magura RT6 hydraulic brakes
Wheels: HED Jet 6 Black
Finishing kit: 3T Aduro cockpit, Cervélo Carbon Aero seatpost, ISM PS 1.0 saddle
Weight: 8.57kg
Price:£8,499 approx as pictured
Contact: derby-cycle.com

Holdsworth is a bike brand with a prestigious history. Dating back to 1927 and based in Putney, South London, it was one of the most prestigious bike brands in its time.

In more recent years the brand has been reborn through online bike retailer Planet X, which revitalised the name by releasing a series of updated frames, including the Competition we have on test here.

As well as retaining the classic steel construction, the modern Holdsworths retain the classic colour schemes and logos (the Competition is also available in Holdsworth’s famous orange and blue livery), but is otherwise a very modern design.

Hand-built using Columbus Spirit SL steel, the tubing is far from being simply round, with an almost octagonal down tube and shaped seatstays, and is triple-butted – thicker at the ends where more strength is required, thinner in the middle to reduce weight.

It might not be a true classic, but it looks fantastic. The only small extra we would like to see is a metal head badge, giving a further nod to the heritage of the brand.

A full Shimano Ultegra groupset is a real boon for a bike at this price, giving near faultless shifting and braking. Through the online bike builder, buyers can pick and tweak the components, whether that’s to upgrade or simply for personal preference, such as the cassette and chainring sizes.

Steel is often chosen for its comfort, since its strength means it can be built into narrow tubes that allow plenty of flex. However, while it is far from being uncomfortable, the Holdsworth Competition is no magic carpet ride.

In fact, it achieves an excellent balance, with superb stiffness when sprinting and cornering, well above what we were expecting, giving a feeling of stability and confidence downhill.

While the geometry is modern, given the Competition name and the racing heritage, some people might prefer a slightly shorter head tube to give a lower, more aggressive riding position.

But weighing a little more than most modern racing bikes, this might be more the choice of those looking for retro style than outright speed.

Ratings

Frame 8/10; Components 8/10; Wheels 8/10; The ride 8/10

Verdict: Great spec for the price and a good ride too, although it won't quite be racy enough for true racers. But if you're after a bike with some heritage to go with its modern components and performance, it could be the ideal match.

Spec

This feature was produced in association with Boardman

Chris Boardman needs little introduction. Before Sir Brad, Cav and Froomey came along, he was probably the only UK cyclist most people could name.

Over a highly successful career, Boardman forged a reputation for finding new ways to cheat the wind, and that’s still at the heart of the range of TT bikes he puts his name and knowhow behind.

In the case of the TTE 9.2, an intriguing innovation is the application of strips of so-called ‘trip-tape’, a 1.25mm thick sharp-edged clear plastic tape applied to the leading edge of specific tubes.

‘This is one area where I know we are genuinely faster than the competition,’ says Andy Smallwood, managing director of Boardman International.

‘The tape trips the boundary layer of air, turning it turbulent, and keeping it attached for longer before separation. We’ve seen there’s a significant aerodynamic benefit to be had and this is unique to Boardman.'

As is befitting a machine bearing the name of the three-time Tour prologue time-trial winner, everything from the Boardman’s integrated stem and cockpit to the recess in the seat tube for the rear wheel has been designed with speed as the ultimate goal.

However, even the most aerodynamic bike won’t be the fastest if it doesn’t suit the rider, and Boardman says it has taken into account feedback on stability and handling from the pro teams and riders using its bikes in developing the TTE 9.2.

Boardman TTE 9.2
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra 6870 Di2
Wheels: Boardman Air Elite Nine
Finishing kit: Boardman Integrated Carbon cockpit, Boardman Elite CC Carbon seatpost, ISM Adamo Road saddle
Weight: 9.48kg
Price:£4,300 approx as pictured
Contact: boardmanbikes.com

The Giant Propel Advanced 2 works to reduce drag and minimise the energy needed to ride and sprint at full speed, especially when it's windy.

The bike is one of the lightest of its kind on the market, with a concentration on sharp handling coupled with the proven aero performance.

However, some people might still be unsure about which Giant road bike would suit them.

David Ward, Product & Training Manager at Giant UK, explains the difference between popular models the Propel and the Defy.

'The Giant Propel is race geometry like the top end TCR, which Tom Dumoulin rode to victory at the Giro d'Italia.

'The Defy has endurance geometry, so longer in the chainstay and headtube and taller in the headtube,' he added.

As we've touched upon, the Giant Propel has been made to cheat the wind and Ward adds, 'the Propel is all about aero.'

This Giant Propel Advanced 2 comes with the latest version of the Shimano 105 groupset, the third-tier offering that has benefited from years of trickle down from the top end of Shimano's component hierarchy.

At this price, the Propel would make a great first race bike that would also be suited to sportives and faster weekend rides.

As always, the wheels might be the first place to look for an upgrade and a more aerodynamic set of rims would better suit the frame.

The Giant Propel Advanced 2 and other bikes worth over £999 are avaiable with 0% finance over 24 months: see Giant for more details.

Click through to page two for our full review of the Giant Propel Advanced Pro 2 review

Giant Propel Advanced Pro 2 review

The Giant Propel Advanced 2 is a race worthy bike with an aero frame that ticks all the boxes but it's held back slightly by the groupset

Review by: Josh Cunningham

Price as reviewed: £2,600

Giant is recognised as the world’s biggest bike manufacturer, with a stable that houses every type of bike imaginable. Its upper echelon bikes are used by the Giant-Shimano men’s road team and both of the Liv-Shimano and Rabobank-Liv women’s road teams, as well as pro cyclocross and MTB squads. But the crème de la crème of frame engineering is the Propel, including the mid-range Advanced Pro 2.

Frame

In terms of pure speed, the Propel will happily allow the rider to sit down, tuck in and channel every muscular sinew into straight-line forward motion; the frame encourages it, even. The sculpted tube profiles are awash with kamm-tail shapes, and with the slightly dropped down tube and cut out in seat tube (designed to slicken airflow), it certainly looks aero. But the Computational Fluid Dynamics and wind tunnel testing that the Propel has undergone would suggest that Giant has scientific proof of it being so, too. Apart from an integrated seatpost, the frame boasts the same geometry and tube profiles of Marcel Kittel’s range-topping Propel Advanced SL. The Advanced Pro 2 handles well when out of the saddle and making snappy directional changes, partly thanks to the OverDrive 2 steering system at the front end, which employs oversized bearings and a tapered steerer tube for increased stiffness. The RideSense wireless speed and cadence data transmitter (ANT+) integrated into the chainstay is a thoughtful touch.

Components

Whilst a frame can be aerodynamic, the energy saved can be all to easily lost in the way the turbulent air reacts with the rest of the components. Giant is clued-up enough to know this, and the Propel Advanced Pro 2 is fitted with aerodynamic brake callipers both front and rear. The Giant branded TRP Speed Control SL braking system uses a calliper mounted to the back of the fork to keep the unrefined shape out of the wind. The braking performance is good and, with open access, the callipers are relatively easy to adjust. The Shimano 105 groupset is much the same as Ultegra and Dura-Ace but for different material choices and a slightly clunkier performance. At this price, it’s a fitting accompaniment as is the Fizik Arione saddle.

Wheels

The P-SLR 1 Aero Wheel system provides another example of Giant standing apart from the competition as the Propel comes with deep section wheels out of the box. Much like Mavic’s Cosmic Carbone, or Shimano’s RS81 C50, they’re a hybrid made up from an alloy rim with a carbon composite fairing so in many ways they make for one of the most versatile wheel options out there. The P-SLR 1s are aerodynamic while remaining relatively light and the alloy rim also means that braking performance isn’t compromised.

Most influential in the aerodynamic performance of a pair of wheels is the rim and the current trend is for a deep, wide iteration with a fairly rounded-box cross-section. The principal objective is to guide air past the object with as little turbulence as possible, which means working in conjunction with whatever is breaking the wind (in this case the tyre), and dealing with the consequences of its disruption. Stiff carbon rims reduce the need for a high number of spokes, and their wide, deep, and rounded profile forces airflow out, and past, the entire wheel, before drawing it back smoothly at the rear. Rather than eddy through between spokes, hubs and the like.

The ride

The Advanced Pro 2 is undeniably a race bike. It goes fast in a straight line, fast through corners and fast in a gallop, thanks to Giant putting effort in across the board. At £2,600, Giant could have been forgiven for oversight in certain details, or putting all its eggs in one basket (the frame). Whilst there are some compromises (the bike is equipped with Shimano’s third-tier groupset after all), the aero braking system and aero wheelset go a long way towards making up the difference. Granted, it may not have the delicacy of a top-end race bike in its ride feel but, for a speed machine at a reasonable price, there’s a lot to be said for this offering. 

Frame 

Very aero with a cutout seat tube and a dropped down tube - 9/10

Components

An appropriate selection for the price, great saddle - 8/10

Wheels

Excellent lightweight alloy rims with aero carbon fairing - 9/10

The ride

Fast and sporty, it wears its racing credentials on its sleeve - 8/10

Overall

The Advanced Pro 2 may not have the delicacy of a top-end race bike, but for a speed machine at a reasonable price, there's a lot to be said in its favour.

Geometry

Spec

This feature was produced in association with Factor

Many bicycle manufacturers tout links with motorsport engineers and outfits, but arguably Factor has the closest ties of all with an industry that’s famed for its speed.

‘We grew out of the Norfolk-based firm bf1systems, which supplies components to Formula 1,’ says Factor’s Russell Mather.

‘We’ve evolved into the company we are now with input from David Millar, the AG2R team [which Factor sponsors] and Mavic, in whose wind-tunnel we have spent countless hours perfecting the SLiCK.

‘It’s the fastest time-trial bike that’s ever been witnessed in that wind-tunnel. And there have been a lot of bikes in there.’

While myriad facets are at play, including flattened, wide-set seatstays that provide a larger gap for to flow between the wheel and stays, reducing pressure and so reducing drag, the standout feature unique to the SLiCK is the ‘Twin Vane Evo’ down tube, which is effectively a tube with a narrow split down the middle.

“This offers two advantages,’ says Mather. ‘One is improved torsional stiffness, as effectively having two tubes for a down tube instead of one better helps to overcome the twisting forces a frame experiences between the cockpit and pedals.

‘But more importantly it offers aerodynamic improvements, allowing air flowing off the back of the front wheel to pass through the frame instead of having to go around it. This greatly reduces the drag coefficient of the bike.

Add in the 51 Speedshop cockpit, a marvel of wind-cheating engineering in its own right, and Mavic’s disc and tri-spoke wheels and you’ve got a bike that’s very much at home at the sharpest end of the race against the clock.

Factor Slick
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace 9070 Di2
Wheels: Mavic 5-spoke front, disc rear
Finishing kit: 51 Speedshop Aerobar cockpit, Factor Custom Aero seatpost, Fizik Mistica Carbon saddle
Weight: 9.21kg
Price:£11,000 approx as pictured
Contact: factorbikes.com

You normally associate carbon bikes with low weights, but at comfortably the wrong side of 8kg the Vitus Venon Disc 105 is a long way from spritely.

The Venon is, however, certainly on the modern side, with its Toray T700 carbon frame and disc brakes – which go a long way to account for those unexpected extra grams.

Out on the road, comfort is decent and well-balanced geometry front and rear makes for assured, predictable handling.

We’re confident that most riders will find the Venon a perfectly good companion for even the longest and lumpiest of sportives.

Shimano’s RS505 brake levers are a little longer and chunkier than both their non-hydraulic 105 equivalent and the higher-level Ultegra hydraulic disc brake levers.

On first impressions, we were worried they may not be as comfortable, but our fears turned out to be unfounded, and even those with smaller hands should find the hoods comfortable.

The only thing to bear in mind is that the extra length may have a knock on effect on sizing.

While the main components are excellent, including the reliable 105 groupset, some of the finishing touches feel like compromises have been made to hit a price point, such as the narrow aluminium handlebars and thin bar tape.

Our biggest gripe, however, was the rattle from the internally routed cables, which became a little distracting on rough roads.

Still, the Venon’s responsive frame and moderate weight ensure that it is on the whole an excellent performer on the road.

The head tube length and geometry suggest a bike that is aimed more towards endurance than racing, but is not so high that you are sat up into the wind.

When climbing, no flex is noticeable through the frame, while downhill the Venon is superb, giving a fast and comfortable ride that can be leaned into corners with confidence.

That's helped by disc-specific Fulcrum wheels that do the job without fuss, and the 25mm Michelin PRO 4 tyres which give a wide contact patch and plenty of grip.

Ratings

Frame 9/10; Components 7/10; Wheels 7/10; The ride 8/10

Verdict: The Venon is a bike with a huge amount to offer, although the quality of the frame isn’t quite matched by some of the component choices. Still, it ticks most boxes with stable geometry, excellent handling, reasonable weight and a first-rate groupset with hydraulic brakes. A strong all-rounder.

Spec

Vitus Venon Disc 2016 review

21 April 2016, by Josh Cunningham

£1,350 (at time of review)

Vitus is another direct-to-market brand that, in its words, ‘cuts out the middle man’ by selling directly to the customer.

A key benefit of this is keeping prices low, and the Venon Disc is available at £1,214.99 from chainreactioncycles.com at the time of writing.

The Venon has been in production since 2011 but the 2016 model sees a major overhaul of the frame design, as well as a new paint scheme and the addition of disc brakes.

From the outset, it bodes for a well-conceived, well-balanced bike – and it’s a bit of a looker.  

Frame

At first glance, we were impressed with the Venon’s visual impact. The shapes of the frame – formed by the tube profiles and the relationship between front and rear triangles – come together very smartly indeed.

The mixture of ovalised and squared tubes, internal cable routing, and unusual (with it’s murky-fluoro contrast) yet nonetheless classy paint job, belie its price bracket.

From a design perspective, it’s clear to see the noticeably thin seatstays, which coupled with the 27.2mm seatpost, are designed to reduce road buzz and increase comfort without compromising the bike’s lateral stiffness.

Speaking of which, there’s a mighty big bottom bracket shell and chunky down tube that look capable of transferring ample amounts of power.

However, despite the bike’s sporty aesthetic, it opts for middling-to-relaxed geometry, and a slightly longer than average head tube confirms the endurance-orientated nature of the Venon.

Groupset

Shimano 105 is the Dura-Ace of yesteryear and its inclusion on the Venon fits right in line with the rest of the bike, delivering accurate transmission with every shift, and the 50/34 chainset and 11-28 cassette give plenty of scope for mixed-terrain riding too.

Vitus has equipped the Venon range with disc brakes for 2016, which suggests it sees the model becoming its do-it-all bike of choice.

The TRP Spyre brakes are dual piston, which means rather than just one pad compressing against the other, both pads grip the rotor in unison, and although this has minimal effects on performance, it should make adjustment and maintenance easier.

The adaptor that’s needed to connect the calliper to the Shimano Flat Mount platform is a little unsightly, but ensures the mounting is upgrade-ready. 

Finishing kit

The stem, bars and seatpost are all in-house, which keeps costs down, and the carbon seatpost is a nice touch.

Given that saddles are so personally subjective, with plenty of buyers swapping out for their tried-and-tested favourite, issuing the Venon with a Vitus saddle is no bad move. Saying that, we found it comfortable enough.

Wheels

The Fulcrum Racing Sport wheels are a welcome addition to the Venon, with their durability and strength all but guaranteed, and the Continental Grand Sport Race tyres provide an assured contact point with the ground.

The bike is fitted with 25mm tyres, but a step up to 28mm is easily doable with the clearance granted, and for a lot of riders the extra cushioning afforded may be preferable.

The ride

Hopping aboard the Venon is something we could have continued doing well beyond the test time available for the bike, as riding it quickly became something we looked forward to – be that on the commute home from work, or five-hour weekend rides in the lanes.

The way it marries comfort with speed is impressive, and we found the braking quality only enhanced the overall experience.

The Venon treads the line between comfort and speed very well, ironing out the worst road buzz and yet not taking any of the feel out of the ride. Given the bike’s modestly plump weight, it isn’t the sprightliest when tackling inclines or punching up to speed from dead stops and turns, though.

The oversized bottom bracket and stocky down tube do feel as if they’re withstanding the power, but transferring it into snappy forward motion is just a little restricted by the 8.73kg weight. 

Although Vitus has the Vitesse Evo as its flagship race bike, the Venon Disc would hold its own in a racing scenario if it weren’t for its disc brakes. As long as you’re not pinning numbers on, though, the TRP Spyre brakes work well.

In wet or dry, city or country, we had complete confidence in the stopping system, and their use is reflective of the bike’s adaptability as a whole. 

With its slightly elongated head tube, the Venon sits the rider up a fraction more than an all-out road bike, which is exactly what Vitus intends, and it will certainly be to the benefit of a lot of riders.

But the Venon is far from being a rocking chair, and once down in the drops and tucking in the elbows, the steepish seat tube has you in as racy a position as you’ll ever need when riding a bike like this.

We measured the head and seat tube angles as being slightly wide of the claimed goalposts, but in effect that played into the bike’s hands, with any twitchiness nullified by the gentle slackness of the front end, and the teasing forward lean offering a feeling of speed at the rear. 

For: Treads the line between comfort and speed

Against: On the heavier side

Verdict: The Vitus Venon Disc is a great looking bike whose adaptability is key to its appeal.

Geometry

Spec

This feature was produced in association with Parlee

While the rest of the industry was making its mind up whether disc brakes were the way of the future or just a flash in a pan, Parlee was working on ways to embrace their obvious benefits in a time-trial set-up.

After all, being able to brake later for corners and more confidently in the wet are gains that can’t be ignored when it comes to the pursuit of speed against the clock.

‘We decided early on that we were only going to focus on a disc [time-trial] bike, as we felt the overall gains outweighed any drawbacks,’ says Parlee’s Tom Rodi.

‘Ride quality is still really critical, as many time-trials and triathlons are still long races, including climbs and descents.

‘A TT bike needs to be a great race bike first and foremost, and we felt too many had drifted away from that all-around focus.

‘Bob [Parlee] and the design team saw thru-axles and disc brakes as a path back, and as a result, it’s in terms of all-round performance that this bike really shines.’

A key motivation for Parlee in developing the TTiR Disc was to prove that a disc bike could be as fast as, or faster than, a rim brake machine if designed and built for purpose from the start.

Extensive wind-tunnel testing resulted in design features such as the carbon fairings shrouding the disc callipers, and the company claims its data for what it terms ‘real-world’ conditions (ie, off-axis, or at yaw angles greater than 5°) shows the TTiR to be faster than what many would consider the benchmark TT bike: Cervélo’s P5.

This has been achieved with a frame weighing under 1.2kg, and with Parlee’s flex-fit modular cockpit and proprietary seatpost design allowing for huge adjustment range, the TTiR looks to be both a fast and a versatile beast.

Parlee TTiR Disc
Groupset: Sram eTap, TRP Spyre disc brakes
Wheels: Enve SES 7.8 Disc
Finishing kit: Parlee Custom Carbon cockpit with Profile T4 extensions, Parlee Carbon seatpost
seatpost, Fabric saddle
Weight: 9.12kg
Price:£8,999 approx as pictured
Contact:parleecycles.com

If any bike comes close to being a fantasy made real, it’s the Bastion Road Disc.

Designed by a team of ex-automotive engineers, it ticks all the boxes for a modern road bike – wide tyre clearance, disc brakes, integrated cabling – but then goes much further.

The Bastion uses 3D-printed titanium lugs, filament-wound carbon tubes and a computer-optimised design offering bespoke geometry and stiffness levels tuned to your preference.

It’s also a thing of beauty, and I was eager to see if the reality could live up to the dream.

Filament-wound

Rather than being created in moulds using sheets of pre-preg carbon, Bastion’s tubes are fabricated in Australia using a filament-winding process that offers a high level of influence over the bike’s characteristics. It also creates the stunning finish of the carbon tubes. 

‘The distinctive weave has become part of our design DNA,’ says Bastion founder Ben Schultz. ‘This wasn’t our intention. We’d planned to paint the tubing, but we’re yet to have a customer who wants that.’

Image 13 of 19

Image 13 of 19

Holding the tubes together is the showpiece of the Bastion brand, thanks to the unique 3D printed titanium lugs (see The Detail box over the page).

These lugs look normal from the outside, but split them open and inside is a complex latticework of titanium, printed specifically (and asymmetrically) to preserve torsional stiffness while increasing compliance.

It enables Bastion to customise the frame in ways rarely seen in the bike industry. 

Three-dimensional design

Before ever seeing the Bastion in the flesh, I was invited to Velo Atelier, its UK distributor, where they mapped out my fit and riding requirements to design a bike to suit me.

It’s worth pointing out that, while the bike was designed specifically for me, I don’t get to keep it, so my opinions are not being unfairly influenced. 

Following a bike fit and power test, we discussed what sort of bike I would most like to ride. I explained that I was a fair-weather racer and generally a lover of speed and stiffness, but that over the years I’ve been increasingly inclined towards comfort.

Image 15 of 19

Image 15 of 19

During the construction process, each Bastion frame is given an ‘Engineering Report’, which projects the frame onto a scatter diagram of riding and stiffness qualities of other frames for comparison.

Different options are given to the consumer – ‘Regular’, ‘Stiff’ or ‘Extra Stiff’. In material terms alone, my preference seemed to be ‘Regular’, but before construction began Schultz looked over the stats and disagreed.

A written report informed me, ‘Our simulation shows that with your geometry, you could achieve a higher torsional stiffness without compromising the ride comfort greatly by selecting “Stiff”.’

Good company

It was refreshing to see geometry and material customisation working in tandem. The final product, when mapped out onto a scatter diagram, sat between a Cervélo R5, S-Works Tarmac and Focus Izalco Max – three frames I’m rather fond of, which boded well.

Having tested many different bikes with wild and wondrous claims, I’ve long since learned to temper my expectations, especially when a new brand claims to have reinvented the bike.

So having had every aspect of geometry and construction mapped with android-like accuracy, I approached my first ride with a certain amount of scepticism. The Bastion had a lot to prove.

And sure enough, the first time I went out on the Road Disc I felt I might never forgive Ben Schultz and his team. I was genuinely worried they had ruined all other bikes for me.

The Bastion had a ride quality that filled me with excitement and energy, impressing me in many different ways. It made me want to ride a lot, and to ride hard.

Image 17 of 19

Image 17 of 19

It absorbed bumps with the gracefulness of a titanium frame, while sprinting and descending with the stiffness of a carbon frame.

There was a complex balance between speed and comfort that is an exceptionally rare quality
in even the finest bikes.

Riding it, I began to notice a precisely engineered flex that filtered out the undesirable aspects the road, leaving intact the more pleasant resonance of the road surface.

Smooth sailing

Whereas some bikes react to potholes like victims of a mugging, riding the Bastion was like having one’s butler calmly inform you that a caller was at the door, who he believed to be a pothole, but that the whole matter had been quietly resolved without embarrassment or inconvenience to either party. 

Once my initial infatuation had receded slightly, I looked for weak spots in the Bastion’s defences.

At times the 23mm Vittoria Corsa tyres, when run with tubes at around 100psi, proved to be a little robust, almost jittery.

However, when I ran them tubeless the issue was easily resolved. It's worth noting there's room for 30mm tyres here too.

Image 16 of 19

Image 16 of 19

Also, some riders might want to upgrade the stiffness. When I went for a sprint at the top end of my power output, I noticed a small degree of flex, so riders who like to pump out the watts might want to go for the ‘Extra Stiff’ option.

In general, I found the power transfer more than adequate, and I wouldn’t have opted for any more stiffness for fear of undermining the ride quality and handling characteristics. And the handling is where the Bastion really shone.

On Schultz’s scatter diagram, the Bastion sat close to the S-Works Tarmac in terms of agility and handling, and I had to agree with that assessment in practice.

There’s a banked descending corner on my usual circuit where normally I have to brake to get around. On the Bastion
I felt confident to pedal hard through it, just as I had on the S-Works Tarmac.

The overall build does a fantastic job in complementing the strengths of the Bastion. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a disc brake bike, as it’s exceptionally light at 7.5kg and far more agile than most disc-specific frames.

Partial credit has to go to DT Swiss’s new ERC 1100 DiCut wheelset, which is light, rigid and aerodynamic. The wide profile allows for big tyres, and I would have happily thrown on a set of 30mm tyres and ventured onto gravel.

Modern classic

Thanks to the technology involved, the Bastion feels modern and exciting, but it also somehow manages to feel classic.

By staying away from suspension systems and crazy tube shapes, it both looks elegant and has an almost nostalgic road feel – a bit like riding steel or titanium.

Image 18 of 19

Image 18 of 19

It’s calculated and honed like a performance sports car, and yet I think it has a timeless aesthetic that means it won’t ever look dated.

In truth, I was awed by this bike. I’m often asked how a bike that costs this much can be worth the money over a perfectly functional middle-market racer.

For me, the Bastion answers that question.

Verdict: Bastion's Road Disc is an impressive mix of automotive engineering, 3D printing and a whole lot of ambition in one highly desirable package.

Spec

First look: Bastion Road Disc

It’s not often that we see something entirely, uniquely new. When the Bastion Road Disc – the fruits of labour of three automotive engineers from Melbourne – arrived we were treated to a rare helping of nonconformity.

Extravagantly woven carbon tubes are fixed together by 3D-printed titanium lugs in a design reminiscent of titanium-carbon fusions championed by several bespoke builders, yet altogether different. 

‘There is actually nothing like a Bastion,’ says Ben Schultz, founder of Bastion Cycles.

Every part of the Bastion frame is designed in-house and manufactured in Australia, mostly at Bastion’s own facility.

The tubes are made locally using a filament-winding process where strands of dry fibre are passed through a resin bath and wrapped over a preform structure to create the carbon tube – a process rarely seen in the bike industry.

This filament winding is intended to increase the neatness of the carbon, reducing voids, wrinkles or kinks. The process also gives the tubes their almost decorative weave pattern. 

‘Aesthetically the distinctive weave has become part of our design DNA,’ Schultz says. ‘This wasn’t our original intention.

‘We initially planned to paint the tubing as we knew achieving a premium “naked” finish is extremely time-consuming and we wanted to offer more paint customisation.

'Giving the tubing a high-quality naked finish actually takes days, but we’re yet to have a customer who wants to completely paint the tubes.’

3D-printed lugs

While the tubes abound with technical wizardry, the titanium lugs are Bastion’s key innovation. ‘We’re using the latest 3D-printing to form titanium in previously impossible shapes to create Bastion’s breakthrough frame design,’ Schultz says. 

He argues that the lower stiffness of titanium improves the ride quality, dampening vibrations from the road while maintaining the stiffness for power transfer.

The isotropic nature of titanium, he adds, also does a great deal for the frame’s strength and longevity.

The lugs are made of 6/4 titanium, the stiffer of the titanium grades used in cycling, but are created from titanium powder rather than worked into shape from a prefabricated sheet or tubeforms as with other frames.

This enables Bastion to more closely influence the composition and structure of the titanium. 

‘We have maximised torsional stiffness through asymmetric structures of the titanium, transforming both ride and performance,’ Schultz says. 

Although not visible, the inside of the titanium lugs are an intricate composition of titanium lattice, a bit like honeycomb, to reduce weight.

‘A composite monocoque frame may have up to 4-5mm wall thickness of composite plies in some joints, whereas we are able to use as little as 0.5mm of titanium reinforced by our internal lattice.’

The various innovations on the frame are a lot to take in, and it’s no wonder that the team behind the brand boasts ample engineering experience.

‘The three founders, James Woolcock, Dean McGeary and I, met while working for Toyota R&D in Melbourne. Between us we have over 30 years of automotive engineering experience,’ Schultz says. 

Thankfully, Bastion hasn’t made the mistake of over-relying on material and automotive expertise at the expense of classical bike-building knowhow.

A bikefit with Velo Atelier, based in Warwickshire, comes within the price, and Bastion will model the geometry to a customer’s desired intentions against a variety of mass-market frames, focusing closely on the stack and reach ratio.

Lay-up is limited to three options: regular, stiff or extra stiff.

If aesthetics are anything to go by, the Bastion Road Disc is a standout success, but look out for a full review in the near-future for our verdict. 

veloatelier.co.uk

The quality and ingenuity of custom framebuilding has skyrocketed in the last five years, yet even then two outfits have stood out: Southampton based Demon Frameworks and Bastion, from Kensington, Australia.

On paper each company’s bikes and processes couldn’t be more different. Bastion 3D prints its lugs in titanium and bonds them to filament-wound carbon tubes; the man behind Demon Frameworks, Tom Warmerdam, makes his lugs by hand, from scratch, and brazes them to steel tubes.

In each case the results are stunning, taking the craft of framebuilding to a level few can even dream of. And now, after a lot of talk and rumour, the two builders have come together to create what you see before you.

Image 15 of 21

Image 15 of 21

‘I was and am a massive fan of Tom's work and Tom and I had connected over Instagram and had been talking about how cool it would be to combine his artistic talents with our technology,’ says Bastion’s CEO Ben Schultz.

‘At Bespoked in 2016 we were discussing this project and were at the point where we said, "Now all we need is a customer!"

‘In parallel I had been talking to David [the customer] by email and he was interested in doing something even more unique and special than our standard lugs.

'He came down to meet me at Bespoked and as he described what he was after it sounded exactly like what Tom and I had been discussing. Fate!

‘So David and Tom agreed to work on a design and we would integrate it into our lugs and engineer it so the frame would still have the same strength and durability as our standard frames.

'There is extra material and supports engineered into the inside of the lugs behind the features Tom designed so we don't compromise the durability.’

While the lugs look solid, they are in fact hollow with an intricate internal mesh structure designed to optimise their mechanical characteristics and reduce weight.

The margins as so fine that, as Schultz says, doing any kind of pattern work on the surface, such as Demon has designed, meant tweaking what was going on inside the lug walls to preserve the strength and stiffness of each lug.

The designs themselves are unique to the lugs, although those familiar with Demon will recognise a certain style from Warmerdam’s ‘Manhattan’ and ‘Hermes’ lugsets, which he makes from scratch by fillet brazing steel tubes together and hand cutting and filing the patterns into the ends.

This process means a Demon frame takes around 150 hours to complete, and that’s before paint (to put that in context, you’ll hear a lot of builders quote anywhere from 10-30 hours per frame).

‘It has taken over a year to get here, but it is worth it. The result is incredible,’ says Schultz.

‘David has been kind enough to allow us to do a limited release of more so we are making them exclusively one per country. We want them to be a truly bespoke collector's edition.’

You heard it here first folks: one per country. So depending on where you’re reading this from there’s every chance your Demon-Bastion has yet to be allotted.

Image 21 of 21

Image 21 of 21

As for this one, it’s yet to be fully built. The lugs are busy being painted candy red before the tube-lug assembly process begins.

We hope to have more photos as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, see our review of the non-Demonised Bastion to whet your appetite.

Get in touch with bastion-cycles.com or demonframeworks.com for more information.

If you've been thinking about getting a new bike for a while, or even if the idea has only just popped into your head (unlikely), now could be the time to grab a new ride from Giant.

The Giro d'Italia winning bike maker is presently offering a deal on a selection of its bikes when bought online, so you too can look like Tom Dumoulin, who took the win in Italy, or Warren Barguil, who won the Tour de France's mountains classification.

Although there's no guarantee you'll then be able to ride like them.

Through its supply of bikes to Team Sunweb, Giant counts Dumoulin's Giro win, Barguil's polka dots, Michael Matthews' Tour green jersey, six Grand Tour stages and a host of other victories this season.

Clearly the rider was key in each and every one of those victories, but they were taken there astride some of the best machines in the WorldTour and now is your chance to grab a similar bike.

Presently available on non-sale bikes priced over £999, buyers can get 0% finance via V12 Retail Finance when the purchase is made through the Giant webshop at giant-bicycles.com

Any concerns about buying online are allayed thanks to the bikes being sent to one of over 370 authorised retailers around the UK who will then build and safety check the bikes before they're ridden.

What's more, the webshop can access retailers' stock so anything unavailable online might be found in a stockroom and made available.

This means buyers can still take advantage of the finance offer without having to compromise on the bike they want.

The offer can't last forever, so start viewing the range now at giant-bicycles.com

This feature was produced in association with Canyon

Canyon says its Speedmax CF SLX range is designed for the complete spectrum of athletes, from the fastest racers in the professional peloton, to Ironman triathletes, to amateurs riding their local 10.

A bold claim indeed, though we daresay if you turned up to your local club 10-mile on the 9.0 Ltd you’d be sure to turn some heads. 

Impressive-sounding marketing speak aside, the spec on the Speedmax 9.0 is straight out of the top drawer.

Zipp’s 808 NSW wheels are amongst the fastest money can buy, while Shimano’s latest 9150 Dura-Ace Di2 reduces cable clutter and delivers precise shifting at your fingertips.

WorldTour pro and time-trial specialist Tony Martin is said to be such a fan of this bike that his switch from Quick-Step to Katusha this season is partly attributed to the chance to race on it.

For us mere mortals, it’s pleasing to note that Canyon’s design hasn’t just put speed at the top of the list at the detriment of everything else.

The wheelbase is adjustable, thanks to the Rake Shift fork with its unique switchable dropout, allowing you to easily tailor the ride feel for additional stability on windy days or a more agile feel for a technical course. 

Wolfgang Kohl, product engineer on the Speedmax project, adds that aesthetics were important too: ‘When taking the Speedmax from the drawing board to real-world testing, the aim wasn’t just to create the fastest bike, but the fastest-looking bike as well.’

Looking good, as we all know, is worth a few extra watts on its own, and we wouldn’t bet against the Canyon Speedmax CF SLX being ridden to a World Championship success by the end of the season. 

Canyon Speedmax CF SLX 9.0 Ltd
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace 9150 Di2
Wheels: Zipp 404 NSW front/808 NSW rear
Finishing kit: Canyon H26 CF Basebar, Canyon E192 AL extensions, Canyon V19 AL Aero stem, Canyon S31 seatpost, Fizik Ardea saddle
Weight: 8.56kg
Price:£8,199 approx as pictured
Contact: canyon.com

First things first, I find it somewhat distasteful that this bike is calld Heroin.

Yes, there was some mild mirth at seeing the courier docket. ‘Contents: Bike. Heroin.’ But beyond that, Heroin? Seriously?

It’s a name that might have seemed edgy in 1985, but people also liked shellsuits in 1985. And Phil Collins. Plus, this company has only existed for three years.

Its makers could have called it anything – literally, given that the name Anything is actually available.

Marketing manager Nicolas Piquet-Gauthier only cements the point when he says this bike produces a ‘pure and addictive pleasure you just can’t live without’.

Just like heroin, then. Rant over. Next question: is the bike any good? The short answer is ‘yes’. Should you buy it? The long answer is on the way.

Employing experts

Heroin was founded in 2013 by design engineer Remi Chenu and French entrepreneur Marc Simoncini, the former the founder of French bike brand CKT, the latter France’s answer to Alan Sugar – if he looked like the love child of Paul McCartney and Miguel Indurain.

Their idea was to make the ‘perfect’ bike, a not insignificant task that involved designing all aspects of the machine from the ground up. The result: the Heroin H1.

‘We started from scratch and all carbon parts you see are created, developed and made by us, from the rims and cockpit to the small CNC parts like the seat clamp,’ says Chenu.

‘The frame is made in Italy. The tubes by one company – we can’t say which but it isn’t a bike company, it makes carbon parts for F1 – and then afterwards Sarto wraps the tubes to make the frame.

We designed all the moulds and did all the prototyping and testing, including at the ACE wind-tunnel.’

For those unfamiliar, Sarto is an Italian framebuilder that builds bikes for a host of other companies as well as making frames under its own name.

ACE stands for Aero Concept Engineering, an independent aero consultancy agency that operates out of a wind-tunnel at Magny-Cours, the former home of the French Grand Prix.

Often start-up companies are accused of importing and repainting catalogue frames and calling that a bike brand, but after some lengthy chats I had with Chenu it really does seem these guys have done their homework.

Have we met?

Despite being totally black there’s something that draws the eye about the Heroin, and it’s the dimples.

The head tube, seat tube and down tube are all covered in dozens of circular indents, along with the rims and the fork, which also has a slit in each leg, just below the crown.

Eagle-eyed readers might feel like they’ve seen this somewhere before, and they’d be right.

Zipp has been doing the dimple thing for years on its wheels, and Ridley the fork-hole thing on its Noah aero bike.

That shouldn’t detract from any potential ingenuity of the design, though. After all, golf balls existed long before Zipp wheels, and vented wheelarches in cars long before Ridley forks.

While the physics behind these designs is complex, in basic terms the idea is to make the Heroin more slippery, and according to Chenu’s research it works.

A like-for-like wind-tunnel test showed a holed, dimpled bike to have a 10% lower drag coefficient than a version where all the holes and dimples had been filled and smoothed over.

As ever, testing the veracity of these claims in the real world is all but impossible, but in subjective terms the Heroin did feel faster than your average bike, particularly in the early phases of acceleration.

However, this could just as easily be down to wheel depth and weight (38mm and a claimed 1,275g for the pair) or overall weight.

Heroin reckons a frame weighs 750g, and I weighed the whole package at 6.91kg – not bad for a bike with a power meter, electronic shifting and integrated aero cockpit.

Still, it’s a way off Heroin’s 6.5kg claim, but it does therefore allude to something else going on here: stiffness.

There’s no doubt about it, the Heroin is a punchy bike, with a bottom half that remains stoic during big efforts. This translates into some serious zing when churning through lower gears on the flat or when attacking climbs.

However, I didn’t feel like the Heroin was quite worthy of the well-worn phrases ‘holds its speed well’ or ‘floats up climbs’. 

There is a sense of free speed here, but it’s not in the league of a Specialized Venge or a Trek Madone in the same way that those bikes could never hope to compete with a full-blown time-trial bike.

There is also a sense that the Heroin will make you a faster climber, but again not in the way that the 5kg Fuji SL 1.1 or sub-6kg Sarto Asola will.

Too much too young

Interestingly for a bike at this price, and one made by a custom builder no less, the Heroin is only offered in stock sizing. I found the fit perfectly fine for me, offering a low if not aggressive position thanks to a 159mm head tube.

Handling was nimble yet stable, something congruent with a frame boasting relatively short 407mm seatstays and a 991mm wheelbase – both measurements towards the shorter end of the spectrum for a 55.5cm top tube bike.

Yet I can’t help feeling some people might be disappointed by the lack of bespoke geometry available here. For nearly £13,000 I’d want a bike that wasn’t just ‘perfect’, but ‘perfect for me’.

While we’re on that subject, that bike should also be the best bike. For close-on 13 grand, it should make me complete an hour in 54 minutes, be more comfortable than my bed and weigh less than my helmet.

It should be all the colours at once, and none, corner like a rat up the Large Hadron Collider’s drain pipe and laugh at all of my jokes. It should make all who look upon it cry with jealous rage.

The Heroin, I’m afraid, does none of these things. Then again no bike does, and likely no bike ever will, but if you’re going to price your bike so excessively I think it’s fair to expect some excessively high judging criteria.

Others in this hyper-price category do somehow manage to justify themselves by being finely crafted by highly desirable, established marques.

The Passoni Top Force (£13,000, reviewed in Cyclist issue 20) and Legend Venticinquesimo (£12,000) are both good examples, and one could imagine them holding their value well over the years.

Despite being finely crafted, the Heroin doesn’t have the pedigree of a Passoni or a Legend, and while it might rival the performance of a host of other bikes costing thousands of pounds less, it doesn’t better them.

If the Heroin was half the price this would be a very different story, but as it stands, although pleasurable to ride, it’s a bike that – despite its name – you can live without. 

Spec

This feature was produced in association with Specialized

‘At the sharpest end of competitive cycling we have to look at the rider together with their equipment and apparel as an interdependent system,’ says Specialized’s Will Watt.

‘We’ve built a team of aerodynamic experts and developed tools such as on-bike data acquisition and our “Win Tunnel” wind-tunnel to create products optimised to work as a system to best benefit the rider, as well as provide gains as individual products.’

At the core of those products is Specialized’s S-Works Shiv TT Module (the frame, fork, bars, seatpost and brakes), which swept the board at last year’s UCI World Championships, winning the individual and team time-trials in both the men’s and women’s categories.

‘A one and one eighth tapered steerer makes the Shiv ultra-narrow, and dropped seatstays and a flat top tube add to the aero package,’ says Watt.

‘Apart from the extra-small size, all the frames have the same stack height, with just reach the differentiator.

‘There’s 100mm of vertical adjustment to the bar extensions and pads of course, but the idea was to afford every size of rider an aggressive position.’

The Shiv TT is sold as a frame module, with the rationale being that different riders may favour different components to suit their conditions or riding style.

However, Specialized has gone to great lengths to provide riders with a host of free-speed options, designed not just to be fast in their own right but also to complement each other.

As such, Specialized says the Shiv frame module is 120 seconds faster than its S-Works Tarmac over a 40km time-trial, but start factoring in the company’s other aero offerings and those gains only increase.

Put a pair of Roval CLX64 wheels between the stays, for example, and wrap them in S-Works Turbo tyres and that figure jumps up by another claimed 35 seconds.

That’s no small accident – the wheels are spinning on CeramicSpeed bearings, for one thing. But as with the frame, these gains are also the result of Specialized’s holistic design process.

Built for speed

‘The wheels were actually built around the tyres to maximise speed. Our engineers created an extra-wide 21mm internal rim and seamless profile that optimises aerodynamics while minimising rolling resistance.

‘Tyre width is extremely important, and our testing has shown a 22mm tyre up front and 24mm at the rear to
be the fastest combination.’

In building its Win Tunnel and creating one of the most successful time-trial bikes of the moment, Specialized clearly has your back when it comes to going fast against the clock.

But it also has your head. And your feet.

‘With such a focus on hardware it’s often surprising that apparel offers proportionately the most significant gain, yet is arguably the most affordable element.

‘Poor-fitting clothing is one of the most significant contributing factors to drag,’ says Watt. ‘The S-Works Evade GC skinsuit has patent-pending seamless shoulder design to reduce drag, along with very specific fabrics.’

Testing has shown the Evade GC skinsuit will provide the wearer with a 96-second improvement, again over 40km, compared to a rider wearing the standard Specialized SL jersey and bibshorts.

Add in the S-Works TT helmet and that’s a further 62 seconds, then slip your feet into the S-Works Sub 6 shoes with Warp Sleeve – a tight-fitting silicone cover to smooth airflow over the laces – and the total Specialized aero package stacks up to a whopping 5 minutes 48 seconds saving over 40km.

Who said you can’t buy fast?

Products

Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Module, £4,400.
Roval CLX64 wheels, £770 front, £1,100 rear.
Specialized S-Works Turbo Road tubeless tyres, £70 each.
Specialized S-Works TT helmet, £275.
Specialized S-Works Evade GC Skinsuit, £300.
Specialized S-Works Sub6 shoes, £275.

Contact: specialized.com

Despite already being ridden by the pros - including Vincenzo Nibali for a stage of the Giro d'Italia - the new test models of the Merida Reacto Team-E used in the WorldTour peloton had slipped by almost entirely unnoticed. It's now officially broken cover and will be ridden by the Bahrain-Merida squad at the Tour de France.

Before those riders take the start at the most watched race of the year when it kicks off in Dusseldorf, Germany, I was able to get my hands on the newest rim brake version of the Merida Reacto Team-E.

When stood side-by-side with the older version that it's superceding, the newer Reacto has quite obviously undergone an overhaul.

The head tube is narrower and the top tube now carries a raised ridge, all part of Merida's work to make the bike more aerodynamic.

The cable routing has also changed, and surprisingly is not as fully internal as you might expect. This is something Juergen Falke, director of product at Merida, dismisses by pointing out that in their testing the exposed cabling only brought a power penalty of a maximum of 1.5 watts.

There are changes at the back end of the bike too, with a new seatpost for a reported improvement in comfort, and altered seat stays playing their part in the overall reduction in drag.

The rear brake remains positioned behind the bottom bracket, a feature that made itself known on a the second test ride. As you'll see below.

With the bike also losing weight as well as drag - the frameset is 18% lighter at 1711g, its competence on inclines should facilitate its use across a range of parcours, save perhaps the high mountains.

But professional cyclists get into habits just like the rest of us so getting them to take an aero bike up a hill might be beyond Merida's powers of persuasion.

Image 8 of 24

Image 8 of 24

That's how Merida Reacto Team-E looks, how does it ride? 

At the time of writing I've completed two rides on the bikes, totalling just over 125km.

Rather than sit around rewriting Merida's press release or spending a full afternoon taking photos of the Merida Reacto Team-E and all 11 of its cousins, I opted to actually try the bike and see how it fared.

In short, I was impressed... although not, if this is possible without it being a contradiction, altogether satisfied.

I'll start with the positives. The frame is superb, and responds to a change in speed or direction with ease.

When clipping along in a group at speed the new Merida Reacto Team-E cuts through the air and only serves to highlight deficiencies in my own riding position.

The handling into tight corners, on the flat and on descents, brings confidence and I was soon happy to throw the bike through bends to maintain speed.

Despite being an aero bike it also climbs well – admittedly so far only on some short, sharp inclines found in the rural areas south of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands – carrying momentum up and down slopes as well as it does on the flat.

Comfort and speed

Despite the aggressive nature of the bike – something that sees you pushing harder and harder on the pedals just trying to keep up with how fast it makes you feel like you should be riding – there is no compromise on comfort.

Further, Merida says the bike is actually more comfortable than the previous version and that's thanks to a couple of key factors.

The slimmer seat post now comes with a long 'S-Flex' below the saddle which takes away any road buzz that would other reach your chamois.

All this brings a 24% improvement in lateral comfort, or at least so says Merida, but comfort can be one of the most subjective things when it comes to reviewing a bike.

All I can say is I was very comfortable the entire time I was sat atop Merida Reacto Team-E  and would happily take on longer more testing routes on it.

Not quite perfect

As mentioned, despite being impressed I wasn't completely satisfied.

My initial complaint was related to the handlebar, an integrated one piece that every self-respecting aero bike should come with.

There's a definite flex to the edges of the bars when any great pressure is applied and this can be fairly disconcerting and a hindrance to handling.

Thankfully, the test models on offer are carrying the older cockpit so it'll be interesting to see if the newer version is improved in these areas.

Image 11 of 24

Image 11 of 24

The next complaint is the rear brake. This isn't the first bike I've tested with a bike behind the bottom bracket and it's not the first I've complained about.

Regardless of the aero gains thanks to the brake's absence from its usual position above the rear wheel, if the brake catches the rim every pedal stroke then a higher level of power than that saved will be the penalty.

Running the brakes a bit looser than usual would go some way to negate this, but that's a post-production solution to a problem that shouldn't really be getting through.

What's more, the second test ride was conducted in rain that would have worried Noah and some grit and debris further closed the gap between brake block and rim, compounding the problem.

A pretty easy fix, either at the time of production or with a loosened rear brake, so not a huge factor when considering the bike as a whole but certainly something noticeable and worth mentioning.

Merida Reacto Team-E disc brake bike

Image 22 of 24

Image 22 of 24

Much of the ride time at the launch event was spent on the standard rim brake build of the Merida Reacto Team-E, but the brand is also offering an eye catching disc brake build that carries the long delayed Shimano Dura-Ace hydraulic disc brake groupset.

This bike will have its day in the WorldTour peloton if or when the debate is settled as to whether disc brakes will be given a universal roll-out at the top tier of cycling.

There is also the bike which sits second in the hierarchy, the Merida Reacto 9000-E, which comes with a SRAM Red eTap hydraulic disc brake groupset.

It's a secondary option that barely drops below the level of the build above it, and in its matt black finish rather than pro rider bling it arguably looks better too.

Image 18 of 24

Image 18 of 24

Not emperor, merely first citizen

The Merida Reacto Team-E rim brake bike is the top of the pile in a range of 12 new bikes, sharing the head of affairs with the Merida Reacto Team-E disc brake version.

Of the 12 bikes, five are available as a disc brake version of a standard rim brake build while two of the models are not twinned with a disc incarnation.

Image 12 of 24

Image 12 of 24