I remember the first rendition of the Bianchi Oltre XR well. It arrived in the Cyclist office at the end of 2012, when this magazine was still knee-high to a grasshopper, and it had it all.

The Campagnolo Super Record EPS, the Fulcrum Speed XLR wheels, the outlandish graphics and random bits of writing about ‘Nano Tube Tech’, the Celeste paint… the pricetag.

That Oltre cost £11,000, which you could have bought a house for back then.

Soon £11,000 will barely buy you a loaf of bread, but until that time Bianchi is still happily offering its latest Oltre, the XR4, at superbike prices.

And bound up in that is both my first gripe and my overriding praise.

If a bike costs £9,800 it should come with two matching water bottle cages and two water bottles. The Oltre comes with just one.

I could almost understand no cages and bottles (you can’t miss what you never had), but just one set? Imagine if Ferrari only gave you one footwell mat.

Secondly, if a bike costs £9,800 it had better be really, really good. And, I’m happy to report, the Oltre XR4 is guilty here too.

Holy smoke, that’s fast!

I recall being amazed at how quick and stiff the original Oltre XR was, and while I skipped its direct offspring, the XR2, I have it on good authority that it too wasn’t shy in the performance department.

The Oltre name is attached to a long line of accomplished race bikes, and these are precisely the genes Bianchi has tried to splice in here.

Short chainstays and a steep head tube angle combine for a snappy, lively feel, and the natural rider position is aggressive given a 155mm head tube on this 56cm top tube frame (which confusingly Bianchi refers to as a size 57cm, a number I couldn’t find anywhere on the geometry table).

The geometry is nearly identical to its stablemate, the Specialissma, which I reviewed in Issue 48 and which handled supremely well, if a little on the reactive side. But that just made it more fun – the bike was wickedly direct and took no prisoners.

In the same way, I can’t fault the Oltre’s handling. It was deft and confident at all times, stable in descents and nimble through quick turns.

Nor can I fault its climbing or sprinting abilities. The platform is as stiff as I’d want for both, and the chassis, although 40g heavier than its predecessor (which Bianchi says is down to even bigger tubes), is still light enough in this trim to hit 6.8kg on the nose.

Yet there was an odd quirk that marks this bike out as very special, and in the same breath not everyone’s cup of tea. 

Aerofication

When I first jumped on the Oltre XR4 it felt a bit, well... slow. Not slow by general standards, but slow in the category of aerodynamic flagship racer, which is exactly what the Oltre is.

Bianchi engineers have turned a huge amount of their attention toward making this bike significantly more slippery than before using CFD, wind-tunnels and a process called ‘flow visualisation’.

In basic terms, flow visualisation makes the flow of air on or around an object visible. That means putting the Oltre in a wind-tunnel and allowing a thick fluorescent paint to blow over the frame to reveal the movement of air across its surface.

As well as making for a funky paintjob, it helps to make the Oltre XR4 faster. Road product manager Angelo Lecchi says, ‘It saves around 20 watts compared to the old bike, and even more at speeds of over 55kmh.’

Unless the road tips down a bit I’m not in any real danger of hitting 55kmh, but as my test rides progressed I started to make better sense of the Oltre.

My Garmin was routinely displaying higher than average speeds over tried and tested routes, at efforts I perceived to be normal.

It was a similar story on descents, where my Strava data highlighted a brace of bested PBs on one particular ride over stretches I’ve been trying to nail for a while. Yet there were times when I’d have sworn I was going slower than I was were it not for the data on my Garmin.

The reason, I’ve come to believe, is the frame’s inherent smoothness. 

Countervail conundrum

The Oltre is blessed with what Bianchi calls ‘Countervail’, a proprietary carbon fibre designed to dampen vibrations.

As well as viscoelastic ‘polymeric materials’ in the layup, the carbon fibre tows (the bundles of fibres that make up the weave) are arranged in specific orientations that it’s claimed better dissipate vibrations to the viscoelastic component, but without sacrificing stiffness.

Does it work? As is so often the answer, I couldn’t tell you. Bianchi says it does, and I don’t have a non-Countervail Oltre XR4 to compare. Is the Oltre smooth? Like melted butter.

But herein lies the problem, if you can call it that.

While ‘fast’ is a quantifiable term, I think it also has a qualitative value: feeling.

A teeth-jangling ride from an ultra stiff frame and high-pressure tyres feels fast, even if physics will tell you otherwise, because if a bike is bumping up and down – or deflecting – it means it’s losing energy that could otherwise be used for forward propulsion.

It’s the reason why wider tyres at lower pressures have become a ‘thing’, and it’s why 70mph in an old Mini can feel deathly scary, while on a train the same speed feels like nothing at all.

The Oltre, then, was at times so smooth it felt like we weren’t really shifting. I still felt the big bumps in the road like any other bike, but the rest of the time the frame seemed to siphon off the road buzz that breeds the viscerality of speed.

Is that a bad thing? I’m not sure. I like to feel connected to the road, to feel a bike reacting to it and to react accordingly in return, but I also like smoothness, and I definitely like speed.

And the Oltre delivers both of these by the proverbial digging implements.

As such this is something of a monstrous bike. Its handling is whip-sharp, its capability over a variety of terrains and situations fearsomely impressive and its look and build imposing.

Yet for all this the Oltre is a well-mannered monster, and whether or not that suits your riding tastes, only you can tell.

Let’s agree we’d like two bottles and cages, though.

.

Spec

Cyclist: While many companies claim to have invented the carbon fibre bicycle, there is general consensus that you made the first fully carbon fibre frame to be raced at the Tour de France. How did that come about?

Craig Calfee: The potted history is I got my start with carbon fibre working for a company making composite shells for racing rowing boats.

I built my first all-carbon fibre bike in 1987 as a result of crashing my steel Schwinn, and two years later I’d hired a machinist and we’d started trading under the name Carbonframes [Calfee now sells under his own name].

We were watching the 1989 Tour de France and Greg LeMond was riding his rebranded TVT and we were really ragging on it, saying how we could make a better bike because this is just glued carbon tubes in aluminium lugs, but we figured he had a sponsorship deal.

But then this guy who brought in Time pedals to the US, sponsoring Greg at the time, saw our bikes and said we should send one to Greg’s dad because they were looking for custom carbon bikes for the whole team.

So we did, he loved the look of it and we went from there. The team ended up riding my bikes in the 1991 Tour.

Cyc: At the time, very few other riders would even go near carbon. What was different about LeMond?

CC: Greg was an open-minded guy, but the thing that convinced him was descending on my bike.

He’d just finished an uphill TT at Paris-Nice, the first time he’d ridden it. I saw him at the top and he said, ‘Well it climbs great, but the real test is how it descends so I’m going to take it down the backside of the mountain and meet you at the hotel.’

I ended up hanging out at the bottom with his mechanic, Julien DeVries – he’s Eddy Merckx’s old mechanic, kind of conservative – and he’s like, ‘Are you sure this is safe? We can’t afford to lose Greg.’

He was pretty stern and quiet while we waited. The image of Greg flying down a mountain on a bike made by some long-haired guy from San Francisco didn’t appeal to him, but then Greg rolls in, this big smile on his face.

Julien turns to me and says, ‘You’ve got it made now, Craig.’

Cyc: The name Carbonframes or Calfee has never appeared on any WorldTour down tubes. Why is that?

CC:  Well, Greg bought the 18 frames for the team out of his own pocket. He had his own bike company and was the team’s bike sponsor, so my frames had his name.

We did agree to have a little sticker of ours on the left chainstay, though.

Years later Patrick Lefevere asked us about sponsoring Team Domo. We were closing in on a deal for three years – 100 bikes.

Or that’s what I thought. Lefevere says, ‘So that’s 100 bikes per year,’ and I’m like no, my frames will easily last three years. You can just repaint them.

He says, ‘No, we need 100 per year. We need something to sell to pay the salaries over winter.’

I got it, but for us it wasn’t financially viable, so it never happened. Now you’ve got to add in $2million on top of a deal like that.

I’d rather put money into my bike designs.

Cyc: What designs have you been working on recently?

CC: I got pretty excited about a small-wheeled bamboo e-bike we made, which we’ve geared for about 40mph.

Imagine having quick, long-range transport that isn’t oily and dirty and can fit in the hallway of your public building or next to your desk.

Also bamboo is a great material. I’ve been in Eritrea with Team Rwanda, teaching them how to repair carbon frames, but you think how useful bamboo could be for building bikes in such places, where getting other materials is a logistical nightmare.

We’ve also been looking more and more at suspension in road bikes.

We have rear damping in our Manta RS bike already, and we’re working on something for the front. I think full suspension is where the future’s at.

Cyc: Really? What makes you say that?

CC: It’s pretty simple. When you’re on the bleeding edge or your bike handling skills and the road surface are questionable, suspension will make you crash less often and you’ll win the Tour de France more often.

Look at riders in winning positions who’ve crashed out of big races and it’s pretty much always down to lack of traction.

Suspension gives you more traction, which makes you faster and safer. It’s why motorbikes and cars have it.

It also decreases rolling resistance so is more comfortable, meaning less rider fatigue and more energy saved. It makes total sense.

Cyc: Suspension has been orbiting cycling for a long time but as yet hasn’t found its own traction. Why is that?

CC: A good analogy is motorbike racing. Telescopic forks on racing motorbikes is a pretty bad design for suspension and there have been tonnes of better solutions.

But they never catch on because that rider has been riding that type of fork since he was 12.

He might agree an alternative is faster, but when they’re hanging it all out there they know that crappy old fork’s limits and that makes them faster.

They don’t have time to relearn that muscle memory. It’s tough to make that mental shift, and that’s one of the big hurdles in cycling.

But people told me my carbon fibre bikes would never catch on, so believe me when I say traction enhancement will be on every bike in the Tour de France one day. 

Cyc: Do you see anything on the horizon with new material technology?

CC: The big one is graphene, which people are trying to use in the matrix material to make carbon fibre more damage-tolerant.

That’s the one place carbon fibre could use some improvement. As far as I know, no one in bikes has managed to utilise graphene very well yet – it’s not quite ready for prime time.

So I don’t see any big breakthroughs coming any time soon, but certainly there will be improvements in carbon laminates.

Cyc: We’ve heard graphene can filter seawater for drinking…

CC: Now there’s a story – a bike that makes water! But in all seriousness I think the bicycle has consumed more human hours of concentration and engineering than any other technology on the planet.

Millions of inventors, tinkerers, home mechanics all staring at bikes for over 100 years, trying to think of better ways of doing something.

But a lot of things have trickled down from bikes into other areas, so it’s all good.

WordsSam Challis | Photography Juan Trujillo Andrades

I’m feeling a bit unwell. Perhaps it’s a fever – that unmistakeable feeling of being hot and cold all at once. It’s strange, because I was feeling perfectly fine just a couple of hours ago.

Then again, climbing to the top of Mont Ventoux might have something to do with it.

Could it be the fatigue of riding 22km uphill, much of it over 10%? Or could it be the dizzying view south that runs uninterrupted down to the Côte d’Azur some 150km distant? Could it even be the emotion of completing the ascent of one of cycling’s most celebrated and feared climbs?

‘It’s the altitude, combined with the Mistral wind and the fact that you’ve been climbing for two hours. You’ve generated a lot of heat, but the temperature has dropped 20°C, the air is thin and that wind is famous for cutting right through you,’ says Angus Parker, founder of tour companyLa Vie en Velo and our guide for the day.

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Image 3 of 30

It is this combination of factors, and the unusual discomfort they cause, that makes Mont Ventoux a climb like no other and one that should be at the top of every serious cyclist’s bucket list.

The mountain is unique. Unlike its crowded Alpine cousins to the northeast, it stands alone, providing incomparable views as it towers over the almost Mediterranean Provençal landscape.

Ventoux is also steeped in history. All the best climbers down the generations have done battle with the ‘Giant of Provence’, and some haven’t lived to tell the tale.

What’s more, it can be climbed three ways, and each route is just as challenging yet different to the last. That makes it a rather appropriate proving ground to test the mettle of three bikes with climbing pretensions. 

Aero isn’t everything

Unless you ride on pan-flat roads every day, how much mass you have to move around will play a big part in determining your speed.

On the flat, the biggest force acting against you is air resistance, but the more you point uphill, the more that weight becomes the main impediment.

It follows that the lighter you and your bike are, the faster you can ride uphill for the same effort.

There isn’t much a bike company can do about making you lighter, which is why brands pour millions into designing bikes that push the lower limits of weight despite the arbitrary 6.8kg weight limit currently imposed by the UCI for pro racing.

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Image 4 of 30

As we’re not pros, that doesn’t apply to us, so the three bikes we are testing today dip below this figure by some degree.

Trek’s 5.97kg Émonda can lay claim to being the lightest mass production bike currently on offer, while Fuji’s 6.52kg SL1.1 is actually heavier than its predecessor (we’ll find out why later).

Cannondale’s SuperSix Evo is the heaviest of the bunch at 6.7kg, but can lay claim to having the most heritage at WorldTour level.

An even tougher question is: who’s going to ride which bike? With me today are Matt, a cat-2 racer from Dorset, and Ewan, a hill-climb specialist from Kent.

We’re similar sizes, and as we stand in the well-appointed bike workshop of our charming Provençal farmhouse-cum-hotel, La Ferme des Bélugues, each of us is unwilling to make the first move toward the gleaming superbikes lined up in front of us.

Pulling rank

Eventually Matt pulls rank as the ‘oldest, wisest and most in need of help’ to take the Émonda, which prompts Ewan to make a dive for the Fuji.

That leaves me with the Cannondale, which I’m secretly pleased about as I think it’s the most elegant of the three and comes with an excellent pedigree.

After a bit of fiddling and fettling, we start our ride with a rolling 10km from La Ferme to Bédoin, the town at the base of Mont Ventoux’s most famous ascent, giving us an opportunity to familiarise ourselves with our chosen partners before the real ‘fun’ begins.

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Image 9 of 30

Matt and Ewan immediately put their bikes to work up the Col de la Madeleine (luckily it’s not that Col de la Madeleine – it’s a far gentler hill that merely shares the same name), both praising the acceleration of their bikes.

Wary of the effort to come once we pass Bédoin, I’m content to tap up the rise and soak in the views of olive groves in the early morning sunshine.

Even though I’ve yet to go full throttle, I’m already getting excited about the SuperSix, which feels eager and responsive to even the slightest of inputs, no doubt thanks to having been refined by constant exposure and feedback at the top of the sport with WorldTour team Cannondale-Drapac.

At the top I stamp on the pedals and the bike leaps forward down the twisting road. In no time I’ve caught Matt and Ewan and we roll into Bédoin together.

And so it begins

The red and white striped mast of the weather station atop Ventoux looks impossibly distant on this clear day, and as we leave Bédoin the road rises immediately, albeit at a sociable gradient. We slip into single file with Ewan on the front.

His SL1.1 is Fuji’s top-flight race machine, which uses a host of technologies in an attempt to keep things stiff and snappy at a frame weight of just 695g.

Chief among them is Fuji’s ‘High Compaction’ moulding, which the brand claims eliminates wrinkled bits of carbon and leftover gobs of resin that would otherwise increase weight.

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Image 5 of 30

Yet the SL1.1’s predecessor was just 5.11kg – so Fuji apparently added weight to improve stiffness and ride quality, as well as speccing slightly less exotic finishing kit to make the bike’s price more competitive (the previous SL1.1 had a Reynolds RZR 46 wheelset, which retails at £4,000 on its own).

Fuji’s design decisions have certainly paid off, according to Ewan, who remarks on how responsive the bike feels as he punches forward from out of the saddle.

Matt is still singing the Émonda’s praises for how impressively it goes downhill as well as up, and taking a look at the geometry chart of Trek’s bike it’s not hard to see why – a BB drop of 70mm and chainstays of 410mm suggest a low, stable back end while the stiffness of the front end delivers snappy steering.

The ascent of Ventoux from Bédoin is the one used most often by the Tour de France, so there’s no shortage of detailed documentation exposing every inch of the climb.

And all the literature speaks in reverential tones about the left-hand bend at St Esteve. This is where the ascent really bares its teeth – the bend that caused the big Italian domestique Eros Poli to say, ‘I thought I was dying,’ and the bend that served as the catalyst for Ferdi Kübler’s total implosion further up the climb and subsequent race abandonment.

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Image 11 of 30

The French describe it as un petit enfer, a little hell. As the gradient doubles and the road disappears into Ventoux’s forested lower slopes, I’m inclined to agree.

Despite Matt’s age-related protestations he’s a gifted climber so it quickly becomes clear that he and Ewan (to hear him tell it, riding uphill is all that he does) will be ascending at a different pace to me.

I ‘allow’ them to drift into the distance and my attention becomes more introspective as I begin to assess the attributes of the Cannondale properly.

Making a frame more compact by designing the top tube to slope down from the head tube is a favoured ploy by manufacturers searching for a light frame, as evidenced by the designs of the Émonda and Fuji, because the effective horizontal length of the top tube remains the same but the tube itself can be slightly shorter.

Less material for less weight. Yet Cannondale resolutely eschews that thinking and with the SuperSix proves a climber’s bike can be created from a more regular geometry.

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Image 10 of 30

Cannondale puts it down to its ‘System Integration’ concept, where the frame, fork and components are designed to work together. It allows a number of features such as the fork’s crown race-less design to be incorporated, which Cannondale says saves a lot of weight while keeping the famed ride characteristics, subtle aerodynamics and stiffness required for the bike to compete on the WorldTour.

I praise the ingenuity of Cannondale’s engineers as the gradient starts to take its toll. I have to alternate between sitting and standing to keep my momentum, and note that around this point on the climb in the 2016 Tour Chris Froome was probably running faster than I am currently riding.

I take heart in the fact that regardless of whether I’m standing or seated, flex remains undetectable at the bottom bracket or head tube, so very little of my effort seems to be going to waste. 

Not over yet

The Bédoin ascent has only one true hairpin, the Virage du Bois, so I can often glimpse Matt and Ewan up ahead. I notice that Matt has barely sat down at any point, which is in stark comparison to the way he tells me he usually climbs.

‘It’s this bike,’ he says when we regroup at Chalet Reynard. We’re at that point on the ascent where we know the worst is over, but also that there is plenty still to be done. Now we’re out of the forest we’ll be at the mercy of the mercurial Mistral wind and the viciously temperamental weather conditions it causes.

‘I tried riding in my normal style, yet that just made the bike feel as if it was straining at a leash. I had to get up and push a bigger gear because I kept finding that the more I put in, the more I got out.’

I’m sure Trek would be happy to hear that, especially as the company put this latest Émonda through tens of thousands of iterations in computer modelling software to refine the carbon layup schedule in search of the perfect balance of stiffness, comfort and weight. The finishing kit from its components brand, Bontrager, is also pretty accomplished, making for a highly desirable overall package.

In fact all three bikes have been finished with a generous smattering of in-house products, and none are the worse for it.

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Image 12 of 30

The SuperSix’s Save 25.4mm seatpost is a brilliant bit of engineering, adding a level of comfort to an otherwise rigid frame; the SL1.1’s Oval Concepts 928 wheels are stiff, light and offer good braking; and a highlight on the Émonda has to be the Speed Stop Pro brakes, which offer clearance for 28mm tyres and great modulation for their meagre 95g weight.

It isn’t long before we spin past Tom Simpson’s memorial, nestled in the scree of the Ventoux’s upper reaches. It’s the 50th anniversary of his death this year, and the memorial is well stocked with offerings of bidons and rocks that have been carried up the mountain in remembrance of one of Britain’s greatest Tour de France riders. Seeing the spot where he fell is unexpectedly powerful.

If his heart could have lasted just five minutes more he might  have crested the summit and been able to recover on the descent.

In an effort to shake off the melancholy, we take one last opportunity to make our bikes earn their keep by riding an Armstrong/Pantani-like duel up to the summit.

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Image 13 of 30

I end up taking the role of Armstrong, claiming to lose the battle to win the war, and let Matt and Ewan know as much when I catch them at the base of the weather station. At least their scoffs are gentler than Pantani’s rebukes were to his US Postal rival.

Those feverish symptoms convince us not to linger up here. In an attempt to avoid fisticuffs in our debate back at La Ferme I’d suggested we could swap rides during the day, but as each bike has served us so well we’re unwilling to trade, despite each promising a different experience.

It goes to show that regardless of design, geometry or technology there is more than one way to skin a lightweight cat.

With our minds made up, there’s only one way to go.

The bikes

Cannondale SuperSix Evo

A classic design that is still proven at WorldTour level

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Image 16 of 30

Model: Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod eTap
Groupset: Sram Red eTap
Gearing: 52/36t chainset, 11-28t cassette
Wheels: Cannondale HollowGram SL Carbon
Tyres: Vittoria Corsa G+; 700x25c
Finishing kit: Cannondale Escape Hanger Carbon bars, Cannondale C1 Ultralight stem, Cannondale Save Carbon seatpost, Fizik Arione R3 saddle
Weight: 6.7kg (56cm)
Price:£6,399
Contact: cyclingsportsgroup.co.uk

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Image 17 of 30

Sam's summary:

The SuperSix isn’t billed as a stereotypical climber’s bike, which played on my mind before we got going, as did the mid-compact chainset (52/36), but once I started the first bit of real ascent on the Ventoux – around the left hand bend at St Esteve – my fears of riding at a disadvantage were allayed.

Any weight the SuperSix ceded to the out-and-out climbers’ bikes of my riding partners was more than compensated for by how efficient the frame felt.

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Image 19 of 30

Whether I was tapping up the steep tree-lined section in my lowest gear or out of the saddle trying to muscle through the final kilometres after Chalet Reynard, the SuperSix rewarded my efforts with a flattering amount of forward motion.

While I was initially wary of the gearing, using it successfully on such a stern ascent convinced me that a 52/36 chainset with an 11-28 cassette is – on a bike as accomplished as the SuperSix – that Goldilocks combination: enough range to winch up steep climbs yet not spin out going down the other side.

That was a boon because the SuperSix was also a blast to descend on.

Trek Émonda

This latest iteration is the lightest production bike on the market

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Image 20 of 30

Model: Trek Émonda SLR 9
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Gearing: 50/34t chainset, 11-28t cassette
Wheels: Bontrager Aeolus 3 D3
Tyres: Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite, 700x25c
Finishing kit: Bontrager XXX bars, Bontrager Pro stem, Bontrager Ride Tuned Carbon seatmast, Bontrager XXX saddle
Weight: 5.97kg (56cm)
Price: £8,500
Contact: trekbikes.com

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Image 21 of 30

Matt's summary:

Most of my time is spent aboard an aero machine in the shape of Canyon’s Aeroad CF SLX, so to move from a bike where weight isn’t top priority to one of the lightest bikes money can buy was a interesting experience, to say the least.

The Émonda had a noticeable effect on my riding style – I spent a lot more time standing up because stamping down on the Émonda’s pedals felt so addictively spritely. I couldn’t get used to the amount of acceleration it afforded even when the road was above 10% in the last couple of kilometres on the Ventoux past Tom Simpson’s memorial.

I’ll confess, though, that there was another reason I took to standing – the shell of Bontrager’s XXX saddle, seemingly just shaped out of a single layer of carbon, was pretty unforgiving.

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Image 22 of 30

That being said, for all the frame’s stiffness the sloping top tube left plenty of seat tube exposed above the tube junction.

I’d say this was the reason the bike was comfortable too – there was plenty of length to flex and soak up the road surface on those rare occasions when I couldn’t muster the energy to keep riding out of the saddle.

Fuji SL 1.1 

Plenty of carbon wizardry went into making this superlight frame

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Image 24 of 30

Model: Fuji SL 1.1
Groupset: Sram Red eTap
Gearing: 52/36t chainset, 11-28t cassette
Wheels: Oval Concepts 928
Tyres: Vittoria Corsa G+; 700x25c
Finishing kit: Oval a 910SL Ergo bars, Oval Concepts 777SL stem, Oval Concepts 950 seatpost, Oval Concepts X38c saddle
Weight: 6.52kg (56cm)
Price: £7,299
Contact: evanscycles.co.uk

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Image 25 of 30

Ewan's summary: 

I’m a bit of a hill climb specialist so the UCI-illegal SL was right up my street. As a rider keen to not to miss an opportunity to shed weight I particularly liked the Fuji’s finish.

Aside from being utterly beautiful when the different tows of carbon caught the light in the direct sun, simply lacquering over the SL’s unidirectional carbon tubes definitely weighs less than a standard paint scheme.

It should be said that despite the finishing kit and wheels all being supplied by Fuji’s in-house brand, Oval Concepts, I thought none of it undermined the performance of the frame.

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Image 26 of 30

Braking performance was good, and although the rims were pretty voracious in their appetite for the brake pads, otherwise they seemed smooth and stiff.

The cockpit was similarly rigid, yet the unusual ergonomics of the bars left a bit to be desired for me.

The seatpost and saddle made a comfortable perch for the whole day and provided a little counterbalance to the uncompromising frame – the SL is one stiff bike. It’s compact in every sense; I found the sloping top tube and short wheelbase made it feel really taut, ideal for punchy accelerations when I was trying to drop Matt. 

Kit picks

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Image 28 of 30

Etxeondo Orhi bibshorts | £145, etxeondo.com

Ewan says:‘A day on Mont Ventoux is always going to be a big one so I was really impressed by the quality of Etxeondo’s Urakki chamois in these shorts.

‘It stayed comfortable no matter how long the gradient forced me to ride in the saddle. And the design includes hardly any seams so the shorts fit like a second skin.’

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Image 29 of 30

Giro Prolight Techlace shoes | £349.99, zyrofisher.co.uk

Sam says:‘You’d be hard pushed to find better footwear for climbing a big hill. The sole is stiff, the upper is breathable and the Techlace straps are comfortable.

‘Best of all they’re half the weight of a lot of rivals, so as a rider who needs all the help he can get going uphill, Giro’s Prolights were very much appreciated.’

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Image 30 of 30

Shimano S-Phyre jersey | £189.99, madison.co.uk

Matt says:‘You wouldn’t know this was Shimano’s first foray into road performance clothing – it competes with established brands straight off the bat.

‘The jersey was a standout: its fit is racy and it’s really breathable, yet seems more substantial and premium than other mesh-based jerseys that can leave too little to the imagination.’

Thanks...

There’s no doubt this trip wouldn’t have been as successful as it was without the help of La Vie en Velo’s Angus Parker, who transported all of our bikes and luggage down to Provence in one herculean drive from Kent that included picking Cyclist up from the airport en route.

La Vie en Velo (lavieenvelo.com) runs specialist cycling tours for small groups to iconic destinations around Europe and takes care of all the logistics. All you have to do is turn up and ride.

Thanks also must go to Spencer and Karen for their amazing hospitality at La Ferme des Bélugues. As well as laying on food fit for kings, both are a font of knowledge on the local area and are handy riders to boot.

Their beautiful chambre d’hôte is ideally situated almost equidistant between two of Ventoux’s climbs, but is pleasant enough to make you think twice about cycling at all – you could just as easily spend time by the pool or sample the region’s local wines in comfort on the terrace.

Thanks to Google constantly spying on our every mouse click, we know that the Cannondale Synapse is one of the most searched for bikes on the internet.

The reason is fairly obvious: it’s a very good bike. Look through past reviews, including my own, and you will struggle to find anything but high praise for Cannondale’s endurance bike.

As such, it would be tempting for Cannondale to avoid making any big changes to the Synapse, but this 2018 edition represents the most significant redesign since the Synapse went full carbon back in 2013. And what Cannondale has done is rather intriguing.

With a growing appetite for bikes that offer ‘versatility’ – that is, being able to cope with a variety of road surfaces – many brands have pushed their endurance models closer to the off-road end of the market, with the addition of mechanical suspension systems to absorb road shocks.

Cannondale has done no such thing. In fact, it has done the opposite.   

Go your own way

The 2018 Synapse is now closer in style to the company’s pure road racing machine, the SuperSix Evo.

It’s both lighter and stiffer than its predecessor, and even the geometry and performance attributes of the frame and fork are now more aligned with its race-bred brethren.

What is the reason for this? Cyclist called Cannondale designer David Devine to find out.

‘We designed the new Synapse conscious that the endurance rider still wants a lightweight, responsive bike, the same as a bike racer,’ he says.

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Image 2 of 31

‘I think this direction becomes natural once we accept that suspension belongs in a different category. I’d call that “all-road” and we have the Slate for that.

‘To me this [endurance] category is better served having race bike performance, but melding in some of the functional features that make an endurance bike its own: room for bigger tyres, mudguard compatibility and disc brakes.

‘These aren’t passive bikes – they’re made to be pushed – and so the Synapse gets the same construction tech
as our lightweight race bikes such as the SuperSix Evo and SuperX.

‘There’s not a whole lot of fluff, fewer bonded pieces, more integrated manufacturing. Its inherent beauty is in how simple and refined it is.’

I agree with Devine’s stance regarding the endurance road category. I feel it’s often misunderstood.

Front ends don’t need to be so tall that they require you to duck low flying aircraft, and while no one wants to be beaten up by their bike, most of us don’t need gooey-marshmallow levels of compliance either.

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Image 3 of 31

What can be said with certainty is that everybody likes to go fast, whether it’s placing highly at a gran fondo or just giving your mates a kicking up the local climb. On those points, this new Synapse delivers.

Where its predecessor was ‘very good’, this new model has stepped up to ‘excellent’. It has a snappier feel and sharper handling, with poise in the corners and stability at speed.

As promised, it feels much closer to the SuperSix Evo. I was able to test the Synapse back to back with the current SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod Disc, and in terms of acceleration and handling I struggled to definitively split them.

What’s more I could run with the stem slammed on the slightly taller front end of the Synapse, where
I needed a 20mm spacer stack on the SuperSix, so for my fit dimensions the Synapse arguably looked more ‘pro’. 

So what does split these two bikes? The answer is comfort. There’s nearly 6cm difference in the seat tube length of the two (size 56cm) bikes, resulting in the Synapse having a lot more exposed seatpost that can flex under impacts.

This does much of the hard work towards smoothing out the ride feel single-handedly.

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Image 4 of 31

Then there are the tyres. With clearance for up to 32mm, plus tubeless-ready wheels, the Synapse offers lots of scope to fine-tune the feel.

In testing I used the supplied Vittoria Corsa G+ 28mm tyres (which actually measured 29.5mm) with inner tubes, and gradually dropped the pressure with each ride.

Starting out at 85psi, I came down in 5psi increments until I was riding at just 60psi, which felt amazingly smooth, although by this point I felt I was pushing my luck a bit and risking pinch flats.

Had I converted to tubeless, though, I would have been happy even at this low pressure. I settled eventually on 70psi front, 75psi rear as a happy medium for the superior grip and comfort it offered without seeming to impact significantly on rolling speed.

Set up in this way the Synapse was sublimely smooth over even the most pitted road surfaces, and grip in corners was confidence-inspiring.

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Image 5 of 31

What the new Synapse delivers is a noticeably racier feel compared to the outgoing model, but with no less comfort.

When I consider the other bikes I’ve tested recently in the endurance sector – Trek’s Domane SLR, Specialized’s Roubaix S-Works, BMC’s Roadmachine 01 and Canyon’s Endurace CF SLX Disc– it seems clear to me that Cannondale has set out to distance itself from those brands.

The new Synapse is not as noticeably comfortable as some of those other bikes, especially the Domane with its plush rear end and the Roubaix with its sprung shock absorber upfront, but that’s not its main purpose.

The Synapse feels every bit like a race bike until you get home from a four or five-hour ride. That’s when you realise how well it has been taking care of you.

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Image 8 of 31

The question I was left pondering is has Cannondale made this new Synapse so capable it will harm the sales of its SuperSix Evo? It’s possible.

For many would-be SuperSix customers (myself included), unless all you plan to do is race, the new Synapse is arguably the smarter choice.

Spec

Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod Disc 2018: Launch, gallery and first ride review

James Spender | 10 July 2017

Cannondale’s all new Synapse has finally landed, and while it might look very similar to the old, there are some subtle yet highly effective changes, plus an all-new bar-stem setup that’s meant to aid comfort while being more aerodynamic.

‘The Synapse dates back to 2002, but it was called the Road Warrior,’ says Cannondale’s David Devine, in reference to the aluminium version created to have room for 25mm tyres and more relaxed geometry.

That bike moved into a Synapse-branded machine in 2006, and then got a carbon rethink in 2013, heralding a successful 2014 Classics season under Peter Sagan and a dominant place in the endurance road market.

Given that dominance, it’s little surprise this new Cannondale Synapse bears such a striking resemblance to the last generation. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But, do improve it, a lot.

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Image 6 of 31

So what’s new with the Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod 2018?

Actually, pretty much everything.

Most noticeable is the new cockpit, called the SAVE Systembar (Synapse Active Vibration Elimination). It’s comprised of an alloy stem bolted to a carbon bar in a fashion that makes the whole thing look one piece.

Why not actual one piece? Simple, Cannondale wanted there to be pitch adjustment and easily interchangeable stem lengths for the bar, the lack thereof being a common complaint about one-piece bar-stems.

To achieve this the stem cups the centre of the bar, but doesn’t clamp all around it like a conventional setup. It’s held in place by four bolts on rocker-style washers, meaning the bar can be rotated forwards or backwards through 8 degrees of pitch to get the desired angle.

It’s terribly neat, works a treat and looks the part.

Crucially for an endurance bike, the Save bar’s tops are thin and flattened such that Cannondale says they have measured up to 15mm of deflection in the lab (although that figure, says Devine, is more like 4-6mm in the real world).

On top of the bar is a little rubber doofer that plugs a hole, into which a Garmin or Wahoo out-front mount can be inserted. Again, all very neat, and Cannondale even ships it with a Fabric out-front Lumaray light, which clips neatly under a bike computer.

As is becoming increasingly popular, Cannondale has put a cut-out on the top of the down tube a few inches behind the head tube to accommodate Shimano’s new Di2 charging port.

With SRAM Red eTap on the bike there’s a blank insert that covers the cut-out; with mechanical shifting there’s a plate that houses cable bosses.

In keeping with the clean lines approach, hydraulic disc hoses run inside the fork leg and through the down tube and chainstay and into flat-mount disc brake callipers.

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Image 10 of 31

Those disc brakes are now held in place with thru-axles, a departure from Cannondale’s previous quick release approach on the last generation.

Curiously the rear is a Syntace 142x12mm and the front a Maxle 100x12mm – the rationale being this is the most popular combination when it comes to wheels available.

The fork is asymmetric, much like the recent BMC Teammachine Disc’s, meaning it’s significantly beefier on the rotor side to deal with the extra asymmetrically distributed torsional braking forces of disc brakes (the rear chainstays have been given this treatment too).

It’s also available in three sizes in order to preserve the handling characteristics, stiffness and prevent toe overlap across different frame sizes.

Size 44 and 48cm frames get a narrower 1 1/8” lower bearing and 60mm fork offset; 51 and 54cm 1 1/4” and 55mm offset; 56, 58 and 61cm a 1 3/8” and 45mm offset.

The idea is the larger bearings, steerer tubes and head tubes help keep the bigger sizes stiff in the head tube, as more gangly tubes are more prone to flex. As such, Cannondale reckons the new Synapse is 9.4% a stiffer in the head tube than before.

The fork sheds a claimed 116g, down to 367g, and the frame loses 220g over the previous Synapse, making for a claimed 950g frame and meaning a 6.8kg build is perfectly achievable.

Cannondale’s done this in the usual way, by changing the lay up schedule and tweaking the carbon/resin mix.

The swoops and curves of the stays have been exaggerated yet further for more compliance, and the ‘Power Pyramid’ a cut out in the bottom of the seat tube, is still evident on the higher spec bikes, lower spec get a flared but filled in seat tube, as the Pyramid is an expensive thing to mould, says Cannondale.

Frame geometry has also be subtly tweaked, with the head tube measuring 173mm in a size 56cm (the previous generation was 186mm). It’s also slightly steeper than before, making the Synapse’s upright position just that tad more aggressive.

Interestingly, Cannondale has made the front mech braze-on mount removable, so running a 1x drivetrain needn’t leave you with an unsightly protrusion where your mech used to be.

There are several off-the-shelf 1x bikes in the range, denoted with the suffix ‘SE’ and specced with voluminous 650b tyres. Speaking of which, the Synapse can now accommodate up to 32mm 700c tyres, and has hidden eyelets for mudguards.

Rounding things off is the Save seatpost, just 25.4mm in diameter and shaped to exploit the flexibility of carbon for a more comfortable ride without sacrificing lateral stiffness.

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Image 21 of 31

Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod 2018: First ride

I’ve ridden several iterations of the modern Synapse, both rim and disc, and while I very much like those bikes I’ve always preferring the feel and stance of their racier brother, the SuperSix Evo.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find myself in a far more aggressive position on the new Synapse thanks to a more aggressive take on endurance geometry, where a shorter, steeper head tube and a few other tweaks, such as a slightly shorter wheelbase, conspire to make for a lower slung, more nimble position.

There’s still a sense of the comfortable uprightness that made the early Synapses so popular, but with just a few millimetres here and half degree adjustment there the new bike has sharpened up immensely.

When the road tips up the frame and fork stiffness is palpable. Cannondale reckons the Synapse is second only to the BMC Roadmachine in terms of BB stiffness in the endurance category, and class leader in head tube stiffness and, given the way it stands up to big bar wrenching efforts, I found no reason to doubt this.

The low weight was undoubtedly helpful too up the climbs, but where the Synapse really comes into its own is on the descents. The rougher, the twistier the better.

With 28mm rubber fitted courtesy of Vittoria’s excellent Corsa G tyres and run at just over 80psi, the Synapse glided round bends like a oiled up Aladdin’s carpet, with all the adhesion of araldite.

In fact, that’s the word I found myself using time and again to describe the Synapse: sticky. It stuck to the road with exceptional grip, which really came into its own under heavy braking, where I was thankful for the bullhorn height of the Sram eTap hoods to brace my hands against as the bike would slow up rapidly while my body wanted to carry on moving forward.

You just can’t get the same performance with rim brakes or a bike without such levels of grip.

There is a caveat here though. The tyres are a massive part of this equation, as too the heat – I test rode the Synapse around the shores of Lake Como in Italy, where the tarmac was pretty much in a perpetual state of heat haze.

Different rubber in different climes and it might not be such a lyrically waxed story.

Yet, I’d still bet on the Synapse delivering the stability, assuredness and poise on descents in a variety of conditions, and that’s down to the frame.

There is a noticeable spring in its step, and this must certainly help with the Synapse to track surface undulations as opposed to skipping over them.

If there’s a downside it's that there was some latency with feedback as the frame muffled vibrations, but overall, my hands, forearms and posterior says that’s a good thing.

More longer term testing will follow, but for the time being first impressions are the new Synapse is a mightily impressive beast that is surely destined to rival the SuperSix Evo for Cannondale racing supremacy.

See cannondale.com and cyclingsportsgroup.co.uk for more

Photos: Gruber Images

Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod Disc 2015 review

Stu Bowers | 1 May 2015

The notion of building a do-it-all bike has always seemed to me like chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and that exactly what the Cannondale Synapse has always been.

When you try to be all things to all men you run a high risk of setting yourself up to fail. Take low-fat cheese, for example.

You’re messing with what is by definition a substance laden with fat and calories in an attempt to satisfy those who want to limit their fat intake – and in my experience the result is something wholly unsatisfying.

Sometimes compromise is necessary if you want the full experience, and you’re better off playing to your strengths and accepting the trade-off in other areas.

Some of the best, most exciting bikes I’ve ridden have been true to this principle, being excellent in particular areas of performance and, as a consequence, less so in others. Then I rode this Synapse and my views changed.

Back in the spring of last year, not long after Cannondale initially launched its new Synapse as a cobble-slaying weapon for Peter Sagan’s Classics campaign, I got to ride a SRAM Red-equipped version of the top-end Hi-Mod frame platform, with traditional mechanical calliper brakes, around Mount Etna.

I was more than a little impressed with its capabilities as it dealt with every challenge thrown at it by the mountainous Sicilian roads.

My lasting impression was that Cannondale Synapse had hit a rarely achieved sweet spot where compromises were the only things missing.

So the prospect of putting the latest cream of the Synapse crop – the stealthy, Hi-Mod Black Inc Disc – to the test, with a dream spec, comprising Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 shifting and hydraulic disc brakes, excited me immensely. I took to the road with some high expectations.

Disc brakes

I think we’re past the point of arguing for and against disc brakes now and must accept they will soon be commonplace on road bikes. In time, they may even replace calliper brakes completely.

Aesthetically, I’m still to be convinced because they remain too close to bastardised mountain bike systems and not sufficiently ‘road-like’ for my money, but when it comes to performance, I’m convinced, hands down.

Cannondale has put more thought than many brands into its very neat internal cable routing of the hydraulic hoses – the entry point of the front-brake hose into the fork crown is particularly noteworthy.

The Synapse also goes against the grain by using smaller, 140mm rotors where most bikes opt for more visually intrusive 160mm rotors on the grounds of improved heat dissipation.

The performance of the hydraulic Shimano R785 brakes on the Synapse is exceptional, with superb lever feel and progressive modulation that lets you sense precisely where you’re at in the braking power-curve so you can adjust your speed with total confidence.

I certainly had no cause for concern using the smaller rotor size. The discs’ predictability in all conditions is clearly superior to rim brakes, a fact that was emphasised when switching between bikes – something I’m fortunate enough to do a lot working for Cyclist.

With the British spring throwing practically every type of riding condition at the Synapse during this test, the performance differences were highlighted further, and disc-brake technology on road bikes is only likely to continue improving.

Equally topical as another ‘yet to be fully accepted’ trend are the voluminous 28mm Schwalbe One tyres that Cannondale has elected to fit on this Synapse.

Just like the brakes, they instilled confidence by providing good road holding under braking and grip aplenty when leaning into corners. Any preconceptions I had about increased weight, drag and rolling resistance were soon quashed.

The tyres helped to uphold the Synapse’s lively and agile persona when accelerating and seeking rapid direction changes, and didn’t rob it of any top-end pace.

To make the most of any potential increase in comfort from the larger air volume it’s important to experiment with using lower tyre pressures.

I weigh about 67kg and settled on around 85psi for the best balance of comfort, grip and speed. However, tyres are only a single part of the equation, and credit must also be given to the success of the system as a whole, including the excellent Vision Metron 40 wheelset, which complements and extends the feeling of stability delivered by the frame and fork.

The frame

A good deal of the assertiveness of the frame comes from the success of its standout design characteristic – the split seat tube – which stoutly sits atop the widened bottom bracket shell.

Added to the mix is Cannondale’s own super stiff SiSL2 chainset and oversized BB30A bottom bracket standard, resulting in a pedalling platform that barely flinched under my strongest efforts.

As an aside, the single-piece CNC’d aluminium chainrings and spider combined with the Di2 front mech made for the sweetest of front-gear shifts.

Cannondale has been generous but not excessive with an 18.6cm head tube on the Synapse, such that slamming the stem will still achieve an aggressive riding position, but for the less flexible rider there’s plenty of room to manoeuvre. T

he Synapse won’t short-change you in any area, and I’d honestly feel equally happy head down in a tight and twisty crit race as climbing the longest Alpine passes.

The bike certainly delivers on descents, too, and I could count on one hand the number of bikes I’ve previously said that about.

I’d be nitpicking in the extreme to find many faults in this bike. The frame does appear to have sacrificed a fraction of its compliance compared with its non-disc sibling, I can only assume as a result of the necessary strengthening to key areas of the chainstays and seatstays, as well as the fork.

It’s most noticeable up front where there’s a bit more road shock coming through the bars. Keeping this in perspective, though, it’s still perfectly tolerable, and indeed the bike as a whole is still up there among the most comfortable I’ve ridden.

While on the subject of comfort, the 25.4mm seatpost is a stroke of genius. It’s such a simple way to soften the blows the rider experiences at the rear, and it even visibly flexes under bigger impacts.

Rule #12 says the correct number of bikes to own is n+1 (where n = the number of bikes currently owned).

The rule also suggests taking heed of its subsection: s-1 (where s = the number of bikes it would take for your partner to leave you).

For my money, the Synapse Hi-Mod Disc Black Inc is the closest a bike has come to disproving the n+1 hypothesis and, in fact, may make it easier to stay in a happy relationship, too, providing you’re not already flying dangerously close to s.

Geometry

Spec

Another new bike brand, are you sure?

As it happens, yes, we are. Bowman Cycles has been in business for a few years now and from its London HQ has quickly grown a range of bikes that are cutting edge both in terms of offering new ways to ride with what they call RoadPlus.

This covers everything from fat-tyred, disc brake-equipped machines like the Pilgrims to the cutting-edge stainless steel Layhams which blew us away on a test ride a few months back, and this, the second generation of the Palace, the :R.

What's with the name?

For cyclists not from the South London area, the Palace name will mean very little but for anyone who is and has harboured any racing ambitions, the Tuesday night Crystal Palace Crits are the weekly world champs, held on a narrow tarmac perimeter loop around Crystal Palace Park.

Fast and furious racing, there is a definite focus on positive handling around the corners and in tight spaces, with crashes an inevitable part of the fun.

The Palace was originally conceived as a budget race machine with the idea that if you can’t afford to replace it when you crash, you probably shouldn’t be racing it, highlighting two of the problems with carbon fibre: it’s both prone to breaking when crashed and expensive to replace.

But isn't aluminium old technology?

While aluminium has been around for decades as a frame material and used with great success by some brands, it’s true to say that it did get superseded by carbon fibre quite quickly, which in turn means that there is still quite a lot of development potential in the material.

At the same time, it’s also substantially cheaper to manufacturer than carbon so a top-flight machine costs a lot less.

Those are some mighty fancy wheels, aren't they?

Aren’t they just! If the frame is the soul of a bike then the wheels have to be the heart and the two need to match to be able to get the most out of each other.

Zipp’s 202s are the shallowest carbon wheels they offer and therefore the lightest, so best suited to rapid changes in pace and direction.

While they are obviously expensive, unlike frames they can be more easily repaired or  have parts replaced if they get damaged.

We opted to try out the NSW model, which includes the Showstopper finish.

This has swipes moulded into the surface of the brake track, as well as silicon carbide particles embedded in the resin, both of which aim to dramatically improve braking performance in the wet or dry, so these are ideal for fast, close riding.

And the groupset...

Shimano’s latest version of Ultegra, known as R8000, is a refinement of the previous version and probably more than enough for any aggressive rider or racer, if truth be told.

It’s a great performer with rapid, accurate shifting, comfortable controls and high-performance brakes.

We just love the updates that bring much cleaner lines to the front mech and the adoption of the Shadow tech from Shimano’s MTB range that tucks the main workings of the rear mech closer to the wheel, keeping it further out of the way of harm.

And the price?

For the frameset in either green-on-green or black/jade colour options, it’s £695, so you could probably build it up to be a race-worthy machine for around £1,500.

Our bike is at the other end of the spectrum but demonstrates that the frame is well capable of keeping pace with high-end components and wheels and comes in at £4,100 for the complete build.

Spec

Tom Ritchey is one of those cycle industry people who is easy to like – he’s been designing and making bikes for more than 40 years, they’re not heavily marketed, and they’re beautifully functional with excellent design and detail.

This is the UK exclusive first test of the updated Road Logic, the V2, but the changes from V1 are characteristically low-key. 

Ritchey has noted the trend for wider tyres so tweaked the frame to fit tyres up to 30mm wide.

Adapting the carbon fork wasn’t quite so simple, so that’s a completely reworked design.

A modern take on the classic steel frame, Ritchey has designed the internal and external shapes of the tubes, along with a triple-butting process that takes away material where it’s not needed to reduce weight, but kept it where required for weld strength.

As the main part of the Ritchey business is producing components, it’s no surprise that the Ritchey name appears on all parts bar the 105 groupset and inner tubes.

With a frame price of £1,119 and this complete bike at just under a grand more, it’s easy to see that the cost has been kept low and that’s reflected somewhat in the 9.2kg weight.

Without doubt, the weight is noticeable on the road as soon as it goes uphill or when sprinting, but at all other times you’d struggle to notice.

In fact, you’re more likely to pick up on the benefits as the Logic is extremely stable at speed, comfortable on choppy surfaces and eager to change direction when asked.

We swapped out the stem to a longer WCS C220 for fit reasons but otherwise ran the stock build. Having ridden and loved the previous version, the V2 didn’t quite match expectations, and we lay the responsibility at the door of the tyres and wheels.

The wheels are respectable and strong but weigh 3.2kg as fitted (including tyres and cassette) and that mass makes a big difference.

Sadly, the Tom Slick 27c tyres weren’t really up to scratch on a bike of this quality and didn’t encourage the lively performance we know the frame wants to offer, but swapping them for a lighter set would help get the most out of a fantastic frame.

Ratings

Frame 8/10; Components 7/10; Wheels 6/10; The ride 8/10

Verdict: The updated Road Logic keeps the same character, but wider tyres mean you can enjoy the beautifully crafted combination of comfort and poise across more surfaces. A fab all-rounder that can handle fast riding or simple cruising, but begs for a more expensive build to get the most out of it.

Spec

Photography Chris Blott

‘In this world, there are probably five people who really understand bicycle geometry,’ says Gerard Vroomen, co-founder of Cervélo, creator of the new Open and 3T bike brands, and one of the most famous engineers in modern cycling.

We’re sitting in London’s Russell Square, and naturally I have to ask if he considers himself to be one of those five. He smiles and remains silent.

Vroomen is an enigmatic character. Today he’s wearing a set of glasses lacking one of the arms, which seem to be impossibly suspended atop his nose. As our conversation turns to bike geometry, Vroomen points to a ‘No Cycling’ sign painted on the road comprising a crudely drawn image of a bicycle.

‘That bike would have one hell of a seat tube angle,’ he muses.

Vroomen was born and raised in the Netherlands, which has resulted in a slight Dutch inflection to his otherwise Canadian accent. From the outset he seems to speak as he thinks – very quickly yet very clearly.

Every few sentences he’ll say ‘Right?’ before pausing for a few moments, a habit he’s presumably picked up from a lifetime of associates losing track of his fast-paced ideas.

He made a name for himself with a string of landmark bike designs from his time at Cervélo, which he founded with Phil White. The two forged their partnership while students at McGill University in Montreal, where they designed the otherworldly Baracchi frame.

The demogorgon-like green time-trial frame was the master’s graduation project for the two young engineers, and propelled them into forming a brand.

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Image 2 of 11

‘I graduated with that project in 1995, and then we incorporated Cervélo in 1996,’ Vroomen recalls. Rumour has it that in those early days the two worked out of a basement below a bike shop on an allowance of $50 a week.

‘Now, as a co-owner of both 3T and Open, Vroomen continues to test the sensibilities of the bike industry with aerodynamic gravel bikes, World Tour racers with a single chainring and road bikes with mountainbike wheels. 

Turning heads

‘My theory about design is always that if you really think about performance, the aesthetics are there automatically,’ Vroomen says.

His and White’s initial Baracchi was considered so ugly that the bike sponsor behind the project refused to have its logo on the down tube. His projects today are met with similarly polarised opinions.

The 3T Strada that Vroomen has brought with him today has inspired awe among those who consider the mixture of a 1x groupset, 28mm tyres, disc brakes and extreme aero profile to be a vision of the future.

It has also fostered disdain among puritans for whom it no longer resembles a road bike.

‘A lot of people think this is really ugly, right?’ Vroomen says. ‘I try not to read the comments below online articles, but people sometimes already have an opinion without having even seen a bike in the flesh, let alone riding it.’

For Vroomen, a shock response from the public has always been part of his strategy.

‘If we introduced a bike and more than half of everyone liked it I’d be really disappointed,’ he says. ‘Because then it didn’t go far enough, and after six months it will start to look old.

‘The 3T is the perfect example as I don’t think more than 50% of people like it. So I think that means in six months people will get used to it and then really start liking it. Right?’

Vroomen’s ambition with the 3T Strada may be his most disruptive so far – to remove the front derailleur and make a single chainring an accepted norm not just for off-road riding but for professional road racing.

He believes it’s a worthy campaign, as it offers a greater range of gearing at a much lower weight. To prove its capability, he’s taking it to the pro peloton with a ProContinental team, Aqua Blue.

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Image 3 of 11

‘The funny part is that all these oldie manufacturers say, “Oh, we work very closely with our teams on new product,” but what’s the product? It’s the old product but x% stiffer in the bottom bracket.

‘You don’t need a team for that – you need a test machine for that.

‘If you say you need a team to develop new products then you better have them ride something new – a real new product that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Right? That’s testing.’

It’s a longstanding policy. Cervélo first formed its Test Team because consumers weren’t buying into its vision of aero road bikes, and the Test Team had to prove their worth.

Vroomen remains sceptical about the overall effectiveness of the WorldTour marketing machine, though.

‘I’m not particularly interested in pro team collaborations anymore,’ he confesses. ‘I think the effectiveness has gone down and the costs have gone up.

‘But you know in this case with the 3T it was really useful to get pro team feedback. It’s a big statement if they can use it successfully.’ 

The path less travelled

‘Since I was 13 or 14 years old I was really into human-powered vehicles so my first bike designs were all fully faired recumbents,’ Vroomen recalls. ‘I always thought we should have recumbent bikes in the Tour de France.’

While the 3T Strada or Open UP may seem unconventional, Vroomen has become more conservative in his tastes through his career.

Yet while he’s no longer as experimental as in his Baracchi days, his designs have continually challenged the status quo. It’s generally paid off.

The Cervélo Soloist, for instance, was the first modern road bike with aerodynamic pretensions. Released in 2002 it was built in aluminium with aero tube shapes and used internal cable routing.

At the time, the Soloist and the resulting S-series shocked consumers with their thin, bladed tube shapes, but today they look vanilla amid a market filled with aero-optimised bikes.

Unsurprisingly, Vroomen often feels his ideas are stolen by others. He maintains, though, that they usually miss the point.

‘What always amazes me in this industry is how people focus on the wrong thing,’ he says. ‘Like when we came out with the Cervélo P3 and it had a curved seat tube, everybody started copying the curved seat tube.

‘That’s probably the most copied feature I’ve ever done. But what made the bike so good for a lot of people was that it fitted properly. The geometry is probably the most important part of that bike but everybody copied the curved seat tube and threw in their own geometry. People copy the most visible things, but not the things that really matter.’

Vroomen sees history repeating itself with the Open UP, a ‘GravelPlus’ design that uses specially dropped chainstays to allow clearance for mountainbike tyres.

‘Now everybody’s dropping their chainstays but without thinking about how to do it properly, so the tyre clearance isn’t what we have on the UP.’

Like many veterans of any industry, Vroomen has a certain cynicism about the big brands, but equally he’s filled with enthusiasm for modern bikes.

‘Years ago there were a lot of bikes that were really not very good, right? They were flexible and they were heavy, and there wasn’t much engineering involved. Now almost all bikes are a lot, lot stiffer than back then. I think now there aren’t many bad bikes out there.’

He argues that, as a result, the push for higher-performing materials is slightly misguided: ‘I mean, the bikes are 10 times stiffer than what Merckx had, and most of us just don’t have the power to push that to its limits.’

Perhaps that’s an unusual perspective from someone in the business of selling high-end road bikes, but for Vroomen the diminishing returns have presented new challenges.

‘I always say, if you like riding you should have the slowest bike, because you want it to last as long as possible. Who wants to get home sooner?’ Vroomen says, aware of the irony as he leans on the top tube of his Strada.

While he may be a fan of the leisurely and adventurous off-road scene, he still feeds off the passion associated with the fastest part of the market.

‘You love the sport, you love the kit, you want to walk into your garage on a Saturday morning to get the bike that puts a smile on your face, right? That can be a custom-painted Pegoretti or it can be a Cervélo S5,’ he says cheerily.

‘That’s the case in any hobby. If you like music you spend money on a music system. Can you really hear the difference between A and B? Maybe, maybe not, but you just like that whole scene.

‘It’s better to spend your money on that than on a cocaine habit.’

But while the technology means even middling bikes are many times better than those ridden by history’s greatest cyclists, there’s still huge ground to cover in the consumer experience, Vroomen believes.

‘Look at the geometry charts and you see most manufacturers don’t understand geometry. We talk about stack and reach, but you look and the smallest three sizes of some models have the same reach,’ Vroomen says.

‘They’re not getting any shorter – they’re just forcing their customers to put their saddles further forward. Some manufacturers either don’t understand geometry or they’re just super-cynical in what they’re trying to sell to their customers.’

As he speaks, a passer-by notices the 3T Strada and asks to be photographed standing next to it. Vroomen agrees and politely answers questions while making no hint that the bike is his design.

That wow factor is a trademark of Vroomen’s designs. It was there in the early Cervélo models, and while Cyclist was testing the Open UP we encountered a similar enthusiasm for its unusual looks.

I wonder how much input Vroomen has with the appearance of his bikes.

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Image 6 of 11

‘I’m a terrible sketcher,’ he admits. ‘So I usually have it pretty clear in my head but then it’s 50% written word and 50% really crude sketches.

‘I have a really good CAD guy who understands my mumbling and my sketches. Then you draw the UCI boxes and we know we need to drop the seatstays there or change the top tube here.’

Naturally I assume Vroomen would like to see the UCI rulebook about bike design thrown aside. ‘No way!’ he replies. ‘I mean, if they throw the rulebook away it’s not cycling anymore.

‘When you watch the Tour de France today you could still see what is in essence the same as seeing Fausto Coppi or Merckx race.’ 

Vroomen with a view

Looking at Vroomen’s back catalogue, it appears he’s moving from outlandish designs in the early days to something more conventional today. So what’s next? Commuter bikes?

‘That’s the dream,’ he says without a hint of irony. ‘I mean that’s the ultimate goal. This is all just preparation for that.’

I have to check again that he isn’t joking, but it seems that Vroomen genuinely dreams of a commuter bike that could change the world.

‘You think of a bike – it’s 10kg of material to make a 70kg or 80kg person go four times the speed. That’s bike commuting. That’s amazing, right?’ he says with heightened animation.

‘Now you take a car. A car in a city goes roughly the same speed as a bike. If you’re in a really fast city like Los Angeles, the car goes twice the speed of the bike. So to go twice the speed of the bike the car needs 1,500kg of material.

It’s 20 times your weight to go maybe 10 times your walking speed on average. It’s just so inefficient.’

Vroomen seems truly excited by a bike-centric vision of society. ‘I’m not suggesting banning cars, but to work as a city to not needing cars in 20 years or so would be great.

‘A city becomes more liveable – you have fewer problems with air pollution, climate change, obesity. All these things improve.’

It’s clear that whether it’s a recumbent, time-trial frame, off-road adventurer, disc-brake WorldTour racer or futuristic commuter, Vroomen’s designs will continue to challenge expectations and stand out amid the long and winding history of the bicycle.

Vroomen’s crooked and incomplete glasses may give him the appearance of an eccentric inventor, but his vision of cycling couldn’t be more rational.

As he sets off for his hotel aboard his latest creation, he puts it succinctly: ‘Don’t you think the average person would smile a little bit more if they were riding a bike?’

Vroomen’s babies

The most intriguing bikes of Vroomen’s back catalogue

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Image 8 of 11

Cervélo Soloist

In 2002 the very idea of an aerodynamic bike was a little bizarre. Easily sculpted carbon fibre was years away, so the initial Soloist was made from aluminium using complex welding techniques.

It took a lot of victories from the Cervélo Test Team, and eventually a win on Alpe d’Huez with Frank Schleck, for consumers to buy into the idea. The Soloist evolved into Cervélo’s S-series, which is today headed by the S5.

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Image 9 of 11

Open UP

When Open launched in 2012 it unveiled a slick hardtail mountainbike, but it was the roadie silhouette of the UP (Unbeaten Path) that caught the cycling world’s attention.

It was the first mainstream road frame to allow both 650b and 700c wheel sizes, with clearance for full 2.1in mountainbike tyres. If ever there was a bike for any occasion, this was it.

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Image 10 of 11

Cervélo P3C

Launched in 2005, the Cervélo P3C is often regarded as the first mass-production bike to have considered the subject of aerodynamics holistically – that is to look at the entirety of the bike and rider as one. 

It was the first carbon time-trial bike in Cervélo’s range and went on to became one of the most successful triathlon bikes of all time.

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Image 11 of 11

The Baracchi

‘The Green Machine’, made in 1995, was the very first product of Gerard Vroomen and Phil White’s meeting of minds. It was a non-UCI-compliant time-trial bike and the brief was simple: Vroomen and White wanted to produce the fastest bike conceivable.

Its looks were so divisive that the bike sponsor of the team they built it for refused to put its logo on it, so Vroomen and White decided to market their ideas themselves – the birth of Cervélo.

A launch bike for Cologne-based Bombtrack, the Arise has spawned several offspring over the years, each tailored to different disciplines yet retaining a fundamental multi-purpose design.

For 2018, the Arise 1 goes back to basics. A simple steel singlespeed, with mini V-brakes and plentiful scope for customisation.

Faithful to the philosophy ‘Keep it simple – keep it singlespeed’, it promises extreme versatility. But will it prove a chromoly polymath, or does the Arise 1 spread its talents too thinly?

The frame

The skinny tubes of the Arise’s frame and fork exhibit enough flex to dampen down rough surfaces, something especially noticeable offroad.

With its front triangle made of double-butted tubing the frame is light for the price and this helps keep the ride lively.

There’s slightly more lateral flex than some bikes, but never enough to be remotely troubling.

There’s not a huge amount going on design-wise. The tube profiles are conventional.

The fittings, a 1-1/8in head tube, 27.2mm seatpost, and 68mm threaded bottom bracket are all sensible, reliable, and easily serviced.

With mounts for racks and mudguards, front and back, you won’t be caught short if you want to adapt the Bombtrack.

It’s got plenty of clearance, too. Interestingly there are also stops for a rear derailleur cable, which means it would be possible to add gears later – although it would require some advanced level bodging.

Upcoming models are due to feature a new dropout design allowing for easier conversion.

Simple, well thought out, and readily adaptable, the Arise is great out of the box while also being a fantastic canvas for future modifications.

Groupset

The own-brand square taper crankset looks neat and features a sensibly sized 42-tooth chainring, and the matching chainguard will prevent it chewing your trouser leg.

Paired with a 17-tooth cog at the back, it provides a ratio that’s relatively spinny on the flat and easy enough to get up most hills.

Stopping the Arise are mini V-brakes which provide greater power and modulation than conventional rim callipers, along with good clearance for mudguards.

Employing replaceable cartridge pads, they’re good quality.

Compared to disc brakes they’re lighter too, although slightly prone to gumming up with mud in sticky conditions.

Finishing kit 

Whoever compiled the Arise’s spec list deserves an extra day’s holiday – they’ve clearly been working hard.

The bars, with their shallow and gently flared drops, perfectly suit the bike.

Allowing you to stay low and comfortably cover the brakes, their increased width provides the leverage necessary to control the bike in the rough.

Up top their ergonomic profile is a comfy place to rest your hands, while a minimal forward throw places the lever hoods within easy reach.

The seatpost is a quality model, quick to adjust and sturdy enough to hold the saddle solidly.

The saddle is decent, but may be a little firm for some tastes.

Wheels

The 35c Kenda tyres feature thousands of tiny bobbles. While happy enough on smooth tarmac, they really come into their own on rougher terrain, and performed well on both an early season cyclocross race and our daily canal-side commute.

The rims supporting them are fairly broad, so we wouldn’t advise fitting anything narrower than 28c.

The Bombtrack uses a rear wheel with a conventional cassette hub, with spacers and a single cog, rather than a screw-on freewheel.

This facilitates quick and solid power transfer, and should outlast the cheaper option; the downside is that it’s freewheel only – there’s no option to fit a fixed sprocket for the authentic fixie experience.

Another minor gripe is that the hub uses old-fashioned nuts rather than bolts or a quick release, and since they are in different sizes front and back, you’ll have to lug two spanners around in your emergency toolkit for tyre changes.

On the road

Call us shallow but the matt paint twinned with colour-matched cables and accents instantly had us onside.

Hopping on board, the simple, light frame is surprisingly fast. Combined with quick-to-turn gearing, it’s easy to set spinning.

Stable geometry and the ability to plough through most terrain meant we found ourselves hopping kerbs and seeking out cheeky shortcuts.

This nippy nature is checked somewhat by the tyres, though. Designed for rougher terrain, their tread is slightly buzzy at higher speeds on the road.

Moderately slack and with a lengthy wheelbase, the Arise is stable both on road and off.

This easy-going nature also means it’ll behave itself when loaded up with panniers.

It’s not a bike that needs much chaperoning in any situation. The front end is of middling height. Not too low, but not excessively upright either.

With flared, shallow bars it’s happy to be ridden on the drops for extended periods. Despite being a budget alternative to disc brakes, the mini-Vs easily bring the bike to a halt.

Clatter into a pothole or tree root and the 35c tyres will do a good job of soaking up the impact, while the broad rims that support them also make pinch punctures less likely.

Although not too much of a drag on tarmac but swapping to slick tyres capable of higher pressures will drop the Arise’s rolling resistance significantly.

Both frame and fork are a little flexy. Yet what tiny amount of momentum you might lose in terms of forward propulsion is easily made up for by the additional comfort this imparts.

The frame is the most instantly comfortable on test, partly due to the tubing, but also thanks to the slightly more stretched out geometry, which gives the pipes a bit more room to move about.

On the road, the Arise is practical, if a little steady going. Where it excels is on slightly more taxing terrain. When grinding along rough-and-ready roads, or hacking around a cyclocross race it’s unflappable.

The wide bars play a part, helping you to exert the leverage necessary to keep it heading where you want it.

Rather than tracking dead straight, the Arise’s pliable nature means it’s better to let the bike find its own way through chattery sections, instead of trying to bully it into submission.

With broad and stout wheels, the rest of the componentry is easily tough enough to take a thrashing. 

Ratings

Frame: Uncomplicated and lighter than you might expect. 8/10
Components: Sensible, reliable and easily serviced parts. 8/10 
Wheels: Durable cassette hubs and good all-round tyres. 7/10 
The Ride: Light and lively handling makes for a fun ride. 9/10

Verdict

Practical and steady on the road and lively off it, the Arise 1 is light, fast, versatile and fun

Geometry

Spec

Italian company 3T has produced well-regarded finishing kit since 1961, but have only recently stepped into the world of framesets, first with the Exploro adventure bike and now the Strada aero road bike.

The frame is designed only for single chainsets – a dramatic step that many riders will question, though 3T claims it offers aero benefits.

Our test bike came with a high-end build, with a mostly Dura-Ace 9150 Di2 groupset.

The Shimano XT Di2 rear mech is from the MTB parts catalogue, chosen for its clutch mechanism, which prevents the chain failing off on bumpy ground, as well as allowing larger cassettes to be fitted. It proved flawless during testing with quick, smooth shifts.

The Enve SES 5.6 disc wheels with renowned Chris King hubs are superb, feeling stiff, light and surprisingly stable even in gusty winds.

Pirelli is a new brand to the cycling world, but the 4S brings much of its expertise from motor racing and we were suitably impressed by their feel and grip.

Despite seeking out some of the muckiest roads around, the extremely tight frame clearance wasn’t a problem either.

The 3T Aerotundo bars have a unique shape that may not suit everyone, although we grew to like them through the test.

The amount of flex was quite noticeable and while they add to the comfort, this may be disconcerting to some riders.

Comfort and aero are not words that go together often, but we were pleasantly surprised with the Strada on even long rides, helped by the generously sized tyres.

Handling is superb, tackling steep, twisty descents with confidence. Out-of-the-saddle efforts show a frame that is laterally stiff and makes climbing a joy, while on the flat, the Strada is seriously quick, with aggressive geometry that is definitely aimed at racing.

The 1x drivetrain will be a compromise for many people, especially given that this is intended as a race bike, but the promise of 12-speed groupsets should make the Strada more suitable for a wider range of riders.

Ratings

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

Verdict: 3T has jumped into the road bike market with a machine that breaks all the moulds, with the 1x drivetrain grabbing the headlines. It is unquestionably a very fast and incredibly fun bike to ride, but one that is perhaps ahead of its time, with component manufacturers still one step behind.

Spec

First look: 3T Strada

Sam Challis, 26 December 2017

The road bike market is heavily bound by tradition. People are wary of change, and innovation develops at a glacial pace, so it’s refreshing when a bike appears that flouts the accepted norm of how a road bike should look. One such bike is the new 3T Strada.

Created by Gerard Vroomen, the co-founder of Cervélo, the Strada is sleek and aggressively aerodynamic, yet it comes with elements more usually seen on ‘all-road’ bikes: wide 28mm tyres, disc brakes and a 1x drivetrain.

It’s a peculiar combination, and Vroomen knows it. ‘I’ll admit the Strada has garnered a mixed reception,’ he says. ‘Although if I wanted a normal reception I’d have made a boring bike.’

The project was conceived when Vroomen realised he didn’t want to choose between aerodynamics or comfort in a bike.

‘The tyres have the biggest influence on comfort, so we settled on 28mm tyres and built the bike up from there, since 28mm tyres offer the best balance of volume without impacting frontal area or weight too much,’ he says.

Vroomen clearly knows a thing or two about aerodynamics, yet that didn’t stop him making use of both theoretical analysis and wind-tunnel testing on the tube shapes.

Despite not providing any numerical comparisons, Vroomen says the Strada compares very well against its rivals, which he attributes to its focus.

‘When brands offer rim and disc-brake versions of frames, they need an interchangeable design. That introduces a number of compromises, for example a less than perfect fork crown height,’ he says.

‘The fork crown is one of the worst areas aerodynamically, so if you don’t have to provide for a rim brake the crown can be sucked up towards the bottom of the head tube.’

The decision to opt for a 1x drivetrain was driven by a similar motivation. ‘Another terrible area for aerodynamics is around the bottom bracket, with the frame, crank, chainrings, front derailleur, water bottles and a rider’s legs leaving little room for the air to pass through.

‘A single-ring drivetrain eliminates the front derailleur and one chainring, reducing frontal area and creating space for unobstructed airflow. Plus it frees up the design of the seat tube to shield the rear wheel even better.’

One-ring wonder

A single chainring may improve aerodynamics but it inevitably limits gear selection. Irish ProContinental team Aqua Blue will be racing the Strada next year, and opinion is divided over whether or not the team will be at a disadvantage.

‘What people fail to understand is that there is no bike in the peloton that is the perfect choice 365 days a year,’ says Vroomen.

‘For some races a 2x drivetrain may be advantageous, but for others a 1x system is definitely better.

‘No one questions riders at Paris-Roubaix throwing away all those watts to drag from a front derailleur and inner ring that they didn’t use all day, because that’s how we’re used to bikes looking.

‘It’s just because this change is so visible that people are questioning it.’

The issue is the cassette. With only one front ring the cassette can either have balanced gaps between each gear ratio but a poor overall range, or a good range with big jumps between gears.

It’s an issue 3T has gone some way to addressing with its new Bailout and Overdrive cassettes, which both contain a range of sprockets from 9-32t but in different configurations.

‘The Bailout is for the majority of riders,’ says Vroomen. ‘It has balanced gaps from 9-26, then jumps to 32. If you’re in trouble you can “bail out” to the 32.

‘If you’re OK then you’d be in the 26 sprocket or bigger anyway. The Overdrive is for racers – it can be paired with a bigger chainring because pros don’t need a gear for when they blow up but still need to get home, as they can just get in the team car.

‘Their concern is fine-tuning their climbing gears, so they have a 28-tooth sprocket because that’s a likely gear to use for 10km up an 8% climb.

‘We’ve kept the spacing smaller on that side of the range with a big jump at the top end, from 11 to 9 teeth.’

The system may be controversial and as yet unproven, but the logic is sound. We look forward to putting it into practise with a review in a future issue.

The Colnago C-series is a kind of royal family of the cycling world. It is prized as one of the archetypal Italian racing bikes. The new Colnago C64, launched today, marks the latest development in its history.

Iconic for its crimped tube shapes and standout carbon lugs, from the original C40 onward the C-bikes were a type of carbon bike that harked back to the stylish looks of classic steel builders.

The C64 comes with some of the DNA of its predecessors but also represents a careful technological focus on materials and shapes, all of which have been updated compared to the previous C60.

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Image 23 of 38

Like all the C40, C59 and C60 bikes before it, the C64 is handmade in Italy despite Colnago’s surprisingly small size, with only 28 employees. ‘This one is still made in Italy,’ says Colnago designer Davide Fumagalli. ‘That means we are the biggest Italian-made carbon frame makers, and we are very proud of this fact.’

The attention to detail shows, and Colnago is quick to praise the neatness of the internals of its tubing. ‘We use a polymer mandrel that disappears at room temperature,’ says Fumagalli. ‘It’s expensive but has the best result.’

However, the Colnago C64 isn’t simply an updated ‘stiffer, lighter, more comfortable’ story with only minimal changes. The bike has been redeveloped far more than a single glance suggests.

64 years in the making

The C64 is so-called as it marks the 64th anniversary of the company, since Ernesto officially created the brand in 1954. Amazingly, the 86 year-old Ernesto is at the launch in person, and taking an energetic hands-on lead in presenting the new bike.

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Image 33 of 38

‘We are calling the new C64 a sort of revolution of the C60, but we have really changed everything,’ says Fumagalli. ‘Starting from the shape, but also the kind of carbon fibre and the process behind the bike. It’s a completely new project and it’s completely different.’

The first sign of the stark difference to the bike’s traditional persuasions is the new approach to tyre clearance. Where once the C60 struggled to fit 25mm tyres, the C64 now boasts clearance of at least 28mm.

‘The standard for us is the 28mm Continental GP 4000, which actually measures around 30.5mm in width,’ says Fumagalli. ‘So we design it for this kind of tyres. So we have enough space for a 30mm tyres.’

He adds that the rim brakes themselves are a limiting factor. ‘Of course the disc version has much more space here,’ he says. ‘But both bikes share much more space than the C60.’

Lugs and seatpost

While the tyre clearance is a surprise, in pure design terms the most considerable difference from the traditional C-series bikes is not immediately obvious – this is no longer a purely tube-to-tube lugged construction.

Where once a lug joined the seatube, seatstays and toptube together, now the seattube moulds into bond for the top tube and seatstays (which is actually a ‘mono-stay’ at the joint). It’s one of numerous features that cuts weight efficiently, but also plays an important role in overall performance.

‘The technical feature increased the stiffness of the frame,’ says Fumagalli. That is because removing the extra bonds necessary to create a lug around the tubes is likely to reduce the flex around the junction.

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Image 3 of 38

Another important consequence of the redesign of the seattube is that Colnago has now included a custom shaped seatpost – the same as that used on the V2-R.

‘For the C-series we had a 27.2mm post, then 31.6mm for the C60, and but we’ve now decided on this shape which we use for the V2-R and V1-R but we have a 15mm setback, or a 30mm setback or 0mm,’ says Fumagalli.

The goal has been improved aerodynamics but also increased vertical compliance, and by a measurement of N/mm, it has gone from 205N/mm to 170N/mm, with the lower number representing more comfortable flex.

Head-tube

‘The headtube, even though the shape is quite similar to the C60, uses completely different technology,’ says Fumagalli.

The headtube itself has been widened for greater stiffness. As bike design enthusisasts will know, the headtube stiffness influences handling accuracy, but also affects the possible flex conducted from the bottom bracket – making for a more rigid power transfer.

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Image 16 of 38

However, the more intriguing technology is what sits inside the headtube, with Colnago’s new headset system.

‘We call it a partial suspension headset,’ he continues. ‘On the upper part we use the same technology as on the Concept.’ That comprises a special polymer made from carbon fibre and a mix of nylon and elastomer, which offers some degree of compression in order to filter out some road buzz.

As well as the advantages in terms of road buzz there’s gains in weight from the new design. ‘The headset on the C64 is lighter than on the C60 while also reducing the vibration from the road,’ Fumagalli says, while also clarifying that this isn’t a true suspension system.

‘It’s not a suspension system like from other brands but you will feel the effects of the system on the front end of the bike.’

The bottom bracket line

As has become standard since its introduction with the C60, Colnago has used a ThreadFit 82.5 bottom bracket. With the C64, the bottom bracket area has been further redesigned in what Colnago calls ‘more complex than ever.’

‘It’s even more complicated than the C60 because the cable guide is modelled into the lug itself. The cable guide is the biggest radius possible to make for better shifting performance.’

While the intricacies of BB standards are like anaesthesia to all but the most pious bike nerds, the developments on this frame are worthy of some consideration.

The chainstays are made asymmetrically, to balance the forces on the bike. ‘The left chainstay is bigger than the right side chainstay because we used all the space we had to make the stiffest possible frame,’ says Fumagalli.

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Image 20 of 38

A small but important feature is that the cable routing is not an external plastic guide, but is moulded into the carbon shape itself. That has been designed to offer the greatest radius arc for the gear cables possible. As any mechanic knows, the smoother the curve of the cable – the more efficient the shifting will be.

Colnago has also released a specific bottom bracket in association with Ceramic Speed, that will be compatible with Sram, Shimano and Campagnolo.

Weight-saving

It’s an impressive measure to save a small amount of weight, and matched other minor tweaks in the frame that aimed to shed grams with a little and often approach.

One of the subtler but more significant changes for the C64 compared to the C60 is the switch to carbon fibre dropouts front and rear. Previously the frame used aluminium inserts and the result is a lighter but also stronger package.

The fork has also shedded weight, meaning that the overall package sheds considerable weight compared to the C60, a full 205g in a size medium.

Disc-equipped

Colnago’s C64 Disc has really made seismic leaps since the brand first flirtation with disc brakes on the C59 way back in 2012. To Colnago’s credit, it was by far the first high-end road bike to even consider the use of disc brakes.

With the C64, we’re offered a fully internal wiring setup for aerodynamic efficiency as well as an agreeable aesthetic neatness. It can fit a custom bar to route the cables entirely internally from the levers or be fixed to any traditional sized bar with a conventional setup. 

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Image 15 of 38

The use of threaded thru-axles is another technological update for the C64, which has considerably increased the stiffness of the overall build. Indeed, to match the level of stiffness the rim brake version uses wider chainstays.

The threaded thru-axle also reduces the weight of the fork and rear-dropout considerably. The disc package has made big gains in weight, with the overall package coming in 270g lighter than the C60 disc, and startlingly only 15 grams heavier than the rim brake version.

As is increasingly proving to be the standard, Colnago has stuck with 12mm radius thru-axles.

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Image 8 of 38

It’s worth noting that the disc version will not be available as soon as the rim version, set for distribution this month, but will instead be available in May.

Both frames come in an impressive selection of 14 sizes - 9 with a normal sloping geometry and 5 with a high-stack for a more comfortable setup.

‘Of course, as with any other C product in the past you can have custom sizes,’ Fumagalli adds, crucially.

The price of the rim brake version looks to be around £3,500 (tbc). It promises to be a relatively reasonable price for an historic and fully customisable Italian-made carbon frame.

On paper the new C64 certainly seems exciting, but we’ll have to wait and see whether theory matches function with its performance on the road.

A thoroughly modern design with all the classical allure. On first impressions, it climbs with ease, descends with immaculate accuracy and makes riding hard fun.

While Colnago does impressive work across the range, I can’t deny being far more excited about the flagship C-series than the newer monocoque carbon bikes.

I rode the C59 and C60 and found both to represent the rare balance of comfort, speed and agile handling that the best Italians do so well. Expectations were high for the C64, then.

The disc version, set to come out in May, was in short supply, so I opted for the more classic C64 rim for this first test, complete with a perfectly matched Campagnolo Super Record groupset.

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Image 21 of 38

Indeed, while the pictures may speak for themselves, it’s worth clarifying that this bike looks striking. The major visual change is in the seattube and seatpost, and certainly modernises what some may have seen as a slightly outdated classical round-tubed seatpost design.

The C64 isn’t a piece of jewellery, though, and needs to behave on the roads just as well as its looks imply.

Gone with the wind

From the outset, the stiffness that Colnago has prioritised shines through. The bike responds to impulses of power with decisive spurts of speed. Rolling out the first few kilometres on the bike was simply gliding over the tarmac.

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Image 26 of 38

Admittedly the roads of Lanzarote, where Colnago’s launch was based, are immaculately smooth, and so the bike felt naturally more comfortable than I recall of its predecessor. Nevertheless, this is certainly a frame that balances the back and front end well in terms of filtering out road buzz.

One of the merits of Colnago’s design of the headset is that while the fork is considerably stiffer, the headset filters out much of the nasty jolts of the road but still communicates the road texture well. It makes for a confident ride.

I can’t say whether the fork, the increased BB stiffness or geometry were at play, but I hit nearly 90kmh on my first descent on the C64. I topped 80kmh several times.

While speed is specific to the rider, of course, the significance is that often I’ll feel too much disturbance and instability to feel confident creeping over 80kmh. Even with Lanzarote’s blistering wind, the C64 felt so planted and solid at speed, that I was having to fight my instincts to accelerate even more.

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Image 22 of 38

Steering inputs were also deeply predictable, and I found myself easily able to aim for any apex and take on a sharp tight corner well within my comfort zone.

When floating in the tailwinds of the island, the C64 felt like a missile, and just begged me to stand on the pedals and sprint whenever possible.

Hard going

The C64 probably won’t be the top choice of sprinters, as while aerodynamics has been taken into account more, it lacks the pure top end speed of a V2-R.

However, against the strong headwinds of Lanzarote the bike certainly didn’t seem to be giving away watts. Crucially the stiffness of the rear end meant that I never experienced that running on sand sensation that some bikes can deliver uphill or into the wind.

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Image 27 of 38

In terms of the weight changes, they were certainly palpable aboard the C64 compared to the previous generation.

Admittedly, this certainly isn’t as light as the S-Works Tarmac or Trek Emonda, but for me it fell well into the category of weight that I’d class as considerably light – while falling short of the ‘super light’ sub 750g club. It feels light to lift and went unnoticed below me on steep climbs.

As Colnago draws attention to, the weight of a frame isn't everything, and with a lighter fork the overall package sheds considerable weight compared to the C60, a full 205g in a size medium. Importantly that hasn’t come at the cost of rigidity, or pure ride quality.

Heir apparent

Of course, the C64 is certainly a very nice bike, but it has strong competition from brands both new and old.

But it shows that Colnago has not rested on its laurels, both the rim and disc version of the bike show a sharp focus on keeping up with the latest technological improvements on the market. For the rim brake version that seems to ring true in the quality of the ride.

First impressions are certainly strong, but we’ll need to get this on home turf for a longer test period before we can confirm that it lives up to the weight of one of cycling most famous names.

In the world of road bikes currently, carbon is king. However, for those after something a bit different, the titanium bike industry is booming.

Even so, it still lags behind its lighter brother by some way in large part due to the lack of manufacturers making bikes from titanium and its price. For many, a plush titanium frame is but a dream.

Van Nicholas can be largely viewed as the master of the ti-frame. With six road models across the range, the Dutch bike manufacturer is well versed in making the hard-wearing material look beautiful in bike form.

Now, the brand wants to find out if you, the cycling public, would be interested in the temptation of ti and what it would take for you to buy one of its bikes.

Complete the survey above, that takes all of two minutes, telling the brand a bit about yourself.

Who knows, the answers you give may trigger the quest for a sub-£1000 ti-framed biked or maybe it could just spur the brand on to continue making beautiful bicycles.

It only rains a few days a year in Abu Dhabi. In fact, the average annual rainfall here is so low that the process of ‘cloud-seeding’ is sometimes used to encourage further precipitation.

So it seems more than a little unlucky that the day we’ve come to test bikes on the Al Wathba desert cycle track, armed with a trio of top-end aero machines and having carefully planned every last detail of our trip for months, large droplets of water are splashing onto our sand-blasted arms.

At least when the rain arrives we’re near what is the only shelter on this 96km circuit – the Adnoc café – so we decide to head under cover for some refreshment while waiting out the desert storm.

A cycling oasis

The Al Wathba cycle track is a rather strange and wonderful development.

It was devised by multi-billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family (and the owner of Manchester City FC), to service the growing interest in road cycling in the region.

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Image 2 of 32

With cycling on the main roads in the UAE a dangerous undertaking, they decided the solution was to create a dedicated road for cyclists in the desert about 70km outside the city.

It’s set out in a series of loops of 30km, 22km, 20km, 16km and 8km, and if you do each loop in turn it makes up 96km of pristine, car-free road.

Andy Sherwood, editor of Cyclist Middle East and one of my riding companions for today, tells me the full 96km route is known by the locals as the ‘full monty’.

‘Our club, Raha Cycling, sometimes does a “double full monty”, and then we do the 8km loop once more just to make it up to 200km. That’s tough in the heat,’ he says.

Andy, an ex-pat living in Abu Dhabi, fills me in with some of the details of the Middle Eastern cycling boom:

‘It’s driven in particular by how the sheikhs have embraced it on a personal and professional level,’ he says.

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Image 3 of 32

‘We now have the Dubai Tour and the Abu Dhabi Tour [the latter having been given WorldTour status this year].

‘Considering the UAE has no history of cycling, the country has really taken to it.

‘The sheikhs have built cycle tracks like this one, and one in Dubai that is more than 150km long. A big part of this drive is to get people active to combat obesity, and these tracks provide a safe environment for people to ride.’

The track is open 24 hours a day and floodlit for riding at night, which Andy says is a popular option in a region where the summer daytime temperatures can easily reach the high forties.

It’s an amazing facility, unlike anything I’ve encountered in Europe, but that’s not the main reason we’re out here. With its endless roads, and flat, windswept terrain, the Al Wathba track is the perfect place to test aero road bikes.

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Image 4 of 32

The rain shower is over quickly – in fact, all evidence of it has dried up by the time we finish our coffees – so we’re soon back out, refuelled, and ready to do battle with the wind once more.

Best of three

Also with me today is Kate, a regular contributor and accomplished female racer who right now is trying to decide if her tiny 53kg frame is an advantage in the wind versus us larger guys, or whether in fact she’s just in danger of being blown away.

Kate is riding a Trek Madone, with it cable-free front end, bespoke aero calliper brakes and strange flaps on the head tube.

Andy, meanwhile, is armed with a Cervélo S5, a bike that continues the traditions of the Soloist, the original aero road bike. That leaves me on the Specialized Venge ViAS Disc, which completes our trio of world-beating aero bikes.

Interestingly, Andy’s Cervélo is fitted with Sram’s Force 1 (1x11) gearing, a rare sight on road bikes, but as he points out, it’s common in the UAE as it is so flat that there’s little need for two chainrings.

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Image 7 of 32

His S5 is also sporting a visually striking and insanely expensive set of 80mm Lightweight carbon wheels (the Autobahn VR8 front wheel is £2,600, the rear Fernweg 80 a further £2,200).

This, it turns out, is not an uncommon spec around these parts.

‘The Emiratis tend to just go straight for the most expensive bikes,’ Andy says. ‘You’ll see plenty of ostentatious kit if you hang around here a while. And plenty of Cervélos.’

Not that the other bikes are shabby by comparison. We’re sitting on a combined total of over £25,000 worth of equipment here, so we should fit right in with the locals, although on this Monday morning we have the place almost to ourselves – one of the few exceptions being someone heading out on a £10,000+ bike wearing football shorts and trainers.

It seems there’s still work to be done on cycling fashion etiquette here.

Gone with the wind

While the terrain is mainly flat, Al Wathba is by no means an easy ride.

The winds whipping across this desert expanse make for an energy-sapping experience, and as we head out among the dunes, it’s not long before we’re riding in single file, heads down and feeling the sting of the sand against our shins.

‘Come here on the wrong day and you can be riding into a 30kmh headwind for the first 15km,’ Andy says.

Today the wind is a more forgiving 16-18kmh, still plenty to contend with but arguably the perfect conditions to put our slick aero machines through their paces.

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Image 10 of 32

Andy is already trying to work out how he can get a new bike purchase past his wife, having been astounded by how much easier it is to beat the wind on the Cervélo S5 compared to his own standard Boardman road bike.

‘I hate to sound clichéd, but it does feel like I am slicing through the air,’ he says. ‘My body just doesn’t feel as battered in the wind as it usually does here. And I can’t believe I’m not struggling more in the crosswinds on these super-deep wheels.’

I’m as surprised as he is. When I first saw his bike I feared we might be rescuing him from the sand dunes, with the wheels and frame combining to present a considerable surface area to side gusts.

Instead, the Autobahn’s blunted aero profile and lack of spokes – just eight on the front (four per side supporting the gargantuan rim) – means Andy’s not having to put up much of a fight to keep the Cervélo S5 in a straight line.

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Image 12 of 32

While we’re talking wheels, my 64mm deep Roval Rapide CLX wheels have proven themselves better than expected in the conditions too.

They accelerate and hold speed well, but again it’s the lack of buffeting from side gusts that is the standout feature for me.

When riding in a tucked position, I don’t feel like my steering is being badly affected by the wind.

I find myself in a tight aero tuck a lot on the Venge ViAS. After a while my neck and shoulders ache, not because the bike is uncomfortable but from the fact that I spend so much time down in the drops, such is the way this bike encourages an aggressive riding style.

It’s a pleasure to feel just how responsive the Venge is to my inputs and to reap the reward of extra speed.

Speed demons

I’ve been keeping an eye on the data generated by the Quarq power cranks that are specced as standard on this model of Venge, and I’m mighily impressed with what I’m seeing.

In these conditions I would have expected a considerable chunk more wattage being expended to maintain the 30-35kmh average we are riding at into the wind.

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Image 14 of 32

Rounding a corner on the far side of the circuit, Kate, who’s been keeping a low profile so far, suddenly makes a cheeky attack.

In a textbook move from the rear of our three-person echelon, her Trek Madone sways aggressively from side to side as she sprints hard past us to forge a gap.

With just a brief check back over her shoulder to make sure she’s done some damage, she reassumes a tucked position on the drops to make herself as small as possible to the oncoming wind. She’s making us suffer.

Andy and I take turns to pull and try to get back up to her rear wheel. It’s not easy, and when we do finally latch back on, Kate can’t disguise a wry smile as she looks back at us.

‘This is the most zippy and fun road bike I’ve ever ridden,’ she announces, clearly impressed with the part the Trek played in her escape.

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Image 16 of 32

‘It feels really stiff and responsive. It really makes me want to get low in the drops and try to make it go even faster.’

It’s unusual to see Kate so animated about a bike (she usually takes a racer’s dispassionate approach to her kit) so it must have made a very good impression.

I’ve no reason to doubt her. The Madone is Trek’s most advanced aero road bike to date, packed with features such as the shrouded front brake (with its intriguing side flaps to allow the bars to turn), one-piece aero bar and stem, and fully internalised cabling.

But as much as it’s built to be as slippery as possible, Trek has also considered rider comfort.

The seat tube includes a similar IsoSpeed decoupler to the cobble-bashing Domane, allowing for extra flex and bringing a noticeably smoother ride feel.

The Trek is alone in this regard, as neither the Specialized nor the Cervélo makes any real concession to comfort.

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Image 17 of 32

For them it’s all about speed, pure and simple. This could be an issue if we were on the rutted lanes of Britain, but on the gloriously smooth tarmac of the Al Wathba track, comfort is not a consideration we need to worry about.

Approaching the end of another loop, I decide it’s my turn to go it alone. I want to see how much I can get out of the Venge, so I sprint away from the others for a full-gas lap of the 8km circuit.

It’s not easy to quantify, but my heart rate and power data suggests my bike and kit are affording me a considerable aero advantage.

I’m convinced the relentless wind would be grinding me down much more were I on a standard road bike, but aboard the Venge ViAS Disc I’m maintaining speeds I’m more used to holding on windless days back in the UK.

As we regroup towards the end of the lap, our bikes look like they’ve been in a sandstorm.

‘I’m guessing the bike shop here sells a lot of chain cleaners,’ I say to Andy. A knowing nod tells me he’s used to scrubbing grit from his drivetrain.

So did any one bike shine a little brighter than the others when it came to cheating the wind? It’s a tough call.

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Image 11 of 32

Kate loves the Madone and suggests it may win on the grounds of additional comfort, although she’s concerned about the complexities of the internal cabling:

‘I’m not sure with my lack of mechanical savvy I’d trust myself to own this bike,’ she says.

Andy has no such worries about the Cervélo: ‘The 1x11 shifting was really smooth,’ he says. ‘I liked its simplicity, and it’s perfect for riding around here.’

I throw out the notion that the Specialized is the only one with disc brakes, and therefore is more versatile than the others.

Stopping hasn’t been an issue here on the flat desert roads, but it could be a game-changer if we were testing these bikes on a damp descent in the Alps.

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Image 6 of 32

No one disagrees, although Kate suggests that the Specialized isn’t a particularly attractive bike, with its disc brakes and peculiar gull-
wing handlebar.

I respond that aesthetics is a subjective matter (I rather like the way the Venge looks) and besides, it isn’t meant to be pretty – it’s meant to be fast.

But is it faster than the others? We can’t agree on that. I suspect the difference between them in terms of free speed is too small to determine without a week in a wind-tunnel, but we can all agree on one thing.

Whichever of these bikes you choose, it will almost certainly be faster than anything else out on the road.

On page 2: Abu Dhabi aero bikes ride test – The bikes and kit

The bikes

Specialized S-Works Venge Vias Disc eTap

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Image 18 of 32

Specialized has built its own wind-tunnel. This is the result

Model: Specialized S-Works Venge ViAS Disc eTap
Groupset: Sram eTap HRD
Gearing: 52/36t crankset, 11-26t cassette
Wheels: Roval Rapide CLX64 Disc
Tyres: Specialized S-Works Turbo tubeless; 700x24c
Finishing kit: Specialized Aerofly ViAS handlebars, Venge ViAS aero stem, Venge Aero seatpost, Body Geometry S-Works Power carbon saddle
Weight: 8.02kg (56cm)
Price:£8,500
Contact: specialized.co.uk

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Image 19 of 32

Stu’s summary:

Aesthetically the Venge ViAS Disc might be divisive, especially its unusual handlebars, but ride it in anger and it will almost certainly win you over.

Where other brands rely on third-party wheels and components to slot in and work with their frames, Specialized is able to take a holistic approach, honing the Venge ViAS Disc to work most efficiently as a system.

The benefits are obvious on the road. The super-stiff frame and wheels deliver power crisply, ensuring it gets up to speed fast, and according to my training data staying fast is noticeably efficient in terms of effort too.

On the gusty Al Wathba circuit, the Venge was surprisingly calm in crosswinds and Sram’s eTap wireless shifting remained flawless even with the chain and sprockets caked in sand.

Disc brakes weren’t vital for this pan-flat test, but they do mean the Venge ViAS Disc is not a one-trick pony.

It has the speed to destroy Strava KoMs, but also the versatility to tackle an Alpine sportive.

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Image 21 of 32

Trek Madone 9.5 Women's

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Image 22 of 32

Trek’s flagship speed machine is packed to the gunnels with features

Model: Trek Madone 9.5 Women’s
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra Di2
Gearing: 50/34t crankset; 11-28t cassette
Wheels: Vision Metron 40 LTD
Tyres: Bontrager R3 Hard Case Lite; 700x25c
Finishing kit: Madone integrated bar/stem OCLV carbon, Madone Micro Adjust carbon seatmast, Bontrager Ajna Pro carbon saddle
Weight: 7.13kg (52cm)
Price:£6,500
Contact: trekbikes.com

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Image 23 of 32

Kate’s summary:

As a lighter rider I typically find myself affected more by strong winds, and I usually struggle into headwinds.

The Trek not only felt stable and comfortable in the gusty conditions – more so even than my own Specialized Tarmac road bike – but it somehow also always felt really eager to go.

It encourages an attacking riding style, and it was great fun to tuck down low and push it hard to make the guys suffer.

On a long solo breakaway this would be the bike I’d want to be on, when you can feel the aero benefits working in your favour.

Equally, though, the Madone is also plenty stiff and light enough to be capable in a crit race.

I’m probably opening a can of worms for saying this, but I also really liked the colour scheme.

The deep dark blue was unusual, and really worked well against the pink logos.

Some women will hate the pink but I think it’s a classy look with just the right amount of feminine touch.

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Image 25 of 32

Cervelo S5

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Image 26 of 32

Arguably the original, but is it still the best?

Model: Cervélo S5
Groupset: Sram Force 1
Gearing: 50t chainring; 11-28t cassette
Wheels: Lightweight Autobahn VR8 front; Lightweight Fernweg 80 rear
Tyres: Continental Competition tubulars; 700x25c
Finishing kit: Cervélo Aero Road bar, Zipp Service Course SL stem, Cervélo Aero seatpost, Pro Logo Scratch Pro CPC saddle
Weight: 6.98kg (50cm)
Price: AED51,995 (approx £10,999)
Contact: Wolfi’s Bike Shop (wbs.ae)

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Image 27 of 32

Andy’s summary:

Having ridden on the Al Wathba circuit a lot I know it well, and I immediately felt a big difference on the Cervélo S5 compared to my usual road bike.

First of all, I was taking less of a battering from the wind, which considering the depth of the Lightweight wheels was a huge surprise.

In truth, they were absolutely fine in the crosswinds. Having only 11 gears works perfectly in the UAE because the terrain here is largely flat as a pancake.

And when you do need a quick change when hitting one of the rare few small inclines at speed, Sram’s Force 1 shifting can be relied on to shift effortlessly and precisely.

It’s hard not to like a bike that flatters your efforts as much as the S5. Its low weight combined with its stiffness creates a quick response to pedalling inputs, feeling solid in both seated and standing efforts.

What impressed me most, however, was how easy it was to hold on to a good pace, even in the strong winds, re-affirming my belief in the huge potential benefits of aero.

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Image 29 of 32

Kit picks

Our standout items of clothing

Met Manta helmet | £179.99, met-helmets.com

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Image 30 of 32

‘Few helmets I’ve tested achieve such a good balance of weight, ventilation and proven aerodynamic benefits as the Met Manta.

‘At 200g (size medium) and with a really comfortable fit, I barely knew I had it on, and despite its aerodynamic prowess I never felt in danger of overheating, even in the desert.’

Santini Tono jersey and bibshorts | £79.99/£134.99, zyrofisher.co.uk

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Image 31 of 32

‘This jersey is great for the UAE. Its highly perforated Sesia micro-mesh construction is exceptionally light and breathable, not to mention aero.

‘It’s not one for riders who need to lose a few kilos, though, and with only minimal UV protection you won’t want to forget suntan lotion.

‘The bibshorts proved highly comfortable on long rides, too.’

Alé R-EV1 Strada Race Suit | £180, paligap.cc

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Image 32 of 32

‘I loved both the look and the fit of this Alé race suit. OK, I admit it, I liked the look more.

‘I know it’s subjective, but I think there’s truth in the notion that if you’re wearing something that makes you feel great, it’s a performance advantage on some level.

‘Plus it was still really comfortable even after a full day in the saddle.’

Thanks...

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Image 13 of 32

Thanks to Andy Sherwood, editor of Cyclist Middle East, for joining us on the ride and for his part in helping with planning and organisation for this trip, and to Lucy Self of Q Communications (qcomms.ae), for her help with negotiating a few logistical headaches.

Thanks also to Southern Sun Abu Dhabi for accommodating us on our trip.

Lightweight’s David Bergmann is attempting to explain to me what the word Urgestalt means.

‘It’s a very German word,’ he says. ‘I don’t think there is a direct English translation for it. I would say it’s like “an origin” or “first version”, or something like that.’

Bergmann tells me that the name harks back to how Lightweight came into being. The brand may be best known for its highly desirable (and highly priced) wheels, but its first product was far from being round.

Back in 2002, entrepreneur Erhard Wissler bought up the carbon production arm of an aerospace company, and among the assets was the mould for a bike frame.

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Image 2 of 12

He got his engineers to build it up and showed off his new Total Eclipse bike at global trade show Eurobike.

To make it look as cool as possible, he borrowed a pair of Lightweight wheels, made by carbon specialist Heinz Obermayer.

In the end, the Total Eclipse frame wasn’t a success for Wissler, but he had spotted the potential in those esoteric black wheels, and so he bought the Lightweight brand from Obermayer.

A decade later, Wissler once again turned his attention to bike frames and the result was the original Urgestalt frame, produced in 2013.

Fast forward to today, and I now find myself face to face with the company’s latest creation, the Urgestalt Disc.

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Image 4 of 12

Coming full circle

I distinctly remember that original Urgestalt. I rode it at the Endura Alpentraum, a 256km sportive that passes through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, and takes in 6,336m of ascent.

During one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on a bicycle, I had possibly my closest brush with death when my brakes failed to work on a wet descent.

Only by digging my cleats into the tarmac was I able to avoid sliding straight over a cliff.

In my review of that bike my only real criticism, aside from the braking issue, was that I felt the frame was overly stiff and made very little concession to comfort.

Equally, though, I praised it for its incredibly light 6.1kg overall weight and how superbly it had dealt with the arduous 6,336m of climbing.

Four years on, I know at least one issue has been resolved by the addition of disc brakes, ensuring there will be no more white-knuckle descending in the wet.

Impressively, the Urgestalt Disc hasn’t put on much weight as a consequence either.

Weighing just 6.7kg, it’s only a little over half a kilo heavier than the rim brake version, and joins an elite club of disc bikes we’ve seen that dip under the 7kg mark.

One issue that doesn’t seem to have been resolved, however, is the harshness.

Lightweight claims this new disc bike is a ground-up redesign, with comfort higher on the agenda compared to the original Urgestalt.

But on my early rides I still find myself getting home with numbness in my toes from the vibration coming though the lower part of the bike, and my other contact points are suffering as well. It’s time for a chat.

‘I like a bike that needs to be controlled – super-agile and super-stiff. That makes riding more exciting,’ Bergmann says of his own preferences.

However he admits he is probably in the minority, and that most riders aren’t thrilled by the prospect of getting beaten up by their own bikes.

‘Most of the comfort you get from a road bike comes from the tyres,’ Bergmann says. ‘We have plenty of clearance for wider tyres thanks to the disc brakes, and we’ve created our own seatpost with extra compliance, so a rider is able to tailor the ride feel to their preferences.’

Time for some swift changes, then. UK distributor Vielo Sports sends me the Lightweight seatpost to replace the Deda Superleggero I’ve been riding thus far.

I dig out a set of 28mm tyres to swap for the specced 25s, and head back out to my classic training routes.

And what a transformation. The Urgestalt immediately feels much more like I’d hoped it would from the start.

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Image 7 of 12

The seatpost noticeably enhances my comfort – it’s not like I’m sitting on a feather cushion, but it is a marked improvement all the same, especially on longer rides.

But the biggest change comes from the tyre swap.

With 28mm tyres at 80psi, the Urgestalt deals with vibration dampening much more adeptly, and my numb toe issue vanishes.

The extra grip on offer also means I can brake with even more confidence in all conditions, and there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable loss of speed.

The Urgestalt Disc’s lack of weight, enhanced by the Meilenstein Clincher Disc wheelset, ensures that every acceleration is instantaneous, and climbing is a joy (as much as climbing can ever be a joy).

The feeling of leg power being transferred into speed is one I’ll never tire of, and indeed it’s when I’m tired that I’m most thankful for it.

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Image 8 of 12

Doing the triple

It’s a rare beast that can deliver on all counts of the trifecta: stiffness, weight and comfort (we’ll ignore ‘aero’ as the Urgestalt makes no such claims).

With the right seatpost and tyres in place, the Urgestalt Disc gets very close indeed.

The sensation of riding the Lightweight Urgestalt Disc is like driving a rally car. At idle things can feel a little clunky and unrefined, but a touch of pace and commitment transforms it into a thrill-seeker’s dream.

No matter how strong a rider you are, this bike will make you feel much faster.

It’s the bike Bruce Wayne would choose, but I would still advise him not to forget an ample slathering of chamois cream.

Continue to page 2 to see our First Look at the Urgestalt disc here

First look: Lightweight Urgestalt Disc

Sam Challis, 22 June 2017

When disc brakes first appeared on road bikes, a number of brands rushed out a redesigned frame in order to be quick to market.

As a consequence, many of these frames changed the character of their rim-brake predecessors, and not always in a good way.

The resulting frames were usually heavier and often less forgiving than before, owing to the extra reinforcement at the fork and rear triangle to account for the more powerful forces that disc brakes exert on a frame.

Carbon fibre wheel specialist Lightweight has taken a comparatively long time to come to market with a disc brake version of its Urgestalt road frame but as product manager David Bergmann explains, the company doesn’t see that as a disadvantage.

‘For us it’s always a little bit difficult to be quick to respond to trends,’ he says. ‘We’re different to other manufacturers because so many of our products are handmade, so the R&D takes a huge amount of time and expense.

‘It necessitates us waiting to see whether changes are fashion or a definite new direction, so we monitor the market and can learn from others’ mistakes.’

According to Bergmann, that hindsight allowed Lightweight to create a disc-specific frame that weighs a claimed 800g, with the total build as shown coming in at just 6.96kg.

To put that in perspective, the top-spec BMC Roadmachine (a disc brake bike costing nearly £9k) weighs 7.8kg.

‘Relative to our competitors, the increase in weight from our rim brake Urgestalt to the Urgestalt Disc is very small – just 10g.

Completely new

‘That being said, the Urgestalt Disc frame isn’t just the regular Urgestalt with discs bolted on – it’s a completely new frame.’

According to Bergmann, the feedback regarding the handling of the original Urgestalt was so universally positive that its geometry has been closely replicated on the Urgestalt Disc, but there are other marked changes too.

Lightweight has dropped the obsolete brake bridge over the rear wheel and slimmed down the seatstays in a bid to improve comfort – a feature Lightweight nurtures further with more generous tyre clearances.

‘We have two types of customer buying the original Urgestalt,’ says Bergmann. ‘We have the serious, very skilful rider who likes the frame because it amplifies the characteristics of our wheels – it’s quick to accelerate and very stiff.

‘But it’s also a demanding frame that needs to be controlled, so we have another customer: the enthusiast of the brand who is not so athletic, and is asking for a little more comfort.

‘Redesigning for disc brakes gave us the option to cater more for comfort in the Urgestalt Disc.’

It’s a theme that continues at the front of the bike. For additional comfort as well as sufficient stiffness, the fork has what Bergmann calls an ‘asymmetrical lay-up schedule’.

‘It’s far different to the one in the original Urgestalt,’ he says. ‘Asymmetrical in this instance means that the torsional forces of the disc brakes are braced for, but the vertical forces caused by bumps in the roads are allowed for, which adds a little dampening.’

System superiority

Something that’s unsurprising considering the brand’s heritage in wheels is that the new frame was designed to work specifically as a system with Lightweight’s Meilenstein Disc wheelset.

‘This was one of the few things that’s no different from the original Urgestalt. That frame was designed around the Meilenstein clinchers, and I think it’s crucial to the performance of both bikes,’ says Bergmann.

‘It allowed the rim brake Urgestalt’s stiffness-to-weight values just as it allows the Urgestalt Disc’s comfort and controllability.’

Key to this element of control is the Meilenstein Disc’s pentagon-shaped hubs. Bergmann explains that the heat build-up of prolonged braking on disc wheels with carbon hub shells can cause the bond between disc mount and hubshell to soften, allowing the two components to move relative to each other.

This is catastrophic to a bike’s braking performance, so Lightweight moved to the pentagon shape so that the disc mount physically cannot move inside the hubshell.

The design also weighs less, which obviously for a brand named Lightweight is a bonus.

‘Despite our name, we would rather make things 50g heavier than 50g lighter if that brings with it any compromises,’ cautions Bergmann. ‘That said, as long it’s safe we will continue to get even lighter with our products.’

Verdict: Lightweight has taken a while in getting the Urgestalt Disc to market, but with the additions of discs having added only 10g to the total frame weight, the time looks to have been well spent.

£3,989 frameset, approx. £12,899 as built, vielosports.co.uk

Genesis promises ‘all-day comfort’ from the Equilibrium Disc 20, thanks to its steel frame and carbon fork combination.

It’s certainly a versatile bike, coming as it does with 28c tyres on its Fulcrum wheels, along with Shimano’s hydraulic disc brake set-up and a dependable 105 groupset used for the lion’s share of the mechanical parts.

Frameset

The Equilibrium’s frame stands out from the norm these days by eschewing carbon (save for the 0.3% content in its frame tubes) for steel.

The Reynolds 725 tubing used for the frameset is heat-treated and butted to allow thinner metal to save weight and to create stronger junctions which increase stiffness.

Rounded profiles abound, in the best classic cycling tradition, with neat welds at the head tube and junction of the top tube, seatstays and seat tube.

A tapered head tube meets a carbon fork at the front end, which provides added stiffness.

The cabling for front and rear derailleurs and the rear brake is externally routed along the underside and top of the down tube, with the mech cables gaining a brassy barrel adjuster for fine-tuning of the set-up on the fly.

The cable for the front brake is routed through the left-hand fork leg, contributing to the classy look of the package.

For the medium-sized frameset we rode, a measured head angle of 73.2° is fairly laid back, while a seat angle of 74.1° promotes a comfortable riding position.

Mudguard and pannier mounts add to the versatility of this machine, making it suitable not only for sportives, but also for everyday commuting or even light touring duties.

Groupset

Genesis has equipped the bike with Shimano 105, which is an ideal compromise between performance, durability and affordability.

There’s 105 used for the 52/36 mid-compact chainset, plus the front and rear mechs, while the brake levers and hoods (which contain the hydraulics for the brake discs) are 105-equivalent RS505 units.

The brakes have a 160mm rotor up front and a 140mm at the rear. There’s an 11-28 CS5800, 105 cassette out the back, with a KMC 11-speed chain holding the drivetrain together.

Finishing kit

This is supplied entirely by Genesis’s in-house alloy components. A set of compact drop bars at the front have a 420mm diameter, while a 100mm alloy stem makes this set-up a comfortable reach.

The basic but functional approach continues at the rear, where an alloy 27.2mm seatpost wears a very supportive, yet comfortable, Genesis Road Comfort saddle.

Wheels

The Equilibrium runs Fulcrum Racing Sports wheels, identical to the wheels fitted to the Equilibrium 10 we tested last year.

They’re actually a cyclocross wheelset, but what they lack in sheer get-up-and-go they make up for in maintenance-free durability.

They’re weighty, but they’ll last as long as you want them to. As ever upgrading them would add more zip to the performance, though a set of Mavic Ksyrium Disc hoops – a typical upgrade purchase – would take the overall price of the bike beyond £2,000.

Clement’s 28c Strada LGG tyres feature a smoother centre for fast upright riding, with a cut shoulder for grip on varied terrain.

On the road

Steel, regardless of what anyone says, is a compromise in the 21st century. It will always be heavier than an equivalent carbon frame, even if its ride quality can outperform carbon.

So, what we notice immediately is the 10kg-plus bulk. However, this becomes an advantage to a degree on the first downhill stretch of our test loop, as the extra stability it affords the Genesis is much appreciated.

What the Equilibrium offers above and beyond carbon-framed rivals is an almost unshakeable determination to plough on through any terrain with the utmost composure and a healthy dose of comfort.

The 28c Clement rubber wrapped around semi-aero Fulcrum Sport rim allow the bike to glide over most tarmac.

Yes, those wheels really aren’t the quickest to get rolling, but once they’re up to speed they’re fine. Beyond this, they’re also a robust choice for a bike that’s built to last, built to go the distance, and to do so in such a way as to belie its bulk.

The steel construction does help to eliminate ripples in the road, and the relaxed riding position we employed with headset spacers evenly distributed afforded stress-free progress.

That progress, however, is necessarily at a lesser average speed than we’d normally demand.

The Equilibrium 20 is a bike that won’t respond as well to a good thrashing as lighter alternatives here, which might leave you feeling somewhat less rewarded for your input.

However, the 52-36 chainset and 11-28 cassette combine to at least allow some fairly big gears, which gives you some payback on rolling roads for giving it the big licks.

The hydraulic stoppers offer easy power modulation, and stacks of confidence, too. In all, the Genesis is a bike that will suit the rider who’s not so much concerned with smashing out a 100-mile PB as with enjoying the ride. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The rangier wheelbase of the Disc 20 is accounted for in some part by long chainstays, which adds the expected level of stability.

Add to the mix a 170mm head tube with a measured head angle of 73.2° and what you end up with is a bike that approaches cornering with the solidity and predictability you’d naturally demand of a bike designed for big group rides.

The carbon fork and virtually bombproof Fulcrum wheels lend a touch of stiffness to the set-up, which does equip the bike with a surprising amount of manoeuvrability, even when it comes to fast changes in direction to avoid potholes or suicidal pheasants.

Where this bike excels isn’t in its lightning-fast downhill cornering ability, but when it’s spiriting you over rough roads and rippled corners.

It does this with a directness and predictability that will cosset newer riders and allow anyone to concentrate on the joy of cycling.

It’s not what we’d call a thrilling ride – although those fat tyres and unbreakable wheels do let you get away with more adventurous, looser terrain if you fancy it – rather it’s one which leaves you content, and almost at one with the world again.

Lose the bike computer, revel in the smooth ride, and buy this bike to fall in love with the simple pleasure of pedalling.

It’s almost guaranteed you’ll finish your sportive in higher spirits and somewhat more refreshed than your riding companions.

Ratings

Frame: Stiff and strong, well built and neatly finished. 8/10
Components: Dependable 105 parts with excellent hydraulic brakes. 7/10 
Wheels: Heavy but sturdy and dependable. 8/10 
The Ride: Not what we'd call lively but fast and fun enough. 8/10

Verdict

Delivers remarkable performance for the money. If you’re looking for a first bike for long rides that won't break the bank, or are a strong rider looking to upgrade, this is a belter of a bike

Geometry

Spec

Ribble’s Gran Fondo has been revamped for 2017, with different tube profiles and geometry for a more relaxed, less tiring ride.

The British mail-order firm has gone all in to replicate an Italian look that matches the bike’s name, even going as far as to paint an Italian flag on the top tube.

But even if it has come from a warehouse in Lancashire rather than Veneto, all the ingredients are there for a comfortable ride at speed.

Frameset

In an effort to make the latest Gran Fondo more comfortable, less tiring and easier to handle, Ribble has stretched everything out a little.

The head tube is a touch taller than before, and the wheelbase has been extended to a measured 991mm on our size M model, too, for added stability.

The down tube is now a distinctive triangular-profile section which certainly assists with stiffness where it counts – as do the 408mm box-section chainstays.

S-shaped seatstays have the job of deflecting road vibrations before they reach your backside.

Cables are run internally through the frame, which is also compatible with electronic groupsets (an option available on Ribble’s online bike builder).

Ribble claims that the frame has clearance for 25c tyres, but we reckon there’s room for 28s should you want to go fatter.

A measured head angle of 70.7° makes this bike decidedly on the relaxed end of the scale at the front end.

It’s paired with a seat angle of 73.4°, which promotes a slightly forward-canted riding position which puts you in control while retaining comfort.

Groupset

Shimano’s 6800 Ultegra groupset is used across the build of our test bike (but, as with most of it, you can specify differently when ordering the bike).

A 50/34 chainset is attached to the Ultegra 11-32 cassette by an 11-speed Ultegra chain, plus the front and rear mechs are 6800, too.

Ultegra-equivalent RS685 shifters are found at the cockpit. As you’d expect, the mechanical parts of this bike gel brilliantly.

Finishing kit

The Italian theme is continued into the finishing kit, and includes Deda handlebars and stem, with the compact drop bars measuring 420mm in width and the alloy stem at 110mm.

For the frame size, these are bang on the money, fit-wise. A Selle Italia saddle is fixed to the top of Ribble’s own-brand 27.2mm ‘superleggera’ carbon seatpost.

Wheels

Mavic’s Aksium Disc wheels are the French firm’s bottom-end disc-specific hoops, which doesn’t mean to say they’re underperformers, just that you need to be reasonable about your expectations given their entry-level billing. 

Again, you can specify higher-spec Cosmic Pro Carbon wheels, but even if you downgrade the groupset to 105 level, the price still rises to just north of £2,000.

We’ve ridden very few tyres that can top Continental’s Gatorskins for durability, grip and otherworldly puncture resistance.

No, they’re not the quickest tyres on the market, but if you want to get round a sportive without stopping to fix a puncture, you couldn’t do much better than these 25c options.

First impression

Tip-toeing out of the house for an early morning start, one of the world’s loudest freewheels wakes the neighbour’s dogs as we coast away to start our ride. On the plus side, this will certainly let fellow ride companions know when you're behind them.

What we’re initially struck by is the deep, lustrous paint on this frameset, and the fact it comes in at this price with a full Shimano Ultegra groupset, albeit not the most recent version.

On the road

The comparatively conservative steering geometry of the Gran Fondo makes for a bike that is very happy to zip along country lanes with exceptional stability.

With some wind taken out of the 25c Gatorskin tyres, we’ve few grumbles about the level of comfort on offer here.

Offering a fairly short top tube for a size M frameset, the reach to the bars is easy, and the fairly rangy head tube takes a fair amount of strain off the wrists, too.

Yes, despite its curving seatstays and carbon seatpost, it does transmit a fair amount of vibration to your rump, but it’s nothing you can't live with comfortably.

With its long-distance ability in little doubt, we knocked out a couple of sprints before the hilly section of our test loop, and this is where the Ribble’s stiffness became a positive.

Thanks to a solid feeling at the bottom bracket area, plus thru-axles at the Mavic Aksiums’ spindles preventing the slightest bit of flex, the Gran Fondo rips out a standing sprint with aplomb.

It’s the same story on the hills, with little of your effort going to waste. This bike offers generous gearing options, with a smallest option of a 34x32 meaning there will be few climbs you won't be able to tackle in the saddle, spinning your legs in a Chris Froome style (even if not at Chris Froome speed).

The fatigue-free way in which the bike goes about its business is certainly one of its strengths.

Handling

As you might expect, the handling of the Gran Fondo isn’t electric, but then it doesn't claim to offer blistering cornering prowess.

What you do get is a calm, predictable entry into corners, the ability to hold a line, and therefore a big dose of confidence.

It takes some heaving over in particularly technical descents, for example, but it’s not alarming, and just means you need to plan ahead and try to avoid the need for mid-corner line correction.

A fairly long wheelbase is partially the reason for this, but the relaxed steering angle is the major perpetrator.

The front end does, however, offer a lot of feel for what’s going on beneath the tyre – a little too much at times, but the worst of the road vibes are ably damped out by the Deda compact drop bars, which offer just the right amount of flex to cope with typical British road surfaces.

What this all adds up to is a bike that won’t give you any nasty surprises when you’re riding among a group of hundreds of other sportive participants.

Its light weight and direct response will propel you up most hills in the big chainring, the brakes are excellent, and help you shave off speed on downhill corner approaches, and the all-day riding comfort is just as good as many more expensive bikes.

Add to this the fact that it’s fully Ultegra-equipped and if you do find yourself wanting more vim from your rides, all you’d ever need to think about upgrading are the wheels.

Ratings

Frame: Stretched out for comfort and stable handling. 8/10
Components: A full Ultegra groupset is great value at this price. 9/10 
Wheels: One area that would benefit from an upgrade. 7/10 
The Ride: A bike you could just keep going on for mile after mile. 8/10

Verdict

A high-spec hundred mile machine that delivers great value for money and a confidence-inspiring ride that makes up for what it lacks in excitement with all-day riding comfort.

Geometry

Spec

The Bokeh is Mason’s response to its own customers after seeing its Resolution and Definition models being used in ways it hadn’t envisaged, with bikepacking being one major area. The changes include big tyre clearance – our test bike came fitted with chunky 650x50mm tyres with room to spare.

The ability to fit both 650B or 700C wheel sizes is something we’re seeing more of, the former giving the option of even bigger volume tyres, which offer a more comfortable ride, but don’t affect the geometry or handling.

Looks-wise, the Bokeh is a winner, with a bright orange paint finish but subtle branding matched with smooth-shaped tubing that looks the part.

Using custom-formed and triple-butted Dedacciai aluminium tubing, the Bokeh presents an incredible ride that feels light enough to tackle the biggest hills and mountains around, but solid enough to be stable when loaded up.

It’s clear to see that adventures were a big factor when designing the frame with a full complement of bottle cage bosses, mudguard and rack mounts.

There’s even a boss to fit a dynamo light on the fork. Di2 cable routing is taken care of with multi-port internal cabling keeping the frame clear and uncluttered.

The Mason x Hunt wheels, designed as a collaboration between the two companies, are a great fit for the intended riding style.

Feeling fairly light and strong, whether you’re carrying weight or simply out for a short ride.

Mason offer the choice of either 700c or 650b wheel sizes – the 650b wheel option on our test bike, fitted with 50mm Panaracer Comet Hardpack tyres, is the one to pick if you want to head off-road frequently.

While the tyres proved to be fast, grippy on and off-road, and comfortable when used at around 50psi, they aren’t tubeless-ready, which is a shame.

SRAM Rival 1x has a comfortable lever shape, but the shifting is a little clunky compared to other options, with a long and often imprecise shifter throw, but the matching brakes were a highlight, with plenty of modulation and more power than we ever needed.

Ratings

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

Verdict: While the Mason is quite pricey, it’s easy to see where the extra money goes. The whole bike has been extremely well thought out and is sensational to ride. With buyers able to choose between 650b or 700c wheels, it really could suit all riding styles.

Spec

This may look like a run of the mill aluminium bike of middling spec, but it’s probably the fastest bike we’ve ever had in the Cyclist office.

That is largely because of the hidden motor housed within the bike’s seattube. British-based Goat Bikes has designed and assembled the bike, but with a Austrian-made Vivax-Assist system, which Goat Bikes distributes in the UK.

The Vivax-Assist is a hidden power motor within the seattube to power the cranks. The system turns a bevel fastened to the axle of the cranks and generates 150 watts of output to assist the rider in maintaining a given cadence.

Concealed motor

The motor battery and control junction are concealed in the bottle. From there the system charges, and the main power switch is turned on or off.

To activate the motor, the cranks need to already be moving, otherwise the motor will detect too much resistance and turn off. 

The motor does not work as one might assume. Instead of detecting the rider’s input and generating appropriate assistance as a Bosch motor on a e-bike would, it works to maintain a pre-set cadence.

So, if the system has been programmed to hit 90rpm, it will work to sit at that cadence regardless of the power the rider puts in. We'll discuss how to set this cadence level in our in-depth review, early in the new year.

The motor and battery weigh around 2kg in total, pushing the overall weight of the bike to 10.2kg without pedals (on our scales).

The added assistance of the motor easily eclipses the extra weight though.

The frame itself has been specially designed to tolerate the extra twisting forces of the motor within the seattube. Clamps are also necessary for the bottle-cage battery as bottle bosses cannot rivet into the motor.

Motor doping

One can’t glimpse at this system without considering motor doping, for which this model of motor has been put to use on several occasions. However, this certainly is not the idea behind the motor.

This was the system found housed within the spare bike of Femke Van den Driessche at the 2016 UCI World Cyclocross Championships, and resulted in a sanction for the rider.

The same system was found being used by a French amateur earlier this year. 

Goat Bikes doesn’t endorse any sort of cheating with the system, and brand owner Steve has described most of his clients as older riders keen to keep up on club runs.

Vivax Drive confirms that the main global customers for its motor unit are riders aged over 60.

‘Most of my customers are coming up to retiring age and definitely cycling,’ he explains.

‘This is definitely for the cyclist that wants to continue cycling and continue to keep up with the people they’re cycling with now.’ 

This bike is essentially a discreet e-bike for road riders.

We’ll be testing the Goat Race over the next few weeks to see how the motor works, how effective it is on a variety of terrains and how likely it really is that it’s ever been used in a pro peloton.

For a big ride, you need a bike that covers all eventualities – something that can hang with the fast group, demolish a climb, provide descending stability and, most importantly, provides enough comfort for hours in the saddle.

These bikes do exist, and we’ve taken four built very much with those aims at their heart – three carbon and one steel.

And for this money, there’s a decent level of spec on offer, with higher-end groupsets, good wheels, wide tyres and aerodynamic touches abounding.

It’s just a matter of knowing where to look. All four of these bikes come in close to the £1,800 mark and offer a lot for the money.

The best way to test this quartet of eager mile-munchers? That’ll be some non-stop, hard miles in the English countryside, to highlight any shortcomings in the comfort department, and give us ample opportunity to wring every last drop of performance out of them…

The bikes

Genesis Equilibrium Disc 20 | £1,649

Genesis promises ‘all-day comfort’ from the Equilibrium Disc 20, thanks to its steel frame and carbon fork combination.

It’s certainly a versatile bike, coming as it does with 28c tyres on its Fulcrum wheels, along with Shimano’s hydraulic disc brake set-up and a dependable 105 groupset used for the lion’s share of the mechanical parts.

Read the full Genesis Equilibrium Disc 20 review...

Ribble Gran Fondo Disc | £1,759

Ribble’s Gran Fondo has been revamped for 2017, with different tube profiles and geometry for a more relaxed, less tiring ride.

The British mail-order firm has gone all in to replicate an Italian look that matches the bike’s name, even going as far as to paint an Italian flag on the top tube.

But even if it has come from a warehouse in Lancashire rather than Veneto, all the ingredients are there for a comfortable ride at speed.

Read the full Ribble Gran Fondo Disc review...

Kuota Kubalt | £1,899

Kuota claims the Kobalt to be ‘ideal for cyclists looking for the perfect sportive bike’, so we’ve high expectations.

Being the Italian firm’s entry-level carbon road bike, we’re interested to see just how good a bike at this price range can be with a decent set of wheels.

Often, they’re the first thing we’d upgrade, but the £1,899 built of our Kobalt test bike includes Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels as standard.

Read the full Kuota Kobalt review...

Specialized Tarmac SL4 Sport

The 2018 Tarmac is Specialized’s ‘everything’ bike, aiming to be as compliant while climbing a mountain as it is on a Sunday group ride.

The SL4 Sport’s steering geometry and wheelbase are identical to the firm’s decidedly pricier higher-end Tarmacs, which have won the biggest races in the world under the likes of Peter Sagan.

This model represents the second rung on the nine-bike Tarmac ladder.

Read the full Specialized Tarmac SL4 Sport review...

The winner: Kuota Kobalt

It’s been a while since a test result was this close at the sharp end, but on balance the Kobalt just shades the victory from Specialized’s Tarmac Sport.

What you get from Kuota is a very handsomely specified bike (the latest Ultegra kit is sublime), a future-proof wheelset, and the ability to choose between full-on attack mode or a more leisurely approach to your century ride.

It’s an exceptional balance of comfort and performance. It just busts the budget we set ourselves here, but it’s worth every extra penny.

The Tarmac is stunning in many ways. Even forgetting the paintscheme, this is one bike here that rewards committed riding.

It’s not taken the laurels on this occasion for the simple reason that for most riders it might actually require too much focus too much of the time.

That said, for the money, you’re getting a bike that will hang with the fastest riders, as long as your quads are up to it.

Ribble’s Gran Fondo represents the power of the online retailer, with a high level of equipment at a tempting price.

Its handling isn’t razor sharp, but neither is it ponderous. It will transport you over a four-hour ride in comfort, but if you hanker after excitement you might want to look at the Kobalt or the Tarmac.

The Genesis Equilibrium 20 is a beauty – nothing compares to the sleek-tubed steel approach, and this is a truly cosseting machine.

It does give away 2kg to the lightest bikes here, though. Whether that’s important is down to you, but for a long day in the saddle (with not too many hills), it really will put a smile on your face.

In the four years since British Cycling launched its women’s initiative, there has been a 72% increase in the number of women holding a race licence.

This is good news for bike manufacturers, especially those serving the performance end of the market.

Canyon has been a committed sponsor of professional women’s cycling since 2016, yet until now its women’s bikes were simply ‘unisex frames’ offered with gender-specific touches such as saddle and bar choice.

In May this year, however, the German brand launched its first women-specific frames engineered ‘100% around women who ride’.

The Ultimate WMN bikes feature what the company calls its women-specific Sport Pro geometry, and at the top of the new four-bike range is this Ultimate WMN CF SLX Disc 9.0 Team CSR, resplendent in the team colours of the Canyon/Sram professional women’s racing team.

And compared to many women’s bikes, this one features an impressively high spec, headlined by a Sram Red eTap HRD wireless groupset and Reynolds Assault LE Carbon wheels.

All change

These are interesting times in the women’s cycling market. In June this year, after nearly two decades spent flying the flag for women-specific geometry, Specialized ditched its women-specific Amira and launched a new, non-gender-specific Tarmac SL6 featuring ‘new performance geometry for people [not genders]’.

Canyon has taken the opposite approach and decided that women do need specific geometry, pointing to the differences between male and female riders.

Women tend to have shorter arms, shorter stature, lighter weight and greater pelvic flexibility, all of which necessitate a gender-specific platform, the company says.

The WMN geometry found on the Ultimate and Endurace models has a slightly higher stack and shorter reach versus Canyon’s male (sorry, unisex) equivalents.

On a size small Ultimate, this equates to a 5mm difference in stack and a 7mm shorter reach. On top of that the size range of the WMN frames is now greater, going down to a 3XS for women five feet and under.

Raising the front end and shortening the reach on women’s bikes has been de rigueur since Trek launched its 2200WSD in 2003.

What is new, however, is the size-specific attention to detail. On Canyon WMN bikes, sizes 3XS and 2XS are supplied with smaller 650b wheels – a solution to problems such as toe overlap, overly relaxed head angles and compromised handling that can arise when a small frame is paired with standard 700c wheels. 

Looking the part

I tested the Ultimate WMN CF SLX after many months off the bike through injury. Feeling a bit of a fraud and slightly embarrassed that I was riding a team replica bike designed for pros, I took the Ultimate on my local loop.

At 7kg the Ultimate WMN is a thoroughbred race bike, designed for speed. It is lighter and has slimmer tubes than the equivalent unisex model, with a very different carbon layup.

The justification for this is that women are lighter than men and that they produce less overall power, so don’t need such a robust set-up.

One big plus of the slimmed down tube profiles is improved aerodynamics, especially at the front end.

Canyon claims that the Ultimate WMN is 3% more aerodynamic than the unisex model, and while I can’t verify that figure, the bike certainly sliced through the air at high speed, making light work of the raging headwind that was my companion along the route.

My assumption was that this Ultimate ‘lite’ approach would result in some loss in stiffness, but this wasn’t the case. The bike was surefooted yet responsive and accelerated instantly, especially out of corners.

Having previously ridden Canyon’s Endurace WMN model and been impressed with the compliance of the frame I expected the Ultimate WMN to be a bumpier ride but it wasn’t, even on the rutted lanes of Surrey.

The 28mm tyres (which one Canyon mechanic says can be run as low as 60psi) floated over the potholes.

Despite the slightly more upright geometry, this Ultimate WMN still puts the rider in a fairly aggressive position that some women might find daunting.

For me, it’s something to celebrate because there are so few true race machines for women. The adjustments made to the front end and the reach are subtle and intelligent – just enough to make the bike comfortable, without moving it out of the performance arena.   

Dressed to thrill

This is a high-end bike with a pricetag that is five times the value of my car, so there is no room for compromises when it comes to the spec.

The 41mm Reynolds Assault LE Disc carbon wheelset is a thing of beauty, yet claims to be so versatile that even off-road riding is an option, although I didn’t test that theory myself.

Canyon has taken a leap and included disc brakes throughout the range. Two years ago, this would have been a risky move, but if discs are good enough for Marcel Kittel they’re probably good enough for me.

Worlds apart

Sure enough, I found the Sram Red eTap hydraulic disc brakes to be powerful yet easy to control and a world away from the binary braking performance offered by the rudimentary disc brakes of yesteryear.

Neat features of the braking system are the ‘Canyon-adjusted lever reach’ and the reduced diameter of the hoods, both designed to accommodate smaller hands and eliminate that heart-in-mouth feeling when the brakes are out of reach.

The sleekly curved H31 aero cockpit is impressive and annoying in equal measure (in that you’ll have to invest in yet another Garmin mount).

It weighs just 335g for the 42mm version, and it comes in size-specific widths. The standard integrated stem is 100mm, but Canyon allows you to specify the dimensions of the integrated stem and bar and swap it out when you buy.

To some this will be worth the effort in helping to nail down the perfect set-up, but others will consider it unnecessary faff for a few seconds of aero gain over a lifetime of cycling.

Despite the name being a bit of a mouthful, the Canyon Ultimate WMN CF SLX Disc 9.0 Team CSR is an outstanding and beautiful machine, and a 2018 version with a revised paintjob (but otherwise the same) was expected to launch at the end of November.

It’s a bike that will improve comfort and performance for many women riders, especially those who struggle to find smaller performance bikes. But let’s be clear, many men would favour this set-up too. Hey, if the bike fits…

Spec

Its name makes it sound like a classic Italian brand, but Tifosi is thoroughly British. Founded in 1999, it used to be known for producing robust, good value workhorses designed to cope with UK riding conditions. Note the phrase ‘used to be’.

‘About three years ago we sat down and had a discussion about where Tifosi needed to go,’ says Josh Lambert, Tifosi’s technical specialist.

‘We couldn’t lose sight of what Tifosi stood for, but we wanted the brand to move forward. Our local team, Spirit Racing, now called Spirit-Tifosi, is an excellent youth development team that was in need of a bike, so we designed one for them.’

The result was the Tifosi SS26, which Cyclist tested back in 2016. Lambert likens it to ‘a sort of phoenix from the ashes’ that represented how Tifosi wanted to develop.

The SS26 kickstarted Tifosi’s ‘race programme’, the initiative the brand has used to steer its transition in focus from modest workhorses to thoroughbred race bikes over the last few years.

‘You hear a lot about the “trickle-down” of technology, but for us it was the other way around.

‘We had that solid base and have used it as a platform to refine and build up from,’ says Lambert.

On the backburner

If Tifosi’s race programme was on the main hob, the new Mons was on the backburner – always present but not the brand’s main focus.

‘The Mons was this little sketchbook project of mine,’ says Lambert. ‘I pitched it to the managing directors at the start of our transition and they said, “It isn’t a priority but it fits with where we want to go, so see what you can do.” We had it on the go for ages.

‘It just so happened that as we were developing the race programme we learned more and more about the best construction processes and what materials were best to use, so the Mons, simmering away on the periphery, kept getting lighter as a byproduct of our learning curve.’

That curve must have been steep indeed, because the Mons tips the Cyclist scales at a mere 4.91kg.

Considering the exotic componentry adorning the bike that weight is understandable, yet Tifosi claims a frame weight for the Mons of only 780g.

That’s on a par with many of the lightest frames on the market, so Tifosi is in good company. And it could have gone even lighter still.

‘The top layer of unidirectional carbon fibre has no structural relevance. We could peel that back and take almost another 100g off the weight, but the bike wouldn’t look as pretty,’ says Lambert.

‘For the Mons we employed some consultants whose sole task was to advise on lightweight carbon layup techniques.

‘The frame is predominantly built up with Toray T1000 fibres, balanced with T800 to make it less brittle, but there are eight different fibre types in the whole design.’

Comfort factor

The decision to go with carbon wasn’t simply about creating the lightest bike possible.

Lambert explains that despite the brand’s move towards a more performance-oriented focus, it didn’t want to lose sight of its original ethos – that of creating desirable bikes with a ride quality good enough to ride every day.

‘Believe it or not, light weight wasn’t the only priority for us,’ Lambert says. ‘The Mons isn’t supposed to be an out-and-out racer – for that we have the Auriga, which is aggressive and aero enough for use in competition.

‘The Mons trades in a little stiffness in return for comfort and light weight.’

Built to ride

Remarkably this build is not just for show either. You will be able to buy this exact model for yourself, complete with AX Lightness wheels, Fibre Lyte carbon chainrings and all, and each Mons purchase includes a custom paintjob from London-based paint shop Cole Coatings.

‘The nature of the techniques used by Cole to apply the finish means that each scheme is unique,’ says Lambert.

‘We think that echoes the ethos of the bike – minimalist, yet special.’

If the ride of the Mons reinforces its promise on paper, we’d have a hard time disagreeing with that.

£9,000 | chickencyclekit.co.uk