The Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 Aero is a bike used in the WorldTour and by club riders alike. Its appeal covers such a range of riders thanks to its performance at a more affordable cost.

Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 Aero review

National stereotyping and bike reviews, like love and marriage in Frank Sinatra’s famous Number, seem to go together like a horse and carriage. German bikes, for instance, are routinely described as clinical, ruthless and efficient, reflecting our commonly held views of the country itself and its people.

But while German brand Canyon’s creations are indeed all of those things, Canyon’s story has more in common with Romantic artisans than mass-production monoliths.

In the 1980s brothers Roman and Franc Arnold would tour the country, Roman pedalling his bike in races, Franc peddling his wares at the roadside from his trusty trailer.

Over time that trailer grew into a bike shop, that bike shop into a wholesaler and that wholesaler into an upstart brand.

I say ‘upstart’ because Canyon was one of the first to eschew the traditional bricks and mortar approach for a direct sales model, cutting out the dealer, cutting prices and taking the industry in a new direction – one that unsurprisingly has proved very popular with consumers.

But it’s not been entirely plain sailing. Earlier this year Roman Arnold was compelled to issue a public apology to customers over late deliveries and questions over service. Happily, Canyon says these problems have been ironed out and it’s shipping 500 bikes a day worldwide.

Quite which bikes is unclear, but I’d hazard to say anyone that’s receiving the latest Ultimate CF SLX will have the broadest smile of all. If there was ever a bike worth the wait, it’s this one.

The light fantastic

The Ultimate has been a mainstay of the Canyon range for over a decade, having been one of the first real-world evolutions of the Project 3.7, a fully roadworthy concept bike Canyon showcased in 2004.

The brainchild of renowned German bike designer Hans-Christian Smolik, the Project 3.7 weighed a staggeringly light 3.784kg, thanks to an 818g F10 Ultimate carbon fibre frame and a series of fully custom parts made by Smolik, including 8g shift levers, a 823g wheelset and a 138g seat and saddle ensemble.

Smolik passed away in 2010, but his ideas resonate in Canyon’s latest Ultimate, an elegantly engineered 6.66kg bike. The secret behind this weight is a 780g frame and a 295g fork, along with neat tweaks such as the 33g Acros headset and 350g one-piece Aerocockpit stem and bar ( 100mm stem, 410mm bars). From the off I was impressed by how light and lively it felt. And fast. And comfortable.

Mission accomplished

According to Sebastian Jadczak, Canyon’s road development director, the brief for the Ultimate was simple: preserve the stiffness-to-weight ratio of its predecessor while reducing drag by 10% and increasing compliance by 10%. Canyon’s done that and then some.

‘The Ultimate has 7.4% less drag as a frameset, 12.9% when combined with the Aerocockpit handlebars, and is 15% more comfortable than the previous Ultimate,’ claims Jadczak. ‘The stiffness to weight is maintained.’ 

Those aero figures are based on drag at 45kmh, which seems to have become the industry standard for comparison, and was measured in a wind-tunnel using a leg dummy affectionately named ‘Ferdy’ (so called after the student who designed it).

That’s still not as fast as Canyon’s true aero-road offering, the Aeroad, which Jadczak says is 10% quicker again than the Ultimate ‘provided it has bottles in the cages’ but nonetheless it’s an impressive theoretical advance. In real terms I was hard pushed to notice a standout aero advantage, save for the way the bike carried its speed overall, which I’d attribute as much to the superb Zipp 303 wheels as anything else. 

With the stiffness-to-weight ratio maintained but overall weight reduced, the implication is that the frame is less stiff. Yet the fact remains it was stiff enough for me at 80kg and 5ft 11in, particularly up front where the one-piece bars did an admirable job of not only looking sleek and seamlessly housing the Di2 wiring, but also of feeling comfortable and dampening road buzz.

To decrease drag Canyon has thinned the down tube and given the head tube an hourglass shape, which it concedes does have the effect of inhibiting stiffness. To counter this, it has beefed up the top tube, which many manufacturers are making as narrow as possible, leading to the disjointed feeling of a frame that flexes too readily front to back under big efforts. Not so here. On every ride I was struck by just how cohesive the Ultimate felt. It’s expertly balanced, with enough flex to track corners nicely but a stiffness that runs evenly through the frame. This affords the Ultimate a predictable character that allowed me to push my limits, particularly on descents, without having to worry about how the bike would cope. 

A sweet ride

It’s impossible to truly quantify comfort objectively – if you could the sofa salesmen at DFS would be doing it – so I tend to ignore figures provided by manufacturers claiming to do just that. The proof is in the pudding, and in this case the pudding is like a good crème brûlée: stiff on the face of it but with a soft underbelly. The Ultimate presents a solid enough perch for accurate cornering and seated efforts, but one that flexes appreciably on bigger hits and does an excellent job of nullifying road buzz. 

To achieve this Canyon has rethought how a seatpost interacts with a frame. Gone is the traditional seat collar, replaced by a 4mm grub screw located on the back of the seat tube between the seatstays. When tightened, this bolt pushes up against the back of the seatpost, securing everything in place. Placing the clamp so far down the seat tube means there’s more seatpost to bend, which means more shock-absorbing comfort.

Of course, this extra portion of seatpost is slotted inside the seat tube, so to allow it some room to flex Canyon has deployed an elastomer sleeve that, for want of a better word, ‘squishes’ under load. It’s a system that doesn’t require crazy tube shapes or special seatposts, yet does a highly effective job of dulling that fatiguing edge from the rumble of the road. 

I’m not sure how this system stacks up in the lab against the competition, but in subjective terms it’s pretty far off the level of flex and comfort offered by the Trek Domane or Pinarello Dogma K8-S, yet a huge step up compared to almost any other road frame.

Plus, you won’t even notice it’s there. The grub screw is covered by a neat silicone stopper, and doing without the traditional collar makes for a wonderfully smooth set of tube junctions that will have fellow riders wondering if your bike is held together by witchcraft. 

It’s all icing on the top of a nigh-on exemplary cake. It could be stiffer but, for now, this is as close to all-round bicycle perfection as you’re likely to find. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the price compared to its rivals…

This bike review first appeared on Cyclist.co.uk in August 2016

Photography: Danny Bird

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round; they all laughed when Edison recorded sound,’ penned Ira Gershwin.

And not so long ago, the idea that bicycles would be printed out of metal powder like robotic anthills rising from dust was the stuff of sci-fi.

Yet here we are. 3D printing has become common practice in bicycle construction.

The basic process involves uploading a CAD drawing of a shape to a 3D printer, which divides the shape into thousands of particle-thick ‘slices’.

These are then traced out by a laser over a bed of powdered material, melting and fusing the powder, layer by layer, to build up a three-dimensional shape. 

This process can take many hours, even days, but one ingenious aspect is that incredibly complex structures and multiple different parts can be printed in the same session.

A head tube and a bottom bracket lug at the same time, for example. Or a whole bike.

‘This bike uses 3D-printed titanium lugs, which have a hollow internal lattice structure like human bone, bonded to carbon-fibre tubes,’ says Satoshi Yanagisawa, product designer with Japanese tech company Cerevo.

‘Our first project, four years ago, involved making an entirely 3D-printed metal frame. Its price was stupid, about £28,000. For one frame! This one is a lot cheaper, about £7,000.’

That’s still eye-watering money, even given the custom nature of the Xon Orbitrec.

But then, this is much more than a bicycle with disc brakes that weighs 7.5kg. It’s a step towards a new cycling dawn.

Beyond the obvious

‘We have purposefully left the 3D-printed elements of the bike rough,’ says Yanagisawa of the dull metal joints that exhibit tiny undulations on their surface.

‘We took an earlier version of the bike to CES [the Consumer Electronics Show] and cleaned up and painted the lugs, but then people doubted us when we said it was 3D-printed!’

Hang on just one minute. Why, precisely, was Yanagisawa proudly displaying a bicycle at a technology show in Las Vegas?

‘Because the Xon Orbitrec is an intelligent bike,’ he says. ‘Inside there are sensors: a nine-axis sensor, G-force, temperature, humidity, brightness and GPS.

‘The bike also pairs with Bluetooth and ANT+ devices, such as power meters and heart straps.

‘The idea is to gather as much data as possible to analyse what the rider-bike system is experiencing in real time, a bit like a Formula 1 car. As yet no one out there is measuring the riding situation.’

Yanagisawa explains that while there is a host of large companies making devices that harvest metrics as you ride, these devices primarily focus on the output of the rider and location.

The sensor unit inside the Orbitrec – a 50g unit called the Ride One – concerns these elements too, but weaves them into a far more complex picture about how the rider and environment are interacting.

‘For example, we have onboard GPS and a sensor that measures braking force and frame deflection,’ he explains.

‘Then, just like Strava does with its heat maps, with Ride Ones fitted to multiple bikes all uploading data to the same place, a town planner could see a real-world picture of road usage.

‘Lots of riders undergoing sudden braking forces in an area could mean there’s a dangerous junction that needs to be addressed. Lots of riders experiencing significant frame deflection on a stretch of road means it’s time to resurface.’

It’s an intriguing scenario, and the connotations are far broader than safety and civil engineering. The information provided could potentially be race-winning.

‘Consider a directeur sportif,’ says Yanagisawa. ‘He has a rider up ahead and data is being streamed live to his car.

‘He can see the condition of the road surface and the weather, and relay the information to his riders further back, like real-time reconnaissance.

‘Or cornering. We can measure pitch and roll so we can see how far a rider leans through a corner, the weight distribution and the forces exerted on the bike, along with speed and the power.

‘We can theorise how fast a rider can go round a corner based on lean angle, then compare this with the data gathered to see if they are hitting those numbers or whether they could push harder.

‘There is no reason why one day there could not be a live indicator on the cockpit that tells a rider, “Lean, lean, lean, stop!”’

Let’s talk bikes that talk

‘We believe we can make a totally different kind of frame that can communicate to the rider, or to a manufacturer that wants to see how its bike performs in real-world situations: for example, where to make it stiffer, where to add more flex,’ Yanagisawa concludes.

As with any new piece of tech there’s more potential in the Orbitrec’s DNA than there is cold, hard realisation, but the hardware is already there, he believes, and with the right software development, real-time bike telemetry will be possible.

And let’s face it, even if you’re not a pro, a DS or a bike designer, who doesn’t want more data?

They said power meters would never catch on…

The Madone SLR Disc is the latest superbike from Trek, one of the biggest bike brands in the world. And yet its paint options have generated just as much of a buzz as the frame design itself.

According to Trek, half of all the previous-generation Madones it sold were through its Project One custom programme, where customers could spec the components and paint scheme they wanted.

This time around, the route to purchase has been expanded with the Project One Icon option – a more premium level that includes six pre-configured colour schemes that are even flashier, such as the ‘Prismatic Pearl’ paintjob seen here.

Yet Trek’s road product manager, Jordan Roessingh, assures us the Madone’s new exterior is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what has been improved in this sixth iteration of the Wisconsin brand’s aero bike.

‘The fifth Madone we released in 2015 was such a quantum leap in technologies for aero road,’ he says.

‘It had things like the hidden IsoSpeed decoupler to improve comfort, fully hidden cables and integrated proprietary brakes.

‘But inevitably, as we do at the end of the development of any bike, we almost immediately had a sense of what we wanted to improve on with the next iteration.’

Most obviously that included a move to disc brakes. Unlike several of its competitors, Trek is still committed to rim brake design, having released the new Madone in both rim and disc guises.

However, the brand recognises that the market direction towards disc brakes opened some interesting opportunities that it was able to exploit with the SLR Disc.

‘Adding disc mounts on frames, while they do require some structural reinforcement to manage braking loads, is a much simpler problem to solve than the challenges of rim brakes,’ says Roessingh.

‘The inclusion of the integrated front brake on the rim brake Madone was an incredibly challenging design feature, plus we had to reduce the section length of the down tube to fit in the UCI frame boxes.

‘It was handicaps like this that meant we could design the Madone SLR Disc to be faster than its rim brake counterpart.’

It isn’t even that much heavier, either. Trek claims the Madone SLR Disc 9 weighs 7.4kg, just 300g heavier than the rim brake variant.

We use OCLV 700 series carbon throughout the new frame,’ says Roessingh.

‘The material really is the best-performing composite in terms of strength to weight you can get, and is exclusive in the bike industry to Trek. However, it’s unbelievably expensive.’ 

Tuned cushion

The 2015 Madone included a version of Trek’s IsoSpeed decoupler technology, a consideration unheard of on aero bikes at the time.

Instead of moulding the seat tube junction as a single unit, Trek ‘decoupled’ the seat tube, fixing it to the rest of the frame with a pivot axle and cartridge bearings, so it was able to flex much more than a traditional construction.

Now Trek has totally redesigned the feature, shifting to an L-shaped design where a flexible leaf spring-style section is positioned in a groove on the underside of the top tube.

‘We took inspiration from our Domane to make the IsoSpeed unit externally accessible, so it can be adjusted,’ says Roessingh.

‘It can be set to be anything from 17% smoother to 21% rowdier than previously.

‘It also allowed us to create a more consistent feel of compliance across frame sizes because the length of the bending component of the IsoSpeed is no longer proportional to the size of the frame.’

Roessingh says ride quality and rider/bike interaction were the areas where Trek saw the most potential for improvement in this latest bike, so the new Madone has undergone changes to its geometry to make it more versatile and adjustable.

‘The Madone SLR uses our new H1.5 fit. This sits exactly halfway between our old H1 and H2 fits in stack, but we now offer different stem angles to create a wider range of positions from the same frame.

‘As the cockpit is now two-piece, the bar width, tilt and stem length are all easier to change too. A comfortable rider is a fast rider.’

Look out for a full review of the SLR Disc in due course, where we’ll determine if this model’s performance really does match its looks.

Trek Madone SLR 9 Disc Project One Icon, £11,650, trekbikes.com

British brand Factor bikes has unveiled the brand new Vista, an all-road endurance platform geared toward versatility of terrain and optimised for 35mm tyres.

Factor was originally founded in Norfolk in 2007 by engineers within bf1systems, a motorsports engineering firm. The company was bought in 2015 by Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke and industry veteran Rob Gitelis, who have released the One, One-S and O2, all of which have been used in the World Tour.

The Vista marks a departure from the pro pretensions of the three models in the range previously, with a more all-road and comfort focus. That said, it bears a close resemblance to the One, with the use of an external fork, called the OTIS-AR (One Total Integration System – All-Road).

Factor claims the externally mounted fork offers a greater level of customisation and stiffness. The fork offers ample clearance and while the bike is designed around 35mm tyres Factor suggest it could fit even larger tyres.

Holistic design

Factor operates its own manufacturing facility in the Far East, and so boasts a highly efficient end-to-end design and in-depth prototyping system.

With the Vista, Factor claims optimised carbon layups but also crucially a specific layup for each of the separate sizes to reflect the mechanical changes from the differing tube lengths. The biek comes in a selection of 5 sizes, ranging from a 49cm to 58cm top tube.

To hone the design, Factor enlisted the help of Canadian Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal, who has pedigree in road and mountain riding. He has provided rider feedback throughout the design process.

David Millar has also had involvement in the Vista's design, following on from a longstanding partnership between CHPT3 and Factor. Millar has created a special-edition CHPT3 colourway for the bike, named Devesa after the colours of the Devesa forest in Girona.

'We're so excited to finally be able to share Vista with our partners and customers,’ says owner Rob Gitelis. 'From working with Ryder and David, to leveraging all of the experience we had gained from our partnership with AG2R La Mondiale, this new bike truly embodies the All-Road, discover without limits ethos.'

The VISTA starts at £3,750 for the frame only.

Litespeed has been making titanium race bikes for more than 30 years, and the family-run company can boast a client list that features some of cycling’s biggest names, including Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong (although in the latter’s case you may not have known it at the time, as the bikes were rebadged to avoid upsetting sponsors).

The American brand truly hit the mainstream in 2002 thanks to its sponsorship of pro team Lotto Adecco. Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen took no fewer than 17 victories on his Litespeed Vortex, a cold-worked 6Al/4V titanium masterpiece.

He piloted it to multiple stage wins at both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, while teammates Peter Van Petegem and Mario Aerts won the cobbled Spring Classics Omloop Het Volk and Flèche Wallonne respectively earlier that same season, proving the bike’s versatility.

Buy now from Litespeed

Thanks to the advent of carbon, the perception of titanium bikes has shifted, with many customers seeing them as plush, prestige bikes for sunny Sunday cafe rides, but Litespeed is determined to keep titanium at the cutting edge of bicycle design.

‘We still make elite-level race bikes’, says Litespeed’s chief product developer, Brad DeVaney, from the manufacturer’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

‘There are only two elite race models now, but we still do pretty well with them in terms of sales. But in our line it’s definitely gravel bikes that are thriving.’

Litespeed previously had the T5G as its gravel offering, which then evolved into its next generation model, simply named ‘Gravel’, but DeVaney felt the brand needed to offer something more refined.

‘The Cherohala project was about blurring the lines between an elite-level race bike and a utility bike,’ he says.

‘I wanted to create a single frame that would give you more options to ride however you wanted, whether that’s riding on dirt, touring, or hanging with a group ride.

‘Our goal was to create a frame under 1,500g and with the Cherohala we finished up at around 1,400g, and that’s for a bike that has great tyre clearance, flat-mount disc brakes and still enough chainstay clearance to run a 53/39 chainset if you want.’

The Cherohala takes its name from the Cherohala Skyway, one of the most popular national scenic byways in North America, a mixture of gravel and asphalt that winds its way through the Cherokee National Forest in eastern Tennessee and the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina.

Fittingly, then, I began my testing of the Cherohala in a national forest too – the New Forest in Hampshire. 

In search of speed

The Cherohala came specced with Continental 32mm road tyres, so for much of my early riding I stuck to tarmac, although I soon realised that despite what DeVaney had said about his aspirations to deliver elite-level road performance, I wasn’t going to enjoy this bike at its best on fast-paced chaingangs.

On the road, at least in this test guise, it felt lethargic, displaying a tardiness in responding to my accelerations and holding speed, forcing me to dig deep to match my usual pace on regular training loops.

Being slightly heavy at 9.29kg was undoubtedly a factor in the bike’s lack of sprightliness, but it wasn’t just about the weight. The frame didn’t seem to have the snappy feel that would allow me to consider it as an accomplished performance road bike.

In this respect, the Cherohala failed to live up to its racy aspirations, but one small change would have me seeing it in a whole new light.

I switched the road rubber for some 35mm gravel tyres and went off to see what the Cherohala could do off-road. Immediately the bike was transformed.

As soon as I ventured away from the tarmac, the Cherohala’s solid build became a real benefit. Its weight felt like less of an issue – in fact, it actually helped give it a reassuringly planted feel as I darted down trails and bridleways.

I felt fully able to push the pace through muddy, rutted tracks and clatter over tree roots and rocks, with the Cherohala at all times feeling balanced and ready for anything.

One of the great things about titanium as a frame material is that it’s tough as nails, so hearing stones flick up off the trail and ping off the underside of the down tube is no cause for alarm, as it might be with a carbon bike.

Plus, this frame will potentially look as good as new in 10 years, no matter how many adventures you have on it.

The own-brand 31.6mm titanium seatpost wasn’t as comfortable as I was hoping it would be, however. It seemed to do only the minimum in absorbing bumps and vibrations and wasn’t as good as many similarly purposed carbon posts I’ve used.

That said, the post on this build had an inline clamp, and I suspect swapping for the offset version may make it more effective.

If I assess the Cherohala as specced, with 32mm road tyres, I would say it’s in danger of languishing in good-but-not-great territory.

That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t make a decent day-tripper/commuter/tourer, but it just isn’t the race-level speed machine it aspired to be.

But if you approach it as a gravel/adventure bike, it has a lot to offer. It’s versatile and fun, and would be even more so if you switched to a 650b wheelset, with even bigger, knobbly tyres.

The front mech is a band-on too, so it can easily be removed if you want to build the Cherohala with a 1x set-up. But versatility is one thing, and do-it-all is something else entirely.

That subtle distinction needs to be reiterated, as I still firmly believe there is no such thing as do-it-all.

Despite what some manufacturers would have us believe, you simply can’t have elite level road performance and a hardy gravel/adventure bike in the same frame, as one necessarily precludes the other.

Buy now from Litespeed

Specification

Depending how you choose to view these things, the entry level frameset can either be a tough sell or the bargain of the decade and sometimes both at once.

Quite simply, Ernesto Colnago with a factory and workshop based under his sprawling Italian house, knows how to consistently make fabulous top-end frames.

Striking the balance between keeping the top-end exclusivity and moving good numbers at the lower price points is no easy task, yet that’s just what Colnago has charged the C-RS with doing.

Buy now from Chain Reaction Cycles

The Colnago name has long been a desirable one with the finish always a highlight and it’s a nice differentiator on this bike that it comes in four colour options and eight sloping frame sizes.

A quick scan over the spec of the C-RS reveals to the eagle-eyed that the RS10 wheels from Shimano don’t match the rest of the tried, tested and loved Ultegra R8000 groupset – it is most definitely specified to a price but if done well that can be a good thing as it keeps down the overall cost.

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Thankfully, Colnago has stuck with the full Ultegra groupset even down to the cassette, no corner-cutting here.

Aside from the Japanese groupset, the Italian theme continues with Deda Zero stem and RHM02 handlebars, own-branded seatpost and Prologo Kappa Evo saddle, plus the rather nice touch of a branded bottle cage.

Throwing any bike into the twisty bits is sure to reveal its character far quicker than any amount of internet spec sheet scouring.

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And it has to be said that Colnago has done a great job of not only putting the C-RS together, but speccing it to its price point too.

It all hangs together well. The ride is certainly on the stiffer side of things, announcing changes in road surface, but thanks to the 25c Zaffiro Pro tyres and those budget wheels it stayed comfortable.

The mass of the wheel package means it doesn’t quite offer race-machine levels of responsivity but it was certainly keen to get on with things and always informed the rider of what was going on below, as the frame begged for better wheels. 

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Ratings

Frame 9/10; Components 8/10; Wheels 6/10; The ride 9/10

Verdict

There can be little doubt that Colnago has made a really great fist of it with the C-RS. It's a superb riding frame that's easily good enough to overcome the hindrance of some of its components being specced to a budget, so is more than worthy of an upgrade when your bank account allows.

Buy now from Chain Reaction Cycles

Specification

While it might not be to everyone’s liking, we really dig the Kiral’s camo colour scheme, it beats seeing yet another solid black bike and gives it a style
all its own.

Intriguingly, it also stands to highlight some of the key shapes and forms of the frame while masking others.

When it comes to the equipment Kuota’s UK people offer a number of optional builds based on the same £1,725 frameset, from a budget-conscious Shimano 105 selection up to a blowout Dura-Ace Di2, and a range of Mavic wheels.

It makes the bikes highly customisable without an endless list of options that simply confuse.

With our budget in mind, we plumped for the Ultegra R8050 electronic groupset and added the Cosmic Elite UST (tubeless) wheels.

Components include the highly respected Deda Zero2 bar and stem, with the perch selected as San Marco’s Concor saddle.

With its pronounced triangulation running from the head tube back it’ll come as little surprise that this is a stiff front end and it’s never more evident than when levering yourself up steep inclines.

Likewise the compact rear triangle and 31.6mm seatpost make for a taut feel and with very little flex.

Having not used the Mavic UST system before it was interesting to note that the tyres were working hard and were the main source of comfort, meaning that the 10-15psi drop in tyre pressure they afforded helped maintain comfort.

These elements combine with the slightly detuned geometry to help the Kiral go after the more race-oriented end of the sportive market.

The latest generation of Di2 shifting is superb, Since the beginning we’ve been waiting for Shimano to introduce a ‘click’ to the shift paddle so it’s kudos to them that they have. And it’s a very satisfying click, too!

So just about everything on this machine is direct and tuned to give a sporty feel that will entertain when you want to turn it on.

Plenty capable in corners this particular build makes for a great, all-day machine –as long as you like race-derived ride experience.

Ratings

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

Verdict

A light-feeling and fast machine to ride, the Kiral is testamen to the great job this Milanese brand has done. We were surprised by both the weight and stiffness achieved, so if these are high on your wishlist, the Kiral could be for you.

Specification

It’s always been a quandary why Cannondale has thus far eschewed the aero-road market, despite having one of the fastest TT bikes – the Slice - in its stable, clearly indicating it has some wind-cheating knowhow.

Cannondale’s global product director, David Devine, though, sites a lack of resources as the main reason for Cannondale’s absence from this sector of the market.

Until now that is. Cannondale has brought on board design engineer, Nathan Barry, a PhD graduate in applied aerodynamics from Monash University, Australia, as the frontman for the SystemSix project.

Being able to categorically come out and say it has created the world’s fastest UCI legal road bike has been 3.5 yrs in the development.

But Cannondale prefers not to refer to the SystemSix as an aero road bike – merely a faster road bike, trying not to fall into the trap of pigeonholing the bike into a specific category, which might limit it’s appeal to the wider population unnecessarily.

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Gains for all

The crux of the new design is of course speed, something that Cannondale recognises is enjoyable for all levels of riders.

Whether it means the capability to improve best times, or simply to reduce effort for the same speed, there’s really no way to deny having some additional speed for free can only be of benefit on some level.

It’s commonly misquoted that aero gains are really only applicable at high speeds, but as Barry reminds us at the launch in Girona, Spain, even at 15kmh 50% of your resistive drag is due to aerodynamics on a flat road, so everyone can benefit not just pros.

Cruising at 30kmh on the flat the average rider can expect to be expending around 10% less energy on the new SystemSix.

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Even more surprising is the data Barry presents on the benefits of aero gains on a climb. The gradient tipping point, he claims, is a 6% incline, only beyond that would the SystemSix start to lose ground to its lighter brethren, and Cannondale’s current flagship race machine, the SuperSix Evo.

That tipping point, Barry insists, would also shift to a higher gradient if the rider, for instance a pro rider, had a higher power to weight ratio, so the stronger you are and the faster you go the steeper the gradient before the SystemSix would not keep pace with a lighter machine.

Modelled on Education First – Drapac pro rider, Rigoberto Uran, the time differential climbing Alpe D’Huez on the new SystemSix compared to the SuperSix Evo would see the aero machine lose out by just 10 seconds according to Barry.

To put some more everyday numbers to that, for a 75kg rider pedalling at 300w the cost would be less than 3w on the SystemSix compered to a bike 1kg lighter.

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‘This would equate to a deficit up a climb like Alpe D’Huez of around 20 seconds for your average rider’, he admits, ‘but even so the benefits elsewhere – on the flat and in the wind etc - would far outweigh the costs on the climb’.

Running similar simulations for different situations, Barry’s data also points to the SystemSix being 7.2m (roughly 4 bike lengths) ahead of the SuperSix Evo in a head to head 200m sprint at 1000w/60kmh, plus requiring around 100w less power to ride down a 5% graded descent at 60kmh.

The Fastest?

The tag line Cannondale has for the new SystemSix then is; faster everywhere.

That’s a very bold claim, but Cannondale insists everything it says is based on hard science and data captured in the wind tunnel, in which it has benchmarked its new creation against what it sees as the best of the competition – bikes like the Specialized Venge Vias, Trek Madone, Cervelo S5, Scott Foil, Pinarello Dogma f10, Canyon Aeroad, and Giant Propel.

Of course the cynic in all of us would want to respond with; ‘But of course it’s going to say that’, and I agree, I’ve never yet sat in a presentation where a brand has come out and said its new bike is only nearly as good as the competition, but in this case Cannondale’s data seems believable given some new methodology applied by Barry.

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The concept is called, Yaw Weighted Drag – in a nutshell, without going into whitepaper-depths of confusing terminology, it’s a means to simplify aero drag numbers down, to assess any respective gains taken as a broad view over the complete spectrum of yaw angles.

This is essentially to prevent the confusion of presenting data where brand A is faster than brand B here, but not here, etc.

Barry’s model of yaw weighted drag clearly puts the SystemSix ahead, beating closest rival – Trek’s Madone – by around 6W at 30mph (~50kmh). The claimed difference over the Scott Foil is closer to a 20W saving – undeniably a considerable advantage.

Compared to SuperSix EVO – i.e. a more traditional road frame, the SystemSix test data suggests a whopping 60 watts saving at 30mph.

See related 

Giro d'Italia 2019: Route announced including three time trials and five mountain finishes

Cervélo launches new S5: disc brake only aero road bike

Campagnolo Super Record 12-Speed groupset review

How it’s done

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Image 16 of 28

So, that’s enough of the stats and numbers. How has Cannondale achieved these apparent successes?

The geometry of the SystemSix frame is the same as the SuperSix Evo. Stiffness is on a level par too, after all why change what is considered to be a benchmark bike by many in the industry?

The aero gains have been mostly made through frame/fork tube profiles but also a big share is the integration of components to work in harmony as a complete system.

At the heart of that are Cannondale’s new Knot branded components – with the name being a nod to wind speed measurement – all specifically developed to reduce drag.

The Knot SystemBar bar/stem combo is perhaps most obvious up front, in the critical area of the bike, but unlike many of its competitors Cannondale has not fixed the bar position, instead allowing 8° of pitch adjustment to allow the rider to better tune their desired position.

A further neat touch is the slotted spacer system, which means that height can be adjusted, without the need to disconnect any of the cables and/or hydraulic brake hoses that all run, unseen, within its confines.

The completely new Knot 64 wheels are also a big part of the aero gains of the system. Visually they are immediately quite different from what we’re used to seeing by current standards.

The 64mm deep rims are a whopping 32mm at their widest, yet Cannondale has fitted a 23mm tyre? Just when we thought this size might be lost in the annals of time for good, this, Cannondale claims (thanks to the rim having a capacious 21mm internal width), actually means the tyres measure up to an optimal 26mm for the most significant aero gains on this bike.

If nothing else, the looks are certainly going to take some getting used to, as the tyre is clearly much narrower than the rim when viewed form above, which feels a little unsettling at first.

In summary, it’s all part of controlling the airflow as it hits the leading edge of the front tyre (the first point of contact). With a narrow leading edge and wide rim, the air can stay attached to the rim for longer, causing a narrower wake – and less drag – incidentally a technology Cannondale has had to licence from HED, which holds the patent.

The wheels are attached to the frame/fork via another new standard – Cannondale calls Speed Release – a double lead thread, on a 10/12mm thru-axle that doesn’t need to be completely removed in order to take out the wheels.

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Image 10 of 28

And there’s more

Another key initiative Cannondale is keen to launch with its all-new SystemSix is the inclusion of power meters on all models – partnering with Power2Max – to make this technology more accessible to more people.

There is a slight caveat in as much as Cannondale is only providing the actual power meter – i.e. the hardware side of things – but to actually use it, there is a one off charge of €490 payable to Power2Max as an activation cost.

To keep some perspective on that, and before shooting Cannondale down as only half-delivering on something, it’s still an awful lot cheaper and simpler than most alternatives to enter the world of power measurement, and so a genuinely useful addition to the package, in my view.

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Image 2 of 28

One completely new digital technology is the Vuforia APP which via a barcode scan with a smart phone the bike can be viewed in a 3 dimensional fashion, inside and out, allowing the customer to see all its inner workings, and importantly even view part numbers and servicing ‘how to’ help, and so on.

This technology is mightily impressive, especially given it’s in its infancy right now, but Cannondale is ahead of the game by including it, and I can only see this becoming much bigger and more detailed in time within the bike industry as it makes so much sense in today’s uber complicated bike designs.

Last but by no means least, and well worthy of mention, are Cannondale’s new paint schemes, which for all models of the SystemSix feature reflective detailing, in subtle and attractive ways, making sure rider safety and visibility are also a priority as well as speed out on the road.

Models and pricing

5 models:

Hi-Mod carbon Shimano Dura Ace Di2 £8,499.99
Hi-Mod carbon Shimano Ultegra Di2 £6,500
Hi-Mod carbon –Women’s model -Dura Ace £6,499.99
Carbon Dura Ace £5,000
Carbon Ultegra £3,500

Images - Brian Vernor

The roads around the lake of Zurich, Switzerland, are packed with luxury cars, so it is easy to understand why Mart Oten, Road Product Manager at BMC, chose the car comparaison to present the new TimeMachine.

'A BMC RoadMachine could be seen as a Porsche 911, there is comfort and reliabilty… but our new TimeMachine is more like a supercar, something that is eye-catching, something you want to get noticed by,' he said at the bike's launch. And it does the trick.

With its sleek tubes, its high wheels, with all the integrations it presents, you will not blend into the bunch riding this new BMC.

The Swiss brand was already ahead of its time when the first TimeMachine came out in 2012. It was considered as the first real aero bike with a lot of integrated parts.

The idea was to gain speed on the bike without extra effort - a sort of 'free speed' - as Oten put it.

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Image 5 of 10

Six years later the concept still remains with the new iteration. Just like in 2012 it still looks fast and sleek but an extra confort was added to its DNA.

On the speed part, the model was both tested in a windtunnel and on tracks to validate the choice of tube shapes.

Then there was the waterbottle issue, the BMC team realises that it should include the bottles in the aerodynimacs measurements, hence the new part located on the downtube called Aeromodule, and the results showed the bike was faster with this system on than without.

All the new TimeMachine bikes will be sold with the Aeromodule and below the bottle cages BMC inserted a little box (the Safety Kit) containing inner tube and repairing kit (very similar to the Swat box that equipped the new Specialized Roubaix).

Still on the aero departement the front disc brake is covered to maximize airlow on this part. The bike has everything to be fast but it has some comfort too.

On the cockpit (ICS Aerocockpit as the brand called it) stem and handlebar are integrated, yet they can be adjusted and the stem was built 30mm higher to damper vibration, along with the dropped seatstay to gain comfort.

The handlebar has been specially designed as well to offer a fourth position for the hands: hands can be placed on the drops, on the hoods, on the top and now on the side, with special shaped curves on each side of the bar for a radical (or resting) aero position.

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Image 10 of 10

The ride

Now how does it work on the road? Is it fast? Is it smooth? Is it worth it? Yes for every question.

During the test rides Cyclist did on the beautiful swiss road the new BMC reacted perfectly and it revealed itself as a very versalite model.

It can go fast but it can climb too and it is not that rough to pilot. It can be handled perfectly, the new hand-position is not just a marketing trick, you find it easily and it is very comfy to ride.

The wheels are maybe a bit too deep for descents and you looe stability when you gain speed. The Aeromodule looks cool alright but it does not help to get your bottle out quickly, it needed a bit of effort to take the bottle and a little concentration to put it back.

The new TimeMachine range is divided in to three models, all offering the same aero performance according to BMC, a frameset version is also in the catalogue. The models will be available in September.

Thomas Caussé works for the French-language version of Cyclist

It all began on Saturday 30th January 2016. That was the day U23 rider Femke Van den Driessche’s spare bike at the Cyclocross World Championships was inspected and a motor was found inside. It was unprecedented, and has changed the way we think about cheating in cycling.

The system she used was a Vivax-Assist motor. The motor, situated in the seattube, works by turning a bevel gear fastened to the crank axle and gives a power boost of around 100 watts.

It is a technology that has been in development for years – largely aimed at a market of older riders keen to maintain their normal riding pattern while losing fitness.

Since the curious incident of Van den Driessche, we’ve seen two further incidents of a Vivax system used in competition for unfair advantage, both by amateurs.

Today, it is expected that UCI president David Lappartient will announce new tests to help quash the suspected use of motors in professional cycling promising tougher sanctions.

But what Cyclist want to know is how much of an advantage does such a concealed Vivax motor really offer?

We put the Goat Race with the Vivax-Assist within it up - ridden by me - against a Bianchi Oltre XR4 - ridden by my colleague James Spender - on a steep hill-climb, both with and without the motor activated to see what difference the motor offers

Goat Race Ultegra (with motor), £4,999

We didn't use power meters, or timing on the climb, but instead looked at how the system feels, and looks to the competition, when used against a conventional bike.

Head-to-head

As we established when first testing the system, it requires more practice and skill than a more complex pedal-assist system. It also requires an aluminium frame or an internal aluminium sleeve to secure the motor in place.

While the motor is not in use, it engages a freewheel, but the bevel itself must still be turned by the force of the axle. It’s a tiny level of resistance, but one that might be palpable over 100km of riding.

There is also a heavy battery unit that must be attached to the motor. In this case it’s concealed within the water bottle.

Consequently there are a few sacrifices to a concealed motor.

The bike we’ve tested is the Goat Race, UK-based Goat Bikes has designed and assembled the bike with the Austrian-made Vivax-Assist system integrated within it.

Goat has made a fine aluminium bike, very well adapted to the motor, but with the added weight and lower quality material this certainly isn’t a World Class bike when the motor is off.

It weighs 10.2kg but has a concealed motor which can give over 100 watts of assistance.

The Bianchi, by contrast, comes in at 6.8kgs with aerodynamic tube shaping and stiff deep section Campagnolo Bora wheels.

Bianchi Oltre XR4 Super Record, £9,500

The motor has 200 watts capacity, but owing to the cadence-based boost and presumably some transitional losses, we’ve generally perceived the boost to be closer to 100-120 watts.

It’s nowhere near as powerful as the enormous Bosch motors we see in e-mountain bikes and in the emerging class of e-road bikes.

On a good day, James is a little more explosive than me, and so I’d expected him to edge ahead of me without the help of the motor, especially on the lighter and stiffer Bianchi.

With the motor on, though, we expected it would be enough to bridge the gap between both our bikes and our physiologies. The interesting measure was to find out by how much...

On a short steep climb like this, though, the motor is pushed to its limits in terms of torque, and the extra weight of the Goat does have all the more influence.

Turbo charged

While there’s no question that the motor makes the Goat faster, the important question is how dramatic such a boost is. Could WorldTour mountain attacks or sprints up the Koppenberg really be explained with a concealed motor?

While there are watts on offer, the power difference required to sprint away from World Class riders is substantial, and does the Vivax offer that sort of boost?

Equally, could it let an amateur rider compete with professionals?

As our video suggests, there is certainly an advantage to be had, with a two bike length deficit turning to a one length lead. But three bike lengths over a few hundred metres isn’t enough to split a WorldTour field, or allow an amateur rider to compete with elites.

Of course the motor requires a certain skill, and by resetting the cadence that the system works toward (more on that here) I could maybe match the lower cadence demands of a climb like this.

With the specific output of the motor requiring a smooth rotation of the cranks my climbing style looks a little unusual compared to my first run and could give away a cheat on close inspection.

The noise, however, was not a giveaway, as the Vivax-Assist is far quieter than its predecessor, the Gruber-Assist.

On the whole, though, it remains difficult to imagine top pro cyclists relying on a concealed motor system such as this – given the relatively conservative gains in power versus the numerous disadvantages and the visible difference in pedalling technique that might give the motor away.

But, of course, stranger things have, and do, happen.

Notably now with clearance for 32c tires and still only available with disc brakes, the Giant Defy Advanced improves the pre-existing endurance qualities from previous models with the aim of aiding riding by offering a ‘smoother, more compliant ride’.

Embracing the need for comfort when spending long hours in the saddle, Giant has updated the endurance geometry of the Defy Advanced to accommodate the inclusion of wider tyres as well as expanding the ride smoothing D-Fuse technology to the handlebars, absorbing vibrations and increasing compliance.

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Image 3 of 6

Nixon Huang, the senior global road category manager at Giant, explained how the ride quality has been improved.

'We focused on finding new ways to give it an even smoother, more refined ride quality to help minimise fatigue, but without compromising its efficiency and high performance on the road,' Huang said.

The new Giant Defy Advanced is kitted out with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and has a cassette range of 11-34, which is evidence of Giant’s intention to create a bike suitable for 'the most challenging roads' and suggests versatility for riding unpredictable back roads and more than just tarmac.

D-Fuse technology

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Image 2 of 6

First developed by Giant in 2014 on the TCX cyclocross bikes to improve ride quality, the D-Fuse technology was initially used in the seatpost to absorb vibrations and shocks to contribute to a comfortable ride.

Having proved successful in cyclocross and previous Defy models, Giant has developed the technology further and expanded it to the handlebars to increase comfort at the front end of the bike.

Sympathetic to performance, the technology doesn’t compromise stiffness, and is also lighter than the circular bars, while adding to the bike’s endurance capabilities and minimises fatigue by absorbing road shocks.

The Defy Advanced Pro's stem has also been given a rethink and is now more aerodynamic and stealthy.

This technology has also expanded to the rear of the bike with Giant's D-shaped seatpost. Absorbing road shocks and vibration, the design can handle 12mm of travel for a more complient feel.

See related 

Giro d'Italia 2019: Route announced including three time trials and five mountain finishes

Cervélo launches new S5: disc brake only aero road bike

Campagnolo Super Record 12-Speed groupset review

Frame geometry

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Image 5 of 6

Giant has updated the geometry of the Defy Advanced to bring it in line with the compliance driven adaptations. The bottom bracket has been lowered to allow clearance for up to 32mm tyres and the frame has been engineered for disc brakes.

While this will predominantly improve the comfort of the ride, clearance for 32mm tyres is also a slight nod the recent trend of all-road bikes which are as equally comfortable on rough, gravelled terrain as smooth tarmac.

Improving reliability and expanding the terrain the Defy Advanced is capable of tackling makes the inclusion of disc brakes a welcome improvement.

The top end model also includes an integrated dual-sided power meter.

Another hotly anticipated product that fell into the strange world of embargoes, where those of us who'd seen it officially presented were left to keep quiet while the bike itself has been ridden by several teams for a few weeks. Now that the embargo has passed, we can finally discuss the new Specialized Venge, and what a bike it is.

This bike is as much the product of a laboratory and wind tunnel as it is real world testing, and as such Specialized has developed modelling techniques that will be used to better bikes across its range.

Buy now from Sigma Sports

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Image 5 of 37

Venge-Tarmac Venn diagram

What's immediately obvious is how much better the new Specialized Venge looks that the Vias model it replaces, and with the aesthetic change comes another step towards divergence between the Venge and the other key model in the brand's range, the Specialized Tarmac.

The crossover area in the Venn between the two bikes seems to be growing, but we aren't anywhere near one bike doing the job of both just yet.

'Even though it feels like Tarmac and Venge are getting closer and closer, the aero and weight difference between the two are actually nearly the same as they have been since the beginning of Venge!' Chris Yu, Director of Integrated Technologies revealed.

'As Tarmac has gotten lighter, we’ve dropped the weight of the Venge in the latest generation, but there is still a substantial difference between the two.

'Similarly, as Venge has gotten more aero, Tarmac SL6 has also followed, but there is still a substantial difference between the two.'

These differences are subtle but once I'd been made aware of them I could see what he meant when I rode both bikes, one after the other at the lanuch of the new Venge. My experience of the bikes is detailed on page 2 in the first ride review.

A trend that Specialized can foresee, as the bikes borrow key factors from each other, is the switching of roles especially in the pro peloton.

At the moment, the Specialized Tarmac is the do-it-all machine that can climb and increasingly cope with flat stages and sprints and is used day-to-day, while the Venge is the dedicated aero bike that is dropping weight and going up hill faster but is still called upon in fairly specific situations.

Looking ahead, there could be a switch where the Specialized Venge - either this one or the next - is the go to bike for most riders on most days, with a switch to the Tarmac only coming when a GC contender is faced with a particularly mountainous day, for example.

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Image 17 of 37

Disc brakes only

‘In our view, we likely won’t develop another performance road bike with rim brakes,’ Yu proudly added when asked about the Venge's disc-only build.

The bike rides and looks all the better for its reduced cabling and the frame hasn't had to give up any aero or gain any weight as a result of entry and exit points for rim brake cables.

Disc brake cables leave the bike at the very last and right next to the brakes at the centre of the wheels which means they catch much less wind and don't require the extra carbon at the top of the fork or a brake bridge at the rear, which will only add weight.

Last year and the beginning of this, Peter Sagan - who rides Specialized along with his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates - notably continued to use rim brakes but now even he's made (or been coaxed into making) the switch, and was one of the pros using the bike in plain view long before the product embargo.

Further, the bike only allows for the use of electronic gears - Shimano Di2 and SRAM eTap - so this is every bit the high end performance bike.

However, the use of electronic gearing isn't yet seen as being as much of a dead cert, only available option kind of change as the brakes.

'From a performance and rider preference standpoint, electronic drivetrains are dominating, which is why we focused on them with the design of the new Venge,' Yu said.

'However, due to the cost differential, mechanical groupsets will likely be around for a bit longer.'

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Image 36 of 37

Aero is still everything, but now it has to share the focus

'Aero is everything' has been the approach and marketing phrase since the very first Venge but now weight and Rider First Engineering, although always important, are getting more of a look in.

Weight in particular has been saved, with the frameset now 460g lighter than the Vias model. The photo above shows how much of the older bike would have to be removed to make the same saving, which demontrates just how much the bulk has been trimmed down.

The new frameset is 960g for a size 56cm and gives an overall build weight of 7.1kg, fully decked out with the aero cockpit and a power meter.

The bike can be built to the UCI's lower limit of 6.8kg when a more standard handlebar arrangement is used along with a tubular wheelset.

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Image 11 of 37

As for Rider First Engineering, there are simple changes like a dimpled effect on the tops of the Aerofly bars that offer grip and ensure riders aren't tempted to add bar tape all the way to the stem.

While, more fundamentally, each size in the range has its own blend of stiffness rather than one main size being made to the best of the brand's ability and the rest just being a scaled up or scaled down version of that.

Buy now from Sigma Sports

FreeFoil Shape Library

The first Specialized Venge, which was released around seven years ago, was developed and tested in a rented wind tunnel. Since then Specialized has built its own 'Win Tunnel', a resource that is on hand whenever it is needed.

The next big step in bicycle manufacture for Specialized came hand-in-hand with the new bike and that was the development and use of proprietary software and technology for the modelling and testing of specific tube shapes.

FreeShape Optimisation produces the optimal weight-aero-stiffness ratio for any given shape and those shapes are catalogued in the FreeFoil Shape Library.

The process was a lengthy one starting with three to four months of software development. Next the software spent a month producing all the shapes for the Library before the first prototype was made and put to test in the wind tunnel.

Right away this first new model was faster than the Vias.

'Our eureka moment came when we tested our first crude prototype in the tunnel and saw numbers faster than the previous Venge Vias,' Yu excited reported.

'This was eye-opening since we had spent the first several months, not creating and iterating prototypes, but developing our FreeShape Optimization algorithm and the resulting FreeFoil Shape Library.

'Our first prototype was literally a "stick-figure" bike with the main tubes created out of extrusions of FreeFoil Library shapes.'

That first model was then refined to move the bike away from the Tarmac SL6's tubing, while still making the new Venge lighter than that generation of Tarmac.

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Image 22 of 37

FreeShape Optimisation means that tens of thousands of iterations can be simulated to find the best combination of aerodynamics, weight and stiffness for each part of the bike.

The software can produce and test iterations that might otherwise be overlooked by a fully maunal process.

Every part of every tube has been optimised to best suit its position in the build, as can be seen in areas such as the downtube-fork junction and around the seatstays.

This whole process also means that bikes can go from computer screen to real world testing in a much shorter time, and riders like Sagan, Fernando Gaviria and Zdenek Stybar have been riding prototypes for almost a year.

No more need for time trial bikes?

The new Venge can be built with the addition of a time trial one piece bar added to the front end, aimed mostly at professional triathletes. However, with a stagnation in the development of time trial specific bikes due to the stringent rules of the UCI, could we soon see aero road bikes used against the clock too? Yu thinks so.

'Honestly, I think that time is now, at least for the vast majority of us,' he said. 'The latest Venge chassis is more aero than most of the dedicated TT bikes on the market today.

'With the Venge-specific clip-on TT bars, you would have to buy a very expensive dedicated TT setup and a TT-specific fit (and likely wind tunnel or velodrome testing time) to land on a package that is faster.'

Big claims, all backed up with stats, that could see a shift from the WorldTour downwards.

Head through to page 2 for my experience of the bike during a first ride review

Specialized Venge 2019: First ride review

Ridden during the official launch around the roads of this year's UCI Road World Championships, of the 80km test ride I did the first 40 on the new Specialized Venge and the second half of the ride on the latest Specialized Tarmac.

This was due to a lack of availability in my size, but turned out to be a stroke of luck as I was able to compare the two ever-similar bikes one after the other rather than waiting until I returned to the Cyclist office.

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Image 4 of 37

Climbing aboard the new Specialized S-Works Venge its speed and superior handling were immediately clear and as we clipped along at quite a pace on a rolling route outside of Innsbruck it felt like no power was being lost to wind resistance.

On descents the bike's handling came into its own, sweeping through corners and leaving me feeling confident when heading into bends at high speed.

However, it was on the climbs that the overall development and weight loss really showed, as might be expected.

Nothing was lost to an upward gradient, any more than another bike with me riding it, as the group ascended climbs of varying difficulty.

Switching to the Tarmac, I must say that I did prefer the handling as the geometry seemed to better suit me but I couldn't have honestly claimed one bike to be leagues better than the other on climbs or descents.

There was, however, a clear difference on the flat where I was conscious of the marginally higher power I was having to put through the pedals to push the Tarmac along (and cling on to the back of the group).

With a better set-up power meter - user error rather than product failure - on the Tarmac I would have had numbers to back up and demonstrate this feeling.

Both bikes are clearly top end and some of the best in the WorldTour peloton, and riding them did call into question Specialized's claims that we are still some way off one bike making the other redundant; riding either made me wonder when a switch would be necessary.

Check back here in a couple of months for a full review of the Specialized Venge.

When Specialized first introduced the Venge seven years ago, it was the realisation of the aim to produce the brand’s fastest ever road machine.

Developed through extensive testing in Specialized’s state-of-the-art ‘Win Tunnel’ at company headquarters in California, the result was at the time Specialized’s most aerodynamic road bike ever made.

Seven years later, Specialized has taken a completely different approach in developing the third-generation Venge.

Aerodynamics remains a crucial part in the never-ending quest for speed, but this is far more than an incremental evolution of the existing Venge ViAS; it’s a complete rethink of Specialized’s aero platform from the ground up.

It’s an approach that reflects the changing perspective that, while aero is as important as ever in producing speed, it can be achieved without sacrificing on weight or handling.

To realise that goal in front of the fans in the Californian wind-tunnel would have involved months – or even years – of prototype production and testing time, in which time the relentless march of technology could potentially leave Specialized behind in what is a fast-moving industry in more than just the literal sense.

Instead, Specialized developed proprietary software aimed at revolutionising the entire process of bicycle design, capable of generating tens of thousands of tube shapes in a timeframe simply not possible in the real world, modelling each tube for the best combination of three key characteristics: aerodynamics, surface area and stiffness.

The result is what Specialized terms the FreeFoil Shape Library, and it’s this that forms the building blocks of the brand new Specialized Venge.

These shapes can be plotted on a graph – picture it as a scatter of dots on three axes, where a dot at the highest point on one axis will necessarily result in a reduced position on one or both of the opposing metrics.

The FreeFoil Shape Library allows Specialized’s engineers to calculate the perfect shapes to achieve the desired stiffness, handling and weight characteristics of every point on the frame.

The end result is a bike that is both faster than the Venge ViAS it replaces and lighter than the Tarmac SL5 Disc while delivering perfectly tuned handling characteristics because each part of the frame is the precise shape it needs to be.

Getting there was no easy task, however. It took Specialized three to four months to develop the software in the first place, then a further month of actually using it to produce the library of shapes.

Yet when it was finally realised in physical form, even the initial prototype of the third-generation Venge proved faster than the existing Venge ViAS in its very first wind-tunnel test.

At this point Specialized knew that all its hard work had paid off.

Further validation of the design process used in developing the new Venge is the frame’s 960g weight (size 56cm), a remarkable 460g reduction on the Venge ViAS. This is a disc brake road bike that can be built to hit the UCI lower weight limit of 6.8kg.

Part of this dramatic weight saving is made possible by Specialized’s decision to fully turn its back on even the possibility of fitting the new Venge with rim brakes or mechanical gearing – this bike comes only with discs

and electronic shifting in the form of either Sram’s eTap or Shimano’s Di2 platform.

‘In our view, we likely won’t develop another performance road bike with rim brakes,’ says Chris Yu, Specialized’s director of integrated technologies.

This, combined with the overhauled Aerofly II cockpit, sees all cabling completely hidden inside the frame, except for tiny sections that protrude from the fork and rear stay.

The direct impact on aerodynamics, and therefore performance, is obvious enough. But it also gives the Venge an aesthetic edge, where the clean lines afforded by the hidden cabling combine with tube shapes already optimised for peak performance.

It’s another example of how the third-generation Specialized Venge has seen the platform evolve far beyond simply a focus on aerodynamics and pure speed: it’s a bike where wind-cheating design is just the start, not the end, of the story.

The new Specialized Venge in focus 

Junction box

Thanks to feedback from WorldTour teams and mechanics, Specialized has built the Di2 junction box into the Venge’s seatpost.

It’s a vast improvement on placing the device in a bar end, where it is easily damaged and hard to service, and gets the junction box out of the rider’s way while leaving it easily accessible for the mechanic.

The impact on the seatpost’s shape and weight is minimal, while the improvement in performance and rider experience is significant.

Head tube/fork junction

The head tube and fork is probably the area of the new Venge where the precision afforded by the FreeFoil Shape Library is most clearly seen.

Narrower than on many bikes yet with no ground given on front end stiffness, the completely clean lines of the fork are only broken near the bottom to accommodate the disc brake calliper.

Entirely internal cable routing leaves the front end free of cable inlets. Behind the head tube, the frame shape flows smoothly into the down tube and top tube.

Every shape is new and is optimised for its place on the frame.

Rear triangle

The back end is the closest resemblance to the Venge ViAS. The seat tube curves around the shape of the wheel to reduce drag, while the stays are dropped down away from the top tube junction to reduce weight and improve stiffness, and are designed to push air away from the bike and rider.

This is an aero bike that will also excel in the mountains and takes a leap forward to a point where such a machine becomes a rider’s go-to, everyday bike, rather than a specialist option.

Following the recent trend towards wider tyres, the tube shapes have been altered to accommodate greater tyre widths.

Cockpit

As it’s the part of the bike that hits the wind first, it’s essential that the cockpit cuts through the air cleanly. Added to the standard troika of weight, stiffness and handling, however, is a fourth consideration – cable routing.

The new Venge accommodates only disc brakes and electronic gears, which allows for a simplified design and manufacturing process.

The Aerofly II cockpit on the new Venge is flat, which saves weight and allows the cables to flow in straighter lines, while the grippy dimpled surface on the flat top of the bar means only the drops need to be taped.

Disc brakes or no disc brakes? That is the question. For Specialized it’s a more important question than for most, because it has committed totally to the move towards disc brakes, claiming that it might eventually phase out its rim brake bikes altogether.

‘The Tarmac has always been a pure-bred race bike,’ says Specialized’s Chris Riekert. ‘But I think when we launched the original Tarmac Disc two years ago [see review on page 2], the disc bike was seen as a club enthusiast’s bike because you couldn’t race it.’

Since then, however, the rules have changed – both literally and figuratively – and the bike now seems to be gaining traction with pro cyclists.

Zdenek Stybar and Elia Viviani, both of Quick-Step Floors, have been competing on the Tarmac Disc this year, and Specialized has the stats to back up the pro endorsement.

It claims the disc version boasts the exact same overall aerodynamics as the rim brake version, which itself is as fast as the previous generation of Specialized’s aerodynamic Venge.

The frame also comes in at an impressive weight of 800g in a size 56cm – which is within 50g of the rim brake version.

If the addition of discs costs nothing in terms of weight, stiffness or aerodynamics – while offering improved braking quality – does that make the Tarmac SL6 Disc the perfect offering?

The rim brake version was certainly a bike that made an impression. At the recent Cyclist Track Day series (where visitors got to try out top-end bikes from a large number of the big brands) it was one of the most popular bikes thanks to its smooth ride, lightning acceleration and assured handling. 

Same but different

For me, the S-Works Tarmac Disc feels strikingly similar to its rim brake counterpart. The geometry is identical (on my size 56cm, at least – some smaller sizes vary marginally) and Specialized’s tradition of engineering disc frames around short chainstays means the rear is just as compact and punchy.

With the more powerful connection of a thru-axle the rear feels even stiffer at times, without suffering in terms of comfort in the way that some overbuilt disc brake frames can.

The wheels, tyres and finishing kit are all developed by Specialized and have an almost symbiotic relationship. The tyres and wheels mix grip, stiffness and comfort perfectly, and the crankset incorportes a power meter that adds just 15g to a normal S-Works carbon crankset.

Getting the power meter working was simple – once I’d worked out to peel off the plastic battery covers. The only hurdle was that the left and right sides needed to be paired using Specialized’s custom app. Many manufacturers would do that in advance, but the app was slick enough.

Once paired, the data was accurate and in-depth, and included the desirable left-right balance reading. I swapped between reading from Garmin Vector 3 pedals and the S-Works cranks regularly, and the wattage was consistent. The watts also came easily.

Partly thanks to its impressive aerodynamics, the bike lured me up to high speeds and then held me there. On long, flat roads I’d look at my bike computer and see 40kmh, and yet it always felt quite effortless. The watts seemed to be high, but the ride was so smooth and efficient that I was able
to hurt myself without even realising it.

When not engaged in subconscious masochism, I found the Tarmac Disc a joy. It mixed a natural smoothness with a healthy rumble that assured me I was moving quickly, all while feeling thoroughly connected to the road.

It combined the feel of a finely crafted steel bike with the stiffness and responsiveness of a carbon aero racer. But much of that could be said of the rim brake version. The question remains, do discs add anything? 

Braking with tradition

I’m generally sceptical of disc brakes on road bikes. Too often the trade-off of more weight, less comfort and extra cash isn’t worth it for slightly better braking performance. With the S-Works Tarmac Disc, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

It may be expensive, but it’s not that much pricier than the rim brake version, which doesn’t include the power meter. Also, the weight is perfectly acceptable at 6.83kg. What discs add to the overall package is something that does really matter, though, because the S-Works Tarmac Disc was built to descend.

The handling is exceptional. It feels planted and assured, while the accuracy and power of braking bestows huge confidence. I found myself taking on sharp corners at speed just for fun.

With the discs, I could control my entry speed all the better, as well as knowing that if I fluffed a line I could still bring the bike safely to a stop instead of binning it in a verge.

On descents it was just as sharp as the Pinarello Dogma F10, but with far less of the stiff ride quality, and I found myself dropping riders who would previously be distancing me on every hairpin.

There is some room for improvement, though. Specialized hasn’t expanded the tyre clearance much over the rim brake version, which can also accept 30mm tyres. Also, the wheel rims are carbon and lightweight, but no lighter than the rim brake version, and I suspect they are cut from the same mould.

Then there’s the pricetag. At £3,250 just for the frame, and over £9,000 for this build, it will be out of reach for the majority of riders, and it will be a year or so before we see a more affordable ‘Pro’ level version of the bike. But I can forgive all of that.

I was asked a few times whether the Tarmac Disc is the best bike I’ve ridden. It’s a question I get asked many times, and normally I steer clear of answering – all bikes are different, and people have very different tastes.

But I can’t shake this feeling that this really is as good as it currently gets. It feels so fast, so nimble, so versatile and yet does it all with a sense of grace and smoothness.

So the answer is, yes, I think it may well be.

Verdict: The S-Works Tarmac disc proves that when carefully integrated, disc brakes can improve an already excellent bike. Specialized's flagship endurance racer is pretty much as good as it gets

Spec

Specialized S-Works Tarmac Disc 2016 review  

The Specialized S-Works Tarmac is a past winner of all three Grand Tours, and now it's had the disc brake treatment

Stu Bowers

To say the Tarmac has had a pretty good run of it would be something of an understatement. First introduced to Specialized’s range in 2003, it has been a stalwart of the pro peloton in each of its various iterations ever since.

It’s one of very few bikes that can lay claim to having been ridden to victory in all three Grand Tours, plus the cobbled Classics.

Of course, all of those winning bikes were set up with calliper brakes, but Specialized is keen to prove that its disc brake version is good enough to be used at pro level too.

So it is perhaps ironic that on one of the first days I took the 2016 disc brake version of the Tarmac out for a ride, the UCI decided to ban disc brakes in its races. 

During this year’s Paris-Roubaix, Movistar rider Francisco Ventoso was involved in a crash where he sustained a deep gash on his leg. Ventoso said it was from a disc rotor on another rider’s bike, and in the resulting furore the UCI rather hastily took the step of banning disc brake use in the pro peloton altogether.

This immediately led to other events, such as the Etape du Tour sportive, following suit and suddenly the bike industry, which has invested heavily in disc brakes in recent years, found itself with a worrying problem.

Since then, there have been suggestions that Ventoso’s gash was actually caused by a chainring, leading to the possibility that the UCI will reverse its ban and we’ll all be back where we started. We’ll have to wait and see.

Stop start

While the future of disc brakes in top-level races is still uncertain, that’s no reason for the everyday rider to delay a decision on switching to discs (unless you’ve got a place booked at the Etape du Tour). And the Tarmac would be a good first place to look.

It conceals the fact that it’s equipped with disc brakes rather well, in so much as they don’t seem to stand out and are certainly not as visually jarring as on some bikes.

The callipers are the new Shimano flat-mount standard and the 140mm rotors keep the whole set-up about as unobtrusive as possible. It also helps that your eyes are distracted by the bike’s incredible paintjob.

Specialized terms it ‘Gloss Blue Tint Flake’, which equates to a seemingly bottomless, glitter-infused blue that resembles a star-studded night sky if you glance down at the top tube as it catches the light. As always, though, a fancy façade is not what we’re here to discuss. It’s the bones beneath the skin that really count.

It didn’t take many kilometres on the Tarmac Disc before I started to appreciate its qualities. It’s light-footed and quick to respond in punchy accelerations, which are traits I’ve found to be somewhat subdued in other disc brake bikes I’ve tested.

Specialized’s engineers have clearly found ways to maintain a level of performance that is remarkably on par with its calliper-braked brethren, and the weight isn’t far off either.

At the heart of that, Specialized UK’s William Watt tells me, is a completely redesigned rear end, created in close collaboration with its in-house wheel brand, Roval. 

Usually chainstay length is governed by the groupset manufacturers, who specify the optimal distance required for the chain to shift and operate correctly in relation to the spacing of the rear end of the bike.

The wider rear end spacing required for disc brakes (135mm instead of 130mm) means the minimum chainstay length must be increased from the standard 405mm to 420mm.

Whereas the rest of the industry appears to have simply accepted this and dutifully followed, Specialized has set about creating a rear wheel and frame system to alleviate the need for extending the chainstays. 

The right side dropout is offset by 2.5mm, and the freehub on the wheel has moved inboard by 2.5mm. This keeps the back end tight, and is no doubt responsible for the nippy feel of this bike both off the mark and when climbing. Plus it keeps the overall wheelbase shorter and this lends itself towards a more responsive ride. 

In short, it feels every bit a race bike, and the best disc-equipped road bike I’ve tested to date. It’s hard to identify where compromises have been made to accommodate the discs – unless, that is, you are the kind of rider who doesn’t want to be stuck with one wheel brand.

No choice

Yes, here comes the caveat: the changes Specialized has made to the rear end means you really have no option but to use the specially made Roval Rapide CLX 40 wheels (at the rear, at least).

This restriction may cause some people to snub the bike, especially since Roval has not had the best reputation for its wheels in the past. Feasibly, using any rear wheel is possible, but it would be a faff to do so, and you’d be compromising the benefits of the design if you did.

But before you accuse Specialized of craftily locking you into using its own in-house wheel brand, the good news is that the wheels performed really rather well. This new disc-specific 40mm Rapide CLX wheelset felt great at speed and didn’t seem overly buffeted about by crosswinds either, suggesting Specialized has made good use of its own wind-tunnel.

Ceramic Speed bearings as standard shows there has been no corner-cutting to keep costs down, as is often the case when in-house brands are specced. 

light-footed and quick to respond in punchy accelerations

I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest the Tarmac Disc offers a comfy ride. This bike is all about the sensation of speed and feeling 100% connected to the road beneath you, which it achieves admirably but means there is a fair bit of vibration coming back through your body at times. 

The only feature that lets this bike down (quite literally) is its rubber. I set a new personal best of five punctures on a single 150km ride on the Tarmac, which doesn’t say much for Specialized’s Turbo 320TPI 700x24c tyres, despite its claim of incorporating ‘Black Belt’ puncture protection. That’s one black belt that doesn’t put up much of a fight. 

Fortunately, switching to different tyres is a simple and relatively affordable fix, and I can’t let them overshadow what is overall a fantastic bike.

Spec

Upon riding the Specialized Allez Elite it’s immediately obvious why it’s such a popular choice for new riders, crit racers and everyone in between. The bike is fast to accelerate, holds its speed with ease and handles in corners and on descents like a machine costing four times its sub-£1,000 pricetag.

Before getting further into the bike’s performance, its appearance deserves almost as much attention.

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Image 2 of 15

Kaleidoscopic colours

The Red Hook edition paint job catches the eye in a way few bikes I’ve ridden do.

In fact, this is the only bike I’ve ridden across London that has had other cycle-commuters break the usual rules of never daring to speak to one another, complimenting and enquiring about the bike and its pleasing decals.

Specialized makes track bikes with the pattern covering all available space, but this one is slightly less in your face, leaving a fair it of plain blue tubing on show.

The seat tube and fork are the most colourful parts of this frameset, along with the logo, giving the bike the appearance of having ridden head on into a rainbow of colours.

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Image 3 of 15

The fork

Following a product recall of the fork that had previously been specced on Specialized’s lower-end bikes, the Allez lines are now fitted with the FACT carbon set taken from the S-Works Tarmac SL5.

‘With regards the Allez fork recall, we have now completed our commitment and plan to replace first riders’ forks in the field, second our partner dealers’ stock, and then third our own stock,’ explains William Watt, Public Relations Specialist-Road at Specialized UK.

‘Our commitment to and investment in quality control at manufacturing and with our vendors remains as proactive and as thorough to ensure we best meet the demands of riders and make them product that delivers the best riding experience.

‘The fork sourced as replacement has been the S-Works Tarmac SL5 fork. This is of course a FACT carbon full monocoque fork that formed part of the Rider First Engineered.

‘The S-Works Tarmac SL5 was one of the first Specialized bikes to have development time in our “Win Tunnel”.’

After the inconvenience and perhaps even embarrassment of going through a product recall, Specialized has bounced back by supplying entry level bikes with an aero-optimised carbon fork usually found on much higher-end race bikes.

The fork itself does the expected job of carbon blades on the front of an aluminium frame, and that’s to soften the ride and increase rider comfort, which it does well.

Ridden around some beautiful but bumpy lanes in Somerset and Devon on a trip in late-Spring, comfort was never in question from any part of the bike.

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Image 5 of 15

Frame and ride quality

As touched upon, the ride quality is enhanced by the use of a front fork taken from a higher end bike.

The aero-profiled fork cuts through the air with ease and works hard to take the brunt of the vibrations that come from the rutted British roads.

At the back of the bike, the rear stays have been dropped away from the top tube in the same way as on Specialized’s race bikes, the intended merit being increased aerodynamics.

At times it was necessary to give the toptube a little tap and hear the tinny reply of aluminium rather than the dull echo of carbon, while at the same time recalling that is a £999 ‘entry-level’ bike not something worth three to four times more.

The bike handles superbly on the flat, gained my full confidence through corners on descents, and despite its slightly higher weight it climbs well too.

At 9kg it’s heavy but not hefty and the responsiveness of the bike does much to overcome the difference between this and 7kg climbing bikes.

So impressed was I with this bike that I would gladly add it to my own repertoire, a feeling furthered by the fact the frame comes with eyelets for mudguards, meaning it could quickly become an all-round ride once dressed for winter.

Although at the front it would need clip-ons as the high-end fork hasn’t been designed to take guards, while the now-recalled fork did come with the necessary eyelets.

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Image 9 of 15

Components

Nominally, the bike comes with a Shimano 105 groupset but it’s where it deviates from this that results are mixed.

Positive first: the chainset is provided by Praxis Works and no faults with its performance come to mind.

It works perfectly well with the Shimano chain and front mech, its plain matt black does nothing to draw attention away from the Red Hook frame’s paintjob and it nicely matches the black version of the Allez.

The front and rear derailleurs, chain and cassette are all Shimano 105, leaving just the brakes.

These are supplied by Tektro, and here’s the negative: their performance leaves a gulf between expectation and reality.

Descending behind a ride companion running the most recent previous version of Shimano Ultegra, we were forced into a sudden stop while descending on a winding, narrow lane in the Surrey Hills.

They came to a near immediate halt, unclipped and stood still, while behind I saw their rear wheel getting closer and closer to my front wheel as my brakes struggled to scrub away any of my speed.

I turned the bike out into the road, the rear wheel locked then I sideways-skidded to a halt just as my leg bumped the rear tyre of the rider in front.

Mix-and-match groupsets are common practice in the bicycle industry, it’s an obvious and easy way to drop costs and pass on the savings to consumers, hence having an otherwise excellent bike for under £1000.

But I would advise anyone buying this bike – which would be a good purchase – to get some Shimano 105 brakes on there right away, maybe even at the point of purchase at your local bike shop.

The additional cost will be worth every penny, and the buyer would still come away with a bargain of a bike.

Conclusion

An excellent bike that belies its low price tag; a machine capable of year round riding from sportives to long days out and even crit races. But check those brakes.

Specification

Specialized Allez Elite 2018: Launch and gallery

Words Peter Stuart, June 2017

Specialized has revamped its supremely popular aluminium entry-level racer, shedding weight and changing focus

The Specialized Allez is quite possibly the most ubiquitous road bike on the planet, with its gently sloping toptube almost an icon for affordable aluminum. While it may seem odd to alter a winning formula, Specialized has undertaken a significant redesign of the whole platform.

Taking cues from the Roubaix range of endurance bikes, Specialized has re-evaluated the geometry of the entire Allez range, now offering a more relaxed endurance fit. 

The Allez bikes now sits closer to the Roubaix than the Tarmac in geometry, adding 10mm to the headtube of a size 56, while adding 10mm to the wheelbase.

The chainstays have lengthened to 415mm and the fork rake angle has been relaxed.

It’s the detail of the frame where the really impressive changes have taken place on the Specialized Allez Elite 2018, which target both improved performance and broader functionality.

Fresh Fork

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Image 4 of 15

First and foremost on the performance front is Specialized’s FACT full carbon fork. While traditionally the Allez has used carbon fork blades bonded to an aluminium steerer fork, we now see a full carbon fork and steerer.

Across the size range this fork sits at a weight of between 340 and 370g, which will make for a saving of several hundred grams over the part-alloy predecessor.

Together with some tweaks to the frame, it’s seen Specialized pull around 500g off the total weight of the frameset.

The E5 frame uses Specialized’s E5 Premium Aluminium, which was common across the higher spec frames in the previous line of Allez bikes, but is now being used from the very bottom of the range.

Indeed, all the Allez framesets are now identical from lowest price to most expensive.

Despite the entry-level price point, Specialized claims the bike has seen wind tunnel development, which we don’t doubt given the brand’s privately owned wind tunnel at Morgan Hill.

That has influenced the design only minimally, but there are elements such as internal cabling and dropped seatstays that demonstrate aerodynamic considerations.

Easy rider

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Image 9 of 15

As well as tweaking the geometry, there are some clear signs that the Specialized Allez Elite 2018 is catering to less racey long distance riders and commuters in practical terms such as the accommodation for mudguards.

Both the front fork and rear stays have fully-fledged muguard eyelets, as well as an eyelet on the bridge between chainstays. It means that a permanent and effective mudguard can be mounted for the winter months. The Allez can also mount panniers on the front and rear.

The Specialized Allez Elite is equipped with Tekto Axis brake callipers with a long reach between the bolt and brake pads, meaning the brakes won’t impede wide tyres.

The bike comes specced with 25mm Espoir Sport tyres on DT Swiss R460 wheels, but could easily fit 28mm tyres.

With the current spec of tyres, an easy upgrade would be a bump to a Turbo Pro tyre which would significantly improve the racey feel of the bike, while the Espoir Sports will function well as a workhorse tyre.

The Elite comes specced with a Praxis Alba 2D crankset with compact gearing, while Specialized has specced a KMC chain. The remaining groupset is Shimano 105, but with the aftermarket brakes and cranks that does account solely for the shifting system and the cassette.

While there is a little compromise on the shifting specification, this is still an impressive package for £1000. Particularly, it will come in substantially lighter than similarly priced alloy competition – Specialized speculate it will come in around 400g lighter than similarly pitched alternatives in the next season.

A wide variety of sizing is available, stretching from 49mm to 61 in three different colour schemes.

We'll be hunting down a sample as soon as possible to get a full verdict of the performance on the road. On the surface, the Allez Elite looks like an excellent option for a winter bike, and for those new to the sport an excellent gateway into competitive riding and sportives.

Buy the Giant Defy Advanced Pro 1 now from Tredz

For riders who want a more comfortable cycle that’s easy to use when tackling bigger rides, but also want a bike with enough zip to keep pace with club riders or other sportivistes, the Giant Defy is an obvious choice. This a bike that’s become one of the mainstays of sportive events, and with good reason.

The frameset was unchanged going into 2017, other than its colour scheme, with the Giant Defy Advanced Pro 1 boasting a Shimano Ultegra groupset which is impossible to fault, and gives a clean, smooth shift every time.

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Image 6 of 10

The 11-32 cassette is a nice touch, giving the extra gear at the lowest end for even the biggest, steepest of hills you’ll encounter on any sportive, or for when you've burnt all your matches and need that get out of jail free card.

The components are mostly Giant’s own-brand, and on the whole excellent, although we found the handlebar shape isn’t the most comfortable and does seem to pass more vibration than it should through to your hands. That’s something to bear in mind.

Giant uses compact geometry, with a low-slung top tube giving extra clearance, meaning a lot of seatpost will be on display.

This has a positive effect on rear-end comfort with the extra length of seatpost giving a little flex that helps smooth out the bumps.

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Image 3 of 10

The front end of the Giant Defy Advanced Pro 1 can’t quite match the level of comfort, but the tubeless-ready wheels and tyres are a big plus, giving the potential for slightly lower pressures with less risk of those pesky punctures.

First impressions when riding were very positive, with the bike accelerating instantly with no feeling of lag or flex through the frame or wheels.

Uphill, the low weight is noticeable and it feels like you’re able to climb a gear higher than most other bikes.

The wide-ratio cassette means that you can stay in the big ring for longer, giving you a little extra motivation to keep the pace up.

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Image 10 of 10

Downhill, the handling is very typical of Giant bikes. It is neutral and stable and this is an easy bike to descend on, but it doesn’t change direction as quickly as others and lacks a little excitement as a result.

The Giant Defy Advanced Pro 1 is one of the most popular bikes in the country and it’s easy to see why. The Advanced Pro 1 feels light and fast, encouraging you to push harder and go faster, but with a little more comfort than most standard racing bikes. We’d say it offers the best of all worlds – a cracker.

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Image 7 of 10

Ratings

Frame: Neutral and stable handling, though lacking a little excitement in cornering - 9/10   
Components: Excellent Shimano disc brakes, ideal for descents - 9/10   
Wheels: Light, fast and tubeless-ready. They ride superbly - 9/10   
The ride: Less comfortable than some endurance rides, but still a comfy steed - 9/10

Verdict

A light and fast endurance bike that has more than enough zip. Definitely worth a spin - 9/10

Buy the Giant Defy Advanced Pro 1 now from Tredz

Specification

Warning: in the next few paragraphs you may experience wobble, flop and twitch. Don’t be alarmed – they are terms that will help you to better understand the complex subject of bicycle handling. Put simply, handling is the input required to control a bike’s direction, and the biggest factor is the bicycle’s geometry.

It has taken a century to get close to fully comprehending the dynamics but Assistant Professor Arend Schwab of Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, is one of a team of physicists that claims to have eventually cracked the problem in 2011.

‘In our equation there are 27 parameters,’ he tells Cyclist. These include tube angles, dimensions, fork rake, bottom bracket height and centre of gravity. Change just one element and the handling changes.

Decades of cumulative experience have led framebuilders to a general geometry for road bikes that’s an acceptable balance between weight, comfort, efficiency and handling.

This means that, today, most of the tweaks for handling are made with the head tube angle and fork offset, sometimes called rake, because they determine ‘trail’.

To get an idea of trail, imagine a beam of light shining down through the centre of the head tube. It will touch the ground ahead of the point where the front tyre touches the ground.

The distance between these two points is the trail and it’s one of the main factors in how a bike handles.

‘Trail affects the stability of the bicycle,’ says framebuilder Richard Craddock of Craddock Cycles in Bromsgrove.

‘All bicycles are more stable the faster they move but more trail makes it easier to stay upright. On the downside, more trail means more wobble when you’re out of the saddle and it requires more effort from the rider to steer when it comes to cornering.’

It’s this last point that energises Anders Annerstedt of Luxembourg bike brand Rolo.

‘A bike with a longer trail is more difficult to keep on the ideal trajectory around a corner. So on a hairpin you’ll have to steer through the turn with maybe two or three different inputs.

'You have to be forceful because the geometry wants to keep the bike in its existing trajectory,’ he says.

With less trail the rider doesn’t have to expend as much energy to make those corrections and can do so quicker, Annerstedt adds.

He tunes his geometry to eliminate excessive ‘wheel flop’ – low-speed instability – and all framebuilders aim to adjust the trail to provide the kind of handling most suited to the intended use of the bike.

So a touring bike might have a lot of trail to provide a stable, predictable ride, while a race bike might have a small amount of trail to offer quick, sharp cornering. 

There are two main ways a framebuilder can adjust trail: by changing the angle of the head tube or by adjusting the rake (offset) of the fork. To reduce the trail, you can make the head tube steeper, increase the fork rake, or both.

Road cyclists have generally come to favour the handling of bikes where the trail is 50-60mm. A head angle in the region of 73° with a fork offset of around 45mm tends to acheive this.

Many framebuilders are cagey about their precise figures, but if you know two of the three variables you can calculate the third at the bikecad.ca website. 

There is an extra complication with small frame sizes because the front wheel is closer to the bottom bracket, which brings a risk that it will be clipped by the rider’s toes.

To increase the clearance either the head angle must be made shallower or the fork offset increased, either of which will affect handling unless other design changes are made.

Weights and measures 

Unfortunately, checking the geometry chart to assess trail won’t tell you all you need to know about handling, because there are other factors involved.

Framebuilders cite bottom bracket height and wheelbase as the next two most influential geometrical elements for handling.

Further changes to handling can be made by altering the length of the stem, the width of the handlebars, and the type of wheels and tyres.

Heavier wheels and tyres, for example, have more inertia and require more effort to turn the bars.

The way a bike handles is also down to the stiffness of the frame and forks, which means materials and tube shapes play their parts.

‘The choice and use of material allow a bike manufacturer to achieve more specific bike-handling characteristics within a defined geometry,’ says Tim Hartung, design engineer at Trek Bicycles.

‘This is where composite materials have a major advantage over isotropic materials such as steel and aluminium.’

He likes how carbon allows him to control and tune stiffness precisely through lay-up patterns, tube thicknesses and cross-section shapes.

Modern developments such as disc brakes on road bikes have also had an effect on the way a bike handles, according to Hartung: ‘Typically, thru axles are much thicker [than standard quick releases], commonly 12mm or 15mm.

'The thicker axle is stronger and stiffer and also creates a stiffer system connection between frame and wheel. It can create a scenario where the front and rear wheels are not in sync with each other.

'The rear wheel and frame will tend to stay more in the same plane with each other, which can be bad when trying to hold a constant line in high speed cornering.

'You can end up with a bike that does not have enough “give” or flex in the system to hold a good line in a corner or allow you to successfully counter-steer accordingly.

‘This could mean your tyre contact patch with the ground in the rear could be compromised. Or you end up hitting the brakes to adjust your line in a high-speed corner on the road,’ Hartung adds.

‘Neither of these are desirable in race situations. Keep in mind that this level of detail is really only noticed by elite cyclists and some of this effect can be mitigated by changing your frame stiffness parameters.’

The organic element

No matter what geometry and stiffness levels have been dialled into a bike, there will always be one variable that is impossible for the framebuilder to accurately predict: the rider.

Body shapes and riding styles are going to affect the dynamics of handling, and Arend Schwab of Technical University of Delft has definite views on how the rider’s position relates to the handling.

‘The pose or position of the rider isn’t so important when it comes to handling but the way you hold the handlebars is very important,’ he says.

‘The steering structure is very light and if you add the big mass of arms and upper body, it can influence the system and its response.’

Schwab suggests that, theoretically, holding the bars with straight arms at the same angle as the head tube would be best for stability because then your arm and upper body mass has minimal influence on the steering system.

London-based framebuilder Tom Donhou adds, ‘You really want to keep the centre of gravity in the right place, particularly when you’re riding at speed. Speed wobble is down to weight placement so you need to get the right distribution of weight between the wheels.’ 

For a framebuilder, trying to balance all the geometric elements against the rider’s physiology can be a daunting task, especially when customers can be remarkably demanding, while simultaneously unclear, about the kind of handling they want.

‘People use words like responsive, reactive, agile, nimble, aggressive,’ says Tom Rodi of American bespoke builder Parlee Cycles.

‘There are 20 or 30 adjectives that you’ll hear. Sometimes someone will talk about a bike feeling “nervous”. It could be too steep at the head tube or the fork being too rigid.

'There are a lot of pieces to look at. There’s the torsional rigidity of the head, top and down tubes, the torsional responsiveness of the whole fork assembly and there’s the vertical compliance – the ability of those things to bend in reaction to road abnormalities.’

What is apparent is that there’s no simple solution to predicting a bike’s handling. It’s something that framebuilders will continue to tinker with and refine as much through trial and error as through science.

And once you’ve got your frame, the parts you attach to it will also have an effect too, but mostly the way you carve through that hairpin bend will be down to you.

The way a bike handles is largely down to the person handling it.

I am not a violent person, but I swear if one more person tells me a 48-tooth chainring is too small, I might well remove said chainring and beat them with it.

When I first rode the Strada in a group, I found myself constantly being drawn into the same conversation. It would start with someone saying, ‘Ooh, is that the new 3T?’

I would respond in the affirmative, and then they would say, ‘Wow, it looks really cool.’ I would agree that, yes, it does look cool. And then, without fail, would come the comment, ‘Not sure about the 1x drivetrain, though.’

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Image 3 of 18

The main objection seemed to be that the single chainring wouldn’t be ‘fast enough’. I’m not even sure what this means. After all, the number of teeth on a chainring in no way dictates the speed of a bike, and unless you’re André Greipel I would say you’re unlikely to spin out a 48x11t gear. 

Trust me, it’s fast enough. But more than that, the continual naysaying of the 1x system is frustrating because there’s so much more to the Strada’s story than just its drivetrain. 

Get out clause 

For starters, there’s the aero story. The 3T Strada certainly looks very aerodynamic, and I’m inclined to believe that it is, given that the man behind its design is Gerard Vroomen. He’s the guy who co-founded Cervélo and has been responsible for some of the bike industry’s most significant wind- cheating designs over the past couple of decades. 

Vroomen is only just back on the road scene – a non-compete clause prevented him from developing a road bike for a period of two years after leaving Cervélo – but happily he’s already forging new trends as, for my money, the Strada is one of the most exciting bikes I’ve tested in ages. 

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Image 7 of 18

One of Vroomen’s starting points was to ensure the frame had clearance for up to 30mm tyres. That had nothing to do with making the bike suitable for off-road excursions (although I did take the Strada on the occasional gravel path, and it coped just fine). Instead the wider tyres are to offer reduced rolling resistance and improved comfort, and Vroomen had to ensure those tyres were suitably shrouded to improve aerodynamics. And this is where disc brakes and 1x shifting play a vital role. 

Firstly, with discs the fork crown no longer needs to act as a mounting point for a brake calliper, hence a good chunk of material can be removed to shed weight and drop the front end height such that the front tyre can tuck closer under the down tube, something Vroomen says is key to reducing drag. 

Ditching the need for a front derailleur means the tube shaping in this area can be made more aerodynamic. Plus, not having a mech means less weight and potentially cleaner airflow. Those are the theories. But do they deliver? 

Tyres that never tire 

Given the chunky nature of the frame, I was expecting a bumpy ride when I first set out on the Strada, but secretly hoped it would be fast enough that I wouldn’t care. And fast it was. So much so that I got over-excited and completely over-paced my usual century ride and blew up like a stick of dynamite. 

I couldn’t help myself – I was having that much fun. When people asked me what I thought of the Strada I found myself using words like ‘rocketship’ and ‘beast’. It’s undoubtedly the quickest 28mm tyre bike I’ve tested, and those Pirelli P Zero Velo 4S tyres measured closer to 30mm on the super- wide Enve 5.6 SES rims. 

While I’m on the subject of the tyres, they had a crucial part to play in the enjoyment of the bike. Such voluminous cushions of air dealt superbly with road vibrations, and the Strada was a lot more comfortable as a result. It’s not as comfy as, say, a Cannondale Synapse or Trek Domane, but it is noticably more agreeable than rival aero bikes such as Cervélo’s S5 or Specialized’s Venge ViAS. 

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Image 4 of 18

Not only did the tyres roll well, they offered plenty of bite in the turns, aided by the Strada’s stability, which was another of its standout attributes. I could glance over a shoulder or take a hand off the bars while descending at speed with no sign of the bike being unsettled.

The only downside to running such wide tyres at 70psi was during big accelerations, which would initially feel a little subdued by a slight squirming of the rubber, but that hesitancy lasted only a few seconds. 

All the gear 

Now, back to the gearing. I accept that a 1x road drivetrain won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There are those who will be frightened off by the thought of having only one chainring, but let me allay your fears. I tested with a Dura-Ace Di2 mech (so no clutch, and no, I never dropped a chain) using an 11-30t cassette. I switched between a 46t and a 48t chainring depending on the terrain, but found that the 48t was fine for all but the steepest inclines. 

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Image 2 of 18

And here’s the point: you don’t need your gearing to be perfect in every conceivable situation. That might sound like an odd thing to say when we’re about to enter the age of 24-gear road bikes, but the chances are you won’t be looking to go elbow-to-elbow with Greipel in a sprint, or fighting to stay on Nairo Quintana’s wheel up the Angliru. 

You just need a wide enough range of gears for the situations you’ll be riding in, and for that I can confidently say there are enough options available in a 1x drivetrain. 

In truth, a 1x set-up is probably not quite right for the pros, but it’s almost certainly suited to the vast majority of everyday riders. Plus, it’s only going to get better once 3T finally releases its promised 9-33t and 9-32t cassette options. 

It feels like Vroomen has only been back in the road industry for five minutes and he’s already at it again, creating what I predict to be a game-changing concept with the Strada. His decision to blend an aero road frame with a 1x drivetrain and wide tyres is daring us to think differently about how we ride. And I, for one, am sold. 

3T Strada First Look Review

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.

First look: 3T Strada

Matthew Page, 7 February 2017

Italian company 3T has produced well-regarded finishing kit since 1961, but has 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

Price:£3,600 frameset only, est. £10,000 as tested

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.

Score: 4.5 / 5

Spec

This article was originally published in Issue 70 of Cyclist Magazine

Words Peter Stuart Photography Fred MacGregor

‘I  think the world has to change,’ says Roman Arnold, founder and CEO of Canyon. ‘I have been a retailer and I have been a dealer. I know this sport and the industry very well, and I want to make cycling better for the consumer.’

Arnold is speaking about criticism that his company’s online-only model has hurt smaller retailers by cutting them out of the loop. Canyon, which has built a reputation for making WorldTour-standard bikes at competitive prices, may seem like any other bike brand, but there’s a crucial difference. It sells directly from the manufacturer to the consumer, bypassing the usual supply chain from manufacturer to distributor to retailer to customer.

For consumers in the age of e-commerce, the difference between the two models could almost go unnoticed, but here at Canyon’s vast headquarters in Koblenz it’s clear just how complicated and challenging the task has been.

‘On average, we ship 400 to 500 bikes per day, but we can ship 1,200 bikes at full capacity,’ says Martin Wald, Canyon’s chief production officer. ‘During the Tour de France we hit that number.’

Wald has a history in automotive production, where he spent years at General Motors overseeing production lines across 30 manufacturing assembly plants. Perhaps that’s one reason why Canyon feels less like a bike factory and more like a laser-focused facility of mass production.

The company is spread over a handful of monolithic warehouses, with the creative staff housed in stylish design suites that sit above the showroom at Canyon’s enormous whitewashed main building. ‘We have a team of 50 product managers, engineers and designers,’ Arnold explains. The real showpiece of the Koblenz headquarters, however, is the industrial production line at Canyon’s nearby assembly plant, a 10-minute drive away. 

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Image 1 of 10

Checks and measures

Many European brands not only have their frames fabricated in the Far East, but their bike assembly is done there as well. Canyon, by contrast, assembles all its bikes here in this vast facility, and while it may be less efficient than simply shipping complete bikes from the Far East, the process is designed to ensure there are no nasty surprises when the customer opens the box.

In 2016, Canyon came to international attention when it suffered a major breakdown to its computer systems while migrating to a new IT platform, and consequently, the company was unable to link orders to consumers despite having a warehouse full of bikes. It caused chaos and ended with a lot of unhappy customers, so today each bike goes through a series of rigorous checks, even to the point of recording the torque of every bolt.

‘We measure certain critical torques that we must achieve,’ says Wald, pointing to an enormous digital torque wrench being used by the assembly team. ‘This is an error-proofing device. This wrench has a Bluetooth connection, and it records the vehicle ID number of this individual bike. So if a customer buys the bike and there’s a problem on a critical torque we can verify what torque we set here.’

This tracking and traceability is part of what Wald describes as ‘automotive-level error-proofing’. Every component has a QR code, and every bike can be linked to each component and each worker involved with it. Even cardboard bike boxes are tuned to the specific requirements of each bike, to ensure no problems on arrival.

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Image 2 of 10

‘We have five boxes, in different sizes,’ Wald says. ‘Each bike is set in this specific gear so the rear derailleur doesn’t get damaged from impacts to the box,’ he tells me, pointing to the positioning of the rear mech, which sits comfortably 1cm off the box’s wall.

Everything within the factory is clinical and precise. Today, signs around the building warn the workers of Cyclist’s visit and tell them not to let our presence affect their work cycle.

In the warehousing section Wald points to a QR code on one of the bike boxes: ‘This is where we won the German award for logistic innovation. Here we scan the box and load it onto the trailer so we can move it into storage.

‘As soon as the technician scans it he can connect it with the build and know what shipment it came with.

‘We know the weight and dimensions of the box and the computer finds the best location in the warehouse by size and also when we need it next. If we don’t need it for a long time it goes further and higher in the stacks, so what we need tomorrow is more accessible. That’s all built into the system.’

Could Canyon go one step further and roboticise the entire process? ‘That will be the next step, maybe,’ says Wald. ‘But there has to be a good reason to do it because it takes away a lot of flexibility.

‘That’s a discussion we keep having – how much automation do we need?’

As he talks, a forklift travels along a magnetic guidance strip and then disappears among a tower of boxes that looks like something from the final scene from Raiders Of The Lost Ark.  

Quality control

Canyon’s determination to double-check every aspect of the bike’s build and delivery extends out beyond its German facility to the Asian factories where its frames are made.

‘We can’t influence what carbon fibre suppliers like Mitsubishi are doing,’ says Gordon Koenen, Canyon’s head of quality. ‘We can just take the best fibres we need, then it’s up to us to work with our production partners to make a good design and then produce it as quickly as possible.’

Once the frames and components are built, Canyon examines each one using an x-ray scanner to check for flaws.

‘In terms of what we do with our test labs and CT scanner, no other manufacturer works like we do. When we see quality levels have stabilised we drop down our own testing to 10% of each component, but in Asia they keep going for 100%.’

Not only does this process check the quality of components, but it also checks the quality of the checks themselves. ‘Each fork has a serial number, which we scan when we inspect the fork.

‘That means the partner in Asia that’s done the same inspection can upload the same angle picture and share it with us. So we do our inspection here and inspect their picture to see if the checks are being done correctly.’

The whole process is slick, meticulous and advanced – a far cry from the company’s beginnings in the back of a big blue trailer.

Gamble on success

‘You never have a clear picture of the future, but I had a plan 20 years ago that someday I wanted to have a global company,’ says Arnold as he thinks back to his early days.

‘As a youth he was a keen racer, but the world of pro cycling was a little out of his grasp, especially considering his towering 6ft 5in stature. Instead he joined his father selling bike components from a blue trailer, which now sits by the door of the Canyon showroom, a physical relic from Canyon’s early days.

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Image 4 of 10

‘Of course I wanted to see my bikes someday at the Tour de France, and now we have achieved that,’ Arnold says with a smile. It wasn’t the easiest journey, though.

‘First we sponsored Team Unibet, which was a contract that lasted only half a year,’ Arnold says. Unibet was a betting company but after the team raced at the Tour of Flanders the ASO refused to invite them to races on French soil because of French laws on advertising gambling.

‘It wasn’t fair as the team had been licensed, but then it disappeared and two years later we started with Omega-Pharma Lotto.’

That first taste of WorldTour pressure taught Canyon about the demands at the top of the sport. ‘The team complained about our time-trial bike,’ Arnold recalls.

‘We were new to the business and the team DS said, “I want you to change the bike. Just copy the Trek bike!” But of course we didn’t want to copy something, we wanted to understand the aerodynamics behind it.’

The consequence was the development of the Speedmax TT bike, now considered one of the fastest on the market.

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Image 5 of 10

It reveals one of the unique benefits of Canyon’s business model. The company doesn’t need to consider the retail viability of each product across thousands of stores, so it can produce items that might only be sold in small quantities.

It gives flexibility and the opportunity to develop innovative products.

If there’s a threat to Canyon’s model, it could be the possibility of being beaten at its own game by other e-commerce giants such as Wiggle-CRC, many of whom are investing in their own bike and component brands.

No sour grapes

‘You know, I was born in a small wine-making village,’ Arnold muses, in a roundabout response to that suggestion.

‘I would say Wiggle, Bike-24, Chain Reaction are like the biggest retailers for wine. But we have our own vineyard,’ he chuckles.

‘We are manufacturers and I would say none of these guys are really into manufacturing. When you go to our factory, everything you see there is in place because we made the decision that we want to be a bike manufacturer.’

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Image 6 of 10

In which case, perhaps that’s where Canyon’s biggest challenge will come from. Rather than e-commerce companies building bikes, the threat will be big-brand manufacturers beginning to juggle direct-to-consumer savings with the conventional retail chain.

Bringing us back to our first conversation of the day, it potentially leaves the small retailers with a troubling future.

‘There are still some bookstores here in Koblenz,’ Arnold says, once again addressing the issue from a tangent. ‘But 20 years ago there were 20 or 30 bookstores here. Now there are two. Now they’re doing things differently.

‘They bring the authors in, they do what they can to foster the book society here in Koblenz, and they are good for the culture here. In the same way, I think in the end we will bring business to the small retailers and in the end we will foster a passion for cycling.’

It’s plain that Arnold’s passion for cycling, and for selling bikes, is undimished even after 17 years of painstakingly building the Canyon brand.

It has come a long way from its blue trailer, and is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Bike hospital

Canyon’s own CT scanner offers a medical diagnosis of carbon fibre components

Tucked away at the back of Canyon’s vast assembly plant in Koblenz is a tiny carbon fibre hospital, where the company has its own CT scanner to improve quality control.

‘If you have a handmade process you need to show the process is stable otherwise you need to inspect 100% of the time,’ says Gordon Koenen, Canyon’s head of quality.

‘The CT scanner uses high-resolution x-ray imaging to display the inside of carbon fibre components. ‘It’s much stronger than a hospital x-ray,’ Koenen says.

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Image 9 of 10

These scans help to prove the effectiveness of Canyon’s production partners in the Far East with in-depth analysis of each carbon fibre component. ‘The main things we focus on here are wall thickness, delamination and wrinkles.’

Customers can also use the scanner. ‘If you crash your bike we’ll scan it to look for fractures. Then either you get a clear report from us or we tell you to stop riding,’ Koenen says. ‘Last year we did 65 scans.’

Surprisingly, the service isn’t exclusive to Canyon customers. There is a price, of course: ‘For now, we charge €300 to scan a frameset,’ Koenen says, although there is a silver lining.

‘But if we find something and you buy a new bike from us then this service is free.’

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Image 10 of 10

Roman's Empire

‘When we talk about consumer-direct, my company has been consumer-direct for more than 30 years. We started consumer-direct sales with a trailer, and this idea remains with us,’ says Roman Arnold.

The trailer was his father’s, which he took to races to sell components to racers directly.

Later the family opened a bike shop, Radsport, and started their first bike brand, Radical. The first Canyon bike appeared in 1996, and in 2001 Arnold had the company incorporated as Canyon Bicycles GmbH. The rest is history.

This article was originally published in Issue 74 of Cyclist Magazine

Words James Spender Photography Mike Massaro

What better place to start hunting down forgotten gems than the oldest marque in the game? Founded in Milan by Edoardo Bianchi, the Italian company lays claim to being the longest surviving name in the business, with a heritage dating back to 1885.

Over its 133-year history it has won pretty much every race going, with riders such as Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Marco Pantani, Mario Cipollini and Jan Ullrich, and is still notching up victories today with the LottoNL-Jumbo team.

Bianchi’s pedigree is as rich as its bikes are diverse, so when Cyclist visited the Bianchi factory on the outskirts of Treviglio in northern Italy, we needed someone who knows their tubing, and luckily we found him: creative director and de facto bike curator Fabio Belotti, an employee of 41 years who has worked on some of Bianchi’s most famous bikes.

Here he talks us through just a small selection of its vast back catalogue, but before he leads us to a secret lock-up in a disused part of the factory, he decides we need a brief history lesson about the one thing that has united the company’s bikes through the ages. Well, nearly.

‘Everyone thinks of Bianchi as the “Celeste” company, but once upon a time our bicycles only came in one colour: black. The first ones we found in Celeste are from 1912.

‘Our legend is that Edoardo Bianchi took inspiration for the Celeste colour from the eyes of Queen Margherita, who he was teaching to ride a bicycle. Over the years the colour has changed from a little more green to a little more blue.

In 1990 we created the official pantone CK, and in 2016 I created the slightly more fluorescent CK16. But even though the colour is always changing, for every Bianchi rider it has always been the same. All thanks to Edoardo.’

Marco Pantani Mega Pro, 1998

‘This is the jewel in the collection – Marco Pantani’s double-Grand Tour-winning bicycle from the 1998 season, when he won the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France,’ says Belotti. ‘The model is the Mega Pro, made from Dedacciai 7000-series aluminium.

‘The frame weighed 850g, which was incredibly light back then, and would have been quite dangerous for many riders but not for Marco, who was only around 50kg when he was with us and riding for Mercatone Uno.

‘It had Campagnolo Shamal wheels, some of the very first deep-section wheels, all in aluminium. Just look at the spokes! Twelve at the front and 16 at the rear – crazy! And the gears. Nine speed, 12-21 cassette and a 53/39 chainset. Marco was incredible.

‘The Mercatone team colour was yellow. I remember one of their designers came up with a kit that was yellow with brown and green, but it was not so nice, so I combined a different tone of yellow and put it with Celeste.

‘At the beginning people said, “Oh wow, that is terrible!” but when Marco started winning on it everyone loved it. Marco once said these were his favourite colours. We make our carbon Specialissima in this colour now to celebrate this. I am hoping Selle Italia will do a remake of the “Il Pirata” saddle too one day.’

Disc Brake Chrono Prototype, 1996

‘I think this is possibly the first ever disc brake road bike, predating disc brakes on mountain bikes even. The callipers were made for us by Formula, with hydraulic pistons pulled by normal cables. Look at these rotors – 125mm, tiny! It’s funny, the front wheel has so many spokes but has been radially laced, which is a very bad idea for the twisting forces of disc brakes.

‘We made this bike for the Russian rider, Evgeni Berzin. It is Columbus Hyperion titanium, and the big tubes have been bent from sheet metal and seam-welded. The idea of the Pantani chrono bike started here.

‘We made a lot of prototypes for Berzin – he was a great innovator. But at the time, when Grand Tours were obsessed by mountains, this bike was too heavy for him, so I think he never raced it.

‘That’s a shame as I think it is beautiful. The shape is fantastic. You see that line around the wheel? The curve goes down under the bottom bracket like a spoiler. You could not do this now because of the UCI rules, but back then it was the most exciting time for designers. We could make our fantasy a reality.’

Mario Cipollini Time-Trial, 2005

‘This was for Mario’s last Grand Tour before he retired. So it was not his last race really – he went over to America and rode exhibitions and then came back to Europe, then he retired [only to un-retire for a few months in 2008 with Rock Racing].

‘This bike has only been ridden once, for the prologue. It was an evening stage, and Mario – you know he is crazy – had this fluorescent skinsuit made with these silver veins on it and all his race wins written down the legs, so to match I designed the paint for this bike: fantastic pink with luminous white veins that glowed in the dark.

‘Mario is a really big guy, so the frame is very long, but he was super-flexible too, so it is still a very low position. The tubing is aluminium, drawn and made for us by Deda. The fork is from Oval, and it has slits in the legs for aerodynamics. The bars are ITM [although a careful look reveals some cunningly placed black electrical tape], the groupset is of course Super Record and the wheels are Campagnolo also.

‘The rear wheel is a Campagnolo Ghibli, which was the first lenticular disc wheel when it came out in 1983. He also rode a Bora wheel that night, but not this one. This one is newer.’

Bianchi C4, 1986

‘The C4 company was started by an ex-R&D employee from Bianchi, and it made these bikes for us, which were among the first carbon fibre monocoque bikes in the world. It is incredible without the seat tube. The production run was very small, as you might think, but they were raced. This one belonged to Moreno Argetin, who rode for the Sommontana-Bianchi team.

‘The concept was aero, but at the time only Formula 1 teams went to the wind-tunnels, so really this is made by, let’s say, intuition and sensation.

‘We made the top silicone grommet over the seatpost as underneath it is not so nice – there is a big hole in the frame either side of the seatpost – but this is so the seatpost can tilt forwards or back, which is done by screwing the two horizontal bolts, so the effective seat tube angle can be changed.

‘The Ambrosio wheels and specially shaped Campagnolo water bottle show more aero thinking. The water bottle is very beautiful, but it is so hard to remove from the cage!

‘Once again this design was soon banned by the UCI, and C4 no longer makes frames anyway – it now specialises in spear guns for scuba diving, and flippers.’

Bianchi Steel Road Bike, circa 1951

‘I think this is in original condition, and is from around 1951. You can tell because it has the rod lever shifting system but also has a bolt mount for a rear derailleur, which became more popular in the early 1950s. The tubing is possibly Reynolds, and almost every part is made by Bianchi, even casting our own lugs.

‘I love the gear system [a Campagnolo single-lever Paris-Roubaix derailleur] – it was crazy. There are teeth on the ends of the hubs, which meshed with teeth on the inside of the dropout.

‘To change gear you turned the lever on the seatstay, which twisted a rod that undid the quick release and moved the derailleur to select a gear, but to make the chain change sprocket you had to pedal backwards at the same time!

‘The chain tension either pulled the wheel forward [bigger sprockets] or gravity rolled it backward [smaller sprocket] along the dropout track. Then you retightened the lever. Brilliant, but just crazy. Especially when you think there was no asphalt in those days. We can say this was one of the first gravel bikes, I think.’

Military Folder, circa 1940

‘These were produced between about 1930 and 1950, and we can say they were the first fold-up, full-suspension bikes. At the rear there is a coil shock on the top of the seatstays, and there is a steel plate that flexes like a spring where the chainstays meet the bottom bracket.

‘The front has pivots at the fork dropouts and little suspension shocks with oil damping on either of the fork legs. It still works fine even now!

‘These were Italian military issue, so there are rifle mounts on the top tube and a rack for the soldier’s equipment. Everything had to be very reliable, so the grips are wooden and the tyres, made by Pirelli, are solid.

‘However if you were a captain you got pneumatic tyres and more gears. The front and rear wheels are interchangeable. The whole bike folded up – there are hinges in the top tube – so it could be carried on the back.

‘It must have been hard because these things weighed about 35kg. It was a very successful product, though – we made around 50,000, which helped to keep Bianchi going during the Second World War.’

Johan Museeuw Paris-Roubaix, 1994

‘We used to be able to design all kinds of things [before the UCI tightened its rules on bike design in the late 1990s], so for Paris-Roubaix we made this one-off bike for Johan.

‘It has the Roubaix RockShox suspension fork on the front, and a full suspension at the rear as well. It looks very big, but it only produced a small amount of travel, maybe 30mm. We had to use an XTR mountain bike cantilever brake from Shimano on the back because there was nothing to bolt a road calliper to. The rear triangle is steel, the rest is Columbus Altec aluminium.

‘I remember the weather was awful, and I think Museeuw punctured in the final breakaway. Then when he tried to unclip his foot got stuck in his Diadora pedals and he became so angry he threw the bike down and changed to a different bike for the rest of the race [Museeuw finished 13th].

‘He very much liked the bike in testing, but in the race it was a different story. This bike was never a production bike, but really that is because of rule changes and the cost, which was about £15,000.’

Marco Pantani Time-Trial, 1998

‘Another bike from the “House of Pantani”. We have many! He was a rider that changed everything to the millimetre, and we would end up building so many frames for him – 40 in a season – and so we ended up with quite a lot. He used this one in the Giro and the Tour in his double season.

‘As you can see the geometry is incredible. The front wheel is 26-inch, the rear normal, to achieve the very aero position. The seat tube was cut precisely to his measurements, and the head tube is less than 90mm.

‘We developed the bars with ITM and they are welded directly onto the crown of the fork, meaning his hands were sometimes below the top of the tyre [and still well below the headset when on the bar extensions].

‘We shaped the tubes like aeroplane wings, but even at this time it was all theory and sensation. There were no CFD computer programs to help us.

‘The tyres are 19mm. Sometimes Marco rode 21mm, but that was it. Even on his road bike he always preferred 19mm tyres. It’s crazy when you think about it now.’

Magnus Backstedt Paris-Roubaix, 2004

‘This is the actual bike Magnus Backstedt won Paris-Roubaix on in 2004. It might look quite normal but it is actually made from special titanium by Bianchi, with the Dedacciai sticker because officially they were the sponsors. He loved this bike, and he loved titanium. We made him many titanium bikes for different teams.

‘The material was very good for being light, strong and tough. It needed to be, as Backstedt was a huge man, so he needed a 63cm frame.

‘To keep such large triangles stiff we used a bi-ovalised down tube, where there is a horizontal oval cross-section at the bottom bracket and a vertical oval at the head tube, and we filled the frame with special foam to reinforce it but stay light.

‘The foam starts as liquid and was pumped into the bottom of the seat tube, then the frame was put on a vibrating table to shake the bubbles out before the foam hardened. Some of Pantani’s bikes had this too – it really worked. You can see the dents in the top tube, but he rode it like that.