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.

Buy the Madone SLR 9 Disc bike from Evans Cycles

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.

Buy the Madone SLR 9 Disc bike from Evans Cycles

‘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.

WordsPeter StuartPhotography George Marshall

The 2019 Giro d'Italia will return to the famous slopes of the Gavia Pass. For more information on next year's Giro course, click here.

If roads had memories, the Mortirolo Pass could tell you some stories about 1994. It was during that year’s Giro d’Italia that Italy’s favourite son, Marco Pantani, chased Miguel Indurain up its punishingly steep inclines. Pantani flew up the road, bridging to the Spaniard before dropping both him and race leader Evgeni Berzin to take the victory on the stage.

His was the fastest-ever ascent of the Mortirolo (although it would be beaten two years later by Ivan Gotti) and had the tifosi in a frenzy.

Even watching it today on a grainy YouTube video, his ability to dance up the 20% slopes is a unique spectacle, and explains why the Italian had such enigmatic appeal.

A stone statue of Pantani, accompanied by a poem, now sits near the summit and stares down at riders with a mischievous smile.

Today, on a fresh autumn morning, there are no epic battles to be fought on the Mortirolo – just us, grinding away on its vertiginous inclines.

With me is Chris, a friend from home, and we are accompanied by Daniele Schena, who owns Hotel Funivia in Bormio and is by all accounts a monster (and a gentleman) on the bike.

While we are all climbing at a fraction of Pantani’s speed, I truly believe we may be suffering as much as he did. We are still many kilometres short of his statue, hauling our bikes from side to side in a feeble attempt to keep upright.

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Image 3 of 21

Ahead of us is a long day with two gigantic climbs, including the Gavia Pass that will greet us immediately after we’ve tackled the Mortirolo.

My mind drifts back to a more carefree time when I was fresh-faced and relaxed, sipping an espresso – about an hour ago.

Fall and rise

The Mortirolo was supposedly discovered by the cycling world after the famous Giro of 1988, when a snow blizzard created a dramatic and treacherous ascent of the Gavia (more on that later).

The organisers found the Mortirolo as an alternative pass over the ridge of mountains for future years, should the same adverse weather strike.

We’re spared any such snowy drama as we set off from Bormio into a cool autumn morning. The sun is beaming, but our initial descent sees temperatures of around 6°C.

Although it’s cold, we enjoy a beautiful ride through the Valtellina valley, where distant snow-capped peaks lure us onwards. By the time we reach the town of Grosio, the chill has convinced us it’s time to grab a coffee and warm up.

Grosio is an historic town peppered with medieval buildings, with the ironically named Castello Nuovo dating back to the 14th century. We pull into a cafe and Daniele winces with embarrassment when I ask for a cappuccino.

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Image 4 of 21

He quickly corrects the barista: ‘Tre espresso!’ He tells me discreetly that it is 10am, and so already too late to order a coffee with any milk.

Aside from the Italian tradition, Daniele points out that I’m in violation of the Velominati Rules so often mentioned in this very magazine.

‘You know Rule #56? Espresso or macchiato only,’ he says. Beneath Daniele’s hotel is a cycling cafe plastered with tributes to The Rules, as well as dozens of World Champion or leaders jerseys given to him by top pros. Many of them ride here and know him well.

He reiterates how challenging the Mortirolo will be – Lance Armstrong described it as the hardest climb he’d ever done. Daniele doesn’t hesitate in berating me for bringing a standard chainset rather than a compact.

With a mixture of caffeine and anxiety in my system, it feels about time to jump back on the bike. From Grosio we have a 5km roll to the base of the Mortirolo at Mazzo di Valtellina, and as the mountain creeps ever closer I can make out the road cutting viciously into the steep green incline.

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Image 5 of 21

When we hit the first ramp of the 11.5km climb I stand up to meet the 15% gradient. I heave on the bars, only to realise that there won’t be respite enough to sit down again at this pace.

I slow down, sit down and jab at my Di2 button in search of a smaller gear, but I’ve long-since shifted into my easiest 39/28.

Pantani’s peak

There are four routes up the Mortirolo. We chose to start from Mazzo di Valtellina, but we could have begun the climb from Grosio for a shallower and longer ascent.

Equally, the climb can start from Edolo, where it lasts 17.2km at 7%. The other option is a similar ascent to ours, beginning from Tovo di Sant’Agata and with different opening kilometres, but every bit as steep.

The early slopes are covered with trees, which on a warmer day shields riders from the summer sun. On a day like this it means we can’t appreciate our elevation gain.

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Image 7 of 21

The road simply extends into a dark forest, with a certain sinister mystery. As we climb, I find myself rocking in the saddle so I can get enough leverage on the cranks to keep moving.

There aren’t many climbs where only 3km in I find myself wondering if I’ll make it to the fourth.

Daniele, for whom these roads are the local loop of choice, doesn’t seem to be finding it hard. In fact, he’s treating us to a rolling oral history of the area.

‘You see these old stone houses,’ he says pointing at the dilapidated structures that sit alongside the ascent. ‘These are old medieval farmhouses.

They used to keep the cattle in the stables below the home to generate heat,’ he says. Chris valiantly grunts in response between deep gulps of air, while I stare fixedly at my stem and struggle to keep traction on the back wheel.

The Mortirolo is a cruel climb. Indeed even its name has a morbid subtext – morte in Italian means death.

In the first 5km, stretches of 12% and higher are unrelenting, with each kilometre marked by a sign showing the average as well as the maximum. Several kilometres average 14%, with spikes of close to 20% for hundreds of metres.

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Image 9 of 21

Chris and I enter a silent treaty not to push on any harder than we need to in order not to topple over, while Daniele continues his slightly intimidating, albeit fascinating, tour of the local history.

We leave the forest for a moment and emerge onto a wide open face of the mountainside, revealing views of the intricate maze of villages on the opposite side of the valley.

The town of Grosio, where we stopped for coffee, now seems an awfully long way away.

We arrive at a corner that’s signposted to inform us that there are 11 more hairpins, and as we round it we are greeted by Pantani’s stone monument.

I take this as the perfect excuse to stop for a breather.

Next to his statue sits an inscription, which reads, ‘A voi Ciclista! Chiedo solo un piccolo gesto, un piccolo saluto, un piccolo pensiero.’

It means, ‘To you Cyclist! I ask only a small gesture, a small greeting, a little thought.’

As we stand, another rider overtakes us. He’s an Italian who lifts himself from a red-faced effort to look at the monument and nod. ‘Pantani!’ he mutters as he passes.

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Image 10 of 21

After the statue, the climb becomes a little easier – possibly because we’ve been imbued with the spirit of the legendary climber, but mostly because the gradient is significantly easier.

The climb continues to pull at our heartstrings, and live up to its grisly name when we see ‘Ciao Michele’ imprinted on the road, in tribute to the sadly departed Michele Scarponi. Daniele says he knew him well.

The final hairpins boast back-to-back 16% ramps, and after the last of them I decide to collect my final shreds of energy for a sprint for the summit.

Partly it’s simply to get the climb over with, and partly to redeem my feeble speeds on the lower slopes.

Quite remarkably, Daniele seems to not even notice, and rolls alongside me continuing to use one hand to point out and describe surrounding oddities. Chris takes up the challenge and pips me to the summit.

‘That’s another Rule,’ Daniele smiles, in appreciation of our sprinting efforts. While I feel as though we did the ascent at a respectable pace, my time of 70 minutes seems rather pitiful compared to Pantani’s 42 minute 40 second ascent in 1994.

Once we reach the summit, the road adds insult to injury by flattening out and robbing us of a view of the valley below. There will be plenty of views ahead, though, as a grander and more famous climb awaits us.

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Image 11 of 21

The great Gavia

The descent from the Mortirolo to Monno is steep and a little nerve-wracking. Daniele shoots down like a gliding bird, while Chris and I try to stay in sight of his rear wheel.

By the time we reach the town of Monno, the road flattens out only momentarily before we’re climbing again.

The Gavia Pass proper begins at Ponte di Legno, but the ascent begins all the way back in Edolo, and offers 40km of uninterrupted incline.

The Gavia is not much like the Mortirolo but is more similar to its close neighbour the Stelvio, winding through forest and latterly onto a bare mountaintop moonscape.

However both of today’s climbs do share very similar elevations, with the Gavia Pass rising 1,363m to the Mortirolo’s 1,278m. The extra 4km of distance does at least make the Gavia a much kinder incline, although it isn’t without its unique challenges.

We’re straight into a 9% ramp out of the town, which to be honest feels virtually flat compared to the road up the Mortirolo.

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Image 13 of 21

After about 20 minutes we reach a set of widely spaced hairpins, with each corner offering a more scenic view of snow capped mountains than the last.

The Gavia has a colourful history in pro cycling, and specifically in the Giro. In 1988 it hosted one of the race’s most dramatic encounters, as Andy Hampsten won his now famous Giro victory in a snowstorm of epic proportions.

Hampsten entered the stage in fifth place, riding for Team 7-Eleven. His directeur sportif, Gianni Motta, allegedly told him that the Italians had no idea how tough the ascent would be, and so he was to empty himself on the climb to make his bid for victory. And that he did.

Freezing rain turned to snow halfway up the Gavia, and Hampsten launched an attack that left race leader Franco Chioccioli and the peloton in sludgy snow-covered roads that brought the race convoy to a stop. It won Hampsten the maglia rosa, and effectively the Giro.

Tunnel vision

We’re nearing the halfway point, and the wide smooth highway has given way to a cracked single-lane track, which ramps up to 10% for 3km.

It makes for a punishing 15 minutes, but the clear view of the road ahead makes it oddly more bearable than the Mortirolo this morning.

The trees begin to disappear, giving way to barren stone and moss. We’re at around 2,300m now, 500m higher than the summit of the Mortirolo, and we’re staring at a hole in the mountain – a long tunnel that will take us most of the way to the top.

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Image 12 of 21

We roll into it, and in the darkness the sound of heavy breathing echoes against the stone walls. I swear I can almost make out the faint noise of a heartbeat.

Beyond the tunnel, we can see the first of the Gavia’s two mythical lakes. Lago Nero and Lago Bianco carry the legend of two ill-fated lovers, a shepherd and an orphan girl, who were cursed by an evil uncle.

The uncle enlisted the help of the devil, who chased the lovers to the top of the Gavia Pass. To escape the devil, the shepherd and orphan girl turned into lakes, now impervious to the devil’s powers, although separated by the Gavia’s peak.

A kilometre at 10% pulls us up above Lago Nero, which quickly disappears from view behind us, and then we’re at the summit, tapping towards the Rifugio Bonetta mountain cabin.

It would be a good place for a coffee, if it were open, but with the temperatures beginning to drop in the early evening, we decide not to linger here long.

On the other side of the summit we’re introduced to Lago Nero’s ill-fated lover, the Lago Bianco, glittering purple and orange in the evening light. With a 22km descent to come, we calculate that we have about as many minutes to get down before it’s pitch black.

Fortunately the descent from the Gavia is nothing like the Mortirolo. Sweeping bends and clear views ahead allow us to stay off the brakes and flow downhill. The road is empty and our only interruption comes after about 8km when we reach a closed barrier.

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Image 16 of 21

Daniele explains there are roadworks ahead. Lifting our bikes over the barrier, I give him a pained look as I shiver, to which he says with a smile, ‘I believe that’s another Rule. Number five, if I’m not mistaken.’

Our chilly and dramatic descent seems only fitting after a day of cycling mythology. It was on this very descent that Hampsten won the Giro.

The stage leader Johan van der Velde had only a cotton cap for warmth and became so cold that in a confused state he dismounted his bike and began to walk down the incline.

Hampsten swept past and went on to win the stage and the leader’s pink jersey.

When the lights of Bormio come into view, I feel glad to know that we won’t suffer a similar fate. We pull into Daniele’s cafe and open a beer to rinse the battery acid from our legs.

As we relax, I think back to Pantani’s statue and wonder if his myth will endure as long as Lago Nero and Bianca. Perhaps many years from now, guides will tell of the playful, petrified spirit of cycling who mocks hapless English climbers with weak legs and cursed gear ratios.

Double jeopardy

Follow Cyclist’s route up two mythical beasts of the Giro 

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/74gavia. Beginning in Bormio, descend the SS38 south toward Grosio.

At the town of Mazzo di Valtellina, come off the main road and follow signs for the Mortirolo Pass. Climb the Mortirolo (good luck) and descend directly over the pass down to Monno.

Here, turn left onto the SS42 towards Ponte di Legno, turning off the main road just after Pontagna to cut through Ponte de Legno. Continue onto the SP29, which is the Gavia Pass, over the summit and back down into Bormio.

The rider’s ride

Factor O2 Dura-Ace Di2, £7,750, factorbikes.com

I was under no illusions about the challenges of taking on these two peaks back-to-back, and I wanted a true climber’s bike. The Factor O2 was ideal, with a 740g frame and a super-light build kit headed by Shimano Dura-Ace Di2.

Sure enough, the bike that is Romain Bardet’s weapon of choice for the Grand Tours is a natural climber, with a stiff rear end that preserves the power efficiency that’s so vital while climbing.

I can’t say that I thank Factor for supplying me with a standard chainset (53/39) that made me plunge deep into the red, but to the bike’s credit it never seemed to wince beneath me.

Descending was accurate and predictable, and on pristine Italian roads the O2’s stiffness was perfectly pitched to give a feel for the road without disturbing the smoothness of the ride.

I’ve heard complaints that the one-piece bar/stem generates a little flex at the front, and if you wrench the bars up and down that’s true. But even during my biggest exertions I didn’t get the sense this really affected overall rigidity.

How we did it

Travel

We flew to Milan Malpensa and drove the three-hour stretch to Bormio. Public bus links are available but a car really is a must in this part of Italy.

Milan Bergamo airport is considerably closer geographically, but takes about as long to drive to. Daniele Schena of Hotel Funivia can also arrange transfers for guests.

Accommodation

Cyclist stayed at the excellent Hotel Funivia (hotelfunivia.it). Owner Daniele Schena is a fanatical cyclist, who can recall any one of the Velominati Rules on command and has built a cycling-themed cafe below his hotel.

That’s accompanied by a workshop and a fleet of Pinarello Dogma rental bikes. Prices start at around £90 per night.

Thanks

Many thanks to Silvia Pasolini of the Bici Amore Mio cycling group for helping us arrange our trip. Bici Amore Mio (biciamoremio.it) has cycling hotels positioned all over Italy, and offers numerous multi-day packages.

A huge thank you to Daniele for accommodation and ride support, and thanks also to his mechanic, Paolo, who managed to fix my Di2 after I carelessly tore through a cable.

Even if your bike doesn’t say Giant on the down tube, there’s a chance it was built at one of Giant’s enormous facilities in China and Taiwan.

Giant makes huge numbers of carbon frames not only for itself but for a plethora of other big brand names. This should, in theory, give it an advantage over its rivals – when you’re the one making everyone’s bikes, you can keep all the best stuff for yourself.

By that thinking, there should be a lot of good stuff in Giant’s latest aero road bike, the Propel Disc.

Compared to the previous model, the new Propel includes many of the newest trends in the market: fully internal cabling, disc brakes and a totally integrated front end.

Disc brakes may not seem like a particularly aerodynamic option, but Giant claims this is its fastest road bike yet, even given its fairly shallow section (42mm) front wheel.

‘The Propel Disc can outperform our rivals in terms of aerodynamics, but with the shallow front wheel it will be much easier to ride in crosswind situations,’ says Nixon Huang, Giant’s category manager for road.

‘We want to create a bike that you can actually ride fast, not one that just tests fast in a wind-tunnel.’

In addition to a lack of aerodynamic penalties from the disc brakes, the Propel Disc has no big weight penalty either.

At only 7.42kg, it’s nearly 500g lighter than a Specialized Venge ViAS Disc and nearly 800g lighter than Boardman’s top-tier aerodynamic rim brake bike, the Air 9.9.

For me, a big bonus with the inclusion of discs is the adjustability of the brakes compared to aerodynamically concealed rim brakes, which can be fiddly.

Practicality has been a consideration elsewhere too. The cockpit looks like it will be as complicated as a Rubik’s Cube to adjust, but once you remove the aerodynamic cover there’s a standard stem and steerer tube underneath.

Frustratingly, the aero cap means that the stack height can’t be significantly lowered without cutting the steerer tube.

However, I’d still say the set-up is less awkward than with some of the integration of the Propel’s aero-road peers.

Frame stiffness was a priority, and the company claims it has tested the Propel Disc against its main competitors, and its own predecessor, by clamping the rear dropouts in place and applying lateral force to the forks.

By that measure, Giant claims the Propel has a stiffness of 153Nm, compared to 147Nm for the Specialized Venge ViAS and 112Nm for the previous Propel.

I really enjoyed both of those bikes when I tested them, so I was really excited to get aboard the Propel Disc to see if it could deliver on its promise.

The first thing I noticed is that this bike is fast. I could articulate that in a more detailed and nuanced way, but it wouldn’t change the main point – the Giant Propel Advanced SL Disc is a very fast bike indeed.

I really enjoyed both of those bikes when I tested them, so I was really excited to get aboard the Propel Disc to see if it could deliver on its promise.

The first thing I noticed is that this bike is fast. I could articulate that in a more detailed and nuanced way, but it wouldn’t change the main point – the Giant Propel Advanced SL Disc is a very fast bike indeed.

It gets up to speed incredibly rapidly, and then holds that speed easily. I frequently found myself cruising on the flat above 40kmh.

It’s a mystery

That said, cycling isn’t just about speed, otherwise we’d all be riding time-trial bikes. And the Propel offers more than just speed.

For a super-stiff aero bike it’s also remarkably comfortable. I’m slightly at a loss to explain how – with its angular shapes and integrated seatpost it should be like riding a girder – but somehow it seems to soften the road admirably.

Even Giant can’t explain it. Huang says, ‘We got feedback that riders feel pretty comfortable when riding on the Propel Disc, but comfort is not a key feature we wanted to put into this bike.’

I can only surmise the comfort comes from a combination of handlebar flex and the extra compliance provided by supple tubeless tyres, which can be run at lower pressures.

Whatever the reason, there was a certain effortlessness to the Propel.

I felt as if I could cover long distances with no ill effects, and I was inspired to tackle my longest UK ride of the year thus far when I ticked off 140km on the Propel one sunny Sunday morning.

Comfort aside, the stiffness meant the bike was extremely sharp and predictable when cornering or descending.

I really felt as if there were an extra few degrees of lean available in every corner, and even the mildest steering input seemed to make for a decisive yet controlled response.

With the additional confidence of disc brakes, it meant that descents weren’t just fast, but fun.

Splitting the differences

It’s fair to say I really enjoyed riding the Propel Disc, but I’d be lying if I said it’s the bike I’d choose to spend my own money on.

The main issue is that it fails to stand out among the aero competition. There are many very fast and fine-handling bikes out there, and I struggled to discern whether the Propel Disc was superior to its main rivals in any particular area.

And when the asking price is a pound under £9k, I would need to be more convinced that I was getting something special.

That’s the parting impression the Giant Propel Disc leaves me with. Giant may be able to present stats and wind-tunnel data, but on the road I couldn’t separate its performance from the Trek Madone or Venge ViAS.

I can assure you a tighter jersey would make more aerodynamic difference than switching between the three of them.

Of course, the Propel Disc has certain charms, and the future-proofing appeal of disc brakes is one.

For some its aesthetics will certainly appeal – I was stopped on more than one occasion by admiring bystanders – while for others it may seem a little too severe.

Perhaps the biggest criticism would be that where some bikes are leaps forward in technology, the Propel Disc represents a solid but small step. All comaprisons aside, though, the Giant Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc is a very, very fast bike.

Spec

Matt Appleman’s story begins with an engineering course, and an injury. ‘I ruined my knee racing a bike at college that didn’t fit properly,’ he says.

‘It happened that the college I attended did what was then one of only two composite materials engineering programmes out there – I think the other was in the UK, funnily enough – and while I didn’t go there to do the course with this complete vision in mind of building bikes one day, that’s where it started.’

Appleman jokes that his injury left him needing a bike whose saddle was ‘four inches behind any bike out there,’ which left him with a choice: buy custom or make his own.

‘I was in my dorm room sticking tubes together, and trying to break them. I’m not a heavy person, so I was getting six-foot levers, hanging all my weight off them and bouncing on them to see if I could break the tubes.

Once I couldn’t break them I figured I was good to build a bike.’ But there was still a lengthy, though useful, hiatus between graduating in composites engineering and starting his company.

‘When I finished college I went to California and started working in aerospace and building wind turbine blades in carbon fibre and fibreglass,’ he says.

‘It came to a point where I realised that I didn’t want to be away from home any more, so I came back to Minneapolis and started Appleman Bicycles. My first bike I built in a spare room, then I moved into a garage and then to an industrial space.’ 

Intensely concentrated

From such humble beginnings, Appleman’s business grew steadily to the point where making custom carbon fibre bikes is now his trade, albeit with a deliberately low volume.

‘I build about 15 to 20 bikes a year. Each bike takes about two weeks – or 80 hours. I think I’m a bit like Tom Warmerdam from Demon Frameworks in that regard: we’re both free thinkers, always wanting to take the time to try and take things to the next level.

‘His stuff is just fantastic. I’m also a one-man operation. I do everything and I enjoy all of it – designing, cutting, sanding, epoxy, even accounting.’

What sets him apart from a lot of builders, he says, is that every tube is tailored specifically to the rider, but not quite in the fashion you might expect.

‘My tubes are roll-wrapped [flat carbon plies layered up around a cylindrical mandrel] to the specifications of every rider.

‘I don’t just pick from a set number of different types of carbon tubes like most builders – every tube is specially designed for each customer.

‘They are then fabricated by someone who was on the same college course as me, who set up a business making carbon tubes for industrial robotics and aerospace.

‘I could make the tubes myself, but it’s easier to use someone whose business is making tubes.

‘I choose the carbon fibre I want, specify the number of layers, how they’re stacked, the diameter.

‘With all these parameters there’s pretty much an infinite number of possibilities of tube stiffness, so I can dial in very specific ride characteristics for each customer.

‘It’s why steel is steel and carbon is such an amazing material. I could build you a 1mm thick carbon panel that, depending on which way you pull it, is going to be 70 times stronger or weaker.

‘It’s all a balance of torsional stiffness, flexural stiffness, compression strength and tensile strength. I can dial that in with the layup because I’ve been working with this material for over 15 years.’

Nobody puts carbon in the corner

With so much labour going in to the carbon layup of the frame, Appleman usually prefers to leave it free from layers of paint.

‘I’m a materials guy – I don’t normally do paint. But this is a bike for a show so I wanted to mark it out a bit, do something fun. But the rest of my time the bikes just look how they do because of function.’

This is how Appleman explains his hallmark curved, sometimes slightly bulbous, tube joints. Carbon fibres don’t like being pushed into corners by their individually brittle bending nature (they only achieve bike-level strength by being bundled together), hence his smooth wraps.

It’s also why his one-piece bars look as they do, made from cut up and filed down Enve components that he then bonds and wraps, and why he says his bikes are so strong ‘you can cut a tube out, any tube, and still ride it to a safe stop.’

Yet for all this function, he’s not entirely averse to the odd flourish.

‘I think one of the coolest things on this bike is the little apple logo laid into the reinforcement for the thru-axle. I like to do logos and things with layers of carbon.

‘I use titanium, bronze, copper and wood bonded to the frame, but really I’m just a carbon guy. It’s all I know.’

This article first appeared in Issue 76 of Cyclist magazine

This was a bit of an accident, really,’ says Ricky Feather as he props his bike against the wall. ‘I’d gone home one night and worked a bit on a design for my own bike in between working on a customer’s bike.

‘At the end of the night I closed down the drawing for his bike on my computer, but left my own design open and carried on working on that one the next day without realising it.

‘It was an almost identical frame to the one I’d designed for myself. It used nearly all the same tubing, but it was only after I mitred it all up that I realised it was never going to be big enough for a 6ft 4in guy.

‘I was scratching my head, wondering what had gone wrong, then I noticed that the drawing had my name at the top of it, and that’s when I clicked that it wasn’t his bike.’

So the customer’s bike soon became Feather’s own bike – ‘He was a nice guy, he saw the funny side of it’ – and the latest addition to his home-grown race team, Feather Cycles Racing.

‘We’ve had a team for four years now,’ says Feather. ‘It all started with myself and James Fairbank from Rapha.

‘He was living in York at the time and neither of us wanted to join a conventional club and be racing with a bunch of guys we didn’t know, so we started our own team.’

Between them they had everything they needed. Fairbank provided team kit and Feather produced the bikes, with all the steel tubing supplied by Italian company Columbus.

‘Except for this one,’ says Feather slightly sheepishly. ‘Because of the mix-up with the client’s bike, it’s got the wrong seatstays on it.’

Built for speed

Readers who have been following Cyclist magazine from its inception in 2012 will remember Ricky Feather from Issue 2.

Back then, when we profiled him, he was still fairly new to the framebuilding game, having started out as a welder in various industries beforehand.

But he was already garnering awards for the quality of his work at the Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show.

With ornate lug work, exquisite brazes and unique flourishes on every build, Feather’s frames were highlights of the show, and he’s acquired a pile of rosettes to prove it.

Yet with his race bikes the emphasis is entirely on performance over aesthetics.

‘They are all made to measure, every one of them,’ says Feather. ‘I want to make sure it’s a race pedigree bike – stiff in the right places, but also comfortable.

‘One of our lads goes out and does a lot of “Cent Cols Challenge” type things in the Alps or Dolomites or whatever.

‘He’s into super long-distance stuff, so the bike needed to be something he could ride 250km a day on, 10 days in a row.’

To achieve the balance of stiffness and springiness, Feather picks his tubesets with care.

‘I use a Columbus Spirit HSS down tube, a normal Spirit top tube, we use a Zona seat tube for the 31.6mm seatpost, and then it has Life seatstays and Spirit chainstays so it’s a bit of a mix really.’

He’s especially proud of the dropouts, which are of his own design. ‘It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I started. Finding someone who’s up for doing really small production is very difficult, especially in CNC machining.

‘If you want 10 sets of dropouts made every three months, no one is interested. Luckily I found a guy in Yorkshire who’s a cyclist, and we just made it come together.

‘I’d learned bringing the chainstays out makes the rear stiffer, so I wanted a hooded dropout, but I didn’t want something that was small and boring. 

‘I wanted something unique to my bike so you’d notice if you saw one.’

Down and dirty

As a bespoke framebuilder, Feather will create whatever his customers ask for, but he claims his race bike design is proving popular with clients:

‘The more of these I post up on my site, the more race bikes I seem to do. People come to the workshop with an idea in their head, and then they see this and they decide that they want something similar.

‘To be honest, other than the team, no one is really racing them, which is a shame as that’s what they’re built for. There’s a pretty slim chance of knackering them, really.

‘I’ve crashed mine a couple of times, gone straight over the bars, but you just get back up and finish your race. It’s a solid bike.’

Feather reiterates that he doesn’t want his bikes to be revered as precious ornaments, but ridden and raced.

‘I really like building bikes for serious cyclists,’ he says. ‘To send a bike out and see it being mounted on someone’s wall is heartbreaking.

‘For me there’s nothing better than building a bike for someone who lives locally.

‘To be out on a run one day and to see someone going in the opposite direction on one of my bikes, that’s what I love.’

Today Vitus is the house brand of cycling monolith Wiggle-CRC, which recently unveiled its new UCI Continental team, Vitus Pro Cycling, taking over the squad and name rights of Team Raleigh-GAC.

That’s good news for the domestic scene, which has seen a series of teams fold due to lack of sponsorship, but it’s also good news for us riders. Because coinciding with the team's launch is a new bike from Vitus, the ZX1, and according to Cyclist deputy editor Stu Bowers, it’s really rather good (his review is in Cyclist issue 82, on sale now).

Image 4 of 29

Image 4 of 29

It’s also a storied bike in itself, and in investigating its provenance we stumbled across a rather tasty version we thought you might appreciate.

The new ZX1 is a kammtail-tubed race rig. That is, it’s not aero-at-all costs but it does have truncated tubes that lend it an aero edge, the idea being that ride quality comes first, aerodynamics second (all-out aero tube shapes are not the best in terms of promoting comfort, stiffness or low weight goes the thinking).

It’s been in development for over two years, and the Vitus team decided it would be exclusively disc brake.

Rewind nearly a hundred years, though, and Vitus wasn’t a brand of bikes, but rather a type of tubeset manufactured by ‘Le petit tube de precision’ tube makers (which has the wonderful translation the small tubes of precision) on the edge of Paris.

Bikes were wildly popular back then and France, arguably Europe’s cycling hub, boasted various tube makers, of which another, Ateliers de la Rive in St Etienne, made tubes called ‘Durifort’, and latterly, also ‘Vitus’.

Then the past gets muddy, because at some point by the 1970s, Vitus and Durifort had merged, with Vitus becoming a framebuilder in its own right, supplying Sean Kelly with his Vitus 979, a lugged, aluminium tubed frame with epoxy resin bonded joints.

Kelly road variations on the 979 theme until the early 1990s, winning a host of big races along the way including Paris-Roubaix. Twice. Which is funny to think now, as 979s were prone to de-bonding, and Roubiax and Kelly were notoriously punishing customers.

Yet, the frame was revolutionary. It was light, it was aluminium, it used space-age techniques, and in its own way it helped usher in carbon fibre when outfits such as Look and Alan took the aluminium lug element and paired it with carbon fibre tubes.

The 979, then, was arguably the zenith of the original Vitus company. However to our mind there is one bike that trumps it: the Vitus ZX1, which debuted in 1991.

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Image 22 of 29

Wildly less winning, somewhat less popular (only 1,000 were made, although versions of the ZX1 were rebranded Peugeot and Villager), but nonetheless about as arresting as bike designs come.

The old and the new bikes couldn’t be more different, yet something is shared. Both are monocoque and both have aero pretensions.

Admittedly the monocoque bit is misleading; the old ZX1 was moulded in one piece while the new ZX1 is made in several sections bonded together.

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Image 24 of 29

Plus, the new ZX1 has more than just back-of-a-beer-mat aero pretensions, having spent significant time undergoing CFD modelling.

But, 27 years on we like to think there’s a nice carry-over between the two. And, well, it’s as good a reason as any to show you this incredible example of an original ZX1 from owner Stefan Schmidhofer. Just check out those Corima Manta bars.

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Image 27 of 29

Don’t make ‘em like they used to… No wait, they do. The new Vitus ZX1.

Images courtesy of Stefan Schmidhofer, vive-le-velo.blogspot.com and Vitus, vitusbikes.com

This feature was produced in association with Argon 18 and first appeared in issue 82 of Cyclist magazine

Words James Spender Photography and videography George Marshall

‘In the end, it’s a recipe, like making a cake. The cake can have too much sugar, it can be too heavy, too crumbly. If you don’t have the right recipe, the right ingredients and the right chefs, it won’t work.’

As expositions on manufacturing composite bikes go, it’s a well-worn analogy. Yet there’s something in the way the owner of Argon 18 says it that makes it sound original.

The thick French accent certainly helps, and indeed the name: Gervais Rioux, the surname pronounced like the Michelin-starred father and son.

But beyond that, it just makes sense.

You can’t determine the recipe or ingredients of a cake from eating it any more than you can determine the precise carbon fibre layup in a bike just from riding it.

It’s why Rioux challenges anyone to ride an Argon 18 and feel the difference.

But it’s also why we’ve been invited here, to find out exactly what’s happening beneath the paint.

French connection

Argon 18 is based in Montreal, Quebec, a province colonised in the 17th century by the French.

That explains Rioux’s accent, and that of his 40-plus staff.

It also goes some way to explaining how Argon 18 managed to establish itself as a drop-bar bike company in the midst of the mountain bike craze sweeping North America in the 1990s.

‘The French love road cycling,’ says Rioux. ‘I have always loved it too.

‘I started racing bikes at 12, I got my first job in a bike shop by 14, working all summer so I could afford to buy better bike parts.

‘At 16 I saw the thing that would change my life. It was 1976 and the Olympics were being held in Montreal.

‘I went to see the bike racing and that’s when I decided I would go to the Olympics one day.’

The beginning of that journey – which would see Rioux represent Canada at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul – started with a bike made by Montreal’s most revered framebuilder at the time, Giuseppe Marinoni.

‘I went to see him for a new bike. He was a funny guy.

‘He tried to discourage me from racing, saying, “This sport is extremely hard. You should do other things.”

‘But I got my first custom bike, and also in a sense my last, because the last team I raced for – Evian-Miko – rode bikes made by Marinoni for our shop sponsor, “Argon 18”.

‘I retired in 1990 and in the fall that year the opportunity came up to buy the Argon 18 shop.

‘It was in financial difficulty, but within 48 hours of the owners coming to me, I had decided to buy it.’

Rioux still has his last race bike, which sits alongside Argon 18’s crop of current race machines in the showroom.

Incongruously metal in a sea of carbon fibre, it encapsulates the tradition and experience Rioux sees as integral to his bike company.

‘The name Argon 18 comes from the periodic table.

‘Argon is the gas they used to use to weld frames and 18 is its atomic number. So basically if you did not have argon 18, you had no bike.

‘Of course we do not use argon gas in carbon bike frame construction, but I still like this bike.

‘It reminds us that we mustn’t get lost in the future and forget what we have learned in the past.’

Much like the 16-year-old boy at the Olympics, Rioux set his sights on a seemingly impossible dream – to make Argon 18 a global bike brand with a Tour de France team. And although progress might not have been meteoric, it was nevertheless steady.

By 2002 Argon 18 had gone from selling 150 rebranded steel bikes a year to debuting its first Rioux-designed carbon road bike.

By 2008 its E114 triathlon bike had taken second in the women’s and third in the men’s races at Ironman Hawaii.

By 2015 the company had taken over NetApp-Endura to form Bora-Argon 18, claiming its first Tour de France podium that year when German rider Emanuel Buchmann took third on Stage 11.

In 2017, Argon 18 switched to supplying bikes for WorldTour team Astana. 

‘Our proudest moment was seeing Fabio Aru riding in yellow last year,’ says Rioux, who has also managed to appropriate Aru’s Gallium Pro to adorn the showroom.

Yet he is not about to rest on the company laurels, and says the future is about controlling the process.

Remote control

While Argon 18 designs its own bikes in Montreal, those designs are, like so many in the industry, produced by a contract factory in the Far East.

But as Rioux explains on our way to the testing lab, Argon 18 is very different to its rivals.

Rioux hands us over to Argon 18’s composite materials specialist, Joffrey Renaud, who elaborates.

‘Most brands just send a design to the factory and it makes the frame,’ says Renaud, who previously worked in the aerospace sector.

‘The brand designs the geometry and requests the stiffness, weight and comfort.

‘The factory has its own layup schedule, and essentially the brand hopes it gets back the frame that it wants.’

By ‘layup schedule’, Renaud means the process by which pieces of carbon fibre are cut into shapes and layered up in the moulds that comprise various parts of a bike frame.

The layup is the ‘recipe’ Rioux described, and it dictates aspects such as stiffness and weight.

It is also, says Renaud, a closely guarded secret by the factories, so not something a bike brand typically gets involved in.

‘We still have this approach with our entry-level frames. If you work with a good factory there’s nothing wrong with this model,’ says Renaud.

‘But when we’re talking high-end frames, where you are trying to save every gram and push every boundary, we realised we needed more control of the processes.

‘Otherwise it doesn’t matter how good your ideas are.

‘You’re at the mercy of the factory as to whether or not it will execute them, and to what standard.’

Redefining the approach

Argon 18 has a dual strategy for navigating the murky waters of manufacture.

First, it tests its frames in a way it believes factories in Asia don’t, can’t or won’t. Second, it creates and tests new layups with the help of the Composite Development Centre of Quebec, an independent R&D institution.

Armed with these bits of information, Argon 18 can see how a frame is performing and take steps to redesign it in areas it sees as lacking.

It can then go to a factory to make its case.

It’s this data that allows the company to influence and control the manufacturing process in a way many brands can’t.

To illustrate this, Renaud shows us a bike covered in strain gauges that has clearly been ridden outdoors, and then points towards a second bike loaded with weights on the handlebars and saddle and sitting on what might best be described as a vibrating table.

‘We used to use a rolling road but we found it wasn’t quite right, so we built this table using the same equipment used in 4D cinemas to make the seats vibrate,’ says Renaud.

‘The idea is that we can use the first bike to record the stresses and strains on a bike under real riding conditions and can then use that data to simulate those conditions in the lab.

‘We then measure the acceleration on the saddle and stem using accelerometers, and the deformation of parts of the bike such as the handlebars and seatpost.

‘Less power recorded at those contact points means less vibration – so more comfort for the rider.

‘When you compare this to the power that’s going in from the vibration of the wheels, you can see what a frame is doing in terms of comfort.

‘Simply observing a seat tube flexing more than last year’s model does not translate into your bike being more comfortable. Vertical compliance is linked to comfort, but it is in no way directly proportional.’

It’s by putting frames through such tests that Argon 18 is able to build up a detailed, scientific picture of how a carbon fibre frame performs beyond basic fatigue tests – flexing a frame tens of thousands of times before it fails or exceeds test standards.

‘Right now the limit, for example the absolute lightest frame you can make, is defined by the factories in Asia,’ says Renaud.

‘But this doesn’t mean that what they can make is the absolute lightest possible, and the reason is simply that although they have a huge amount of knowledge of frame fabrication, a lot of it is from experience, not science, and a lot of that is driven by what a factory sees as possible for mass producing frames.

‘We are now challenging those limitations, and our factory is listening.’

Appliance of science

Our tour concludes with a visit to the Composite Development Centre of Quebec – or CDCQ – on the outskirts of Montreal.

We’re led into a clean room, into which is wheeled a familiar-looking block of steel on a trolley.

‘This is one of the moulds we called back from our Asian factory to experiment with,’ says Renaud.

‘It’s from a frame we made in 2008. Back when this mould was in production it was making frames that were 1,200g.

‘We convinced the factory to share its original layup with us, and through our research have been able to optimise their layup to produce a frame with better characteristics but that weighs 760g.’

The equipment on show here is somewhat different to what a factory would use – the front triangle mould, for example, is too large for the heat presses at the CDCQ, so Renaud and his team have devised a way of applying heat via dozens of cylindrical heating elements inserted into holes in the mould.

For reasons such as this, creating a frame in Montreal takes Argon 18 around a week, compared to one day in its Asian factory.

Nonetheless, the processes are similar enough that if Renaud can do it here, it gives Argon 18 strong enough ground on which to start controlling – if not dictating – materials, methods and layups previously decided upon by its factory.

Renaud is tight-lipped as to precisely how he’s shaved more than 400g from a frame just by tweaking materials and layup, although he does point out that ‘a pre-preg carbon fibre ply is around 0.075mm and the thinnest tube wall on this frame is 0.4mm, so a front triangle like this has around 300 individual pieces of pre-preg to play with.’

However, he is more open about the system in which Argon 18 is working – and trying to work smarter in.

‘What it really comes down to is this: we are fighting the old model, where we would go to a factory and say, “Hey, this limit here, you can skip that and go higher,” and they reply, “It is not possible,” and we just have to accept it.

‘Instead we are now in a position where we can demonstrate – and prove – what is possible.

‘It means we can convince the factory to push the limits, and that means we can make better bikes.’

Back at company headquarters, Rioux has one more thing to show us.

It’s a track bike for the Danish Olympic squad as ridden at the Olympics in Rio two years ago, and it was designed from the ground up by Argon 18.

Since then, other countries’ Olympic cycling teams have approached Argon 18 for bikes, with Rioux reckoning on ‘four or five’ partnerships in the offing.

‘Track bikes are a great form of advertisement. The camera follows them round and round, the logos are big. But still it is a bit sad for us,’ Rioux says wistfully.

‘You cannot see inside our frames. Instead people just see the shape, the paint, the components, and the brands that stand out – they have the bright colours, the gimmicks.

‘But I didn’t set out to be a marketing company that sells bikes. I set out to make the best bikes for bike riders.

‘We didn’t invent the bike, but we can offer the best solutions.’

Visit Argon 18 to find out more about the brand's bikes and manufacturing processes

Elemental Argon

Three of Argon 18’s finest creations

Dark Matter

The Dark Matter benefits from Argon 18’s new design approach.

An increased understanding of tube shapes and layups helped produce a bike the company claims is at once aggressive and exceptionally robust and comfortable, thanks in part to a highly raked fork and seatstays designed to flex and dissipate shocks.

Electron

‘It’s important for me that Argon 18 has a presence in track and triathlon, not just road,’ says Gervais Rioux.

‘The Electron was designed for the Danish track team, which rode it in the 2016 Rio Olympics [where it garnered two bronze medals]. For the next Olympics maybe five teams will be on our track bikes.’

Gallium Pro

Argon 18’s stripped-down flagship racer weighs just 759g (frame, claimed) and features a proprietary 3D fit system that affords three head tube heights per size without the need for spacers.

The bottom bracket is lower than most (75mm drop vs 68mm), which Rioux says makes this bike exceptionally stable.

Visit Argon 18 to find out more about the brand's bikes and manufacturing processes

This review was first published in Issue 76 of Cyclist magazine

It’s a little known fact, but Cinelli once made a BMX, the CMX.1. Launched in 1980, it may well be the only BMX in the world made from Columbus steel and featuring Campagnolo cranks.

It was also, admits Cinelli CEO Paolo Erzegovesi, more of a market reaction than a market driver – BMX had exploded in the US in the mid-1970s, and Europe was rushing to follow.

‘We did not sell many, really,’ says Erzegovesi, ‘but it was an interesting bike for the times, and it had some advanced features.’

Most notably it was TIG-welded, which was a new approach to joining tubes, and it featured a girder-style strengthening gusset at the back of the head tube. In a roundabout way, this little BMX would go on to help create one of cycling’s most iconic families of bicycles, the Cinelli Laser.

The Laser series has incorporated everything from steel aero bikes to ‘funny bikes’ with 24-inch front wheels, from time-trial to track and tandem to road racer. The bike featured here is the latest incarnation, the carbon fibre Laser Mia. 

Truth behind aero

The original Laser was dreamt up by Cinelli owner Antonio Colombo, whose father Angelo founded Columbus tubing in 1919, and who bought Cinelli from Cino Cinelli in 1978.

‘I saw an early French aerodynamic bike on a trip to Japan, and it got me thinking. I wanted to make the most beautiful bike we could for the Milan show,’ recounts Colombo.

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Image 2 of 7

That Laser debuted in 1981 and employed the cornerstones of the CMX.1. It was one of the first TIG-welded road bikes in the industry and had smoothed ‘aero’ gussets at crucial tube junctions.

However, in reality the frame’s shape had no tested aero credentials and, as Erzegovesi says, those gussets served a structural function, reinforcing the inch-diameter tubes and bladed seatstays.

The true aero nature of the Laser was in its customisation. With TIG welding, tubes could be joined at any angle to create the most aero rider position possible (unlike traditional frames, whose lugs predetermined the angles), and the gussets meant the acute tube intersections could be made strong and the frame stiff.

These themes are the cornerstones of the Laser Mia. It’s not an aero-road bike in the modern sense, but it is a fully custom frameset, albeit for an extra £900.

Both stock and custom bikes are made for Cinelli by a reputable Italian contract builder.

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Image 3 of 7

This Laser Mia bears all the hallmarks of the originals, from the smoothed tube junctions to the bladed seatstays to the ‘fin’ under the bottom bracket, where the down tube extends beyond the BB shell like a mini upside-down spoiler.

It is also ‘Laser’ blue, and because of all this it has to be one of the prettiest bikes on the market. 

Aesthetically driven

‘Classic’ is a very good word to describe this bike. It eschews most modern design cues.

The BB shell is threaded, the fork steerer is a parallel 1⅛th inch and the tubes are round and relatively skinny, although perhaps the most defining nod to provenance over function are the seatstays. 

Given its slender looks, the Laser’s rear end is pretty firm, which I think is due to the shape and orientation of the seatstays, which are flattened in the vertical plane.

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Image 4 of 7

That’s a nod to the Lasers of old, which tried to make the frontal area as narrow as possible, but flies in the face of modern comfort thinking, where the flattened aspect of seatstays, if there is one, is usually horizontal to better offer vertical flex (think bending a ruler across its width versus trying to bend it across its thickness).

There is a knock-on effect for rear-end pedalling stiffness. If you want a solid pedalling platform you want tubes to oppose sideways forces as much as possible.

Conversely, the Laser’s seatstays are predisposed to bend more under horizontal load and less under vertical load.

It will be no surprise, then, to learn this is not a particularly stiff frame. Everything is narrow when viewed from the front, which means the bike is apt to flex under big, bar-wrenching efforts.

It’s no noodle, but it’s some way off the stiffness benchmarks set by performance race bikes. Yet I would still choose the Laser Mia over many others.

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Image 5 of 7

Feel is real

My ideal criterion for a bike is that it should feel not just good, but special in some way. It should have personality, especially at this price.

And the Laser has that by the lorry load. It’s not teeth-baringly aggressive or sublimely comfortable, but it is a pure joy to ride, and it’s fast.

First, the speed. I’m under no illusion that the main thrust comes from the Campagnolo Bora wheels. These aren’t the latest iteration, but even the older Boras are some of the fastest wheels out there.

They don’t carry higher speeds as well as a set of Enves or Zipps, but they accelerate like bullets and roll exceptionally smoothly.

The key elements? They’re 50mm deep but weigh just 1,435g (claimed), they are very stiff and they have ceramic bearings.

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Image 6 of 7

They have all the pick-up I associate with a set of top tier Lightweights – themselves not technically the fastest when judged by other brands – but are around half the price.

Second, the joy. It’s a fair cop, I’m in love with the Laser’s looks and that inescapably influences the joy I found in riding it. But I also love how it rides.

It might appear dainty but it feels robust enough to sling around, ride in the rain and thump over rutted surfaces.

It’s not that stiff, but it has a lively ping akin to a steel frame, and while this frameset isn’t custom, the stock geometry short wheelbase (980mm) and short chainstays (405mm) help to create a very nimble bike that twinkle-toes through corners and hops merrily up climbs.

The Laser Mia will not be for everyone. In its pursuit of the original Lasers, Cinelli has bestowed upon this bike some of the quirks and foibles of yesteryear.

But in blending such characteristics with modern materials and components, it has made something both lovable and wonderfully unique.

Cynics would call it a trophy bike, but I prefer to think of it as the very best of the Sunday Bests.

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Image 7 of 7

Spec

First look: Cinelli Laser Mia

20 February 2018

Price: From £4,700 frameset (£5,600 custom geometry)

The list of Cinelli’s contributions to cycling is long. Founded in 1944 by ex-racer Cino Cinelli, the Italian company lays claim to designing the first sloping fork crown, which made for stiffer forks than traditional horizontal crowns.

It also gave us the first injection-moulded base saddle, the Unicantor, designed to do away with saggy all-leather numbers, and the Binda toe strap, named after Alfredo Binda and featuring the self-cinching buckle that’s been ubiquitous ever since.

Then there were the first aluminium bars and stems to be widely accepted at pro level; Cork Ribbon bar tape for better comfort; the famously advantageous then famously banned Spinaci clip-on aerobars; the first commercially successful one-piece road bar and stem, the Ram; and arguably the first successful aero-road bike, the Laser. Well, not quite this Laser.

‘We released the first Laser in 1981, and while we cannot say for sure it was the first aero road bike, it was for sure one of the first,’ says Cinelli CEO Paolo Erzegovesi.

‘I joined in 1983 as an engineer, and over time we made all kinds of Lasers: road, track, time-trial, stayer frames. But the philosophy was always the same: to minimise drag.

‘It has always been an ongoing project, a work in progress, which is why any time we have the opportunity to experiment with new solutions, we try to apply them to the Laser. This is the result for the modern age, the same concept but in carbon fibre: the Laser Mia.’

Structural engineering

Between 1981 and 1991, Cinelli reckons that just 300 Lasers were made, with around 100 built for pros, accumulating 28 gold medals at Olympic Games and World Championships in the process.

Key to that success was the bike’s wind-cheating ability, both in design and fit, so it’s no surprise that this edition is a tube-to-tube frame hand-built in Italy, meaning it can be made in both stock and custom geometry. Yet although it’s now carbon fibre instead of steel, the Laser Mia hasn’t lost the iconic hallmarks of its forebears.

‘The original concept was about maintaining the freedom of geometry of the frame using straight tubes joined in a way to optimise the distribution of stress. The placement and shape of the “webbing” between the tubes is therefore crucial,’ says Erzegovesi.

‘We keep the same concept here, obviously changing the distribution of the material to suit carbon.’

The Laser Mia features substantial gussets behind the head tube and around the bottom bracket – including the trademark ‘fin’, which protrudes from the underside of the BB shell like a mini inverted spoiler – yet sticks resolutely to a 1 ⅛in head tube, threaded BB and decidedly narrow tubes.

It has shed over a kilo from previous incarnations, with frames coming in around 980g, says Cinelli, and just in case you ever questioned its historical provenance, the inside of the non-driveside chainstay is signed by Andrea Pesenti, the man who allegedly built every single one of those original 300 steel Lasers, and who even has ‘Laserman’ tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Crucially, it’s also only available in the trademark ‘Laser blue’.

By modern standards, the Laser Mia isn’t really an aero bike, but it’s still beautiful, and as Erzegovesi explains with some misty-eyed humour, can at least point to a history of aero testing.

‘We made a lot of funny tests on the bikes in those days, in homemade wooden wind-tunnels with coloured smoke and flying ribbons, and other more serious tests with the Italian National Team in Rome.

‘We would pull four riders at the same time [to emulate the team pursuit] using a long steel cable connected to a car, with an inline gauge that could measure the force needed to pull the train of riders at a certain speed. We could then use this data to see what changes to frame shapes, components and rider positions did to aerodynamics.’

By contrast, Erzegovesi freely admits the Laser Mia has never come anywhere near a wind-tunnel. But what it does bring to the modern road bike party, he reckons, is a classical, round-tubed elegance and the Laser’s trademark ‘responsive ride’.

Will the performance live up to the looks and the billing? Check back in due course to find out.

From £4,700 frameset (£5,600 custom geometry) | chickencyclekit.co.uk

This review was first published in Issue 48 of BikesEtc magazine

Ghost is better known for its mountain bikes, but the Road Rage is marketed as a city bike. A closer look, however, reveals something of a mixed personality, with components more suited to a gravel/adventure bike, while gear ratios are typical of a cyclocross racer.

That apparent confusion is instantly dispelled once you start riding, though, and what you have is a bike that simply feels extremely capable on the road.

The frame feels stiff, quick and not at all like any ‘city bike’ we have ridden. The 32mm tyres feel great on the road, with the slick central tread helping to maintain speed.

The chunky fork and massive clearance mean you could fit even bigger tyres. The downside is a higher ride height and they do transmit lots of vibration, but with a tubeless tyre specified, this does make a significant difference.

Versatility is the Road Rage’s strength. As well as the ability to go off road, it also has mounts for racks and mudguards, which could make this a great year-round bike, or even a long-distance tourer perhaps.

Geometry is a little different to a more traditional road bike with the tall fork adding some height, combined with a relatively short top tube, yet standover is limited, mostly due to a higher bottom bracket and the tall fork.

The handlebar size and shape is unusual at 46cm wide, and we’d prefer a longer section in the drops to give a larger area to hold on to, especially when riding over rougher roads.

It’s not often we see a bike fitted with SRAM Rival in its double chainset configuration, but it does provide positive shifting.

The choice of chainset is not a common one, with 46/36 chainrings – which was commonplace on cyclocross racers before the advent of 1x.

With just 46 teeth on the large chainring, we expected to run out of gears at the top end, but our fears proved unfounded.

However, given the bike’s off-road credentials, we’d prefer a 34 or 32-tooth small chainring, as it did occasionally feel a tad over-geared on steeper hills.

None the less, the Road Rage certainly scores highly for comfort and speed for long days on the tarmac and rougher terrain.

Ratings

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

Verdict: Highly individual, the Road Rage surprised us and delivered a package that felt as fast and capable as most road bikes, but still offers the ability to tackle trails should you feel more adventurous. Ghost may just have served up the ideal do-it-all machine. Fast, capable and future proof.

Spec

This review was first published in Issue 50 of BikesEtc magazine

The Cross Master represents one quarter of a four-bike range from the reborn British bike brand Viking.

Combining a small rear frame triangle with a fuss-free Shimano Sora groupset and Tektro mechanical disc brakes, it should offer enough punch to excite, without being intimidating.

Viking’s website also guarantees ‘grin factor’…

Frameset

The Cross Master’s frameset is made from Reynolds 853 chromoly steel alloy, butted for strength at the key tube junctions, its walls kept as narrow as possible at points of less stress in order to keep the weight of the frame to a minimum.

Overall, however, it’s fighting a losing battle, as the combined bulk of the bike is north of 11kg, partly due to some fairly weighty components.

The key feature of the frameset, besides its material, is the compact rear triangle, which promotes more efficient development of power.

The seatstays flare around the 37c tyre, giving the impression that there’s clearance here for at least a few millimetres wider, if serious mud-plugging is on the cards, or just extra comfort on the road.

There are mudguard and rack mounts at both the top of the chainstays and the on the carbon forks. The bike’s steering geometry is an often unseen mix of relaxed seat angle and racy steering head, the latter measuring in at an easy-going 71.4°.

The front and rear mech cables (plus outers) are carried internally through the down tube, while the brake cables run along the fork leg and down tube, again wearing weatherproof outers.

Groupset

Shimano’s lower-rung nine-speed Sora groupset is used for the groupset, with the only part of the drive train not to employ the dependable Japanese equipment is the chain – a reliable and good value KMC item.

The compact 50/34 chainset is worked by a Sora front mech, while the 11-28 cassette is operated by a Sora rear derailleur, and Sora shifters ensure positive engagement of ratios.

The braking set-up is a mechanical disc arrangement from Tektro – it’s positive enough at the front end, but the rear brake’s operation was a little lacking in immediacy at the rear.

Bad news if you like skids, good news if you’re not a fan of locking up the rear on descents, we guess.

Finishing kit

Viking dispenses with any veneer when it comes to the finishing kit. While many firms create their own-brand alloy components to give an impression of cohesion to the build, Viking has used unbranded alloy components for the shallow-drop 440mm handlebars, 90mm stem and 27.2mm diameter seatpost.

And they all do the job perfectly well. A WTB SL8 saddle tops the seatpost, providing support if not the greatest amount of flex.

Wheels

Wrapped around unbranded 32-spoke alloy rims, which are held to the frame by Joytech hubs, is a set of WTB Riddler tyres, in 37mm diameter.

They’re designed for speed more than offroad grip, and as such perform pretty well on the tarmac.

On drier trails, they also allow you to hold on to enough speed to rip through turns, but the shallow tread isn’t going to be the best for all-year use, especially in wet off-road conditions or mud – swap for cyclocross tyres in winter, perhaps. 

The ride

There’s something about the rounded tube profiles of a steel bike that just make it look… well, like a bike.

The Viking is no exception, handsomely presented and wearing a simple two-colour paint job that’s bang on the retro trend. Can it carry this panache into its ride, though?  

On the road

As you might expect of a bike with such a rangy wheelbase, the Cross Master’s first foray on to the tarmac is one that’s exemplified by stability.

The combination of steel frameset and 37c tyres aids in the comfort stakes, with any vibes from the road surface being ably isolated.

It might seem a small detail, but the 27.2mm alloy seatpost is also playing its part in ensuring all the contact points are as settled as possible.

The disc brakes, while not hydraulic, do have enough power to haul up the Cross Master on the road, although the front is noticeably stronger than the rear.

The reach to the bar will favour those long in the body and arms, even in the size 54 bike we tested.

When it comes to getting power to the ground, the Viking’s small rear frame triangle eliminates losses in this department, and makes it possible to make rapid progress on the road.

On loser surfaces, we were thankful for the little chainring, which gives a smallest gear of 34-29, making it possible to make progress over some steep bridleway inclines.

Longer climbs, especially on tarmac, are a different story, though – the bike’s 11.08kg bulk making itself felt on steeper roads, even with the smaller of the two chainrings engaged.

Stick to commuting and light off-road work, however, and the Viking is a very capable riding companion. 

Handling

On paper, the relaxed steering head angle would have you think this is a bike that will take you around a corner in confidence.

Given that the head tube measures 800mm, you’re a long way from the crown of the fork, which does lend the ride a decidedly more sedate nature.

A 90mm alloy stem does offer quick control over the front end. Stability is further enhanced when cornering by a very long bottom bracket drop, placing your centre of gravity low on the bike for added confidence.

It’s away from the Queen’s Highway where this is most effective, the shallow tread at the shoulders of the 37mm WTB tyres doing their best to bite on tracks and bridleways as you’re encouraged to corner harder as time on the bike progresses.

Progress on the road need not be tentative, however – the shallow tread doesn’t deform in such a way as to rob you of confidence in town centre traffic.

But away from the UK’s summer heatwave and into the storms that followed, slides from the rear will be provoked if you attempt to throw the Cross Master into a corner, no matter what type of terrain you’re riding on.

In brief, the Viking is a capable go-everywhere bike, but is slightly held back on the road by its weight, and on anything more than dry bike paths and bridleways by its tyres.

It’s stylish, comfortable, dependable and stable, and if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll benefit greatly from owning one.

RATINGS

Frame: Well-built steel frame, but could be a tad lighter. 7/10 
Components: Dependable Sora and unbranded finishing kit. 7/10 
Wheels: Solid all-rounders with plenty of spokes. 8/10 
The ride: Makes rapid progress on road and bridleways. 8/10 

Verdict: In the right circumstances, Bianchi’s Aria lives up to its promise of being a serious road rocket.  

Geometry

Spec

This review first appeared in Issue 77 of Cyclist magazine

Rather surprisingly, it hasn’t taken that long for disc brakes to become an accepted norm on road bikes. Yet even now, descriptions of disc-equipped bikes still often include the caveat: ‘It’s quite aerodynamic for a disc bike’ or ‘It’s pretty light for a disc bike’.

Fortunately, that’s starting to change. Designs such as Specialized’s latest Venge, Trek’s new Madone and 3T’s Strada have proven that discs can be added without affecting aerodynamics, and now bikes like the Sarto Asola Disc prove that the same can be said about weight.

This bike weighs just 6.99kg. That’s light, period, not just for a disc bike. It may be dressed up in Campagnolo’s Super Record H11 disc groupset, but its heft (or rather its lack of it) demonstrates that the performance gap between disc brake road bikes and rim brake bikes is reducing all the time.

‘There’s no secret to it – we’re simply getting more extensive opportunities to refine our designs,’ says Sarto’s Manuel Columbo.

Only 300 Sarto-badged frames left its Italian factory in Pianiga, near Venice, last year, and only a small percentage of those were disc bikes.

That doesn’t seem like ‘extensive’ experience on the face of it, but it’s important to remember that Sarto-branded bikes represent only a fraction of the company’s total production.

Sarto is a custom contractor that fabricates frames for many other brands, to their own specifications, alongside its own eponymous designs.

It’s a fitting line of work explained in brand’s name – Sarto is Italian for tailor.

Columbo tells us there has been a huge upsurge in the demand for disc frames, with most of the brands Sarto produces for scrambling to get one into their own collections.

It means Sarto is exposed to a wide variety of carbon road disc designs, and therefore has plenty of opportunity to learn what works best before then applying that to its own frames.

What’s more, the frames Sarto builds under its own name remain completely exclusive and as such won’t be available under any other label.

As a result, Sarto has been able to produce this Asola Disc frameset at just 150g more than the regular Asola, and the difference could actually have been smaller still.

The top weave of 1K carbon is only cosmetic, but is necessary ‘to produce a distinctive finish, sort of like a Sarto signature’, according to Columbo.

There have been changes to the fork and the chainstays on the Asola Disc, but otherwise the look of the Asola – a bike for the purists among us – has been maintained.

Of the bikes in Sarto’s line-up, the Asola is the lightest and the most classic-looking, with round tubes and fairly standard geometry.

The construction method is tube-to-tube, and Columbo says Sarto works in this way because it is the only real possibility if you want to offer a fully custom frame.

‘It’s so much better for checking the quality of the product too,’ he says. ‘Layering, weight and thickness can all be assessed more accurately compared to a monocoque construction, so ultimately the ride quality and integrity of the frame is more consistent.’

Class and charisma

Sarto has a reputation for producing high-quality bikes, and the previous models that have been tested in Cyclist were all well received, so I was inclined to take Columbo’s claims at face value. And having spent some weeks aboard the Asola Disc, I was right to.

This Asola Disc was built to my measurements so I was predisposed to suit it, but even then I was surprised to discover quite how at ease I was on the bike from the very first pedal stroke.

It was like buying a brand new pair of brogues to find they had already been broken in to my feet.

There are some who suggest that custom-built frames are unnecessary and that for most riders a stock bike can be adjusted to fit just as well, but I’d say there’s more to it than that.

A custom frame possesses something extra that is unquantifiable, perhaps even psychological, but no less powerful all the same.

On the Asola Disc, this manifested itself in the handling – it just seemed to be more assured, more natural, than most stock bikes I’ve ridden.

Geometry goes some way to explaining the pleasing balance between reactivity and stability.

Relatively short 408mm chainstays create a tight back end, while a slacker than normal 72.5° head tube lengthens the front centre enough to keep the bike from being twitchy at high speeds.

It created the sense that I could steer the bike with my hips. Combined with Campagnolo’s H11 disc system, the Asola Disc was one of the most confident descenders I’ve ever ridden.

While on the subject of Campagnolo, I happen to think that it produces easily the most elegant groupsets of the big three manufacturers, with a performance that matches both Shimano and Sram. As such, it was the perfect accompaniment to the Sarto frame.

When I wasn’t diving through the corners of my local Dorset lanes, I found the Asola Disc to be equally agreeable on the straights.

The frame isn’t race-bike stiff, so even over broken or loose surfaces it didn’t get skittish or uncomfortable, and I would return from long rides still feeling relatively fresh.

Moving with the times

Some of the comfort afforded by the Asola Disc will be down to the 28mm tyres, and if I’d decided that I needed even more cushioning or grip there is scope to go even wider.

With no need to accommodate rim brakes, Sarto has designed the Asola Disc to accept up to 32mm tyres.

Progressive touches such as this are welcome reassurance that Sarto is not content just to trade on its heritage or its subcontracted work, but that instead it can keep pace with trends and provide performance levels to match big-name brands in its own right.

Many years ago there was a belief that the advent of off-the-peg suits would prove to be the death of Savile Row.

Sarto’s Asola Disc goes to show that, whatever the industry, there will always be a need for a good tailor.

Spec

This review was first published in Issue 48 of BikesEtc magazine

Vitus is a direct-sale brand supplied online through Wiggle/Chain Reaction and as you might expect, very competitively priced. The Venon is the endurance bike within the brand’s extensive line-up.

With a full Ultegra Di2 setup and carbon wheels, the specification is outstanding on paper, and it’s a handsome-looking machine, too.

Although billed as an endurance bike, geometry is still fairly sporty, and the head tube not too tall, which will suit riders who prefer a more aggressive riding position. 

On the road, the initial impressions are of a bike with lively yet predictable handling as we’d expect, and the frame is impressively responsive which helps on climbs, although it didn’t offer quite the level of comfort we were hoping for.

This could in part be down to the budget Continental Ultrasport II tyres fitted. Even with their 28mm width, we felt plenty of feedback through the frame, especially at the front end.

The good news is that these are easily changed, and even better, the Prime RR38 wheels are tubeless ready – switching to quality tubeless tyres (at an approximate cost of 80 quid) would see an instant and significant improvement in comfort and all-round performance.

With their 38mm-deep, disc-specific carbon rims, those wheels are a great all-rounder option for most riders in most conditions.

Bolt-thru axles are another bonus, boosting lateral stiffness in cornering, although the design is slightly fiddly to use.

We don’t need to tell you that Ultegra Di2 performs flawlessly, while the semi-compact 52/36 chainset and 11-30 cassette give a good spread of gears for tackling all terrain – though a 50/34 chainset or 32-tooth largest sprocket might suit some riders better on very hilly rides.

Elsewhere, the Ritchey cockpit is kind to the hands and wrists on long rides, though we’d consider upgrading the bar tape to something with a bit more padding.

Our 54cm bike weighed in at 8.4kg. A highly respectable weight for a bike of this nature.

Ratings

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

Verdict: The Venon offers great value, with Di2 shifting standing out on the spec list. With sportier geometry than some endurance bikes, a few minor tweaks would transform the Venon into a sportive-conquering all-rounder, ideal for tackling that century ride or epic sportive in all-day comfort.

Spec

This review was first published in Issue 50 of BikesEtc magazine 

Giant has built a bike that claims to be able to take the rough with the smooth, widely extending the choice of road surface or terrain you can ride in comfort.

It’s equipped with hydraulic disc brakes and a huge spread of gear ratios, too.

Frameset

The Anyroad’s frame is made from Giant’s ALUXX-grade aluminium, which employs single-butted tubing in an effort to mix strength with relatively light weight.

Being single-butted means the tubes employed in the frameset are only thicker at one end, where strength is more important than weight (double-butted tubes are rolled at either end).

While the bike itself isn’t remarkably light, the diameter of the tubing is clearly minimal, given the carbon-like echo that responds to the bike dealer’s bete noire– the flick test.

Its geometry is firmly in the ‘endurance’ mould, and comfort over distance is the aim: a 160mm headtube hints at the riding position you’ll enjoy.

Giant’s bikes are known for their small rear frame triangles, but the Anyroad eschews this performance-led set-up in favour of a more shallow slope to the seatstays and a longer chainstay, both with the intention of making life more comfortable for the rider, and contributing to a wheelbase of 1016mm – positively stretched out for our size S bike.

Cabling is entirely internally routed, with threaded recesses for mudguards and a front rack.

Groupset

Giant have raised the bar a notch over the Specialized and Viking, by using Shimano Tiagra groupset components on the Anyroad.

Besides adding two extra gear ratios, Tiagra being 10-speed to Sora’s nine, it’s slightly lighter.

There’s a 50/34 compact chainset and 11-34 cassette which offers a very wide range of options, but not the most seamless shifts between them, given the sizeable jumps between ratios on the 10-speed block.

Giant’s own Conduct hydro brakes use a cockpit-mounted master cylinder (rather than one located in the hood of the shifter) which effectively converts mechanical input into hydraulic response, allowing the stock Tiagra cable shifters to be retained.

Finishing kit

Being the worldwide manufacturing behemoth that they are, you’d be right to expect Giant’s own-branded finishing kit to be used on the build.

400mm diameter alloy bars are held to the steerer by a 100mm stem. The D-Fuse seatpost is designed to reduce vibration, and is held by an internal clamp which neatens the rear end nicely.

Because of the low standover height of the frame, we ran the post with a whopping 260mm length exposed.

The Giant Contact saddle, for us, wasn’t the most comfortable, but is easily replaced.

Wheels

Giant’s own S-X2 disc-specific wheelset is tubeless-ready, and features a 19mm internal diameter to accept rubber even wider than the 30c Giant Crosscut Tour2 tyres fitted to this bike.

Running them close to their maximum inflation of 75psi will do you for the morning commute through town, while their road-biased central tread is sufficient for this kind of riding.

Pronounced blocks on the tyres’ shoulders give you confidence when cutting across fields and on byways.

The ride

First impression

The first thing most people do when looking at the Anyroad is remark on its top tube.

There’s sloping top tubes, and then there’s this… Giant says it’s to give you more confident handling on varied terrain, and it takes some getting used to looking down at a bike which one moment might be a BMX, the next an MTB, and the next a road bike.

A 702mm standover height, ladies and gentlemen…

On the road

This is one incredibly cossetting machine, the Anyroad’s easy-going riding position promoting a late-summer feeling of joie de vivre.

The view from its cockpit is similar to a standard road bike, so it’s perhaps no surprise that this is where it felt better.

A standard compact chainset enforces the feeling of ‘road bike that’ll handle a little extra’, and while this does provide you with a familiar feeling at the cranks, we did find the spread of gears on the 10-speed Tiagra cassette was a little wide, especially at the bigger end of the block.

That said, for long rides when performance isn’t the primary focus, this bike put big smiles on our face.

It handles dire road surfaces with ease, partly thanks to its lengthy seatpost and low-pressure 30c tyres, and doesn’t even disgrace itself on some tarmac climbs (that 34x34 smallest gear really comes into its own on a bike that weighs more than 10kg).

On lighter off-road terrain – cinder paths, park tracks and the like, progress is far from power-sappingly mundane – it rips along at a rate.

Point it at rougher, rutted trails, however, and it starts to come undone. But as a bike that claims to handle rough and smooth roads, and even provides a foray or two on to dirt and grass, it’s a confidence-inspiring package.

Handling

As an all-rounder, its handling is more than good enough, offering a predictable rate of turn no matter what you throw it at (within reason).

While it’s not a sprinter’s bike (far from it), the amount of speed you can generate means decent brakes are a must if you’re not to overcook it on corners.

Thankfully, the pseudo-hydraulic set-up of the Anyroad has got your back.

While having a junction box does marginally slow the response to a rate that’s slightly slower than that of ‘complete hydraulic’ systems, the firmness of stopping power is more than ample for tarmac and loose paths, and this braking input can be fairly easily measured if you’re after less than a handful.

The Crosscut Tour2 tyres feel similar to wide-profile road tyres most of the time, and certainly add to the comfort of the ride.

However, once you’re off the straight and narrow, their treaded shoulders do provoke a little twitchiness on tarmac, as you might expect.

Point them down a track, however, and they dig in when they need to, whilst remaining (for the duration of our testing at least) puncture resistant.

Of course, being tubeless-ready, you can fill them with slime and not even need to worry about taking spare tubes with you.

Short tours, commuting, weekend fun on back lanes (both tarmac and otherwise), the Anyroad pretty much lives up to its moniker.

RATINGS

Frame: Strong but reasonably lightweight aluminium. 9/10 
Components: Great gearing range from the Tiagra groupset. 8/10 
Wheels: Disc-specific and tubeless ready rims and tyres. 7/10 
The ride: Stacks of fun on both tarmac and trails. 8/10 

Verdict: Speedy on the road, but as the name suggests, the Anyroad 1 is quite happy to take to rougher roads and the occasional foray onto dirt or grass.  

Geometry

Spec

This article first appeared in Issue 77 of Cyclist magazine

Photography: Mike Massaro

If there were an award for the most accomplished CV in framebuilding, Mark Hester would be on the shortlist.

He excelled at his mechanical engineering degree, spent three years as a design and data engineer at Prodrive Racing Australia (a pretty big deal in motorsport), then shared the next eight between posts at Bosch and Jaguar Land Rover.

Even his youth was spent helping his dad build high-performance race cars, and much like his CV, that fed directly into where he is today: high-end custom bicycles, right down to their very name.

‘Prova means to test and develop in Italian,’ says Hester. ‘When I was a kid, Ferrari used to put “Prova” and a model number on the back of their test cars. I always knew I’d use it as a business name one day.’

On this particular example that name sits luminescent in silver against the candy apple paint, a clue to at least one of the materials involved here.

‘It’s stainless steel, so the logos are polished exposed areas of the tubes. The top tube is Reynolds 953, the down tube Columbus XCr, and the head tube is custom CNC’d stainless steel. The rear non-driveside dropout is 3D-printed stainless steel, as is the seat tube lug.’

Yet there is more. The seat tube-cum-integrated seatpost is carbon, onto which clamps a 3D-printed titanium topper. Where others might look to stock parts, Hester makes his own.

Image 3 of 6

Image 3 of 6

‘I make the carbon seat tube myself. It’s thicker at the lug, which is a high-stress area, then tapers away from the lug join.

‘The 3D-printing is designed by me and made in New Zealand by a company that makes rocket parts.

‘I do the CAD design, the FEA simulation, the fabrication and the testing of every bike.

‘Testing is really important to me. Not every builder does it, but being an engineer I want to be completely confident in the bikes I give to people.’

The science of compliance

Testing led Hester to some interesting findings. The rear end of a steel frame is ‘30-40% less vertically compliant than a good carbon frame, whereas steel frames come pretty close in hub-to-hub stiffness if you use an oversized down tube.’ That’s the stiffness associated with efficient power transfer.

‘I think the comfort people feel in a steel bike is really coming from the front triangle’s ability to soak up bumps, and it happens when the down tube and top tube can deflect upwards on impact.

‘Small diameter or thin-walled steel tubes are best adapted to allow this.’

This is why Hester uses the wide-diameter 953 and XCr tubes, which comprise the thinnest tube walls available – just 0.3mm in some areas – and a 1.25in, rather than 1.5in, tapered head tube.

It’s also the main reason for the carbon seat tube. Hester says it provides rear-end compliance more in keeping with the front triangle, with the happy by-product that it saves 400g over a steel seat tube.

Image 4 of 6

Image 4 of 6

This Speciale frame comes in at a claimed 1,590g, with the full build well under 8kg.

‘Compliance is really important for a road bike, and not just for rider comfort. When carbon came along in MotoGP, designers made the frames almost infinitely stiff and it just didn’t work.

‘They couldn’t generate the grip because there was a constant load variation on the contact patch of the tyres as the frame wasn’t flexing torsionally to cope.

‘When you lay a bike down into a corner – and it’s the same for road bikes – it’s not the suspension fork that’s absorbing bumps, it’s the frame, and if the front and rear wheels can’t move independently [as with a super-stiff frame] the bike will jump off line.

‘If a frame is too soft, however, a bike will have an indirect, unpredictable feel in corners. The trick is balance through materials, design and construction.’

Australian by design

For a disc bike, the Prova Speciale is clean. The quality of the brazing and welding makes it hard to spot where one tube ends and another begins, particularly around that 3D-printed seat tube lug.

Brake hoses disappear into holes that have been reinforced on the inside using yet more custom designed 3D-printed parts, as opposed to stock inserts that sit proud of tube faces.

Image 5 of 6

Image 5 of 6

The build has been carefully considered as well. The Enve 4.5 wheelset has been customised by Dan Hale at Melbourne-based Shifter Bikes (top Instagram following tip, by the way), who stripped and polished the DT Swiss 240 hubs to echo the frame accents.

The Pro Stealth saddle has been re-skinned by fellow Melbournian Busyman Bicycles in alcantara, the synthetic leather used on car interiors, and the bars wrapped in matching tape.

‘You can’t ignore the aesthetic side of road bikes, but this is really design-driven,’ says Hester.

‘It’s what I think a modern steel disc road bike should be. It’s for that customer who might usually ride some high-end Cervélo or something.

‘It’s the bike I’ve been dreaming about for ages.’

This review was first published in Issue 80 of Cyclist magazine

The list of bike brands that can boast even half the heritage of Bianchi would be very short indeed. The company is 133 years old, making it the longest-surviving bike manufacturer in the world, and for the majority of that time it has had a presence in the top ranks of the pro sport.

There are several different tales of how the colour celeste (pronounced che-lest-ay) came to be Bianchi’s trademark pastel shade, the most fanciful of which relates to it mimicking the eye colour of a former queen of Italy, for whom Eduardo Bianchi once made a custom bicycle.

The more believable and far less romantic tale is that it was the colour that resulted from a mixture of surplus military paint.

Either way, the colour is synonymous with the brand, and if you’re going to ride a Bianchi, then it really ought to be celeste. 

You won’t see this model, the Oltre XR3 Disc, being used by the male pros very often, if at all, with most of the Lotto NL-Jumbo squad favouring the top-tier and more aggressively aero race model, the XR4.

You will however see the XR3 Disc in action on the women’s WorldTour, as it’s often the weapon of choice for Italian UCI team Eurotarget-Bianchi-Vitasana.

Of course, sponsored riders get to choose which model they ride and how it is specced, a decision that will be based on the demands of a specific race or the parcours of a particular Grand Tour stage.

We, as everyday riders, don’t have that luxury, and that’s why the XR3 Disc is a very appealing choice. Let me explain…

Shoot for the moon

If I were an astronaut, I’d much rather go into space in a rocket designed by Americans than Italians. Equally, I wouldn’t buy an Italian TV.

On the other hand, there’s a reason Mario Cipollini always looks so sharp, and it’s not his US or Far East-made suit or shoes.

It’s just a fact of life that certain areas of the world excel at certain things.

Understanding materials clearly comes naturally to Italians, but I think it’s fair to say they are not best known for making highly technical aero bicycles (OK, maybe with the exception of a few being raced by a certain British satellite TV-backed outfit).

I get a sense that Italians – arguably the only nation that can make white Lycra look good – would rather be out riding, hair precisely coiffed beneath a Casco, outfit with not a fabric crease out of place, than being buried under piles of paperwork in a wind-tunnel facility somewhere.

What this rather long-winded pre-amble is getting to is that my overwhelming feeling about the Oltre XR3 Disc is that it’s a bike that has its materials and geometry absolutely spot on, yet its aero performance won’t blow your mind.

The Oltre’s cause (at least where outright speed is concerned) wasn’t helped by the fact that the bike I was testing prior to this was the latest range-topping rocket ship out of Specialized’s stable – the S-Works Venge.

You’ve only got to look at their respective silhouettes to work out where and why one might be significantly faster than the other.

But, not to do the Bianchi too much of a disservice, a lot of bikes would feel distinctly tardy up against that particular beast.

That said, while my eyes may not have been watering with the speeds I was achieving on the Oltre, neither were they bleeding from nearly being rattled from my skull.

No sir, the Oltre XR3 Disc is one of the most agreeable aero race bikes I’ve ever tested.

Counter service

Bianchi’s masterstroke is what it calls Countervail technology, a viscoelastic resin in the layup that the company claims cancels 80% of the fatiguing vibrations coming through the bike.

Where other brands might only add some extra compliance in certain areas, Bianchi has embedded Countervail throughout the entire frame and fork. Its effects were immediately obvious.

The frame does a commendable job of muting the high-frequency buzz from the road surface, but not at the detriment of losing the sense of connection with the road, nor any perceptible loss of performance in terms of lateral stiffness.

Returning from a three-hour ride, I felt just the same as if I’d been riding for one.

After suggesting the Oltre XR3 Disc’s frame shape might be a touch behind the curve with its aerodynamics, Bianchi’s counter was to remind me that it’s still the rider that generates the most amount of aero drag, and the best way to make

a bike go fast for any length of time is to keep the rider comfortable. But even though I agree with that (at least to some extent) there was something else I felt might be holding the Oltre XR3 Disc back.

The claimed frame weight of 1,150g (55cm) and 450g fork is pretty good for an aggressive aero bike, but in this guise the overall weight is less impressive.

The bike comes with a Shimano Ultegra mechanical groupset, mostly alloy finishing kit and Fulcrum 418 wheels (these are essentially an OE-spec version of Fulcrum’s aftermarket Racing 4 DB wheels with a 35mm alloy rim, meaning they are quite heavy at around 1,700g a pair), such that the complete bike weighs 8.27kg.

That left it feeling a little less nimble than some competitor bikes, and meant it stalled quicker on a steep climb than perhaps I would have liked from a £4,000 race rig.

The frame, though, is still plenty stiff enough to deliver a sizable punch when you need to dial up the speed – it just happens a little less instantaneously than with some.

Changing the wheels for something more high spec could shave off nearly half a kilo in one fell swoop, which I’d suggest would really change the bike’s persona, especially given the Oltre’s racy (low front/short rear end) geometry.

Overall I’m left pondering where I would position the Oltre XR3 Disc in Bianchi’s portfolio. The manufacturer distinguishes between race and endurance in its line-up, and the Oltre sits in the former. For me, though, I’m left feeling the Oltre XR3 Disc actually sits on the fence.

Would I choose it for my race bike? Probably not. Would I select it for an all-day sportive in varied terrain? Definitely. And even more so if I could put it on a bit of a diet beforehand.

Spec

This review was first published in Issue 50 of BikesEtc magazine

Vitus has come pretty close to summing up the perfect all-rounder in their marketing blurb, stating that the Substance V2 helps you to ‘seek adventure, expand your riding horizon, and commute in comfort.’

It’s easy to talk the talk, but does it live up to the claim that your bike can ‘go anywhere and everywhere’…

Frameset

The Substance frameset is constructed from 4130 double-butted CrMo tubing – basically, steel alloy that’s been folded at both end of its tube junctions for extra bracing.

With a fairly tall standover height, Vitus haven’t gone down the wildly sloping toptube route followed by Giant or Specialized, instead sticking with a more traditional frame silhouette befitting its steel construction.

Blue/grey two-tone paint lends the Substance a particularly classy touch, while practicality is provided by mounts for a rack and mudguards.

While the cables are routed externally along the underside of the downtube, they are at least coated with full cable outers to keep the worst of the elements at bay.

Carbon forks up front accommodate the 650b wheels by way of thru-axle (it’s the same deal at the rear), to eliminate any chance of the 47c (yes, 47) tyres rubbing the frame when the wheels are subjected to torsional forces.

It goes without saying that the frame clearance is substantial in order to accommodate 47mm tyres.

Groupset

It may have only a 1x front chainring but the 10-42 cassette gives a broadly comparable spread of ratios to traditional gearing – even if the jumps between them are fairly wild.

Switches between them are actuated by a Sram Apex rear derailleur. An Apex hydraulic disc brake system hauls everything up.

The 1X system means that the left-hand lever only controls the rear brake, while the right-hand lever deals with the front brake, plus up/downshifts by way of a smaller paddle inline with the lever.

Finishing kit

Vitus have equipped this any-road weapon with typically work-a-day alloy finishing kit from their own range.

What you get is a set of wildly flared drop bars, which flare from their across-the-top diameter of 420mm to 500mm at the end of the drops, and provide comfort and leverage in large amounts.

A 100mm stem secures this arrangement to the steerer. A 27.2mm seatpost holds a deeply padded own-brand saddle. It all works as it should, and the padded nature of the seat actually helps a lot with off-road comfort.

Wheels

WTB’s Frequency i23 rims (with an internal rim diameter of 23mm) are matched to WTB Byway 47 tyres – it’s a winning combination for off-piste fun.

The wheels are 650b, rather than the standard road fitment 700c. Put simply, a 650b wheel diameter measures 584mm while a 700 measures 622mm across, so by running smaller-diameter rims, you’re able to fit huge (hence the 47c WTBs) tyres to give a broadly equivalent overall wheel/tyre diameter.

This retains the geometry of a road bike while ladling on the ability to run pressures as low as a recommended 35psi.

The tubeless set-up on our test bike would cost you a further £28 on wiggle.co.uk for WTB rim tape, plus Lifeline valves and sealant, making it a very easy and affordable conversion for the benefits it offers.

First impression

Pass us the 650b catalogue… From the moment of the first pedal revolution, we were sold.

The fact that running a 650b rim with a 47c tyre gives the same rotational diameter as a 700c rim and road tyre means that there are no discernible differences in frame/steering geometry between this and a standard road bike set-up. The massive bonus is in comfort.

On the road

Given its billing, you wouldn’t expect this to be a machine that can thrill like a pukka race bike, and as long as that’s not what you’re expecting from the Substance, you’re in for a treat.

Where it does impress – hugely – is in its ability to propel you along tarmac, hard-pack, gravel, grass and trails at a more than reasonable rate, in no small amount of comfort.

We ran the tyres at 35-40psi, which was fine for the road; in fact, it almost gives the impression of a road bike with full suspension.

Progress is slowed once the road happens to ramp up, mainly due to the fact you’re hauling around 11.10kg of steel.

The high-volume tyres mask the fact that the chromoly frameset isn’t the lightest or comfiest in the world, and swapping between cogs on the 10-42 cassette doesn’t always result in the perfect road ratio.

However, once off the beaten track, slow your pace a little and revel in the straight-line grip and comfort of the tyres.

We haven’t ridden a bike that gave us this much confidence off-road in a long time.

More than able on tarmac, and revelling in urban and off-piste situations? Sounds like an all-rounder to us…

Handling

Confidence is supplied by those widely flared handlebars. An easy reach for our 5ft 8in frame on our size 54 test bike, they offer comfort and stacks of leverage on rougher terrain.

While the tyres offer surprisingly low rolling resistance on the road, they also inspire confidence in pock-marked town centre streets, as well as on various parkland forays we found calling us.

An easy-going steering geometry complements the wide rubber contact patch, and we dare say an absolute beginner rider could get just as much fun (and that’s the key word with this bike) out of the Vitus as an experienced road rider looking for a second (or third!) bike for occasional weekend adventures.

Sram’s hydraulic brakes require some careful metering in their application if you’re to avoid locking the rear (or, perish the thought, the front) on looser terrain, as they’re stopping force can be just the right side of ‘sudden’.

In all, the Vitus represents the more off-road-biased end of the all-rounder scale, but is none the worse for it. If that suits your intended riding, you’d be silly not to take a closer look – not least because it’s currently discounted to £999 from its original price of £1,299.

There’s no touching it for value for money, or to put it another, slightly cheesier, way, smiles per miles.

RATINGS

Frame: Hefty steel frame but well designed and built. 8/10 
Components: 1x groupset means some compromises but it works. 8/10 
Wheels: We love the 650b wheels and tubeless tyres. 9/10 
The ride: Handles all terrain well, on the road or off it. 9/10 

Verdict: In the right circumstances, Bianchi’s Aria lives up to its promise of being a serious road rocket.

Geometry

Spec

This review was first published in Issue 79 of Cyclist magazine

It would be easy to assume that Rose and Canyon are very similar companies: they both hail from Germany and both have a direct-to-consumer sales model. Both also produce very accomplished road bikes. Yet that’s where the similarities end.

Rose is not a brand we’ve featured much until now, so it’s worth recounting a little about what sets it apart from its more conspicuous compatriot.

Rose has been selling bikes since 1907 (in between also selling sewing machines to keep the business ticking over through the winter), and has been making them since 1979.

It remains a family-run business, as evidenced by its slogan: ‘The price is cheapest in the smallest store’.

I’m not entirely sure the slogan makes sense (maybe it loses something in translation) but it does convey the brand’s commitment to offering maximum value for money.

Hence the decision to take its business online, which allowed it to cut down on overheads and reduce the number of middle men between supplier and consumer.

It’s a similar model to Canyon’s but, where Canyon offers complete bikes, Rose offers buyers a configurator to determine the best option for them in a semi-custom manner.

By stocking parts at its German HQ in Bocholt and assembling bikes to order on-site, the company says it is able to maintain the pricing advantage of a direct-to-consumer business model while giving the customer the flexibility to alter bike builds.

‘This was how business was conducted way back when we had just a tiny bricks-and-mortar shop,’ says Thomas Hetzert, Rose’s international sales manager. ‘So the Rose family were determined not to lose that way of working as we grew and developed.’

That’s how I’m able to test a bike where the components alone have a combined retail price of around £4,500, yet Rose sells the complete bike for less than £1,000 more than that.

It seems like very good value, which begs the question why Rose is not a bigger name in the UK, and remains something of an obscure cousin to Canyon.

‘Our strategies differ quite a lot,’ says Hetzert. ‘Canyon is doing a great job in terms of marketing. We try to focus on product and service and increase our brand awareness in a less aggressive way.

‘Our recent rebrand is evidence of this, but we think that by keeping things simple, with slower growth, we can maintain a better service, which is crucial because we are predominantly online.’

Considering the company has been in business for more than 110 years I wouldn’t be inclined to start questioning its methods now, and Rose’s comparatively diminutive market presence certainly doesn’t seem to have done its ability to develop bikes any harm.

On to the bike

The X-Lite is Rose’s flagship race bike and has been a mainstay of the brand’s catalogue for a number of years. It’s been subject to a number of revamps but its most recent, to turn it from the X-Lite Team into the X-Lite Six, has been the most pronounced yet.

‘The X-Lite was always known for its stiffness and light weight so the next step was to try to build in concessions to aerodynamics and comfort as well to make it a more rounded race bike,’ says product manager Christian Brumen.

He explains comfort was created by building a little more flex into the seatstays, then sloping the top tube to lower the seat tube junction and increase the amount of exposed seatpost that can deflect under load.

It’s a fairly simple solution but it works – the long seatpost unfussily takes the edge off scarred road surfaces and for such a racy bike the X-Lite Six is agreeably comfortable, both over rough roads and on long rides.

Rose spent time in a wind-tunnel to refine the frame aerodynamically. The result is a slimmer head tube and down tube compared to the previous model, and a more liberal use of Kamm-tail tube profiles. Brumen claims the changes means the X-Lite Six saves 11 watts of effort at 40kmh.

What’s more, Rose has also managed to save weight. Despite being built to take disc brakes, the new frame is barely any heavier than the previous generation rim brake design and only 30g heavier than the new rim brake frame – 790g versus 760g.

‘We developed the frames concurrently so we could make them very similar,’ says Brumen. ‘The entire front triangle is the same, we just made the chainstays and fork a little differently.’

At 6.91kg for a size 57cm bike, the X-Lite Six is a disc brake bike that rides with the responsiveness of a rim brake bike. It’s reactive in the corners, it’s quick to accelerate up to speed and it positively skips up 15% climbs. 

Completely racy

In both of those latter situations it was the frame’s stiffness that was the deciding factor in how well the bike performed.

Rose has opted to slim the down tube significantly while bulking up the top tube and the head tube.

Brumen says this was done primarily for aerodynamics, because the down tube is far more exposed to the wind than the top tube, which has the head tube in front of it.

In theory, this should have made the bike more flexy, but I found it gave the front triangle great torsional rigidity when I was pulling and pushing hard on the bars.

Coupled with the low weight this meant the bike accelerated like a startled rabbit and, while I don’t have access to a wind-tunnel, I’d say the revised aerodynamics coupled with the DT Swiss ARC 48 wheels were the reason the bike held on to speed with flattering ease.

‘In our development process we try to keep things clear. We have certain stiffness figures we want our race bikes to achieve,’ says Brumen.

‘We want 60Nmm in the bottom bracket and 100Nmm in the head tube. Once we have those it’s up to our R&D team to get the frame as light, as aero and as comfortable as possible.’

It sounds so simple when Brumen puts it like that. But then, simplicity is an art that Rose seems to have mastered.

Spec

This feature was produced in association with Viking

Founded in Wolverhampton in 1908, Viking was originally a bicycle repair shop but owner Alfred Victor Davies – formerly a railway worker – soon started building his own frames.

By the 1930s, Viking was already established as one of the leading names in British bike manufacture and after the end of the Second World War, under the leadership of Alfred Davies’ son Reg, the company grew from producing 800 bicycles a year to more than 20,000 per year at its peak in the 1960s.

Sales were partly driven by the Viking Road Racers team, which became hugely successful riding the Viking Master Series SS and Severn Valley lightweight racing bikes, with notable victories including the Tour of Britain four times in the 1950s.

The firm had 1,250 dealers across the country, selling mostly to club riders, before diversifying into children’s bikes.

Alas, the company ceased trading in 1967 and the brand went through a long and troubled period until it was finally rescued in 2015 by Indian firm Hero, one of the world’s largest bike manufacturers.

With its headquarters established in Manchester, the new owners sought to breathe new life into this classic marque and set about developing a new range of bikes that were truly fit to wear the Viking badge.

After two years of development, the new range was unveiled in May 2018 and the Viking name is once more gracing some highly desirable bikes….

Who are Viking bikes for?

The new Viking range includes city, touring and road bikes. From the Viking Urban Myth, a stylish singlespeed with a handsome chrome frame designed for a nippy, no-nonsense ride around town, through the Viking Cross Master, a versatile modern steel-framed bike designed for mixed terrain on weekday commutes and weekend adventures, to the Viking Race Master, a lightweight dynamic frame built of 3K carbon fibre with racy geometry for a perfect blend of comfort and speed.

Viking is part of the Insync family, aimed at the family and leisure market, along with the Riddick, Ryedale and De Novo brands.

Insync recognises that cycling offers similar health benefits to yoga, relaxing the body and mind to bring you in sync with your surroundings, improving your mental and physical wellbeing, strengthening the immune system and encouraging happiness and health.

Key features

From traditional Reynolds steel tubing, reflecting the heritage of the brand, through to the latest 3K carbon fibre, Viking bikes are built with the best quality materials.

Designed in the UK to suit the needs of British riders, they feature modern geometry for a compliant and comfortable ride, yet with stiffness where it is needed for efficient power transfer and sharp, lively handling.

Shimano components

Viking bikes are competitively priced but there are no corners cut when it comes to components, with full Shimano groupsets featured across the range, including brakes and cassettes, so you can be sure of slick, reliable performance at all times.

Classic styling

The new Viking range celebrates the brand’s history with minimal retro graphics for a contemporary urban look.

The frame is adorned with the classic Viking logo and head tube badge, along with a badge naming Viking’s four Tour of Britain wins in 1951, 1955, 1958 and 1959.

Great prices

Being owned by one of the world’s biggest bike manufacturers means Viking bikes enjoy economies of scale in production, which can be passed on to you, the purchaser, in the form of impressively affordable price tags.

With prices ranging from £299 to £1,699, these could easily pass for much more expensive models.

• Viking bikes are available to buy online and from all good independent dealers. For more information on the full range, visit insyncbikes.com

This article was originally published in Issue 78 of Cyclist Magazine

Words James Witts Photography Mike Massaro

'If you don’t master manufacturing, you don’t grow. If you’re just a designer and sending some drawings to a company you’re hardly involved with, you lose your soul and lose the reason you are…’

So said Jean-Claude Chrétien, general manager of French bicycle manufacturer Look and part-time philosopher, when Cyclist visited the company’s frame manufacturing plant in Tunisia back in 2015.

It’s a sentiment that comes to mind on Cyclist’s latest visit to Look, this time at its headquarters in Nevers, a commune in central France.

We’re here to discover the embodiment of that mastery of manufacturing – the historic bikes from Look’s collection that reveal the development of the brand and demonstrate its commitment to innovation.

Many of the bikes are beautiful, some are baffling, but all of them are groundbreaking in their own way.

And it all started not with cycling, but with skiing. Look formed in 1951 as a ski-bindings manufacturer.

‘The founder of Look, Jean Beyl, got the idea from his hospital bed after breaking his fibula skiing for the second time,’ explains Audrey Sogny, head of communications.

Look would later sell its ski-bindings division to Skis Rossignol but, in 1984, it applied that spring-loaded binding technology to the world of two wheels, inventing the world’s first ‘automatic’ clipless pedals.

In 1985 Bernard Hinault became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France using a pair of clipless pedals, and a year later the company entered the world of bicycle manufacturing, going on to make some of the most successful and eye-catching bikes in the history of the sport.

Look track bike, 1994

‘This was a prototype, so wasn’t a commercial offering. That said, the French track team used it for a while, although it didn’t gain long-term traction because it lacked rigidity,’ says Gilles Moutarde, Look’s after-sales service manager who has been with the company for 30 years.

‘What inspired its development? Partly the summer of 1993 when world records were sent tumbling thanks to the efforts of Graeme Obree and Chris Boardman.

‘French track rider Philippe Ermenault [Pursuit World Champion in 1997 and 1998] and his team were convinced it was the design of the bike that was making the difference.

‘So Ermenault explained what he expected from the bike in detail. Jacky Mourioux, the national coach, guided our work, and aerodynamicist Maurice Menard helped us realise an exceptional “coefficient of penetration” through the air.

‘From the first tests the times were prodigious, and Ermenault went on to win a competition in Aquitaine.

‘As for its construction, it’s a carbon frame that lacks a traditional seat tube. But it’s the forks that really stand out.

‘The designer had a background in the car industry and he felt this design would behave well at speed. It was also a test of what might work commercially and what wouldn’t.’

Look KG 196, 1990

‘The KG 196 was a frame of firsts – it was our first monocoque carbon frame, our first integrated fork and first adjustable stem,’ says Moutarde. ‘That monocoque frame was a true groundbreaker.

‘By forging a manufacturing process where you could create a carbon frame in a single mould, we increased rigidity, comfort and, of course, could produce a variety of shapes, which was key to aerodynamic evolution.

‘That aerodynamic edge tipped over to the forks, too, which resulted in better handling characteristics while giving us the ability to narrow the frontal profile.

‘You could also change the angle of the stem depending on your flexibility, and a final first for Look: internal routing throughout, rather than solely in the top tube as seen on previous models.

‘Also note the Mavic Zap electronic groupset – the forerunner of Shimano’s Di2 – which provided electric changing on the rear derailleur only and featured on models post-1992.

‘The front remained mechanical using a cable. Sadly, this didn’t prove a success for Mavic, unlike the bike, which enjoyed great commercial success for us, so much so that we produced it from 1991 to 1998.

‘Many professional teams used the KG 196 including Once, Charly Mottet’s Novemail team and Festina.’

Look KG 86, 1986

‘This is Look’s first-ever carbon bike. In fact, it’s Look’s first ever bike, made here in this factory in Nevers. 

‘In the early 1980s we produced steel frames using Reynolds tubing but not beneath the umbrella of the Look brand.

‘Instead, they were branded for teams like La Vie Claire, who became synonymous with Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond.

‘Both riders used this bike at the 1986 Tour de France, with LeMond riding it to victory, though not everyone on the team used it – maybe two or three others – because it was a minimal production run and some of the riders were also reluctant to switch from steel or aluminium.

‘After its success, all the La Vie Claire riders were riding it the following year.

‘We used TVT carbon, creating the tubes by wrapping carbon sheets around a sort of balloon and applying high pressure.

‘We then assembled the frame by hand, joining the triangles via aluminium lugs.

‘Carbon was rarely used in any sector in the 1980s, and almost never in France, so we worked with a Belgian engineer who specialised in carbon.

‘He worked on this project for two years. We also used Kevlar to increase comfort.’

Look KG 296, 1996

‘Before the UCI brought in its 3:1 tube profiling and “non-structural components” rules, there were some radical machines being built.

‘The KG 296 CLM was one of them. It was especially for the time-triallist Alex Zulle through our sponsorship of the Once team, and he won the 1996 World Time-Trial Championships on it.

‘The frame was actually made of round tubes but with added titanium fairings to improve aerodynamics, further heightened by a frontal cross-section that came in at 28mm and a frame thickness of just 19mm.

‘You could also choose from several wheel options including 650c.

‘Today we have wind-tunnels and CFD software but back then we didn’t really use any of that. OK, there was the odd wind-tunnel session but it was very expensive.

‘Now we use the wind-tunnel at Magny-Cours on a much more regular basis. Today’s bikes are also the result of a much more collaborative process than the 1990s, with riders more involved.

‘These were the early days of aerodynamics.

‘One final point about the bike is the logo on the inflated seat tube. It’s of a blind person walking because the sponsor Once is the Spanish foundation Organizacion Nacional de Ciegos Espanoles, which provides services for the blind and people with visual impairment.’

Look KG 171, 1994

 ‘The KG 171 proved incredibly popular with professional and recreational riders alike, and was the bike that Laurent Jalabert recorded his 100th professional victory on.

‘Luc Leblanc also won the 1994 World Road Race Championships aboard this bike in Agrigento, Italy.

‘Like all bike brands, we always see a spike in sales if a professional wins a high-profile race, and the KG 171 was no exception.

‘It was the successor to the KG 96 and weighed around 1kg, the aluminium forks and lugs adding a little weight to the carbon frame.

‘A plastic pipe in the top tube added a few grams, too, though was a cute innovation as it prevented the cable within rattling and making an irritating sound.

‘The multi-directional carbon tubes were joined to the aluminium lugs via thermal bonding.

‘It might not have been a monocoque design but it still produced a lively, comfortable and reactive ride, and it was part of a new faction of the company called Look Design System, which was essentially a forum for innovation.

‘Look Design System is now the name of the factory in Tunisia where we manufacture carbon bikes.’

Look KG 381i, 2002 

 ‘Look’s KG 381i was the bike Laurent Jalabert finished his career on in 2002 when racing for CSC-Tiscali, although Laurent didn’t use this specific bike as he preferred matt black over the streaks of red.

‘Jalabert enjoyed great success in his final season riding the KG 381i, winning the mountains classification at the Tour de France for the second year in a row as well as winning a stage of Paris-Nice en route to finishing third overall.

‘The frame is virtually all high-modulus carbon. We manipulated the fibre orientation and shape of every part to favour either comfort or power transfer, with the carbon tubeset mated to alloy lugs. Once again, it won a bike of the year award in France.

‘Its components are primarily Look, including the seatpost which featured a healthy amount of setback to soak up more road buzz. The crankset, the stem and, needless to say, the pedals are also Look.

‘Corima supplied the wheels. We were in partnership with Corima at the time and now it’s part of Look Cycle International – our official company name – after we bought it in 2016.’

Look KG 396, 2000

 ‘We developed this carbon time-trial bike solely for the French pro team Crédit Agricole, and it was used by the likes of Bobby Julich and Stuart O’Grady.

‘The team wanted a bike fitted with all-in-one triathlon handlebars so we adapted the steering fork and worked with a set of bars from Vision.

‘It featured internal cable routing, a fully adjustable integrated stem that gave a crazy amount of position options, and it had rear-facing track-style dropouts.

‘These meant that not only could the rear wheel could be positioned as closely – and safely – as possible to the contoured frame for maximum aerodynamics, but also that it could be converted to a fixed-gear bike, which is how I hear Julich used it in training.

‘Chris Boardman used a bespoke aluminium version of this bike when racing for Crédit Agricole. The customised geometry he wanted simply wasn’t possible in carbon because of its prohibitive cost.

‘His bars were positioned beneath the headset and on the end of the forks because Chris wanted an extreme aerodynamic position to help him cut through the wind.

‘Incredibly, he was able to sustain power output in that position, but you had to be incredibly flexible to ride Chris’s version.’

Look KG PKV Atlanta, 1996 

 ‘This bike proved to be a star of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where it picked up six medals: four gold and two silver.

‘It was all about rigidity and aerodynamics – in my opinion no other bike had these characteristics at the time – but this came at the cost of weight, with the frame more than 3kg even though it was carbon.

‘But it had to be strong, especially around the bottom bracket, which experiences significant forces – notably from a standing start.

‘Also, beyond performance, it needed to be safe. We didn’t have the multitude of torque measurements and tests we have today so we erred on the side of caution.

‘Nowadays we can test here in Nevers at what pressure a frame might break. This bike did undergo velodrome testing, partly, of course, because that’s where it was designed to be raced.

‘Bourg’s the closest one to us now but hadn’t been built back then, so we had to use the one near Toulon, about an hour east of Marseille. We also tested this bike in the Roubaix velodrome.

‘Track bikes were always important to Look and still are. Grégory Baugé won two silver medals at London 2012 aboard the Look L96, and we’re developing a bike for the 2020 Olympics that will be used by France and other nations including China, Russia and Japan.’

Look 595, 2006 

 ‘The most visible technological leap with this bike came in the form of that integrated “E-Post” seatpost, for which Look took out a patent – a big part of how Look protects its inventions.

‘From a rider’s point of view, the integrated seatpost with elastomer provided a more stable and comfortable ride.

‘That was because a one-piece unit meant fewer vibrations compared to a traditional seat tube and seatpost combination.

‘One less obvious quality of this bike is that practically no other material was used besides carbon. Only the gear hanger, bottom bracket threads and the bottle bosses were alloy.

‘The carbon forks were also innovative, featuring an oversized crown and wider fork blades, which combined for extra stiffness.

‘The BB lug was unique because to produce a lug in carbon that’s lighter than aluminium with the same stiffness we had to develop a new technology: VHPC or Very High Pressure of Compression.

‘The piece was compressed during production to make it lighter.

‘Cofidis used the 595, as did Crédit Agricole. Thor Hushovd enjoyed great success aboard the Look 595 when racing for Cofidis, winning the points classification at the Volta a Catalunya and Paris-Nice in 2008, as well as a stage of the Tour de France.’