Cycling Plus 01/09

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THE BIKES ON TEST
PEARSON COMPASS £1299
Pearson’s British-designed, Far
East-built steel tourer comes with
Reynolds 631 frame and forks,
700C wheels, Campag components
and coordinated Pearson kit. But is
it a top level mile-eater?
THORN SHERPA £1069.95
Small wheels good? Like the
Pearson this is a Taiwanese-made
steel tourer – this time from Thorn’s
969 chromoly and Reynolds 531
forks – but with the Sherpa you’re
turning 26in wheels.
TOUT TERRAIN SILKROAD
£2850 AS SPECCED
Photography Robert Smith Studios
European-designed and built
tourer with Rohloff hub gears and
all-in-one frame and rear rack. One
of the dearest tourers we’ve
tested. But does it justify the cost?
KONA SUTRA £977.74
With its 700C wheels, very
compact mountain bike-style
frame, drop handlebars and disc
brakes, Kona’s unusual jolly green
giant mixes styles. But does it do
so successfully?
Long
Riders
Dreaming of faraway places and a bike to
get you there? You might find what you’re
looking for in one of these four very
different long distance machines…
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The Pearson’s a well coordinated bike with
a sensible spec – almost as well coordinated
and sensible looking as its pilot…
PEARSON COMPASS
FRAME AND FORK 9 Designed in the UK, made in
Taiwan, very well finished in Britain. And absolutely
ideal for 700C touring.
HANDLING 9 The impeccable ride quality of a classy
steel tourer: neutral, smooth, comfortable.
EQUIPMENT 8 Solid, reliable Campag Centaur kit
and decent quality Pearson-branded components;
elegant and durable.
WHEELS 9 Classic 36-spoked Mavic rims and sealed
Ambrosio hubs make a great team for smoothly
pounding out the miles.
C
hoice, choice, choice. Go into a
supermarket these days and you
have hundreds of brands of yogurt,
cereal or pizzas from which to
choose. And it’s similar for today’s
cyclists. The days when the likes of
Raleigh provided a majority of the country’s
– and the British Empire’s – bikes are long
gone, and whether you’re looking for race
bikes, sportive bikes, urban or fixed-wheel
machines, the choice for today’s cyclist can
be absolutely bewildering. Even though you
may see fewer cycle tourists than in the
good old days, when Britain’s lanes were full
of cycle-touring families and the sun always
shone, there’s still a surprisingly wide choice
of machines available to the cyclist with
adventure in their sights – as these four
bikes demonstrate.
At first glance, with their different wheel
sizes, braking systems, handlebars and
gears, this quartet would appear to have
nothing in common except the fact that
they’re all designed to carry you and your
luggage kilometre after kilometre, mile after
mile, even country after country. But
appearances can be deceptive, and there is
something else the machines share – which
also harks back to a different age. Yes, while
carbon fibre is the material du jour for
high-end race bikes, aluminium dominates
the hybrid market and titanium is carving
out its own shiny niche, these machines are
made of good old fashioned – or not so old
actually – steel. And one of them is even
made in Germany with a majority of its
components sourced in Europe. So let the
adventure begin…
London calling
Pearson Cycles may not actually be based in
the capital but Sutton is near enough to the
metropolis for the well respected bike shop
to have millions of potential customers on
its doorstep.
Its Compass bike is, in a way, the most
traditional of the machines on test. Steel
frame? Check. Drop bars? Check. 700C
wheels? Yep. But while it may resemble the
Dawes Galaxy of old, and similar all-steel
British tourers, this is a more modern,
multinational machine. The frame has a
gently sloping top-tube, more semi-compact
than compact. It’s made in Taiwan, but like
similar bikes from Paul Hewitt, is finished in
the UK to a very high standard. This takes
advantage of Taiwan’s high quality bike
manufacturing skills, while balancing this
with the greater amount of custom paint
finishes available at home. In contrast to
earlier generations of steel touring bikes
which would usually have been lugged, the
Compass is TIG-welded. And typically, being
made in Taiwan, this is all very neatly done.
The material is Reynolds 631; this replaced
531 in Reynolds’ line-up because of the
inability to TIG-weld 531.
Pearson describes its Compass as a bike
“designed for the long distance cyclist...
offering versatility and durability”. So, are
the London-based company’s claims true?
Weeks of riding over Christmas and the New
Year period convinced us that indeed no
porkies were being told.
As with other Pearson bikes we’ve tested,
it’s a well coordinated bike with a sensible
spec. We went for mid-range Campag, but
Shimano builds are an option and if you’re
planning on taking this well off the beaten
track, where Campag gear might not be so
readily available – we’re thinking the Third
World, not Norfolk – the Japanese
company’s kit might be the better option.
That said, the Campag setup did work
faultlessly. It’s perhaps not as smooth a
performer as similarly priced Shimano kit,
but the gear changes from the Ergolevers are
solid and totally convincing.
Everything about the bike inspires
confidence for long distance riding.
Unloaded it has quite a racy feel, but throw
a week’s shopping into the panniers or loads
of camping gear and while you’re going to
be cycling slower, the handling isn’t in any
way compromised – which is exactly what
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Touring bikes
Hitting the open road – or
dusty track – on a touring
bike is guaranteed to get
you grinning
Everything about the
Pearson inspires
confidence for long
distance riding
you want when descending a mountain col
or even the steep hills around Bath. The
wheel and tyre combo is smooth running
and comfortable and at the front the
oversized handlebars are a very good call,
keeping untoward road buzz down to a
minimum. The advantage with the drop
bars, whether you’re touring or doing any
other long rides, is that you have a greater
variety of hand positions, which should
reduce tiredness and discomfort after a long
day’s riding.
Perhaps the greatest reflection of how
much we like a bike is the reaction when
they have to go back to the suppliers, and
the Pearson will be badly missed by a fair
few members of the magazine team. In
short, it’s a good quality and versatile bike.
Sensible rather than glamorous, but that’s
what any endurance riding – touring, audax,
sportive, whatever – is all about.
North, south, east or west, point the
Compass any way you want and you’ll find
it a very enjoyable ride. And when you’re
not traversing continents, the bike will make
a more than adequate bike for just about all
your cycling needs. Plus, as it’s made of
steel it should last as long as you, provided
you look after it.
Small wheels good
Thorn makes a massive range of touring
bikes for just about every kind of trip. This
includes the front suspension, Rohloffequipped eXXp and the expedition-specific
eXp R and eXp bikes, each nudging the
three grand price bracket. The Sherpa starts
at a much less eye-watering £899, but is still
designed to ‘carry a week’s shopping, heavy
camping kit... even both at the same time! It
will take you to the other side of town, or to
Rohloff hub and 26in wheels or
mountain climbing gears and 700C
wheels – these four test bikes offer
a number of options
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the other side of the planet’. Quite a claim
for this bright red bike – so red a small child
mistook one of our testers for a postman
while he was cycling through Bristol. So if
you don’t fancy being taken for a postie on a
pillar-box red bike you might go for the
The Sherpa’s frame
is handmade in
Taiwan of chromoly
steel…Thorn’s own
brand 969
more understated black alternative.
Sizing our testbike was done online using
Thorn’s own measuring system, and the
bike turned up a perfect fit for Cycling Plus’s
in-house cycle tourer. And while the
Sherpa’s multiple steerer tube spacers won’t
appeal to everyone, once you get the correct
bar height for your riding you can cut the
steerer down; don’t do this before you get it
right though.
Unlike the Compass the Sherpa comes
with 26in, MTB-size wheels. These have
several advantages over their larger siblings:
The Thorn’s handling is
stable and confident –
any surprises on your
travels should come
from elsewhere
being smaller a 26in wheel should be
tougher; and if you’re touring off the beaten
track – and let’s face it that’s just what these
bikes are for – it’ll be much easier to find
replacement tyres and tubes (and rims, if it
comes to that). More reminiscent of the
Compass is the fact that the Sherpa’s frame
is handmade in Taiwan of chromoly steel, in
this case Thorn’s own brand 969. The finish
is good, though not quite as deep and
lustrous as that of the Pearson. And we’d get
some frame protectors on the head-tube
sharpish to prevent cable rub.
Ultimately the riding difference between
bikes with 700C wheels and 26in wheels is
marginal, as once the tyres are on the
difference in diameters isn’t that great; 26in
wheels are a little stronger, 700C wheels
smoother over the bumps. In the end the
choice depends on what type of cycling
you’re likely to be doing. If you’re mainly on
the tarmac in the First World the advantages
are with the larger wheel, but if you’re
riding roughstuff or over poorly surfaced
roads – at home or abroad – MTB wheels
are the sounder choice. As it was the
Sherpa’s ran smoothly over all the surfaces
we threw it at, including wet, muddy canal
towpaths, and the well sealed Shimano hubs
should provide miles of consistent running.
Given the similarity between the materials
it’s perhaps not surprising that the Sherpa’s
ride is just as surefooted and convincing as
the Compass’s. It coped with loads without
murmur or complaint, though unloaded the
Pearson just shades it for performance. The
Compass’s frame and wheels are marginally
lighter than the Sherpa’s and that may just
have been enough to make the difference.
The area where we would consider some
minor tweaks are around the handlebars.
Oversized bars do seem to offer greater
comfort and the Tektro brake levers had a
slight but noticeable ridge on top – which
took a little getting used to – rather than a
more comfortable rounded surface.
Two final things: our Sherpa turned up
with a little glass jar containing a red liquid.
There were concerns that our tech ed was
taking up wearing nail polish but this turned
out to be paint for touching up the frame. A
good call for a bike that’s likely to get some
pretty rough treatment over its lifetime.
THORN SHERPA
FRAME AND FORK 8 British designed chromoly
frame, handmade in Taiwan to a high standard. The
forks show that 531 still has a job to do even after
73 years.
HANDLING 9 Stable, surefooted, confident; the
Sherpa shows off steel’s strength to the full.
EQUIPMENT 9 Sensible, tough, reasonably priced
9-speed Deore kit and bar-end levers – a great
choice for a rugged tourer.
WHEELS 8 Shimano off-road hubs, Rigida rims and
Panaracer tyres are a top combination for 26in
wheeled touring.
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At £3000 your credit
card touring is likely to
start at home if you opt
for the Silkroad!
WORTH A LOOK IF…
You want aluminium
CANNONDALE
TOURING CLASSIC
EVEN IN THE 21st century steel is the de
TOUT TERRAIN SILKROAD
And the Sherpa, like all Thorn bikes, comes
with a 14-day money-back pledge. “How is
that for confidence in the quality of our
product?” Thorn says, and given our time
pounding out the miles on this we don’t
reckon too many customers will be asking
for refunds.
Smooth as silk
This is a very different beast from the other
four bikes on test, with a distinct Middle
European flavour about it. Forget drop bars
and derailleurs, Tout Terrain’s Silkroad
comes with flat bars and Rohloff’s expensive
but superbly engineered 14-speed hub gear.
And yes, the near three grand price tag is
correct. That Rohloff hub along with the
front hub dynamo and other high-end kit
contribute to the price somewhat, although
you can get derailleur-equipped models from
London’s Bikefix which start at £1450, with
Rohloff-equipped Silkroads available from
£2150. Three thousand quid? For a touring
bike? Who are they kidding? Oh, they’re
deadly serious…
If you listen to Orson Welles in The Third
Man, you might believe that Switzerland’s
only contribution to world culture has been
the cuckoo clock. This seems a bit unkind
on the Alpine country, and doesn’t take into
account, er, banking, Lindt chocolate, the
Large Hadron Collider and this very
distinctive touring bike. True, Tout Terrain is
FRAME AND FORK 9 German build quality, Swiss
knowhow. Strong and impressively well thought out
for expedition-level tours. Built to carry that load…
HANDLING 9 Imperious and leisurely, pleasantly
upright. Absolutely perfect handling for long,
heavily-laden touring.
EQUIPMENT 9 Top quality, well constructed. The
Rohloff and Schmidt hubs are great, likewise the
disc brakes; even the kickstand is a sensible option.
WHEELS 9 Like the rest of the bike: tough, strong
and uncompromising for rigorous loaded touring.
a German company and the bike is
‘WIG-welded’ in Freiburg, but the Silkroad is
designed by former Swiss Junior Downhill
Champion Florian Wiesmann. He’s done a
cracking job too. The bike’s European
The Silkroad is
designed by former
Swiss Junior
Downhill Champion
Florian Wiesmann
flavour is maintained throughout, a
deliberate policy on Tout Terrain’s part. (And
as for that WIG-welding, well, wolfram is
German for tungsten, so actually it’s the
same as TIG-welding).
The main frame is Columbus Zona steel,
with the integrated oversized rear rack made
from stainless steel. The result of having a
rigueur material for touring bikes – as this
month’s test readily demonstrates – but it’s
not the only option. Cannondale has a handful
of touring bikes in its range, from a flat-barred
Trekking Ultra at £927.99 to the Touring
Rohloff at £2449.
In between these comes the Cannondale
Touring Classic at £1221.99. Its aluminium
frame is handbuilt in the USA and it’s specced
with Shimano 105 and Ultegra kit along with a
Truvativ chainset and bottom bracket. Brakes
are Tektro Oryx cantilevers which are very
popular with cycle tourists. Wheels boast
Mavic rims, DT spokes and Schwalbe tyres
and the all-round high quality setup is
matched in the racks, which are Tubus front
and rear. It might have a lightweight alu
frame but don’t be fooled – the Touring
Classic is a bike built to go the distance. Tech
ed Simon toured on four continents on an
earlier version of this, and we’re looking to
put the 2009 model through its paces in a full
Cycling Plus test later this year.
£1221.99 www.cannondale.com
You want to go Dutch
KOGA-MIYATA WORLD
TRAVELLER SIGNATURE
FLAT BARRED TOURING bikes, often with
Rohloff’s 14-speed hub, tend to be the bike of
choice for cyclists from mainland Europe,
while – presumably for historical reasons –
we Brits and our American cousins tend to go
for drop-barred bikes. Cass Gilbert is presently
testing a Santos TravelMaster in Asia (www.
santos-bikes.nl), while Cycling Plus has recently
picked up a Koga-Miyata Signature for an
upcoming test. This comes with a high quality
Taiwanese-made aluminium frame which is
finished at Koga’s ultra-modern headquarters
in Heerenveen, Holland.
A huge range of component choices are
possible for Signature bikes and each machine
is put together by a single mechanic. British
long distance cyclist Mark Beaumont recently
completed his record-breaking 18,000-mile
world tour on a Koga-Miyata World Traveller,
which does suggest that it’s a decent option
for endurance cycling. The price depends on
the kit that you spec but expect to pay around
the £2000 mark.
£2000 www.koga.com/uk
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The Kona Sutra shows off
its North American MTB
roots, with disc brakes and
a distinct lack of mudguards
KONA SUTRA
one-piece frame and rack is a more
convincing feel than any rack and frame
combo we’ve ever come across. No matter
what loads we threw at this there was no
flex, no creaking, nothing but an entirely
confident load carrier. There are further
examples of great design everywhere you
look on this: the struts to strengthen the rear
The Silkroad’s
handling is
impeccable, the
riding position high
and upright
stays, cable routing for the Rohloff, internal
cabling through the rear rack for the
dynamo-powered LED, the dynamo and
sleek front light combo… The designers
have clearly done their stuff, no bling, no
showing off, just good German engineering
that’ll go on working long after you have.
The bike is designed to carry up to 160kg
of rider and gear – so a cyclist weighing
around 12 stone will also be able to carry
over 80kg of kit. And while we put this bike
through some pretty heavily loaded rides
over a variety of surfaces – it coped, of
course – it’s hard to imagine most cyclists
being able to actually haul that amount of
kit. Having said that, Tout Terrain’s website
does show pictures of some extremely
heavily laden bikes.
The Silkroad’s handling is impeccable, the
riding position high and upright – the word
‘imperious’ springs to mind. Even unloaded
it’s 35lb mass means it’s no cheetah, but
that upright position is great for visibility
and makes you feel like a king of the road.
But it’s when it’s loaded that this beast of
burden really comes into its own. This is a
bike for those long, heavy tours that you’ve
had planned for years, maybe even tackling
the ancient Asian trade route from which
the bike takes its name. Camping gear,
clothes, spares – you could carry all this and
more without fear of the bike failing. Your
legs might not make it, but we’ve no qualms
recommending it. The wheels are as tough
FRAME & FORK 8 Well finished, uncompromising,
tough-as-old-boots chromoly steel frame and forks
with Kona off-road heritage.
HANDLING 8 The handling belies the heavyweight
frame and fork combo and feels pleasingly sharp.
EQUIPMENT 7 Generally good quality kit, but the
inelegant solution to fitting the – admittedly
excellent – Avid disc brakes suggest they’re not the
best choice.
WHEELS 8 Decent hoops and tyres and without
rim-braking the Mavic rims should be very
long-lasting too.
as the frame, and the Middleburn chainring
and Rohloff hub provide just the sort of low
gears required, shifting from a wall-climbing
19in up to 100in in regular 13.6%
increments; a classic piece of engineering to
complement a classic bike.
Yes, it’s a lot of money but it’s worth it.
Refined, stylish, well made, very European
and virtually faultless – the only change
we’d make is to fit some bar ends so you
can vary your riding position.
Sutra sir!
There was widespread excitement in the
Cycling Plus office when we heard we were
reviewing the Kama Sutra, so it was a little
disappointing to find that it was only a bike
that came in rather than the Sanskrit guide
to, ahem, an exercise other than cycling.
We’ve had Thorn’s pillar-box red Sherpa,
and now the combined US and Canadian
company Kona has given us a bike in a
spectacular shade of green – it’ll stand
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WORTH A LOOK IF…
You want to buy British
CHAS ROBERTS
ROUGHSTUFF
UNFORTUNATELY THERE ISN'T a large-
out in a crowd, that’s for sure. Like all the
other bikes on test the Kona’s made from
that classic touring material, butted
chromoly steel, in this case Kona’s own
brand with an excellent finish.
It’s a bike that seems to scream of a
mountain bike heritage. And it’s not only
the frame geometry either – the Sutra still
has the braze-ons for cantilever or V-brakes,
the rear bosses are capped, the front ones
used for the rack. That lack of mudguards is
also suggestive of a bike from a company
known for off-road bikes, especially one
from North America where mudguards – or
fenders as they’re known over the pond –
are much less widely used. True, a decent
pair will only set you back around 20 quid
from your local bike shop and a few
minutes’ time spent fitting them, but for a
bike designed as a touring all-rounder it
seems an unusual omission.
Probably the most distinctive feature of
the Sutra though is its use of disc brakes.
Although common on European flat-barred
Probably the most
distinctive feature of
the Sutra is its use of
disc brakes
tourers, like the Silkroad, they’re much rarer
on drop bar tourers and the Sutra might
demonstrate why this is the case. The
reasons for choosing mechanical disc brakes
are simple: they offer great stopping power
– once they’ve bedded in after a few rides
– and their ability to bring you to a halt
safely isn’t related to the condition of your
rims. A touring bike’s rims – like those of a
mountain bike – are likely to get the sort of
abuse at some point that will send them out
of true, especially when racking up high
mileages over variable surfaces. If you’re
about to descend a mountain pass with
buckled rims your braking will be
compromised. Not a good state of affairs…
Fit disc brakes – and the Kona’s Avids are
about the best mechanical disc brakes there
are – you not only avoid this potential
scenario but your rims should last much,
much longer. And if you’re in the middle of
Asia or South America your local bike shop
may not be that local. However, there are
potential issues when fitting disc brakes to a
tourer and we don’t feel that Kona has
addressed them all perfectly. Problem: the
bulk of the rear disc brake’s mechanism
goes exactly where the bottom end of your
rear rack’s struts would normally go.
Solution: Kona has fitted spacers along the
bolt that connects the bottom of the rack to
the frame to take the frame away from the
brakes. Not an elegant solution, and it
means that a lot of pressure could be going
through the end of a bolt. The rack’s
designed to carry 30kg of kit – and the bike’s
more than tough enough to carry it – but
that’s putting a lot of pressure on two bolts.
That’s a bit of a shame really, as the Sutra
handles very well. The drop bars offer more
positions than flat bars (though fewer than
the Kama Sutra…); unloaded it’s sharp
through the streets, quick into corners and
the handling isn’t that noticeably affected by
a couple of kit-filled panniers. The brakes
work a treat too, really enabling you to
shoot around town. A frame of this size and
weighing 6lb can easily cope with any
demands you’re likely to make of it. So
while we’d be more than happy using the
Sutra for moderately loaded rides,
commuting and everyday trips, we’d be
wary of taking heavy loads off the beaten
track with its present setup.
scale manufacturer of touring bikes in the UK
these days. Long gone are the days when the
factories of Dawes, Raleigh, Claud Butler and
Holdsworth turned out classic steel tourers by
the score. True, Dawes is still producing
tourers – even the Galaxy is still going – but
its bikes are now produced abroad. But smallscale bespoke production is still going strong
from a wide range of British frame makers.
Mercian in Derby, Dave Yates in Lincolnshire,
Bristol’s Argos and Roberts Cycles in Croydon
are among the companies producing high
quality steel tourers. Roberts offers a wide
range of touring, racing and audax bikes in a
variety of steels. Its Roughstuff, shown here,
is a 26in wheeled tourer with a fillet brazed
Nivacrom frame and 1.125in steel forks. The
Roughstuff Lite has a Reynolds 725 frame
with 1in forks. And Roberts also makes 700C
touring machines with classy lugged frames:
the Clubman frameset comes in at £825 with
the Transcontinental 50 quid dearer.
£895 frame and fork
www.robertscycles.com
You want titanium…
ENIGMA ETAPE
WE'VE SEEN STEEL, we’ve seen aluminium,
but that still leaves one metal that has a place
in endurance and touring bikes. Yes, we’re
talking titanium. The likes of Van Nicholas,
Litespeed, Merlin and now Lynskey all
produce titanium bikes suitable for endurance
rides, touring and sportives. Enigma’s Etape is
designed in the UK by the Sussex-based
company with the stock frames artisanproduced in Taiwan; its custom frames are
made in the UK. It’s made from double butted
3al/2.5v titanium with a head-tube and
dropouts in the harder 6/4 titanium alloy.
When we tested the Etape in Cycling Plus we
called it “the most versatile titanium bike
we’ve ever tested”, and while it might not be
ideal for full-on expedition touring, titanium
might just be the perfect choice for faster,
long day rides and credit-card touring, bank
account permitting, of course. It may have
many good qualities, but titanium’s not going
to be able to compete with steel on price any
time soon.
£2385 approx, depending on spec
www.enigmabikes.com
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THE VERDICT
PEARSON COMPASS
FOUR BIKES, ALL very different, all
with very good qualities. For
versatility the Pearson Compass
probably shades it. It’s a fastish
tourer capable of carrying heavy
loads, but also most suited for day
rides and weekends away. Unloaded
it feels nothing like its weight and
could easily double up as a bike for
training and audaxes. Nothing fazes
it. Just point it where you want to go,
turn the pedals and enjoy the thrum
of the wheels on tarmac. Mile after
mile, day after day.
Thorn brings all its touring bike
experience into play, successfully
marrying 26in wheels to the
Classy and smooth-riding
long-distance tourer
9
Tough and well built
small-wheeled tourer
8
Beautifully built and specced
beast of burden
9
THORN SHERPA
drop-barred tourer without any
compromise. The frame is tough, the
wheels are strong, the kit high
quality, the value excellent – another
top-notch offering from the
Somerset specialists. Designed for
medium-weight touring, it makes a
great all-rounder.
The Tout Terrain will also happily
grind out country after country,
continent after continent while
carrying you, all your worldly
possessions up hill and down dale.
Looking for a well designed,
flat-barred expedition-ready
machine? This is a very serious
contender, albeit one with an equally
serious price tag.
The jolly green Kona Sutra looks
striking and is a joy to ride, but the
mechanics required to combine the
disc brakes and rear rack is perhaps
too much of a compromise. With
cantis and mudguards it would be
less distinctive, but it would arguably
be a bike that’s better suited to
heavily loaded trips.
TOUT TERRAIN SILKROAD
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Touring bikes
PEARSON COMPASS
THORN SHERPA
TOUT TERRAIN SILKROAD
KONA SUTRA
£1299
www.pearsoncycles.co.uk
£1069.95
www.thorncycles.co.uk
£2850 as specced
www.bikefix.co.uk, www.tout-terrain.de
£977.74
www.konabikes.co.uk, www.paligapltd.co.uk
SIZE TESTED
53cm
535L
Large
56cm
SIZES AVAILABLE
43, 48, 53, 58cm
10 sizes, 460S to 610XL
S, M, L, XL
48, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60cm
WEIGHT AS TESTED
12.450kg/27.4lb no pedals
13.06kg/28.8lb no pedals
15.480kg/34.1lb no pedals
13.960kg/30.8lb no pedals
FRAME WEIGHT
2260g/5lb
2430g/5.4lb
3440g/7.6lb
2770g/6.1lb
FORK WEIGHT
908g/2lb
1014g/2.2lb
1140g/2.5lb
970g/2.1lb
FRAME/FORK
Reynolds 631 steel, forged dropouts.
Fork: Reynolds 631 unicrown, 1 1/8in
steerer, forged dropouts
Thorn 969 chromoly, cast dropouts.
Fork: Reynolds 531 blades, 1 1/8in
steerer, forged dropouts
Columbus/Deda steel, eccentric BB
clamp. Fork: Unicrown chromoly 1 1/8in
threadless steerer, forged dropouts
Chromoly, cast steel dropouts, disc
mount. Fork: Project Two chromoly,
1 1/8in threadless steerer, disc mount
FRAME ALIGNMENT
Good
Good
Good
Good
CHAINSET
Campagnolo Race Triple, alloy 175mm
crank arms, 52t alloy ring, 42t and 30t
steel rings, square taper
Shimano Deore 2-piece alloy, 4-bolt
spider with steel spindle, 22/32t steel
rings, 42t alloy, 170mm arms
Middleburn, forged and machined arms,
175mm length, 42t alloy ring, square
taper, 4-bolt spider
FSA Omega forged alloy standard triple,
130mm bcd, 172.5mm arms, 2-piece
with steel spindle
BOTTOM BRACKET
Campagnolo Centaur
Shimano
Sealed cart, alloy ecc. shell, chain adjuster
FSA Omega, sealed cartridge steel cups
FREEWHEEL
Campagnolo Centaur 10-speed 13-29
Shimano HG 50 9-speed 11-32
Rohloff 16-tooth galvanised steel cog
Shimano HG 50, 9-speed 11-32
CHAIN BRAND
KMC DX10SC with connector link
Shimano HG 73
Connex stainless
Shimano HG 53 9-speed
DERAILLEURS
Campagnolo Race Triple long cage rear
and clamp-on front
Shimano Deore long cage rear, clamp-on
Deore front, multipull
Rohloff 14-speed internally geared hub
Shimano Tiagra triple front, 31.8mm clamp
on with shim, Deore XT long cage rear
GEAR LEVERS
Campagnolo Veloce Ergo 10spd QS
Shimano 9-speed SIS bar ends
Rohloff twist grip
Shimano 9-speed SIS bar ends
TRANSMISSION
17
48
67
83
19
43
60
74
21
39
54
67
23
35
49
61
26
31
44
54
29
28
39
48
11 12 14
22 52 48 41
32 76 69 59
42 99 91 78
16
36
52
68
18
32
46
61
21
27
40
52
24
24
35
46
28
20
30
39
32
18
26
34
Chainring
16
51
71
88
Chainring
Chainring
13 14 15
30 62 58 54
42 87 81 76
52 108 100 94
Sprocket
Sprocket
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
42 19 21.6 24.6 27.9 31.7 36 42
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
42 46.6 52.8 60.2 68.3 77.5 88.2 100
Chainrings
Sprocket
GEAR RATIO (IN)
11 12 14
30 74 68 58
39 96 88 75
50 123 113 96
16
51
66
84
18
45
59
75
21
39
50
64
24
34
44
56
28
29
38
48
32
25
33
42
WHEELS
FRONT & REAR
Mavic A719 box section rims, eyelets,
Ambrosio forged alloy hubs, sealed
cartridges, alloy freehub, stainless Alpina
d/b spokes, 36/3-cross f/r
Rigida 26in box section rims with
eyelets, Deore hubs with ball and cones,
labyrinth seals, 32 DT stainless 3-cross f/r
DT X455 box section disc-only rims,
Schmidt Dynohub front, Rohloff rear,
alloy bodies, sealed cartridge bearings,
Sapim ss spokes, 32 3-cross f/r
Mavic A317 alloy box section with
eyelets, Shimano M525 disc hubs, alloy
with standard ball and cone bearings,
labyrinth seals, 36 ss spokes, 3-cross f/r
TYRES
Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case 700x32
Panaracer Pasela TourGuard 26x1.75
Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 26x2.0
Continental Contact 700x32
WHEEL WEIGHT
F 1548g R 2080g
F 1574g R 2175g
F 2219g R 3390g
F 1794g R 2330g
STEM
Pearson forged alloy 12cm, 4-bolt os bar
clamp, 2 bolt 1 1/8in steerer clamp
Alloy ahead with 4-bolt standard bar
clamp, 2-bolt 1 1/8in steerer clamp, 11cm
Syntace VRO height adjustable forged
alloy with twin bolt 1 1/8in clamp
Kona forged alloy with 4-bolt bar clamp,
twin-bolt 1 1/8in steerer clamp, 10cm
BARS
Pearson alloy anatomic, oversized
clamp zone, 42cm c-c
Pro Lt alloy anatomic bend, 42cm c-c,
26.2mm clamp diameter
Syntace Ultralight 7075 alloy flat,
25.8mm diameter, 63cm wide
Kona alloy randonneur/anatomic,
31.8mm clamp diameter, 44cm c-c
HEADSET
Cane Creek S-3 aheadset, 1 1/8in alloy
cups with sealed cartridges
Cane Creek standard aheadset, sealed
cartridges with 1 1/8in alloy cups
Chris King sealed cartridge, standard
1 1/8in aheadset, alloy cups
FSA sealed ball and cone type with
steel cups, ahead 1 1/8in
SADDLE
San Marco Rolls, steel rails
San Marco Rolls, steel rails
Brooks B17, leather, steel rails
WTB Rocket, steel rails
SEATPOST
Kalloy aluminium 27.2mm, single bolt
micro adjust, 300mm length
Thorn by Kalloy, 27.2mm, alloy single
bolt seat clamp, 330mm length
Ritchey alloy, 330mm length, 27.2mm
dia twin-bolt forged clamp
Ritchey Comp 31.6mm dia, 300mm
long, twin-bolt seat clamp
BRAKES
Tektro Oryx forged alloy cantis
Deore Vs, Tektro RL 520 levers
Deore XT discs, 180/160mm F&R
Avid BB-7 discs, Tektro RL 520 levers
ACCESSORIES
SKS mudguards, aluminium rear rack
SKS mudguards, steel rear rack, bell
Supernova E3 LED F&R Schmidt
Dynohub lights, guards, 2 bottle cages
Rear rack, lowrider front
45.7cm
Fork offset
4.8cm
BB height 28cm
106.2cm
Trail
7cm
44cm
Bike dimensions
71˚
Standover 78cm
3 x bottle,
full guard
57cm
eyes, F&R
rack, front
71˚
wheel dynamo
71˚
mount, rear
canti cable
hanger,
pump
48cm
pegs
Bike dimensions
Standover 76cm
3 x bottle,
54cm
full guard
eyes, F&R
rack
mounts,
74˚
front wheel
dynamo
mount,
pump
44.5cm
pegs
Bike dimensions
Bike dimensions
OTHER COMPONENTS
Standover 82cm
3 X bottle,
front
lowrider
bosses, full
guard
bosses
Trail
6.6cm
Fork offset
4.5cm
BB height 28cm
58.5cm
70.5˚
72˚
50cm
43.5cm
Trail
7.2cm
Fork offset
4.2cm
BB height 29cm
107.4cm
106.3cm
Standover 79cm
55cm
3 x bottle,
full guards,
f&R racks,
pump peg
71˚
72˚
43.5cm
44cm
Trail
8cm
Fork offset
3.8cm
BB height 28cm
102.5cm
KONA SUTRA
Very good ride but those discs
create a rack-fitting worry
7
Cycling Plus f45
CYP220.biketest 45
16/1/09 9:44:5 am