Singletrack Sisters Race Team: Modern Road Bikes

Modern Road Bikes

I took delivery of my new road bike recently. I have ridden a lot more road this winter, but almost entirely on my Wilier cyclocross bike. Then a week on a hired road bike in Mallorca, so I was excited to finally be able to get out on the road at home and feel that old sensation of speed on road tyres.

I sold my last carbon road bike in 2013 as I just wasn’t using it so much. It was also getting a little long in the tooth, and technology has moved on since 2007 when I built it. What I didn’t realise was just how much! The bike in question is a Wilier GTR, fitted with Shimano 105 11-speed (2015). It is a good value carbon road bike, and sits roughly in the middle of the Wilier range. By no means the most expensive bike that Wilier produce, but with the 105 fitted, I think it is probably the one that offers the most bang for your buck.

I have intentions to buy some nice (maybe carbon) wheels and do a few road races this year on the bike. But the first ride was in a completely original spec with the original Shimano RS10 wheels. The bike was a revelation! At 8,5kg, it’s not the heaviest, nor the lightest road bike in the world, but it feels light when riding (maybe I am comparing to a cyclocross bike!). The first thing I noticed was the seemingly effortless speed. I looked down at the Garmin to see that I was cruising along at 33-34kph, instead of the 27-28kph more common on the cross bike. There was no noise and the bike seemed to glide effortlessly over bumps in the road. I was expecting a little bit more of a ‘Sportive’ geometry from the bike before I received it, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the head tube was quite short, and the geometry definitely more tailored to a racy feel. I set up the saddle position as usual based on my original figures, and left the stem in the position set by Magnus at Bikeitaly, thinking maybe I would make some adjustments after the first ride. But no, it felt perfect out of the box. The drop on the bars is quite shallow, which I like as it means I can use them more. The 2015 105 hoods are comfortable and perfectly shaped. The sitting position felt both stable and as aero as possible without feeling any back pain. What I really liked was the confidence I had in cornering after only 2-3 corners. Compared to the bike I hired in Mallorca (a Spanish brand called Vipera), the bike felt so assuring and stable. I wished I had received the bike a few weeks earlier and taken it with me now. The riding would have been way more comfortable and enjoyable, especially on the long, winding descents!

That first ride was sprint intervals with short ‘jump’ sprints to improve power. Starting in a hard gear, and giving all you have for only 12 pedal revolutions. This is a really good way to feel if a bike is stiff or not. Working both your upper body and legs it is really possible to feel if the bike is flexing underneath you. I could feel nothing after the first couple of sprints, but that was mainly as I was concentrating on form and wasn’t really pushing so hard. After that the sprints were all out, and I could start to feel a small amount of flex from the wheels. But the frame and fork, they seemed to remain perfectly true under the load. The next time I rode the bike I changed to some carbon wheels to test them out, the difference as usual was night and day, but went to show just how good this frame is! I still cannot believe that for this money I can get a bike with such a great feeling.