Updated April 2, 2019

The bike shops are full of new road bikes for 2019; here are 10 of the most eye-catching.

Loads of the new road bikes that have been revealed over the past few months are equipped with disc brakes and that's reflected here. There are certainly new rim brake designs being released, and we've included several, but big brands are concentrating their research and development on disc brake bikes because that's the way they believe the market is heading.

Most of the new bikes we've included here are pretty expensive. That's because new releases tend to be pricey before the technology gradually trickles down the range over time.

Don't worry if your favourite new bike isn't included; we'll have more 2019 bike roundups on road.cc over the next few weeks.

Check out all of our road bike reviews

Cannondale SystemSix — £3,499.99-£8,499.99

Cannondale claims that its new SystemSix, available only with disc brakes, is “the world’s fastest UCI-legal road bike”, largely thanks to an aerodynamic performance that has been honed by computational fluid dynamics modelling and the wind tunnel.

Cannondale says that it has tailored the airfoil profiles of the various parts of the frame “with differing degrees of truncation designed to maintain flow attachment across important yaw angles to minimise drag”.

The £3,499.99 SystemSix Carbon Ultegra comes with Fulcrum Racing 400 DB wheels and a Shimano Ultegra groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes.

Get all the tech details on the Cannondale SystemSix
Read about our first ride aboard the Cannondale SystemSix
Find a Cannondale dealer

Specialized Venge — £6,500-£9,750

Specialized has radically redesigned its Venge aero road bike for 2019, giving it an all-new frame and fork that's compatible only with disc brakes and electronic gears – meaning that there are no complete bikes available for less than £6,250. Gulp!

The new Venge is lighter and faster than the previous version but we found that it's the much-improved handling and stiffness that most sets it apart.

Get all the tech details on the Specialized Venge
Check out our Specialized Venge first ride report
Find a Specialized dealer

Look 795 Blade RS — from £3,000

The new Look 795 Blade RS aero road bike features truncated aero section tubes, an invisible seatpost clamp and an integrated aero cockpit. The seatstays are long and curved and there's no brake bridge between them. The design is intended to allow some vertical movement for increased comfort and traction. The bike is available in both rim brake and disc brake versions.

Get the full story of the Look 795 Blade RS
Find a Look dealer

Giant Defy — £1,499-£4,499

The latest version of Giant’s hugely popular endurance road bike has wider tyre clearance than previously (up to 32mm), tubeless tyres and D-Fuse handlebars that are designed to provide extra compliance. The Defy Advanced Pro 0 also comes with Giant’s new Power Pro dual-sided power meter, which looks like a great deal for £4,499.

Get all the tech details on the new Giant Defy
Read about our first ride on the Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0
Find a Giant dealer

3T Strada Due (frameset) — £3,699

The Strada aero road bike was initially designed with a single chainring transmission in mind but 3T has now added the Strada Due to the lineup, giving you the option of fitting an electronic groupset with a double chainring. The seat tube has also been beefed up a little to support the use of the front mech, but that change aside it's the same as the original Strada.

Read our report on the launch of the 3T Strada Due
Check out our first ride on the 3T Strada Due

Find a 3T dealer

Trek Madone SLR — £5,400-£11,650

Trek's new Madone road bike comes with adjustable IsoSpeed (a system that decouples the seat tube from the top tube to smooth the ride) and an updated geometry.

Read our guide to Trek's 2019 road bike range

The rim brake bikes are slightly lighter than the newly introduced disc brake models, but Trek says there's no aerodynamic penalty in going for discs.

The Madone SLR is a high-end option, even the most affordable rim brake option, the SLR 6 P1, is £5,500.

Read our report on the new Trek Madone here
Check out our guide to Trek's 2019 range
Find a Trek dealer

Triban RC 500 & RC 520 — £529 & £729

A cheap entry on a list of the hottest bikes? Why not? Decathlon has added two new disc-braked models in the popular Triban range and they look like exceptional value for money. The £530 Triban RC 500 and £730 Triban RC 520 share the new Evo 18 6061 aluminium frame, with a tall head tube, steeply sloping top tube, fittings for racks and mudguards and clearance for tyres up to 40mm wide.

These are deeply practical bikes, but they’re not unexciting. It might take a little while to wind them up to speed but once there they boom along very nicely!

Read our review of the Triban RC 520
Get all the details of the new Triban RC 500 and RC 520
Find a Triban dealer

Genesis Zero Disc — £2,699.99

Genesis has added disc brake versions of its Zero carbon fibre race bike for 2019, with 12mm thru-axles and flat mount disc brakes. The aggressive geometry is unaltered.

You can buy the frameset for £1,699.99 or pay £2,699.99 for the complete bike with Shimano's second-tier Ultegra groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes.

Check out our first look at the Genesis Zero SL Disc
Find a Genesis dealer

Colnago C64 — £4,099.95-£4,599 (frameset)

The updated Colnago C64 builds on the success of its predecessor with a raft of refinements that bring enhanced stiffness, comfort and clearance for wider tyres. It isn't so much a revolution as an evolution, and it's the best C series yet, and one of a handful of bikes still made in Italy.

A complete bike with disc brakes starts from £7,739, which isn't cheap by anyone's measure, but is it worth it? "Smooth, fast, light, surefooted, fun... the C64 is one of the nicest bikes I've had the pleasure to review," said our David Arthur, and he's a man with exacting standards!

Read our review of the Colnago C64 frameset
Find a Colnago dealer

Ridley Noah Fast — £6,729-£8,189

Ridley has redesigned its top-level aero road bike with channels towards the front edge of the tubing that are designed to act as vortex generators to reduce drag. The fork integrates with the frame, the seatpost clamp is hidden from the airflow and an integrated handlebar/stem is fitted up front. The cabling is internally routed through the bar/stem and Ridley claims a weight saving of about 250g over the previous Noah. Both rim brake and disc brake versions are available.

Find a Ridley dealer

Founded in 1974, Specialized is one of the biggest and most popular bicycle brands. It produces a vast number of models covering a wide range of cycling disciplines, so to help guide you through the 2018 range and help you choose the right bike for you, here’s an overview of the US company’s latest bikes.

We've picked out highlights from the new range. You can see a list of the full range with prices here.

Tarmac Disc

This is the 6th generation Tarmac SL and is available with a choice of rim or disc brakes.

The Tarmac SL6 was the big noise for 2018, and shortly after the rim-braked version debuted a disc-braked bike was introduced, first with an S-Works only version but very soon more affordable models followed.

Right at the top of the range is the S-Works Tarmac Disc Sagan Collection LTD (£10,000) and the plain old S-Works Tarmac Disc (£9,250). There’s also Women's S-Works Tarmac Disc too for the same price, although the differences appear to be down to colour scheme, a woman's saddle and an additional, smaller size for the women's bike. Each of those bikes is adorned with all the bells and whistles including Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets and Specalized carbon cranks with power meters.

Below those stratospherically expensive models is the Tarmac Disc Pro (£6,000) with Shimano Ultegra and Roval CL50 wheels. The Tarmac Disc Expert (£4,000) is available for men and women with Ultegra mechanical shifting and Roval CL38 carbon wheels.

If you’re a Peter Sagan fan (and who isn’t) then check out the Tarmac Disc Comp - Sagan Collection LTD (£3,100). The Tarmac Disc Comp (£2,900) brings the regular Tarmac Disc under the £3k mark with men and women versions. The most affordable model is the Tarmac Disc Sport (£2,250), again in men and women versions and sporting a Shimano 105 groupset.

The new models fill out a range of SL6-based Tarmac Disc bikes and replace the previous SL5 Tarmac Disc models. Visually, the new bikes can be distinguished from the old ones by their dropped seatstays. Specialized has also changed the naming convention, so the bike that replaces the Tarmac Comp Disc is the Tarmac Disc Comp. Because that's not confusing at all.

Tarmac

The Tarmac has long been the company’s go-to race bike, favoured by its many sponsorship professional cyclists and amateur racers alike. Most of the top racers are still preferring rim brake bikes but Specialized is offering just three rim brake models in the UK, a slim range compared to the depth in the disc brake Tarmac line-up. That disparity clearly shows where Specialized believes the market is going for modern road race bikes.

You can read all about the tech details here and watch an unboxing of the top-end S-Works Tarmac here.

Specialized reserves its best for the fabled S-Works top-tier models, with the highest grade of carbon fibre used and the best components, picked to create what is in anyone's world, a superbike.

The S-Works Tarmac (£9,150) then heads the range with all the best kit and ensuring it’s still the lightest bike in the complete Tarmac range, thanks to that 733g frame and very light components on this lavish build. You can also buy the S-Works frameset (£3,250) and build your own dream bike.

- Review: Specialized Tarmac Pro 2018

The Tarmac Expert (£4,250) uses FACT 10r carbon rather than the FACT 12r carbon of the S-Works frame, so it’s a little heavier, but has all the same tube shapes and features.

The Tarmac Comp (£3,000) is the most affordable of this 6th generation race bike and gets a Shimano Ultegra mechanical groupset.

Venge

If racing and generally riding as fast as you possibly can is your thing, then you want to take a closer look at the Venge. This is the company’s aerodynamic road bike and this year it launched a brand new version, the third iteration since it first arrived in the company’s range back in 2011.

You can read all the juicy details here and get David’s first impressions on riding the new bike here.

The new Venge is more aerodynamic than the previous version, a claimed 8 seconds according to the company’s own wind tunnel testing. The frame is hugely lighter as well, a 56cm frame coming in at 960g and further savings in the fork, handlebar and stem and seatpost. It all adds up to a 460g saving. They’ve also improved the handling and geometry, designed a new aero handlebar and stem that offers easy fit adjustment and can be swapped for regular components. Oh, and the frame is only compatible with disc brakes and electronic groupsets, with all cables and hoses internally routed.

Given its newness, it’s a small range of models to choose from. At the top is the S-Works Venge - Sagan Collection (£10,000) with a custom paint job and a full plethora of top-end kit from Roval and Shimano, and includes the new Specialized S-Works carbon crankset with a power meter.

The regular S-Works Venge (£9,750) uses the same frame and components but with a satin black and holographic decals finish.

The cheapest new Venge is the Venge Pro (£6,500) which uses the same but swaps the high-end kit for Shimano Ultegra Di2 and Roval CL50 wheels.

Roubaix

The Roubaix is one of the most distinctive endurance bikes due to the novel Future Shock, a small spring houses in a cartridge and place between the headset and stem. It’s designed to isolate the upper body and arms from all the impacts and vibrations normally felt through the handlebars when the front wheel encounters a bump or hole.

Other key changes are the redesigned frame with a CG-R seatpost housed inside a large diameter seat tube to provide more seated comfort, lower overall weight and evolved geometry to make it a bit racier. There’s bigger tyre clearance as well, up to 32mm tyres, and there’s a cool SWAT Box storage option on the higher-end models for neatly storing tools and spare tubes.

- Review: Specialized Roubaix Expert (2017)

The S-Works Roubaix (£9,100) spearheads the range with the highest grade FACT 11r carbon frame and Dura-Ace Di2 build. The Roubaix Expert (£5,150) gets a FACT 10r carbon frame with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and deep section Roval wheel and keeps the SWAT storage.

The Roubaix Comp Ultegra Di2 (£4,100) keeps the same frame and groupset as the model above it, but different wheels bring the price down substantially.

Next up is the Roubaix Comp (£3,100) which features the same FACT 10r carbon frame but with mechanical Shimano Ultegra and hydro disc brakes and DT R470 aluminium wheels.

The Roubaix Sport (£2,600) brings the price down further with a lower grade FACT 9r carbon frame and Shimano 105 groupset.

The most affordable model is the Roubaix - Hydraulic Disc (£2,100) a Shimano Tiagra groupset and RS505 hydraulic disc brakes and Axis Sport Disc wheels with commuter-friendly Espoir Sport 28mm tyres.

Ruby

The Ruby is the women’s version of the Roubaix and features all the same tech, with frame sizes going down to 44cm, and seven models to choose from.

As usual, an S-Works model tops the range, with the S-Works Ruby (£9,000). A full complement of Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, carbon wheels and top-end finishing kit.

In the middle of the range is the Ruby Comp Ultegra Di2 (£4,100) with a Shimano Ultegra mechanical groupset.

At the other end of the range is the Ruby Sport (£2,600) with a carbon frame and Future Shock and a Shimano 105 mechanical groupset with DT R470 wheels.

Allez

The Allez is Specialized’s aluminium line of road bikes and is offered in two versions; the Sprint Comp at the top with an aero frame, and the regular Allez which takes a few style tips from the new Tarmac SL6.

The Allez Sprint Comp Disc (£1,900) is an all-new bike and brings disc brakes to the aero Allez for the first time. It’s specced with a Shimano 105 groupset with hydraulic disc brakes, a Praxis Zayante chainset with KMC chain, DT R470 wheels with Specialized Turbo Pro 26mm tyres.

You can read the full detailed story on this new bike here.

The Allez Sprint Comp (£1,700) swaps the discs for rim brakes and is specced with a Shimano 105 groupset and DT R460 wheels. You can also buy the Allez Sprint Frameset (£1,350) with a selection of colours to choose from.

Onto the regular Allez, and a revised E5 aluminium frame and all-carbon fork drop the weight by 450g. As well as reducing weight, they’ve also relaxed the geometry to make it a better all-around bike well suited to new cyclists, and they’ve added mudguard and rack mounts. A thumbs up for those.

Now you might be aware of a recall affecting the fork on December 14, 2017. Interim fork replacements are devoid of the mudguard mounts that make this bike such a versatile choice for commuting demands as well as winter riding. It is working on producing a new carbon fork with mudguard mounts.

Topping the range is the Allez Elite (£1,050) which combines an aluminium frame with a FACT carbon fork and a Shimano 105 groupset.

Splitting the three model range is the Allez Sport (£799) which has the same E5 Premium aluminium frame and FACT carbon fork, with a Shimano Sora groupset.

The cheapest model is the Allez (£630) with the same aluminium frame and carbon fork, and specced with a Shimano 2000 Claris groupset and Axis Sport wheels.

Diverge

The Diverge was a well-received bike when it first arrived, which was at a time when the whole gravel and adventure style of riding was only just starting to take off. But after a few years of good reviews and sales, the Diverge has been completely updated to keep it abreast of the changing trends in this sector. It now takes bigger tyres, is disc brake only as before, now with 12mm thru-axles and flat mounts, but borrows the Future Shock from the Roubaix. It’s been adapted for off-roading with a firmer spring.

- Review: Specialized S-Works Diverge 2018

Look to the most expensive model and your eyes are greeted by the S-Works Diverge (£8,750) with a frame made from high-grade FACT 11r carbon fibre and an S-Works FACT carbon fork. Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 groupset is combined with an XTR rear mech and Easton EC90 SL Carbon crankset for a bespoke 1x drivetrain, and Roval CLX 32 Disc wheels complete the package.

Step down to the Diverge Sport (£2,750) available in men and women’s versions, and you get much the same frame just made from a lower grade of carbon and using a Shimano 105 groupset with hydraulic disc brakes.

The Diverge (£2,100) is also available in men and women’s versions and uses a carbon frame and fork with the same details as the S-Works model, but a 2x Shimano Tiagra/Praxis groupset and RS405 hydraulic disc brakes.

The Diverge E5 Comp (£1,600) is the cheapest model in the range to be equipped with the Future Shock. It’s bolted to an aluminium frame with a carbon fork and a Shimano 105 groupset.

The Diverge E5 Elite (£999) and Diverge E5 (£799) both use an aluminium frame without the Future Shock, but the frame shares all the key features such as wide tyre clearance and mounts for adding mudguards.

- Review: Specialized Diverge E5 Comp

Sequoia

The Sequoia is another adventure bike in the company’s range that is intended to sit alongside the Diverge as a less racy option more aimed at exploring and bikepacking riding, and there are mounts all over it for fitting racks and bags.

- Review: Specialized Sequoia Expert

There are two models in the 2019 range. This, the Sequoia Elite (£2,000) is now the priciest option available in the UK with a 1x SRAM Apex groupset using a Praxis Alba chainset and SunRace 11-42t cassette. Tyres are the company’s own 38mm wide Sawtooth with a tubeless-ready design.

The Sequoia (£1,200) uses the same steel frame but swaps the carbon fork for one made from steel, and a Shimano Sora groupset takes care of shifting duties while Tektro Spyre disc brakes control your speed.

The full 2019 Specialized road bike range

Updated April 4, 2019

Nearly every major bike brand now offers at least one aero road bike in various different builds, and here are some more of the slipperiest contenders of 2019.

Also check out the The Hottest Aero Road Bikes of 2018, Part 1

Specialized Venge £6,500-£10,250 

The all-new Venge is said to be lighter, faster and better handling than the previous version — of course. It's available only with disc brakes and electronic gears, so there's no such thing as a budget Venge.

Read about the 2019 Specialized Venge here
Find a Specialized dealer

Ridley Noah Fast — £5,459-£8,189

Ridley's top-level aero road bike features an integrated fork and seat clamp and F-Wings behind the fork dropouts that are designed to reduce turbulence and therefore minimise drag.

Find a Ridley dealer

Argon 18 Nitrogen Disc — £3,999.99-£4,899.99

Canada's Argon 18 introduced the Nitrogen in 2014 but the Nitrogen Disc is brand new. The disc model is said to offer greater torsional rigidity as well as plenty of ergonomic adjustability and clearance for tyres up to 30mm wide.

Find out about the new Argon 18 Nitrogen Disc
Find an Argon 18 dealer

Wilier Cento10Pro — £4,399.99-£7,999.99

The new Cento10Pro is an evolution of the existing Cento10Air but with disc brake options as well as rim brakes and a 6% increase in torsional stiffness, according to Wilier. The frame and fork profiles are based to NACA airfoil shapes with truncated tails allowing Wilier to save weight and increase stiffness.

Read about the the Wilier Cento10Pro ​

Look 795 Blade RS — from £3,000

Look says that its new aero bike, available in both rim brake and disc brake versions, offers a 5% aerodynamic advantage over its predecessor. Look also claims the fork, rear triangle and head tube have been made stiffer, and the new bridge-less 'Smooth Sword' seatstays are designed to bend slightly under compression, allowing the rear wheel to maintain consistent contact with the road.

Get the full story of the Look 795 Blade RS
Find a Look dealer

BMC Timemachine — £7,500-£11,000

BMC was one of several big brands to reveal a new aero road bike back in July. The new version of the Timemachine is designed solely around disc brakes and features integrated storage and a water bottle design that minimises drag at wider yaw angles.

Read about the new BMC Timemachine here
Find a BMC dealer

3T Strada Due (frameset) — £3,699

The Strada aero road bike was initially designed for a single chainring drivetrain but 3T has now added the Strada Due to the lineup, giving you the option of fitting an electronic groupset with a double chainring.

Read our first ride report on the 3T Strada Due
Find a 3T dealer

Orbea Orca Aero Disc — £2,999-£7,199

The Orca Aero Disc features a huge down tube with a double radius profile and flattened sides that Orbea says improves airflow at higher yaw angles, and there's a wide gap between the fork legs that’s said to reduce airflow pressure.

Find out about the new Orbea Orca Aero Disc
Find an Orbea dealer

Colnago Concept (frameset) — £3,499.00-£3,999.95

The Colnago Concept frameset, available in both rim brake or disc brake versions, puts in superb performance out on the road, offering awesome speed, fine handling and real-world usability.

Read our review of the Colnago Concept
Find a Colnago dealer

Lapierre Aircode SL — £2,199-£6,199

The Aircode SL, available only with rim brakes, has taken many of its design cues from Lapierre's Aerostorm time trial bike, using both NACA and Kamm Tail tube profiles to reduce drag. Lapierre has reduced the frontal area by integrating the fork crown into the down tube.

Find out all about the Lapierre Aircode SL
Read our Lapierre Aircode SL 900 Ultimate review
Find a Lapierre dealer

Felt AR 5 — £2,299

Felt's AR bikes feature a rear brake that's mounted under the chainstays and a narrow 'Twin Tail' bridgeless seatstay design. You also get a reversible seatpost that allows you to steepen the seat angle for time trialling.

Read our review of the Felt AR4
Find a Felt dealer

Storck Aerfast — ~£1,800-£8,800

Storck's Aerfast is a truly awesome race bike. As well as having strong aero credentials, it's fast, light and stiff while offering comfort levels that challenge those of most endurance bikes.

Read our review of the Storck Aerfast Platinum
Buy a Storck

Kuota Kryon Race Evo (frameset) — from £1,835.00

Italy's Kuota offers the Kryon in both rim brake and disc brake models. You get a “vibe damper system” incorporated into the seatpost area to smooth the ride; two separate dampers can be specced, depending on your weight.

Find a Kuota dealer

Tifosi Auriga — £1,899.99-£2,499.99

On the latest version of its Auriga aero road bike, Tifosi has moved the rear brake from behind the bottom bracket to the seatstays in order to avoid mud and water and maximise power. Whereas the rim brake model will accept tyres up to 25mm, the disc brake version can take 28s.

Find a Tifosi dealer

The mid-range Specialized Propero III with ANGI helmet provides a firm and comfortable fit alongside impressive ventilation and some innovative tech. It's not the lightest lid out there for the price, but its inclusion of many of the best elements of the high-end Prevail go a long way to offsetting that.

• Pros: Strong fit and security, good ventilation, innovative technology
• Cons: ANGI sensor is a little big

The Propero III has many similarities to the £175 S-Works Prevail at a lower price point but an extra 112g of weight. Aesthetically there are only minor differences – it looks like the Prevail, with the two distinctive vents on the forehead – and without closer inspection or comparing the two side-by-side it would be difficult to tell them apart.

> Find your nearest dealer here

> Buy this online here

It's not just looks, though, some of the best elements of the Prevail can also be found on the Propero, with impressive ventilation being one of them. Throughout the review, I found that air passed nicely over my head regardless of whether I was riding at full pelt or soft-pedalling home.

As with the Prevail, the Propero has a relatively low profile, which helps with aerodynamics and also helps in keeping the strap close to the face. Helping the straps to sit comfortably under the ear are the tri-fix brackets; they hold the straps neatly in place, and add to the overall comfort of the helmet.

Comfort generally is a big part of this helmet, with good sweat management through the pads and a MIPS system that sits more comfortably than many I have used; you can't really feel that it's there at all, which is testament to the thought put into the design by Specialized.

The fitting system is a harness with a dial at the back of the head which tightens around the majority of the head, and creates a more secure fit than some. It is also more comfortable as it shares pressure across the back and sides of the head rather than concentrating it at the rear.

One innovative element with this helmet is the ANGI system, which is a smart crash sensor. It connects to your phone, which then allows you to record your ride or call your designated emergency contact in the event of a crash. It works pretty well and has some good elements, like how it will notice when you have a slight bump but will track your GPS signal and establish if it's something you've ridden away from or whether to alert your emergency contact.

The sensor itself is about the same size as an anti-theft tag for clothing, which isn't huge, but being attached to the harness makes it a little obvious. In order for it to work you also need to connect it to your phone and tell your phone that you've started a ride. It then checks the phone app every five minutes.

One element of the helmet that does clearly separate it from the S-Works Prevail is the weight, with the Propero coming in at 313g, compared to 201g for the Prevail. This is respectable given all the tech that's packed in, but similarly priced helmets such as the Sweet Protection Outrider and Salice Ghibli are both around 50g lighter, though neither includes MIPS or ANGI.

Both those helmets are £5 more than the Propero's RRP of £95, so it's not bad value, and it does have many of the hallmarks of the more expensive Prevail while including some innovative tech.

> Buyer's Guide: 18 of the best high-performance helmets

Overall, I enjoyed using the Propero. It might not be the lightest, but it has excellent ventilation and the inclusion of MIPS and ANGI is a real highlight.

Verdict

Keeps many of the best elements of the high-end Prevail with more tech and more weight but a lower price

• With elongated tube shapes and other wind-cheating features, aero road bikes provide a small but handy speed boost.

• Sleek shapes make for a distinctive look.

• Recent aero road bikes have alleviated the harsh ride that plagued some early models, thanks to improved use of materials.

• Frame aerodynamics is still a marginal gain; if you're wearing flappy clothes an aero bike is a waste of money.

In just a few years aero road bikes have gone from The Next Big Thing to a mainstream bike option. The latest models have been tweaked to be faster than ever, according to the manufacturers, and to alleviate the harsh ride that characterised some early aero bikes.

Aero road bikes essentially draw aerodynamic features from time trial bikes into a road frame, and balance the demands of weight and stiffness into a package that, on paper, looks to be the ideal all-round choice.

At any decent speed, most of your effort goes into overcoming air resistance, so reducing a bike's drag means you'll go faster, or ride at any given speed with a lower power output. Who doesn't like the sound of that?

Most of your air resistance comes from your body rather than your bike. Wearing non-flappy clothing will help, as will losing weight. But the 20% or so of air resistance from your bike is enough for engineers and designers to focus on making road frames and products more slippery through the air. In the pro peloton aero road bikes have been quickly adopted, where the margins of victory are very slim and there has been a focus on gaining ever smaller performance gains over the years.

Weight, or the lack of it, used to be the main driving force of frame development. Along with stiffness, it was a cornerstones of bike design. These days most bikes are light, many well below the UCI’s 6.8kg weight limit (which doesn’t affect non-racers anyway), and come with more stiffness than is sometimes comfortable.

All that has made aerodynamics more important. Specialized has built its own wind tunnel, for example, and most manufacturers are testing in other facilities. Nevertheless, aero road bikes haven't converged on a perfect, slippery shape. Different engineers prioritise different ways of improving aerodynamics but there are shared design trends: skinny, aerofoil-shaped tubes, integrated brakes, and internal cable routing.

Let's take a look at the latest aero offerings.

Look 795 Blade RS — £2,900 (frameset)

The new Look 795 Blade RS is all about speed, with its design focusing on stiffness and aerodynamics yet without a huge sacrifice to overall comfort. An impressive combination to achieve, and a very nice bike to ride – whether you're racing or just out for a razz.

Look has created a bike that is ruthlessly stiff when you drop the hammer but with next to no road vibration or crass banging or rattling over rough surfaces. The 795 has a beautifully smooth ride quality similar to that of a titanium frame.

This means you can cover a good distance at speed without really noticing it, and even on four to five-hour rides I got off the bike feeling fresher than normal without realising where the time had gone.

Read our review of the Look 795 Blade RS
Find a Look dealer

Orbea Orca Aero 2019 — £2,699-£7,199

The Orca Aero boasts lots of wind-cheating tweaks that Orbea says add up to a 27 watt advantage. Our tester David Arthur found the Orbea Orca Aero M20Team to be "a fast and great handling aerodynamic road bike with a surprising talent for smoothing out all but the roughest roads. But it is speed, not comfort, that is at the top of the list of requirements for an aero road bike, and that's an area where the Orca Aero feels very competent. It's right up there with the Trek Madone, Cervelo S3 and Canyon Aeroad, as super-quick aero race bikes.

"The handling is a highlight, and helps to set it apart from some aero bikes that can be exceedingly quick but a little lacking when it comes to the way they ride and translate your inputs into actions. The Orca Aero is fun and engaging, putting a smile on your face when you're descending or chasing a friend along an undulating ridge road."

You can customise the colour scheme and spec of your Orca Aero too, so if you want to upgrade the wheels, or have yours in pink and orange, fill your boots.

Read our review of the e Orbea Orca Aero M20Team
Find an Orbea dealer

Bianchi Aria Disc 2019 — £2,750-£3,200

The new Bianchi Aria Disc is an aero road bike that offers efficiency, sharp handling and a responsive character, now with the additional all-weather assurance of disc brakes – in this case from Campagnolo.

The Aria Disc responds keenly to increased effort. Our 59cm sample wasn't especially light at 8.5kg (18.7lb), but it felt direct when you put in the power, a meaty bottom bracket helping to keep everything solidly in place. The Aria Disc feels as manoeuvrable as the rim brake version, which isn't a surprise given that the geometry is virtually identical. Some bikes designed for aerodynamics offer plenty of straight-line speed but they're a little compromised when you want to flick around. The Aria Disc handles sharply, which gives you options when it comes to darting about a group or avoiding something in the road.

Read our review of the Bianchi Aria Disc
Find a Bianchi dealer

3T Strada — £3,600 (frame, fork, headset & seatpost)

The 3T Strada has blown us away. It's a truly stunning bike with breathtaking speed, impressive smoothness and fine handling balance. If this is the future, as some people have speculated, we're sold. Take our money, 3T. This is one of the most exciting road bikes available right now.

The Strada certainly won't be for everyone. And that's fine, there are plenty of fantastic performance road bikes currently available if the 1x11 gearing, disc brakes and tight clearances frighten you. None are as radical as the new 3T, though. What the Strada does with its unique design is offer another choice. It achieves the same aim – of being stupendously fast – but takes a different path to get there.

And if you love the Strada but are put off by the requirement to run just a single chainring, 3T has something for you: the £3,700 Strada Due will take a front derailleur so you can run conventional double-chainring gearing.

Read our review of the 3T Strada
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Colnago Concept — £1,999 (frameset)

Colnago has joined the aerodynamic arms race with the Concept, a full blooded aero race bike that is a serious step forward from the Italian company's first aero road bike, the V1-r.

The Concept has all the capability to dice with the fastest in a race situation. Its stiff frame, deep-section wheels and lightweight give it an insatiable appetite for speed. It's quick in all circumstances: climbs, descents, flat and undulating roads – the bike shines everywhere. This is an exciting bike to ride fast, and like all good aero road bikes it encourages you to ride flat-out.

That firm ride, and frame and fork stiffness ensure the Concept accurately follows your inputs, whether through the handlebar or pedals. It reacts positively whether you're blasting an uphill sprint finish or bombing through a curving descent.

The Concept isn't just for racing. It provides adequate composure and comfort, allowing you to tackle long distance rides at a few notches below race pace and not be dealt a hammer-blow to the lower back the moment the tyres encounter anything but a super-smooth surface. The front end of an aero race bike can often be overwhelmingly harsh, but the special headset and fork steerer tube that Colnago has developed mean the Concept is smoother up front than would normally be expected on an aero road bike.

Read our review of the Colnago Concept
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Merida Reacto 2019 — £1,000-£8,250

Merida has updated its Reacto to be, it says, lighter, more comfortable and more aerodynamically efficient than before. It has done this by slimming down the tube shapes and introducing a lower seatstay connection with the seat tube, among other things.

Merida – a Taiwanese brand although much of its engineering is undertaken in Germany – says that the new Reacto is more aerodynamically efficient than the previous version by about eight watts at 45km/h. That equates to around 5%.

Comfort has been increased through redesigning the seatstays and giving the S-Flex seatpost a slimmer cross section and a bigger ‘window’ – a notch that’s cutaway to allow more downward movement.

For 2018, Merida is offering disc brake versions of the Reacto for the first time.

Read more on the updated Merida Reacto here.
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Boardman Air 9.X — £1,499-£4,499

Boardman's Air 9.2 (£1,749) is just the ticket if you're looking for a fast bike with a good spec. It's a great package and the performance is impressive.

Some aero bikes can be a handful, but thankfully the Air 9.2 is a neutral ride most of the time. Considering the amount of side profile, it's really not that much of a handful in the wind. Okay, our reviewer had a couple of interesting moments getting hit by a 30mph sidewind on one ride, but it's generally pretty predictable.

It's fast, it's firm but not uncomfortable, and it responds well under power. There are a few minor niggles – the brakes aren't the best, and some of the components are worth an upgrade to get the best out of the frame – but if you're looking for a fast bike for racing, triathlon or even time trialling then it's very much one to consider.

Read our review of the Boardman Elite Air 9.2
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Storck Aerfast Platinum — from ~£6,000

Buying the Storck Aerfast Platinum is a massive outlay, but boy, oh boy do you get one hell of a return on your investment. It's a sub-6.5kg race weapon, with aerodynamics that work in the real world, and it offers comfort levels to challenge most endurance bikes.

Taking plenty of things it has learnt from its astonishingly good Aernario, Storck has pushed the design even further down the aerodynamics route, and what it has created in the Aerfast is a bike that's not only unbelievably fast, but light and stiff too.

If you're in the market for an aero bike, speed is going to be topping your list of priorities, and that's where the Aerfast truly excels. At lower speeds the Storck feels like any other bike to ride, any other superlight bike that is, but as you ride faster it feels like a permanent tailwind is nudging you along, a friendly hand on your back as you watch the numbers climb on the Garmin – with little more effort required than there was 5mph ago. It's a wonderful feeling, and one of which you never tire.

Read our review of the Storck Aerfast Platinum
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Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2 2019 — £5,699

Cervélo has redesigned the S3 Disc to smooth out any penalties that might occur from adding disc brakes. The result is a frame that it claims is 9% stiffer, a touch more aerodynamically efficient, and lighter by 40g compared with the regular rim brake model.

There's a lot to like about the Cervélo S3 Disc. If you want pure speed with the reassurance of hydraulic disc brakes, it's a very good option: it's extremely fast and the handling is lively and direct – just what you want from a race bike – but its composure on rough roads falls some way short of its key rivals. If you're willing to overlook its lack of comfort, it's an explosive bike.

Read our review of the Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2
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Ridley Noah Fast Ultegra Di2 Disc — £7,198

Aero and discs? It's getting more common as bike makers figure out how to mount disc callipers without adversely affecting aerodynamics.

Ridley calls its collection of speed-enhancing aerodynamic features FAST. It includes a tube shape that combines an aerofoil profile with a groove that helps keep the air flowing smoothly over the surface to reduce drag. For 2019 tube shapes have been further refined, there's a new integrated bar, stem and fork system that hides the cables completely, and the fork tips have sprouted 'F-Wings' to improve airflow over disc brakes.

As for the discs, Ridley believes they're simply a better way of stopping.

Read about Greg Henderson's Ridley Noah SL
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Pinarello Dogma F10 — £4,499 (frame & fork)

Developed in collaboration with Team Sky, the Dogma F10 is the bike upon which Chris Froome won the 2017 Tour de France. The F10 uses FlatBack tube profiles – a Kamm tail sort of shape with a rounded leading edge and chopped off tail, and Pinarello has shaped the down tube so that you can mount a water bottle without ruining the aerodynamic performance. Up front the fork is derived from the company’s Bolide time trial bike with aerodynamically shaped legs and a crown that's integrated into a recessed down tube.

Find a Pinarello dealer

Canyon Aeroad CF SLX — £3,899-£6,849

The second-generation Aeroad CF SLX has been inspired by the work that Canyon did on its futuristic Speedmax time trial bike, with razor sharp aero tube profiles and an optional one-piece handlebar and stem. Much of the company’s focus was on reducing the Aeroad's frontal surface area, so along with the new cockpit there’s a narrower hour-glass shaped head tube to help reduce drag. Other changes include a variant of the Trident tube shape used on the Speedmax, and a seat tube that hugs the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Aeroad CF SLX is available in both rim brake and disc brake models.

Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7.0 Di2
Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2
Check out our complete guide to Canyon's road bikes

Specialized S-Works Venge Disc Vias Di2 — £9,000

If you're going to fly, you need to be able to rein in that speed. Disc brakes give finer modulation of speed with less effort at the lever so as you're whooping into Alpine hairpins you can brake later and waste less valuable speed.

As well as its aero frame, the Venge Vias has an aero handlebar and stem. The almost complete lack of external cables further reduces drag.

Read our review of the Specialized Venge Vias Expert Disc
Read about Mark Cavendish's Venge at the Tour de France
Find a Specialized dealer

Scott Foil 2019 — £2,499-£10,999

The Foil arguably kicked off the whole aero road bike trend, bringing aerodynamic design that was once the preserve of time trial bikes to regular road bikes. For 2018, Scott added disc brakes, arguing along with other manufacturers that you can go faster if you can slow down better. That's on top of the last series of updates to the Foil that saw the down tube lowered and wrapped around the fork crown, and a smaller rear triangle and internal seat clamp in the top tube.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is an uncomfortable aero bike. Mathew Hayman rode over a few little bumps on his way to winning Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

Read our coverage of the 2016 Scott Foil launch
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Trek Madone 2019 — £3,600-£10,000

Once an all-round lightweight race bike, the Madone has had a complete aerodynamic makeover. It features a version of the Isospeed decoupler borrowed from the Domane to provide some comfort and it’s wrapped up in a frame with Kamm tail shaped tubes. Like Specialized, Trek has also developed its own brake callipers that are designed to integrate with the fork and seatstays. The head tube features flaps that open and close to accommodate the movement of the brake when the fork is turned.

For 2019 has a hugely updated Madone road bike with adjustable IsoSpeed (a shock damper at the top tube/seat tube junction), a new geometry and disc brake models. The rim brake version is lighter while the disc brake version has no aerodynamic penalty, according to Trek..

Read our coverage of the 2019 Trek Madone launch
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Giant Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc 2019 — £8,999

Giant has added disc brakes to the Propel Advanced lineup for 2018, claiming that the flagship model, the Propel Advanced SL Disc, has the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any bike in its class and a lower drag coefficient at a wider range of yaw angles than the rim brake version.

“One of the key breakthroughs is a new truncated ellipse airfoil shape – a design that lowers drag at a wider range of wind angles than traditional teardrop frame tubing,” says Giant. “Engineers also found that, with proper integration, a disc-brake design can actually improve aero performance compared to rim-brake configurations.”

As well as a stunning paint job, the top of the range Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc has a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and Giant's own SLR 0 Aero Disc wheels with a 42mm deep front rim and 65mm rear.

The Propel disc range starts at £2,999 with the Propel Advanced 1 Disc.

Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced Disc
Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced 1
Read our coverage of the original Giant Propel launch
Find a Giant dealer

Lapierre Aircode SL 2019 – £2,499-£6,999

French brand Lapierre gave its Aircode bikes a major update for 2018. The frame profiles were refined, and are now shaped using a combination of NACA and Kamm tail profiles. The down tube, for example, transitions from one to the other to keep drag low while increasing lateral stiffness at the bottom bracket. Other changes include a revised geometry, shorter chainstays and fork rake that has been reduced to bring it closer to the Xelius SL. There's also a new aero seatpost, direct mount brakes and 'TrapDoor technology' whereby the Di2 battery is housed in the down tube for better weight distribution.

Lapierre has integrated the fork crown into the down tube to bring the front wheel closer to the frame. It’s also using a direct mount brake calliper which allows the fork crown height to be lower than with a standard brake.

Read our review of the Lapierre Aircode SL 900 Ultimate​
Read our coverage of the launch of the Lapierre Aircode SL
Find a Lapierre dealer

Bianchi Oltre XR3 2019 – £2,805-£4,699

Bianchi took the Oltre XR2 as its starting point for the XR3's design and then altered many of the tubes and features, resulting in a very different bike. The head tube is new, for example, the aero design fairly similar to that of the XR4, and the seat tube is new too, although it is still cut away around the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Oltre XR3 features Bianchi's Countervail technology, Countervail being "a patented viscoelastic carbon material with a unique fibre architecture that cancels up to 80% of vibrations while increasing the stiffness and strength of carbon frames and forks", according to Bianchi.

The Oltre XR3 is nimble and sharp handling, and it offers a ride that's smooth by aero road bike standards.

Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 review
Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 Disc review
Find a Bianchi dealer

Although there are ever more disc brake-equipped race bikes out there in the shops, most disc brake road bikes produced at the moment are endurance/sportive bikes or all-rounders that are bought by people who simply want the reassurance of all-weather stopping power. The bikes below are a mixture of styles, frame materials and prices so check through and find out what takes your interest.

Check out the hottest disc brake-equipped race bikes

The lines between bike categories have never been more blurred, but we've tried to keep this selection to bikes that are intended entirely or primarily for use on Tarmac. Of course where you ride has as much to do with rider skill as with how fat a tyre your frame will take, but these are bikes for long days in the lanes in sportives, Audaxes, and big rides with friends rather than for exploring dirt roads and trails.

If you want something more versatile, take a look at our guide to the best gravel & adventure bikes, which covers this super-versatile and still-developing category.

Triban RC 520 Disc — £729

Ever since John took the B'Twin Triban 520 Disc road bike for a first ride in London in early October, we've been keen to see if it could stand up to his first impressions, as well as the great value legacy of previous Triban road bikes we've tested. It really does, although riders used to or wanting a racier geometry should look elsewhere.

The geometry thing is a really important point here. With the Triban 520, it's all about a functional position aimed right at tourers and regular commuters at one end of the spectrum, and endurance roadies at the other.

With a super-tall head tube and compact top tube, the bike sits you upright relative to your general entry-level race bike, or even a fair chunk of the endurance-specific market too. It fully justifies its do-it-all tag for everyone except budding racers.

What surprises most about the Triban 520 is just how accessible the ride is; how easy it is to pedal the bike at moderate speeds and feel like you're just cruising along. Cornering in any situation is confidence-inspiring, and it rolls incredibly smoothly too. It takes poor road surfaces in its stride, with a good amount of all-round compliance keeping things comfortable, and as long as you stay in the saddle it climbs moderately well too.

Read our review of the Triban RC 520 Disc

Boardman ASR 8.9 —£1,300

The Boardman ASR, or "all season road", is a really good value package that offers a relaxed ride with the classic looks and feel of steel, the modern convenience of hydraulic discs brakes, and clearance for wide tyres. It does fine duty as an all-weather commuter or as a bike for long day rides. Eating up long, steady miles in comfort is what the ASR does best.

The 8.9 arrives ready for winter, with mudguards fitted to the Reynolds 725 steel frame, 28mm Vittoria tyres, plus reflective frame details ticking all the boxes for commuting through the rough British weather. Remove the mudguards and the bike easily has clearance for wider tyres, so it also fits the bill for summer towpath pootling and brief gravel forays. There's a full Shimano 105 groupset here with hydraulic disc brakes, and Boardman's own bar and tubeless-ready wheels, so with, say, 28mm road tyres like Schwalbe Ones it's as capable an Audax or club-run bike as it is a commuter.

Read our review of the Boardman ASR 8.9
Find a Boardman dealer

Canyon Endurace — £1,249-£5,899

Canyon's wildly popular Endurace bikes went disc-equipped a couple of years ago, and are all the better for it. The models span one the biggest price ranges here, from £1,169 for the Shimano Tiagra-equipped Endurace Wmn 7.0 AL Disc up to the £6,249 Endurace CF SLX Disc 9.0 Ltd with SRAM eTap wireless shifting and DT Swiss carbon fibre wheels.

Read our review of the Canyon Endurace CF SLX 9.0

BMC Roadmachine — £2,700-£12,000

BMC’s Roadmachines are disc-braked fast endurance machines with room for at least 28mm tyres. The range includes aluminium and carbon fibre frames, with a range of equipment from Shimano Tiagra to SRAM Red eTap, and the latest version of the eTap-equipped Roadmachine 01 ONE is probably the most expensive production bike you can currently buy at £12,000.

Find out more about BMC’s Roadmachine range here
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Focus Paralane 2019 — £1,659-£4,099

​The six-bike Paralane range starts with the £1,659 aluminium-framed Paralane 6.9 with Shimano 105 components and goes up to the £4,099 carbon-framed Paralane 9.9 with Shimano Ultegra Di2. Long-ride features include comfort-enhancing tube profiles and carbon layup, a skinny seatpost and 28mm tyres, that together provide a smooth ride that is up there with the best in this category. It isolates you from the worst road buzz but without completely detaching you from the road entirely. It's a really good balance for those who want some feedback from the surface without being shaken to pieces.

Read our review of the Focus Paralane Ultegra
Find a Focus dealer

Whyte Wessex — £1,999-£4,499

Fast and sporty, with all the practicality and dependability of hydraulic disc brakes, wide tyres and space for full-length mudguards, the Whyte Wessex is a bike that is up to the task of taking on the roughest roads and toughest weather.

If you put racing to one side, it's all the bike you really need for year-round riding in the UK, fast enough for sportives and pacy training runs, comfortable and reliable for grinding out winter miles, and at home on longer commutes. Only a British company could design a bike that is absolutely, perfectly, 100 per cent suited to the demands of year-round UK road cycling.

Read our review of the Whyte Wessex
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Giant Contend SL Disc — £999-£1,249

The Giant Contend SL Disc bikes feature an Aluxx SL frameset, D-Fuse seatpost that’s designed to add comfort and Giant Conduct hydraulic disc brakes. You get mechanical shifters with a cable to hydraulic converter at the front of the stem. It's a nifty solution to avoiding the (more expensive) Shimano shifters but the jury's out on the aesthetics of the converter.

Check out our first look at the Giant Contend SL range
Read our guide to Giant’s 2019 range
Find a Giant dealer

Wilier Cento10NDR 2019 — £7,999

Wilier’s Cento10NDR endurance road bike is designed to take either rim brakes or disc brakes – you get mount points for both. It also features what’s called an ‘Actiflex’ system on the rear triangle with stays that flex, a pivot at the top of the seatstays and an elastomer shock damper, the idea being to provide a few millimetres of rear wheel travel in order to isolate the rider from the ground and add comfort.

The chainstays are bonded to the bottom bracket shell in the usual way, the Actiflex system relying, as the name suggests, on flex in the stays in order to work.

The dropouts of both the frame and fork are replaceable so you can run the bike with standard quick release skewers or 142 x 12mm thru axles.

Find out more about the Wilier Cento10NDR here
Find a Wilier dealer

Trek Domane Disc — £2,350-£8,750

Trek’s Domane range includes different framesets in aluminium and carbon fibre, and all of the disc-equipped models feature an IsoSpeed decoupler that allows the seat tube to move relative to the top tube and seatstays, so the saddle can move downwards (and a little backwards), providing more give and adding comfort to the ride.

More expensive models get a front IsoSpeed system designed to increase comfort and control, along with adjustment to the rear IsoSpeed decoupler. A lot of technology goes into keeping you comfortable!

Read our guide to Trek’s 2019 road bike range here
Have a look at the Trek Domane here
Find a Trek dealer

Specialized Roubaix £2,600-£10,000

Specialized’s carbon-fibre Roubaix bikes feature a suspension damper housed in the top of the head tube that aims to isolate the handlebar from bumps and cobbles. It's called Future Shock, provides up to 20mm of suspension travel and can be adjusted to suit different rider weights.

The Roubaix is a disc-only bike these days, uses thru-axles front and rear, and has space for fairly fat tyres.

Specialized has just announced a major revamp of the Roubaix platform, with a new adjustable suspension unit in the steerer, a lighter frame, and clearance for 33mm tyres, among other improvements.

Check out Specialized’s 2019 road bike range here
Find a Specialized dealer

Cannondale Synapse Disc — £850-£7,800

Cannondale offers both aluminium and carbon-fibre versions of its Synapse endurance bike. The cheapest of the aluminium models is just £849.99, built up with Shimano’s dependable Sora groupset and Promax mechanical disc brakes.

At the other end of the range, the Synapse Hi-Mod Disc with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 components is priced at £7,799.99.

Read our coverage of the Cannondale Synapse Disc launch
Read our review of the £2,699 2016 Cannondale Synapse Ultegra Disc
Find a Cannondale dealer

Scott Addict Disc — £1,649-£3,599

Scott’s carbon fibre Addict Disc bikes are built to an endurance geometry and they’re said to be both lighter and stiffer than the Solace models that they replace. They come with 32mm wide tyres for plenty of comfort. All six models — three men's and three women's — use Shimano hydraulic disc brakes.

Find a Scott dealer

Rose Team GF 4 Disc — from £1,995.74-£3,720.13

The Team GF 4 Disc takes over from the Xeon CDX in Rose’s lineup and is designed for long distances rides like sportives. The carbon frame comes with a claimed weight of just 990g, which is very light for a bike of this kind. You get to choose from six different Shimano and SRAM builds.

Lapierre Sensium Disc— £1,799-£2,749

The Sensium, available in both disc and rim brake models, comes with a carbon-fibre frame that’s built to an endurance geometry designed to be comfortable throughout long days in the saddle.

The more affordable of the two disc models, the Senium 500 Disc, features a Shimano 105 groupset while the Sensium 600 Disc makes the step up to Ultegra.

Find a Lapierre dealer

J. Laverack J.ACK Disc £3,650-£6,950

Yeah, you could have carbon, but in some people's eyes, it will never look as good as titanium.

There is also something fantastic about having a bike built just for you, your riding style and what you intend to use the bike for. With custom head badge options, eyelets and shot blasted graphics on top of that, the J.ACK becomes part bike, part work of art.

J.Laverack also works with the likes of Hope, Hunt and Brooks to make the bike brilliantly British.

Check out our review of the J.Laverack R J.ACK III

Check out 12 of 2018’s hottest disc brake-equipped race bikes

Your saddle is one of the easiest things to upgrade to save weight and improve comfort.

Few component changes constitute a genuine upgrade as much as a new saddle. The right seat can lop a substantial amount of weight off your bike, and make for a more comfortable ride at the same time.

In the last few years saddle designers have become very adept at blending features that both reduce weight and improve comfort. Most of the improvements have come from composite materials that allow carefully tuned flex in a very light hull so the saddle better absorbs shock and moves with you as you pedal.

On top of a lightweight hull, you'll usually find a thin layer of very dense foam and/or gel. This helps spread your weight over the hull, but with modern flexible hulls it's less important than it used to be. Some very light saddles do without it altogether, and even manage to be fairly comfortable anyway.

The search for better foams and gels has even led to saddle makers branching out into other fields. A few years ago, Selle Royal, owner of Fizik, span off a subsidiary company to make memory foam pillows and mattresses incorporating the Technogel material it originally developed for saddles.

Lighter rail materials make a big difference to saddle performance too. The slight flex of titanium rails helps absorb shock, while carbon fibre rails save save a lot of weight.

You’ve never had a wider choice of saddle shapes and widths. Companies like Specialized and Bontrager make their performance saddles in a range of widths, Fizik tailors its designs to a rider’s flexibility and Charge offers saddles in three width classes and each model in three different shapes.

To help navigate this thicket of choices and find the right saddle for you, you’ll probably want to quite literally get your bum into a bike shop and get fitted for your saddle with one of the measuring devices many saddle makers now supply their dealers. This will tell you the spacing of your sit bones, the first thing you need to know to get a saddle that fits and will therefore be comfortable.

If it’s on offer, take up any chance to test-ride a saddle. The only way to be sure a saddle is right for you is to ride it for long enough for your bum to get used to it.

A typical stock saddle on a £1,000 bike weighs about 300g, so for each of the saddles below we’ve calculated the Hairsine ratio – the grams saved per pound cost. This gives an indication of value for money, at least from the ‘lighten your bike’ perspective.

14 great performance saddles

Fizik Arione 00 Versus Evo — £232.94

Weight: 167g Hairsine ratio: 0.57

Fizik has gone with the whole 'less is more' ethos with its Arione 00 Versus Evo saddle. Stripped back to a mere 167g with minimal padding and lashings of carbon fibre, it is still surprisingly comfortable with a great balance of stiffness and flex. You're going to have to pay for the performance, though.

Fizik's '00' range is its showcase of what is achievable in terms of design with top end materials. The Arione 00 Versus Evo has a shell made from high modulus carbon fibre which is unbelievably stiff considering how thin it is, with the central channel literally just about a millimetre thick. Even the main sections either side of the channel are just 4mm thick too.

Though the whole shell feels stiff, it does a decent job of allowing just enough flex to take out any harshness or road vibration. This is helped by the Mobius carbon fibre rail. Rather than having two rails plugged into the front and rear of the saddle, the Arione 00 uses a single rail which makes up a complete loop around the base of the saddle. It adds stiffness front and rear but allows the shell to flex around the sides, so the saddle can move with you a little as you pedal.

Read our review of the Fizik Arione 00 Versus Evo

Astute Star Lite VT — £89.99

Weight: 220g Hairsine ratio: 0.89

The Astute Star Lite is a superbly made saddle that offers a high level of comfort, especially when you're in a low and aggressive riding position.

The build quality here is exceptional. Even when viewed from underneath (granted, you're unlikely to do that often) the Star Lite looks superb with no ragged edges, staples or stray adhesive to spoil the appearance.

The carbon fibre-reinforced nylon shell has a cutaway centre to reduce pressure on the perineum – as you'll find on many other saddles – and on top of that you get tri-density memory foam padding.

Read our review of the Astute Star Lite VT
Find an Astute dealer

Repente Aleena 4.0 — ~£295

Weight: 130g Hairsine ratio: 0.58

The Repente Aleena 4.0 is an innovative design that backs up its unique functionality with a beautiful design. It's very light and comfy in a race-saddle way, and the interchangeable covers allow you to modify the feel of your saddle without changing its position.

The main news here is the Repente Locking System. Repente saddles are modular, with a separate base and cover. The base is made in an autoclave (a pressurised oven) and it's almost entirely T700 carbon fibre; it has carbon rails and a wide central channel, connected at the nose and the tail. The only bits of the base that aren't carbon are the three alloy mounting points for the cover, which has three corresponding alloy pins. You poke the pins through and secure in place with a small clip. There's a rubber O-ring between the base and the cover for a bit of extra cushioning over and above what the base and cover provide.

Talk of the Aleena's clever details would be moot if the Repente didn't work as a saddle, but it works very well.

The base has been designed to offer a bit of flex, controlled by the bridge at the rear, and when you concentrate on your sit bones you can feel a little of that mobility when you're riding along. Most of the time you won't be concentrating on your sit bones though, unless your sit bones are hurting. And that wasn't the case for me here: even though the padding on the Aleena (and the Comptus, which I also rode) is pretty thin the Repente didn't ever feel uncomfortable.

Read our review of the Repente Aleena 4.0

Selle San Marco Concor Racing — £39.99

Weight: 200g Hairsine ratio: 2.50

The rebirth of a classic design from the late 1970s, the Selle San Marco Concor Racing Fluoro Flash Edition is a firm, light, racing-orientated saddle.

It's firm enough to provide a solid power base but offers enough flex to provide stability even on the longest of rides. It's a well made, supportive ride at a reasonable price.

Read our review of the Selle San Marco Concor Racing
Find a Selle San Marco dealer

Prime Race Carbon — £59.99

Weight: 200g Hairsine ratio: 1.67

The top of Wiggle/CRC's range of own-brand saddles, this is an amazing deal for a saddle with carbon fibre rails. We haven't tested this particular model, but we liked its cheaper kid brother, the titanium-railed Cosine Sprint.

With its central cutaway, and rails Wiggle describes as having "calibrated stiffness for vibration damping", this should be a shade more suitable for endurance riding than the Sprint Titanium, but it's still very much a saddle for going fast.

Wiggle/CRC has sold out at the ime of the most recent update to this guide, but we've left it here in case they restock.

Bontrager Serano RL — £89.99

Weight: 225g Hairsine ratio: 0.83

Bontrager's Serano saddle draws on a design that has been around for many years, which is why they call it a 'classic shape'.

We clocked several hundred kilometres and didn't think twice about the Serano, and our tester felt no need to rush back to his old saddle. We're willing to bet this saddle shape will work for a lot of people; it simply supports the bottom so well and provides adequate padding in the key areas.

It's available in three widths: 128, 138 and 144mm. A Bontrager dealer will be able to help you find the right one for your sit bones.

Read our review of the Bontrager Serano RL
Find a Bontrager dealer

Specialized Women’s Ruby Expert — £55

Weight: 205g Hairsine ratio: 1.73

There aren't many performance saddles aimed at women. Saddle makers tend to go for width and padding when making women's saddles, which doesn't make for low weight.

In a small field, this is an excellent saddle. It's available in a choice of widths including a properly narrow 130mm to suit your style of riding and just as importantly your sit bones too. It's a firm saddle, but very light. In comparison with most female specific saddles, it's a pared down seat, ideally suited to aggressive road riding and racing.

With the trademark BG cut-out, it's designed to relieve pressure where it's needed without sacrificing ride efficiency. Hollow titanium rails help keep the weight down, and at just 205g for the 143mm size that we tested, it's definitely one of the lightest women's saddles on the market. The cushioning is placed exactly where you need it to support your sit bones, alleviating any discomfort or feeling of pressure.

This saddle is at its most comfortable when riding in a stretched forward position, but still gives all-round day long comfort too. There was little feeling of loss of power, with the saddle remaining a background feature of the ride, rather than making its presence actively known. Given the choice of widths, this is a good option for any female road rider looking for a comfortable performance saddle.

Read our review of the Specialized Women’s Ruby Expert
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Fizik Luce R1 Carbon — ~£105

Weight: 175g Hairsine ratio: 1.19

At 175g, this is the lightest women's saddle we're aware of thanks to its carbon fibre-reinforced shell and carbon rails. When she tested the regular Luce R5, tester Sarah found it very rideable and definitely worth a try for a regular rider if you want something not too squashy.

The Luce has a little give but is pretty firm, which could be a turn-off, but don't be too hasty: Fizik looks to have put a lot of work into this saddle for women.

The Regular-width Luce has a sitting area shape measuring 144mm wide from wing to wing, and narrowing down to the nose. The nose is a little narrower than the Selle Italia Diva – 5mm in fact – meaning less friction on the thighs. This narrower nose will definitely appeal to some.

It quickly it felt comfortable and not too firm. Sarah found she didn't have to shuffle around to find a good position, so the profile of the saddle worked well for her, giving the impression that her sit bones were comfortably supported. Yes, it's a firm ride, but the cushioning is where you need it.

Read our review of the Fizik Luce R5 saddle
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Fizik Antares R5 with K:ium rails — £88

Weight: 175g Hairsine ratio: 1.42

For riders with intermediate flexibility, the Antares is a light, comfortable road saddle with a good depth of padding. The K:ium rails — Fizik's hollow titanium alloy — help keep the weight down while it's comfortable thans to the Wingflex feature it shares with other saddles in the family.

Your weight is carried primarily on your sit bones which are easily supported by the wide rear section, but the dense foam and flex in the shell do a good job of cushioning the road shocks and vibrations. The padding remains thick all the way up the nose, allowing you to move forward for those long turns in the drops or big climbs in comfort, a welcome change for a lightweight saddle.

Read our review of the Fizik Antares R5 with K:ium rails
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Fabric Scoop Flat Pro — £116.99

Weight: 190g Hairsine ratio: 0.94

Fabric offers three versions of the 143mm wide Scoop: flat, shallow and radius. If you want something wider, there’s the 155mm Cell, while the 134mm ALM is your choice if you want something narrower. There isn't much padding, but there is loads of flex in the one-piece base and it's this flex that really provides the core of its magnificent comfort. The carbon rails provide a surprising amount of flex too.

The real beauty of the Fabric Scoop is the construction. The waterproof microfibre cover isn't stitched or stapled into place, it's moulded to a one-piece nylon base. It's really very impressive and if you get the chance to fondle one in your bike shop you really should, it's a marvellous bit of design.

Read our review of the Fabric Scoop Flat Pro
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Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow — £159.95

Weight: 120g Hairsine ratio: 1.13

The value for money winner of the three Selle Italia saddles we've included, this carbon-railed saddle is feathery 120g but still boasts a layer of padding, albeit a thin, firm layer.

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Selle Italia SLR Tekno — £254.99

Weight: 96g Hairsine ratio: 0.80

The Selle Italia SLR Tekno is an extremely lightweight saddle although its lack of padding makes it feel firmer than most so it has to fit you very well if you're going to stay comfortable on longer rides.

The SLR Tekno's main selling point is its weight. Ours hit the scales at just 96g (Selle Italia claim 90g). You could reasonably say that anything under 200g falls into the lightweight category, sub-150g is superlight, and below 100g is nuts.

We can't say this is among the most comfortable saddles we've ever used but it's far from the least. It feels firm but we could live with it easily enough, especially when used on a bike with a fairly flexible 27.2mm diameter seatpost. We know of people who rack up 100-milers on this saddle and think nothing of it. We'd save it for race day. I'd certainly use it for a crit or a short road race where weight is a more important factor than long-ride comfort. You might be saving just 100g or so over a regular lightweight saddle, but if you're a weight weenie focusing on marginal gains it all counts.

Read our review of the Selle Italia SLR Tekno
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Selle Italia Flite Tekno Flow — £279.99

Weight: 137g Hairsine ratio: 0.58

The Selle Italia Flite Tekno Flow saddle is an updated classic that's lost weight and some of the usual depth of cushioning, and gained a slightly flatter and wider shape. It’s a lightweight saddle with a fairly shallow amount of padding, but the flex in the shell, especially through the central section, means it feels firm rather than harsh.

At its £344.99 RRP this is the most expensive saddle we’ve ever tested, but it can sometimes be found a lot cheaper than that eye-watering figure.

Read our review of the Selle Italia Flite Tekno Flow
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Prologo Zero C3 Nack — £239.90

Weight: 164g Hairsine ratio: 0.57

The Prologo Zero C3 Nack is a light, thinly cushioned and beautifully finished saddle, although it's an expensive one. The fairly shallow cushioning means that the it’s quite a firm saddle, although flex in the base – not loads, but some – helps smooth over road vibration and takes the edge off bigger hits.

We didn't find its firmness to be a problem, though. It was perfectly comfortable for both short and long rides, although it's safe to say that if you're after a soft, deeply cushioned saddle, this isn't the one for you.

Read our review of the Prologo Zero C3 Nack
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What do you get if you pay £100 or more for a helmet? As this selection of high-performance lids shows, you get a hard-to-achieve combination of low weight, ventilation, comfort and, in the latest models, aerodynamics.

You can get a fairly decent helmet for £30, but if you want a helmet that’s so light and comfortable you’ll forget it’s there, or you want the latest aerodynamic designs, then you’ll have to pay a bit more. What do you get for your money?

Weight

The lightest modern helmets come in around 200g which is light enough that you really do barely notice they’re there. Achieving very low weights while still meeting standards isn’t easy, though, and involves the use of high-tech materials and very careful design. Specialized’s 185g Prevail S-Works, for example, is internally reinforced with an aramid skeleton. Other super-light helmets have minimal, pared-down adjustment systems, necessitating the use of light but strong plastics, and featherweight webbing straps, none of which comes cheap.

Ventilation

The materials that allow a helmet to be light also allow better ventilation because they make it possible to increase the size of the vents and internal channels. Quite simply, there’s less helmet there, so there’s more room for air to flow.

In some helmets the cradle that fits around your head lifts the body of the helmet away from your scalp, further improving ventilation. That has been an important feature of the latest generation of aerodynamic helmets.

Comfort

The days of foam pads resting on your head and making it sweaty are long gone. Many modern performance helmets have cradles that lightly wrap your whole head, spreading the already-low weight over a large area and leaving plenty of bare scalp for sweat.

Helmet shapes have improved too, and the almost-universal use of some sort of dial adjuster to fine-tune the fit means these helmets can be easily tweaked; a lot less hassle than picking the right thickness of pads out of the box.

Aerodynamics

As in almost every other aspect of cycling, aerodynamics is the latest big thing. Aero road bikes and aero wheels have been joined by helmets claimed to be wind-tunnel-tested to provide an aero advantage.

It started with simple plastic shells to cover the vents for situations like a finishing sprint where every fraction of a second counts, followed by helmets with fewer vents and smooth outer shells. Not having a wind tunnel, we can’t verify the aero claims, but this crop of helmets does have the advantage of being warmer in winter. The previous generation of high-end helmets are so airy your gets distinctly chilly without a skull cap.

Read more: Should you buy an aero helmet?

Read more: Everything you need to know about helmets

Read more: The best cheap helmets

Read more: All road.cc helmet reviews​

Giro Aether MIPS — £219

Giro's Aether is a fabulous helmet that offers an excellent level of ventilation, plenty of comfort and new MIPS Spherical technology.

The MIPS Spherical tech is its most important feature. MIPS stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System. According to the company behind it, MIPS is "scientifically proven to reduce rotational motion by absorbing and redirecting rotational energies and forces transferred to the brain from angled impacts to the head."

MIPS usually comes in the shape of an internal liner – a polycarbonate plastic layer that sits between your head and the expanded polystyrene (EPS). Here, though, rather than being added after the event, the MIPS Spherical technology is an integral part of the Aether's construction.

Read our review of the Giro Aether MIPS
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Bell Stratus MIPS — £99-£129.99

The Bell Stratus MIPS Helmet is quality, comfortable with a great fit, and comes in a wide range of colours. The Stratus MIPS is Bell's latest second-rung helmet, below the Zephyr, and shares many of its features, the main differences being a single polycarbonate shell instead of the dual-density laminate and a significant saving. If you can't stretch to the Zephyr, look here.

Read our review of the Bell Stratus MIPS
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MET Trenta 3K Carbon — £169.99

The Met Trenta 3K Carbon helmet is lightweight, it feels cool in use and, if you accept Met's claims, it offers an aero advantage over a traditional lid, but you're going to have to dig deep for this one.

Our medium sized Met Trenta 3K Carbon helmet was 220g on our scales. The weight saving over most other helmets will have a negligible effect on your speed but you might find it more comfortable than one that's even 50g heavier.

Met has keptr the weight down by using EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam that's 20% less dense than normal, it says, without affecting the helmet's capacity to absorb energy in the case of impact. How come? It's down to the elastic modulus of the carbon cage that's embedded into it, says Met. You can see the black woven carbon beneath the white in-moulded polycarbonate shell. Met insists that this carbon is structural rather than cosmetic. It's the addition of the carbon, which you don't get on the standard Trenta, that allows the use of the lighter EPS.

Read our review of the Met Trenta 3K Carbon helmet
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Met Strale — £50-£79.99

Weight: 241g

Met's Strale helmet strikes a balance between aerodynamics, cooling and comfort that makes you wonder whether you really need to spend any more on a polystyrene lid.

The Strale is half the price of the Met Manta Aero, below, but offers nearly the same performance. No doubt there'll be some data out there to say it doesn't save as many watts at a given speed, but for the majority of your riding that probably doesn't matter.

With eight vents up front, the Strale has a lot fewer than most traditional helmets but you certainly don't overheat when you're wearing it. A few weeks ago the temperature in this part of the country was nudging 30°C and I spent the week riding in the Met without issue.

Read our review of the Met Strale
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Met Manta aero — £99.95

Weight: 215g

Aerodynamics are important in a bike race and we're seeing the pros concentrating on cheating the wind from every direction, head to toe. 'The fastest closed aero helmet' claims Met about its brand new Manta; a big claim but this helmet is about more than just going fast.

Met claims the Manta saves 10 watts at 50km/h compared to its rivals and although that is hard to test in the real world even half of that isn't to be sniffed at for free. That'll be at an optimal position too, most likely the handlebar-staring, stem-chomping head angle employed by the world's best sprinters but hey, when you're really going for it in the drops the Manta does actually make you feel quick – nothing wrong with a placebo effect.

Bargain hunters with small heads can grab a Manta for just £64.99.

Read our review of the Met Manta
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BBB Tithon — £36.95-£81.69

Weight: 280g

If you want top aero performance for that final burst to the line at the end of a race, coupled with reasonable ventilation, the BBB Tithon is a great option.

Let's start with that ventilation, which you'd be right in thinking isn't spectacular. Of course it isn't: there are only two holes at the front and three at the rear. However, the way they work in practice by pulling air through from a high pressure to low pressure area means you do still get a surprisingly good level of airflow in spite of appearances.

t's one of those helmets where, if all you're interested in is saving the odd watt here or there at the end of a race, then it's going to appeal; if not, then it's likely you'd be better suited to one with more ventilation.

Read our review of the BBB Tithon
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Cannondale Cypher Aero — ~£110

Weight: 285g

Cannondale's Cypher Aero is essentially its Cypher race helmet with an aero shell. It's a sleek and well-ventilated design that is light – and now aerodynamic too. Cannondale has stuck with its traditional look, a plus point in my book, rather than following the current trend of weird and wonderful aero designs.

Weighing in at just 240g without the aero shell, its light weight is probably the first thing you notice. Cannondale has used its 'Peak Protection technology', with dual-density EPS foam reducing weight while keeping rigidity high. Combine that with the wide distribution of internal padding, and it's easy to forget you have it on. Even with the shell on, 285g isn't exactly heavy.

Read our review of the Cannondale Cypher Aero
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Kask Mojito — £69.99-£110

Weight: 251g

Italian helmet-maker Kask has a gem of a helmet in the Mojito, a lightweight and relatively inexpensive design that fits brilliantly – to my head anyway.

Thanks in part to its sponsorship with Team Sky, Kask is now widely recognised as a leader in the lid market. The Mojito is now its mid-range helmet after being used by the pro team up until 2014, so still carries a lot of the ventilation tech and lightweight construction you'd hope for from a pro-level model.

Read our review of the Kask Mojito
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Lazer Genesis — £44.27-£62.77

Weight: 275g

With its sleek design and 19 vents, the Lazer Genesis is a great helmet, especially considering the price. The optional aeroshell (£14.99) means this can handle the fastest races and coldest training rides equally well.

​Read our review of the Lazer Genesis
​Find a Lazer dealer

Bell Zephyr MIPS — £86.90

Weight: 288g

The Bell Zephyr MIPS helmet might be one of the more expensive options out there but it's well ventilated, fairly low profile, and it boasts an excellent new MIPS-integrated fit system.

Just to get you up to speed on MIPS – or Multi-directional Impact Protection System for long – it's 'a revolutionary technology that lets the helmet slide relative to the brain, adding more protection against rotational violence to the brain caused by angled impacts', according to the team behind it.

Read our review of the Bell Zephyr MIPS
​Find a Bell dealer

Catlike Mixino — £83.99-£139.99

Weight: 227g

Without a doubt, the most recognisable helmet in the professional peloton. With its distinctive Gaudi-esque vents and slightly bulbous shape, the Catlike Mixino looks like an object made by nature. It's superbly ventilated, fits well and few helmets weigh less.

The reason the helmet has this unique shape is thanks to its aramid skeleton, which sits underneath the 'foam' of the helmet. It's reinforced with graphene to enable it to have a significant number of vents (39 in total) and a very light weight (227g) without impacting on safety in the event of a crash.

Read our review of the Catlike Mixino
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Kask Rapido — £54.11-£59

Weight: 215g

The Kask Rapido is a rather excellent helmet.

The understated looks, fantastic ventilation and low price make this a really good deal. They are robust and come in a variety of colours, which due to a full plastic shell, wipe clean.

The low profile suits many head shapes and the retention system provides a very wide range of adjustment.

POC Octal — £89.99-£180

Weight: 204g

​So the first thing to say about this lid is that it'll turn heads. It polarises opinion.

It's a very well vented helmet that is backed up with a nice fit and impressive lightness.

Dave had it on test and said "you're either going to like this helmet's appearance or you're not; I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise. What I would say is that you should withhold your opinion until you've actually seen the helmet with your own eyes rather than just the photo up top".

Read our review of the POC Octal

Lazer Z1 — £149.99

Weight: 238g

The element of the Lazer Z1 that stands out most is that it has been designed with ventilation in mind, with 30 vents throughout the body. The airflow is about as good as you will find and certainly among the best we have used. It has great word-of-mouth too; this is one of the best liked helmets around for its ventilation and fit.

The strong fit is achieved through Lazer's Rollsys system, which maintains pressure around the entire head rather than placing it on the rear like most other helmet adjustment systems. This means there are no hot spots of pressure, making it comfortable to wear for long periods of time. In terms of fitting the helmet, it is effortless as it just has a wheel on the top of the helmet that you twist to either tighten or loosen.

The Z1 also comes with an aeroshell, which covers the top to improve the aerodynamics or keep you warm in cold weather, depending on how you look at it.

Read our review of the Lazer Z1

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Bontrager Ballista MIPS — £99-£109

Weight: 266g

The Bontrager Ballista is an aero road helmet with very good ventilation that keeps your head cool and comfortable as you ride.

Bontrager says the Ballista has less drag than any other aero road helmet out there. The company says that the Ballista outperforms the Specialized Evade, Louis Garneau Course and Giro Air Attack, according to measurements in the wind tunnel. The other brands might well contest that of course.

What we can tell you for sure is that the Ballista feels very cool in use. You get three very large vents up front and two more on the top of the helmet. These lead into deep channels in the EPS (expanded polystyrene) that run right over the top of your head and on to a series of exit ports at the back.

Read our review of the Bontrager Ballista

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Giro Synthe — £118.99-£129.99

Weight: 223g

The Giro Synthe is an aero road helmet that's lightweight, comfortable and very well ventilated.

Giro call it the Synthe because they reckon it synthesises all the features you'd want in a high-performance road helmet: low weight, plenty of ventilation, a good fit and aerodynamic efficiency.

They certainly nailed the weight. Our medium sized test model hit the scales at 223g. It fits comfortably, thanks to Giro's Roc Loc Air system lifting the helmet body slightly off your head. It's also one of the best-ventilated helmets we've ever used. Giro reckon that using a heat-sensing headform reveals the Synthe to be cooler than the existing Aeon and nearly as cool as a bare head.

We can't verify Giro's aero claims, but they claim it's superior to their Air Attack lid, which isn't as well ventilated.

Read our review of the Giro Synthe

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Specialized Prevail II — £120

Weight: 201g

If ‘performance’ means ‘low weight’ then this is the helmet you want. The Specialized Prevail II is the pinnacle of Specialized's vented helmet design: the lightest and best ventilated helmet they've ever put on sale. And in use it is indeed, cool, light and very comfortable.

The Prevail helmet has long been a popular helmet with performance-focused cyclists because it's comfortable, well ventilated and seriously lightweight. This version retains everything that was good about original but has a much lower profile. It not only looks better but offers better ventilation and sweat management as well as reducing the wind noise of the original.

The only criticism it was possible to level at the original Prevail was its very wide profile that looked a bit bulbous on many heads. That has been addressed with the Prevail II. It's a much sleeker and lower profile helmet, sits lower on the head and doesn't protrude at the sides as much as before. Good job, Specialized.

That reduction in bulk hasn't reduced the weight, as you might expect. The Prevail II weighs 201g on our scales, compared to 190g for the original Prevail, both in a size medium. Still, it's one of the lightest helmets on the market. You might think there's little point in a lightweight helmet. And then you try one and it's hard to go back to a heavier helmet. Specialized also says the lower profile offers a small aerodynamic improvement as well.

Read our review of the Specialized Prevail II

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KASK Protone — £160-£199

Weight: 250g

Kask's Protone helmet, developed in collaboration with Team Sky, is a highly adjustable, cool and comfortable lid, although it comes at a premium price. If Kask's claims are to be believed, it boasts impressive aerodynamics for a well-vented helmet too.

You know how some helmets feel like they perch on top of your head a bit like a flat cap? The Protone is the exact opposite. It feels like it fully encompasses your head, more like a beanie, say, reaching low at both the front and, especially, the back.

Testing the Protone involved a lot of climbing in high temperatures and we found the venting to be very effective. Our tester didn't get a noticeably hot, sweaty head, or anything close to that, despite relatively little venting towards the rear of the helmet. There's good airflow right across the top of your head that keeps the humidity down.

Read our review of the KASK Protone

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The Specialized Power Arc Expert saddle is a comfortable and accommodating seat that's capable of keeping you supported over even really long distances without trouble. With a pressure-relief cutout and available in two different widths to suit your body, this really can keep you riding all day without discomfort.

• Pros: Comfortable over longer distances, relatively light, looks great
• Cons: The aesthetic finish wears off relatively quickly

Right off the bat, we should deal with an important caveat: saddles are quite a personal issue and what suits one person might not be ideal for another. In particular, I can only comment on what it's like to ride this with male anatomy (it's a unisex design).

> Find your nearest dealer here

I should also mention that I tested two very similar Specialized saddles at the same time: this Power Arc Expert, and the Power Expert (review to come). The only difference in name is the word "Arc". The two saddles are subtly different and are intended for different styles of riding, but also have a lot in common, so you might want to read both my reviews before making a choice.

The main difference between the two models is that this saddle, the Power Arc Expert, is intended for people who want the flexibility to move back and forth on the saddle while riding. The Power Expert is for people who like to stay in one optimal position during their ride. The difference in shape between the two that facilitates these different patterns is subtle, but definitely alters how the saddles feel compared to each other.

Having tried both, I can say that the two models work as advertised thanks to squarer, blunter edges and surfaces on the Power Expert version and more rounded edges and surfaces on this Arc. You might want to ask yourself how you ride, and whether being able to move back and forth in the saddle matters to you. Some riders like being able to shift back and forth to engage different muscles, for example, or to drop down onto aerobars.

With that difference between the two models explained, let's now focus on the Power Arc Expert itself. The saddle is shorter in the nose than a lot of other saddles and has an obvious cutout to reduce pressure. It's got a little padding ("Level 2" according to Specialized), and it's definitely possible to ride without cycling shorts, but I wouldn't want to go too far without a chamois to soak up some of the pressure. The surface is smooth and rounded, even at the edges, which is what permits the easy repositioning while riding.

The other thing that is immediately apparent from looking at this saddle is that it is available in a stunning iridescent finish – which is the model I was sent to test. This finish looks mostly grey but, when it catches the light, shimmers with colours like a dragonfly's wing. The photos here will give you an impression of the effect, but still don't capture its full appeal. It was a really bold and arresting design choice and I immediately loved it. It was just a shame that the finish started to wear away after a few hundred kilometres of riding. This was the only real disappointment I felt with an otherwise excellent saddle.

Out on the ride

The Power Arc Expert saddle is intended to provide long-distance comfort, and I can say that I tested this to extremes and found it delivered. I've put thousands of kilometres on the Power Arc Expert and am finishing this review having just done a 1,200km ride on it.

Out on that really long ride, I'd be lying if I said I didn't experience a bit of pressure and discomfort on my sit bones after a lot of hours – but I have to acknowledge that this emerged after far more hours than most people would ever ride and could presumably be fixed with more padded shorts. On a performance bike, it's not the saddle's job to provide all the padding, and so I can't hold that against this model.

More importantly, a good saddle is supposed to provide proper support so that it doesn't harm your body. And I can report that the Power Arc Expert performed wonderfully for me here. Thanks to how the saddle supported my sit bones and thanks to the pressure-relieving cutout, I've just ridden those 1,200km in one go with no tingling or numbness in the old "chamois sausage". I've really struggled with this issue in the past, and finding a saddle that prevents it is a big relief – in more ways than one.

> 9 ways to make your bike more comfortable

Its price of £105 isn't pocket change, but it's less than a lot of other saddles out there. Selle San Marco, for example, makes some saddles that are very similar in style to this one (short and with a cutout) and which are also lighter, but they also cost a bit more and from my experience definitely feel different on longer rides. Its Shortfit Racing saddle is 180g but £134.99. For me, the Specialized was more comfortable when I tried both back-to-back.

> Buyer's Guide: 19 of the best saddles

If I were buying a long-distance saddle right now I'd plump for one of these without hesitation. I'd perhaps go for a more standard black finish, to avoid the surface wear issue, but otherwise this is now my saddle of choice.

Verdict

A comfortable and accommodating saddle, even for all-day rides

The Specialized Power Expert saddle provides reliable comfort and support even on all-day rides. Available in a range of widths to accommodate different sit bones, and with a cutout to relieve pressure, it's one you really can ride for hours without any issues.

• Pros: Comfortable even over longer distances, relatively light, stands up well to use, range of widths
• Cons: None

First of all, as I said in my review of this saddle's sibling, the Power Arc Expert: saddle comfort is a personal issue and what suits one person might not be ideal for another. Again, I can only comment on what it's like to ride this with male anatomy.

> Find your nearest dealer here

I tested the two very similar Body Geometry saddles at the same time. As I said in the Power Arc Expert review (apologies for some repetition – there's a lot of crossover here), the two saddles are subtly different and are intended for different styles of riding but also have a lot in common, so you might want to read both reviews before making a choice.

While the Power Arc Expert is intended for people who like to be able to move around in their seat while riding, this Power Expert saddle is for people who like to stay in one optimal position. At the risk of repeating myself, you might want to ask yourself how you ride, and whether being able to move back and forth in the saddle matters to you – do you like being able to shift back and forth to engage different muscles, for example, or to drop down onto aerobars?

The difference in shape that facilitates these different riding patterns is subtle, but definitely alters how the saddles feel. Having tried both, I can say that the two models work as advertised thanks to squarer, blunter edges and surfaces on this model and more rounded edges and surfaces on the Arc.

Short in the nose

Like the Power Arc, the Power Expert is shorter in the nose than a lot of other saddles, with an obvious cutout to reduce pressure, and it has the same moderate level of padding ("Level 2", says Specialized), and again, while it's possible to ride without cycling shorts, I wouldn't want to go too far without a chamois to soak up some of the pressure.

> Buyer's Guide: How to choose the right saddle

Both models are intended to provide long-distance comfort, and I took both out for rides of over 200km without feeling any discomfort. As with the Power Arc, I had no sign of pressure sores and no "gentleman's tingle" even after spending all day on the go. On really long rides, I became aware of slightly more pressure on the perineum when I spent long periods in more aggressive, dropped riding positions. But I suspect every saddle is going to experience this to some extent, and the short nose on this one seemed to make the issue far less pronounced than on typical saddles.

Perhaps this was more noticeable to me because I was testing both models at the same time, but when sitting down on the Power Expert there is a definite sense of falling naturally into the correct riding position. I never found myself shuffling around to find the right posture – the saddle guided me into it through its design. It's actually a really pleasing sensation, and suggests someone at Specialized really knows their business.

It was also nice to see just how well this saddle stood up to use. At the time of writing, I've put in many many hours on this saddle in all sorts of weather and it's still looking basically like new. It's great to see such durability.

Conclusion

Overall, I would absolutely choose this saddle for a bike on which I planned to put in some serious miles if I were looking to stay in one optimal riding position. It could be just the job if you've had a bike fit that recommends a particular position that's going to maximise your power output, for example.

It costs the same as the Power Arc, so the same applies here re value: £105 isn't pocket change, but it's less than a lot of other saddles out there of a similar style, such as the Selle San Marco Shortfit Racing, though that is lighter. Again, for me, the Specialized was more comfortable when I tried both back-to-back.

Verdict

A comfortable saddle that helps you stay in your best riding position

The S-Works Turbo tyre has been a fixture in Specialized range for quite a few years but we've never reviewed the fashionably wide 28mm option before, a tyre width all the cool kids are riding. It's a fast-rolling, easy tubeless and durable tyre that is a good upgrade if your bike has space for them, at a price that won't make you weep.

• Pros: Fast, durable, tubeless easy, good value
• Cons: No tan sidewalls

Wide tyres have been in fashion for a few years now and most modern road bikes are being designed with such tyres in mind – even the sleekest race bikes have a minimum of clearance for a 28mm tyre. The benefits outweigh any negatives; wide tyres roll faster and are more comfortable than narrower tyres.

> Find your nearest dealer here

Construction for the S-Works Turbo 2Bliss Ready tyres revolves around a 120tpi casing with a BlackBelt lining to resist punctures. The folding bead is wrapped with butyl to make it tubeless-ready, or 2Bliss in Specialized speak. The tyre has a claimed weight of 285g – 283g on our scales – which is favourably comparable to other 28mm tubeless-ready tyres.

As the tyre sidewall says, 'go commando, ride tubeless', so I duly dispensed with inner tubes and fitted the tyres to some tubeless wheels. On they popped with no hesitation, just a single tyre lever needed to encourage the final section of tyre onto the rim. Inflation was a breeze, the tyres popping up with no air leakage and the beads snapping into the rim bead with a reassuring crack or two.

Daily inspection has revealed the pressure loss to be at best a few psi, so you can go the best part of a week if you want without topping up the tyres. Word of warning when it comes to installation, Specialized says the tyre should only be used on hooked rims, not hookless types.

Out on the road, the tyres zip along very nicely, with a satisfying feeling of speed, whether cruising along at a steady pace or chasing people half your age in the local chain gang... Inflated to about 65-75psi (to suit your body weight and road conditions; it's always worth experimenting to find what works for you) the tyres do a decent job of smoothing badly surfaced roads with cracks and potholes to contend with.

It's extremely hard making comparisons with tyres, as the differences are often very slight, but the S-Works Turbo tyres don't feel like they give much away to pricier clincher tubeless tyres I've been testing recently like Continental's new GP5000s and Vittoria's Corsa Speeds to name a couple. They also feel fast compared with skinnier tyres – there's no sense the wider tyres come with any penalty other than on the scales.

The S-Works Turbo 2Bliss aren't quite as supremely supple feeling as the posher Specialized Turbo Cotton tyres and their 320tpi casing, but those are near twice the price!

Wider tyres provide a boost in confidence, especially when wrapped up with a grippy rubber compound, which is the case with these tyres. Grip levels are very good in the dry and wet, and every road condition in between. Some tyres are fab in the dry but skittish and nervous in the damp, but many modern tyres are now very good in such intermediate conditions. These Specialized tyres fall into that camp, with confidence in their traction continuing even as the saturation levels increase.

The BlackBelt puncture protection does its job, adding to puncture resistance when used in a tubeless configuration, but I suffered no flats during the test period which involved a full mix of weather and road conditions. Durability has proven to be decent with no cuts or slashes to any part of the tyre, and the shoulder dimples are still showing good life. For day-to-day duties interspersed with racing or training rides, these appear to be a very suitable choice.

At £35 RRP, but cheaper if you shop around, these are a worthy upgrade from a cheaper entry-level tyre or a good entry into the tubeless world if you're fed up of punctures. They're easy to install, and on the bike are fast, grippy and reliable.

They're really good value too, if you look at some rivals: there's the Goodyear Eagle All-Season tubeless tyres which are very good but cost £60, the Continental Grand Prix 5000 TL but they cost £70, or the Pirelli Cinturato Velos, which are a nudge more than the Turbos at £47. It goes without saying that shopping around might reveal lower prices for all these tyres.

> Buyer's Guide: 33 of the best road cycling tyres

So, they're fast, grippy, durable and easy to fit tubeless, and they're great value. They only grudge I have against them is that they're not available with tan sidewalls, but I guess you can't have it all.

Verdict

Great tyres that just work well at a decent price, there's a lot to like

The Specialized Allez Sprint Comp is an aluminium alloy masterpiece. The ride quality is impressive and the stiffness is right up there with some of the most overbuilt carbon wonder bikes I've ridden. Its welding isn't the prettiest, and if form must match function then you might be disappointed, and it's also lacking a bit when it comes to the finishing kit, but you do get a decent groupset.

• Pros: A proper no-nonsense race bike, great balance of stiffness versus comfort
• Cons: None really, though the aesthetics won't appeal to all

I'm a big fan of the standard Allez, having ridden the E5 Sport model in its previous iteration before hammering around on the latest £599 entry-level model last year. I've also tested the Elite version too.

> Find your nearest dealer here

Those last two saw a tweak to the Allez's DNA, with a swap to slightly more relaxed geometry to tame the steering a little, bringing stability and the ability to take a rack and mudguards. Well, almost... there was a bit of an issue with the fork which led to a recall.

I could understand the changes, after all I'm betting most of the Allez in the world are bought by those relatively new to cycling. Maybe commuting is your thing or you are looking for a decently priced winter trainer; the new Allez caters for all of these.

While I enjoyed the ride of those models, just a little bit of me mourned the sporty ride and fast handling of the previous model. Thankfully, I've found the answer right here.

Ride

Specialized describes the Sprint Comp as a 'crit-racing weapon', a fast bike that is going to give you plenty of thrills and excitement when you just want to get out and smash the pedals.

The Sprint has an unbelievably stiff frame brought about, Specialized says, by its use of D'Aluisio Smartweld Sprint Technology. I'll go into more detail in a minute, but basically it means it's moved where the welds sit on some of the most stressed sections of the frame, most noticeably at the head tube and bottom bracket junction.

Acceleration and sprinting are epic against pretty much every alloy bike I've ridden, and powering out of corners whether on the race track or on your favourite section of road will see you grinning like a deranged nutter.

Riding those long descents where the fall isn't quite steep enough to freewheel, and you sprint out of one corner before braking hard into the next one to repeat the process suited the Allez perfectly.

The front end takes everything that the dual pivot brake can throw at it as you scrub the speed into the bend, before the handling takes over to guide you through the apex with impressive accuracy. The S-Works FACT carbon fibre fork gives nothing away as it takes the load from the various directions and just does the job of keeping the tyre on your chosen line.

Its handling is spot on, quick enough to keep you on your toes and get you out of trouble in the blink of an eye, but when you don't want your life to flash before you in a frenzied blur it's sedate enough to take on the smooth and simplest corners without fuss.

It's a confident climber, too, thanks to all of that stiffness, meaning you aren't going to be wasting any energy putting your power through the rear wheel whether seated or out of the saddle.

Even with such a taut frame the Sprint Comp still manages to offer impressive levels of comfort, although it's not quite as good as the Fuji Roubaix 1.3 that I was riding alongside it. The Fuji has the most comfortable alloy frame I've ridden thanks to the way it can damp road buzz without taking much away from the overall feedback of the ride.

The Allez is still a very nice bike to ride – not plush but hardly harsh either. This isn't just an hour-long blast kind of bike, you can cover some decent mileage without feeling beaten up.

Frame and fork

If you've already scrolled through the gallery of close-up shots at the top of the review, you've no doubt noticed the rather obvious welds. If you were paying attention in class, you'll remember that Specialized calls this D'Aluisio Smartweld Technology, and where it is most noticeable is around the bottom bracket (BB).

On most alloy bikes the down tube and seat tube meet with the BB shell and they get welded there. Here, though, you can see that the BB shell has been formed in a complete piece including a section of down tube and seat tube, a bit like you'll see in some types of carbon fibre frame production.

This means that the actual weld to both of the tubes is moved away from the high stress area by about 40mm.

A similar thing happens at the head tube if you look closely. Well, not that closely as you don't need to. The welds throughout the bike are huge, and many of us who are big fans of the metal bike and their simplistic loveliness will find them a bit of an eyesore, even when covered in this beautiful mint paintjob with metallic flip – it looks great in the sun.

If performance is all you care about, though, Specialized says this is the stiffest aluminium alloy bike it's tested and I'd certainly agree it's one of the tightest I've ridden.

As for the tubing, Spesh has stayed with its proven E5 Premium Aluminium, with pretty much every one of them being given the hydroforming treatment to create the aerodynamic profiles.

The seat tube is certainly impressive the way its shape flows this way and that, as its role changes between wind-cheating and stiffness along its length. It obviously allows the use of a teardrop-shaped seatpost too.

The rear end of the frame copies a similar theme, with chunky chainstays for power transfer and thinner seatstays for a bit of compliance and comfort.

At the front the head tube is tapered for stiffness and it blends nicely into that S-Works FACT Fork. As I said earlier, the fork does a brilliant job of balancing all the things that you want in a fork today. It's stiff enough to handle the steering and braking loads while having enough give to deal with road imperfections and keep the tyre on the surface.

As for frame details, the Allez is quite simple. You get a couple of bottle cage mounts and, erm, that's it really.

The cabling is semi-integrated, with the rear brake cable passing through the top tube and the mech cables entering at the top of the down tube and exiting about 50mm from the bottom bracket junction weld. Specialized has welded cable guides to the seat tube and chainstays to accept full cable outers under the BB to keep the worst of the road crap out, which is a good touch.

The Sprint Comp has a BB30 press-fit bottom bracket, which might not be to everybody's taste.

Size and geometry

It comes in a decent spread of six sizes from a 49cm through to 61cm, and you can find the full geometry by following the link in the test report section below.

The Sprint Comp is all about performance so it's no surprise that the geometry is suitably aggressive. This 56cm has a stack measurement of 554mm versus a reach of 395mm which gives a ratio of 1.4, bang on race bike territory.

You get a seat angle of 74 degrees and a head angle of 73.5 degrees, which is only a little bit steeper than the standard Allez, but with tweaks to the chainstay length, wheelbase and other bits and bobs the Sprint Comp is a shorter, more nimble machine.

Finishing kit

This Allez is based around the solid and dependable but also excellently performing Shimano 105 R7000 groupset and if you haven't ridden it already, all you need to know is it is pretty much the best bang for buck gear system that Shimano has ever made.

It's the perfect accoutrement to a crit machine like the Sprint Comp, with pretty much the same shifting and braking prowess as Ultegra without the cost. Both gear changing and braking are much improved over the previous iteration and it's much easier to set up thanks to redesigned front and rear mechs.

There was a time when nearly every bike came with a different chainset than the rest of the groupset, mostly FSA, but more recently that seemed to have disappeared, with most brands sticking to full systems. A few bikes are starting to creep back that way, though, and Specialized has chosen the alloy version of the Praxis Works Zayante BB30.

Shifting is perfectly good and the chainrings and spider offer loads of stiffness, plus the 52/36 semi-compact setup works brilliantly on a bike like the Sprint Comp.

The only downside, if you are a home mechanic, is that when it comes to replacing the Praxis Works M30 bottom bracket you will need the specific tool, which is pricey for what it is. That said, I've been running a Praxis Works BB through the winter and the bearings haven't struggled with the rain, mud, snow or salt.

Specialized has specced an 11-28 cassette, which again is spot on for the bike and its intended usage.

The rest of the finishing kit is Specialized's own brand stuff, with a simple alloy handlebar and stem up front: a 420mm wide bar and 100mm stem. These change in line with the frame sizes. They do the job but aren't exactly massively inspiring in either a performance or aesthetic point of view.

To suit that aero seat tube the Allez has been specced with an aero seatpost from the Venge, a FACT carbon offering kept in place by a two-bolt clamp where it meets the frame. It didn't slip throughout testing and once set in position I had no need to touch it.

Perched atop it is a Body Geometry saddle, the Toupe Sport with steel rails and a 143mm width. Its padding is quite firm, but thanks to some flex in the hull it is reasonably comfortable, taking the sting out of bumps from the road.

Wheels and tyres

Specialized has chosen DT Swiss wheels, the DT R460, and it's not a bad choice. The shallow rim profile makes them ideal for any occasion and the sealed cartridge hubs run smoothly. With 20 spokes up front and 24 at the rear, they are pretty stiff and stayed true throughout the test period.

In fact they make the perfect training wheelset, but for best days or when racing I'd definitely upgrade them for something more aero or lighter depending on the conditions.

The same goes for the tyres really. The specialized Turbo Pro rubber is good enough: it rolls all right and grip is okay too, but to unleash the true potential of the Sprint Comp then you really need something lighter and tackier to match the performance and handling on offer.

Value

Some people still wince when they see an alloy frame on a bike above the grand mark, thinking it's the preserve of carbon or titanium steeds, but oh how wrong they are.

This is a quality frame capable of mixing it with the best alloy race bikes out there and the price reflects that, even if a lot of Specialized bikes can look overpriced on paper because of their kit choices.

Here you've got that excellent frame and fork shod with a decent set of drivetrain components. Yes, the wheels are 'okay' and the rest of the finishing kit is nothing to shout about, but this bike is so upgradable – which could really bring that 8.34kg (17.38lb) weight down too.

> Buyer's Guide: 13 of the best road bikes from £1,500 to £2,000

That said, if it's a crit racer-cum-fast road bike you want, it's hard to dismiss the Bowman Palace:R, literally one of my favourite bikes of all time. With its frameset costing £745 and a 105 groupset for around £329, you are going to be able to get a decent set of wheels and some finishing kit to create a decent build with what's left over.

We can't talk aluminium race bikes without mentioning Cannondale and its excellent CAAD12 either. For a 105 build and similar components, you are looking at around £1,500 or £1,700 if you want a disc version. The Allez Sprint Comp Disc is £1,900.

Verdict

Overall, the Allez Sprint Comp has its challengers, cheaper or not, but what you have here is one of the best performing alloy race bikes out there, which would even put a fair number of carbon offerings to shame too.

Verdict

A modern classic when it comes to alloy race frames but the aesthetics of the welds won't be to everyone's taste

What cyclocross bike should I buy? That's a very good question - one I hear a lot - and there's plenty of choice, from race-ready options to bikes that come with rack and mudguard mounts for a bit more versatility.

The cyclocross bikes on this page offer just a selection of the available choice. We've tried to pick bikes that will cater for all tastes, from those specifically looking to buy a bike with a view to getting into racing, to those that are interested in the versatility and ruggedness for a winter training and commuting bike. And, no, we didn't mean to pick all disc-equipped bikes, that's just the way cyclocross bikes have developed.

There are now almost no cyclocross bikes with rim brakes. Discs have taken over, a development many die-hard cross enthusiasts said would never happen when the UCI changed its rules to allow them in elite races in 2010.

>>Read more: Beginner's Guide to cyclocross essentials

Boardman CXR 8.9 — £1,000

With race-orientated handling, a single chainring for simplicity and hydraulic brakes for control, the Boardman CXR 8.9 is a bargain entry to the world of drop-bar dirt bikes. 

Find a Boardman dealer

Vitus Energie CRX — £1,419.99

The Vitus Energie CRX cyclo-cross bike is an absolute blast to ride thanks to sharp, fun handling along the trails or around tight, technical muddy circuits. It's great for a day out on the gravel, and you can chuck mudguards on it too if you fancy a high-speed, year-round commuter.

If you want to ride fast off-road without the benefits of suspension then this Vitus is one of the best bikes to have a play on. The racy geometry and low-slung position mean you can really get down and drop that centre of gravity to benefit the handling when the terrain is tough, and the way it responds to the slightest shift in body weight is very impressive.

Read our review of the Vitus Energie CRX

Genesis Vapour 30 — £2,500

The Genesis Vapour 30 offers a fun ride that feels at home in a race and on a trail. The build isn't that flashy, but the package works well and continues to do so in the worst conditions. You'll be wanting a wheel upgrade for more serious racing, though.

Get the Vapour 30 into technical conditions and it's a joy to ride. The planted feel of the bike combined with a front end that is direct means that muddy corners are easy to navigate. On corners where I'd usually lose the front end, I was able to get around easily on the Genesis. That means less running which is great because firstly, I hate running, and secondly, riding is nearly always faster.

The handling really helps you to keep speed through corners, and getting back up to speed again much easier. This doesn't just help in races. Take this out onto the trails or the road and the bike transfers that same cornering confidence across surfaces. Compared with my road race bike, it doesn't feel sluggish on the tarmac; it feels light underneath you but floats better over rough surfaces thanks, mostly, to the fatter tyres.

Read our review of the Genesis Vapour 30
Find a Genesis dealer

Canyon Inflite CF SLX 9.0 Race — £4,149

Canyon's DNA is pure racing, and the Inflite CF SLX frame is a clear statement of intent: a frame that builds into bikes fit for the toughest and most demanding cyclo-cross racers and budding amateurs alike. It's light – 940g for a frame – disc brake-only and 1x and 2x compatible, and features the most distinctive top tube we've ever seen.

The Inflite CF SLX might not be the prettiest cyclo-cross bike ever produced, but there's nowt ugly about its performance, which is nothing short of stellar. Over a couple of months, tester David Arthur rode it in loads of local races to really get its measure. The Canyon immediately impressed. It brings sheer speed and easy handling to the Sunday morning mud party, with a delightful nimbleness that makes it easy to steer the bike around often awkward and fiddly cyclo-cross courses.

Read our review of the Canyon Inflite CF SLX 8.0 Pro Race, which shares the same frame

Boardman Elite CXR 9.4 Ultegra Di2 2019 — £2,899

The whole gravel/adventure thing may have softened some bikes a touch to make them more versatile but Boardman's CXR 9.4 is having none of it.

'Ready to race straight out of the box,' it says on Boardman's website and while it could do with a couple of minor tweaks the CXR 9.4 is one flickable, lightweight off-road rocket which is an absolute blast on the technical stuff.

This latest version has Shimano's Di2 electronic shifting for effortless gear changes and a single chainring to keep things as mechanically simple as possible.

Read our review of the Boardman CXR 9.4

The Light Blue Robinson Rival 1x — £1,700

The Robinson, from British company The Light Blue, offers a really smooth ride, with steady handling and tyres that provide a good balance of fast road riding pace and off-road grip. In this SRAM Rival 1x build with cyclo-cross tyres it's an ideal all-terrain bike, at home on the road or tackling more challenging countryside terrain, or for just tackling rough roads in comfort.

Read our review of the Light Blue Robinson
Find a Light Blue dealer

Giant TCX SLR 2 2019 — £1,295

We liked 2016's Giant TCX SLR 1, and this is the 2019 equivalent. It gets a brake upgrade to Giant's hydraulics, but retains the fast and nimble aluminium frame as the 2016 bike.

Read our review of the 2016 Giant TCX SLR 1
Find a Giant dealer

Merida Cyclo Cross 100 — £862.50

The 2019 version of the Merida Cyclo Cross 100 has a lot in common with the 2015 Merida Cyclo Cross 500, which we really liked when we reviewed it. It's a very good all-rounder. It's light and responsive enough to chuck round a race, and versatile enough for more general purpose riding. It's fun to ride and easy to recommend

The Merida Cyclo Cross platform serves up good off-road handling. The bike has a generous wheelbase and the steering is predictable, if a bit slower than a fully-fledged race bike. The fork is excellent: the 15mm thru-axle stiffens up the front end noticeably, and tracking over rough ground is really good, with very little noticeable dive under heavy braking.

Read our review of the Merida Cyclo Cross 500

Canyon Inflite AL SLX 6.0 Race — £1,249

The first cyclo-cross bike from German company Canyon impressed hugely when we reviewed it, with great handling and a very good parts package for the money. It boasts the sort of versatility that will ensure it appeals to those wanting a bike for more than just racing, but has all the credentials for taking to the start line.

Read our review of the Canyon Inflite AL SLX 6.0 Race

Specialized Crux — from £1,040

Specialized's Crux is a popular choice among amateur cyclocross racers. The four bikes in the 2018 UK range all have 1X transmissions, and the £4,000 Crux Expert above has SRAM's hydraulics and 1 x 11 transmission.

The impressive spec includes Roval C38 carbon wheels with 33mm Tracer Pro tyres. The range starts at £1,700 for the Crux E5 Sport, though there are still 2018 models around for £1,400 and you can pick up a base-model Crux E5 for £1,040.

Read our review of the Specialized Crux Elite
Read our review of the Specialized Crux Elite X1
Find a Specialized dealer

Kinesis Crosslight Pro6 V2 — £449 (frame)

This is your typical racing cyclocross bike. The Pro 6 is a perennial favourite with cyclocross racers and for many a Kinesis was probably their first cyclocross bike, bought as a frame and cobbled together from spare parts. You can buy the frame or this complete bike with a Shimano 105 groupset and TRP Spyre disc brakes, a combination that will usually run about £1400.

Read our first ride impressions on the Pro Crosslight Pro6
Read our review of the Kinesis Crosslight Pro6
Find a Kinesis dealer

On-One Pickenflick — from £1,299.99

The On-One Pickenflick is a complete cyclo-cross bike with a titanium frame for a price only bit more than you'd usually pay for a titanium frame. Its handling and adaptability makes it at home on road, cyclo-cross circuit or trail.

Read our review of the On-One Pickenflick

Storck T.I.X. — from ~£2,100

One of the newest carbon fibre cyclo-cross bikes on the market, this is actually the first 'cross bike from German company Storck. The company are advocates of disc brakes and the T.I.X. has been designed around disc brakes. The model we tested came with Shimano's hydraulic disc brakes providing excellent stopping power.

Read our first ride of the Storck T.I.X.

Ridley X-Bow — from £800

Hailing from Belgium, Ridley has one of the biggest ranges of cyclocross bikes,which is hardly surprising given that it's Belgian cycling's winter religion. The X-Bow Disc Tiagra's aluminium frame is hung with Shimano Tiagra components with a proper cyclocross-style 46/36 double chainset. The rubber that hits the (dirt) road is from Challenge and it sits on Ridley's own 4ZA wheels with Shimano hubs.

Find a Ridley dealer

Want more cyclocross bike options? See the full road.cc archive of cyclo-cross bike reviews.

The latest Specialized Diverge is very impressive to ride. It's a racer that absolutely flies on the gravel, whose quick handling and relatively short wheelbase makes it a flickable bike with loads of feedback when you've got the bit between your teeth. Against the opposition, though, it is a bit weighty and a fair chunk of money given the spec.

• Pros: Quality frame and fork, very responsive handling
• Cons: Pricey considering the spec, quite heavy against some opposition

> Find your nearest dealer here

> Buy this online here

The ride

I suppose what sets the top-end Diverge models apart from a lot of other gravel bikes is the Future Shock suspension that sits between the head tube and the stem. Based on the design developed for its bump-taming Roubaix road bike, the Diverge uses a progressive spring instead to control the damping as it needs the ability to take the harder and larger knocks from off-road riding. It gives about 20mm of travel, and it does actually work.

We're seeing a few brands bringing out gravel suspension forks, and even some bikes designed with rear shocks, but personally I'm not really interested. For me, gravel riding takes me back to when I was a teenager at the beginning of the Nineties, blasting around the local woods on my steel hardtail mountain bike, and it's that 'absorbing the bumps through your elbows and knees' that makes it fun. Spotting the perfect line, bunnyhopping tree roots and potholes, and shifting your body weight around as the tyres scrabble for grip on the tiny pebbles.

The Future Shock takes none of this away from the Diverge, it just takes the edge off the vibration and jarring of your wrists when the surface is really rough or you make a mistake.

Feedback from the front tyre is maintained and you always know exactly what the bike is up to underneath you, with the rear wheel sending just as much information to your rear end as you are getting at the front.

You need it, too, as the Diverge – like the excellent Canyon Grail– has quite aggressive geometry compared to a lot of gravel/adventure bikes, which goads you into pushing just that little bit harder into the corners or on descents.

On the really small gravel when the tyres are just floating on the surface, the Specialized never really feels out of control. Like I said, the feedback is amazing and you can feel exactly how you need to shift your body weight to keep the bike upright and travelling in the right direction, as close to the line you have chosen as possible.

In fact, I think this was when I enjoyed myself the most – you feel like a cycling god holding the bike right on the edge of its grip levels, though in reality it's just as much the Diverge's geometry that is letting you get away with it.

At 10.05kg (22.15) the Diverge is carrying a bit of weight compared to the similarly priced Grail, the CF SL 7.0, and you notice it on the climbs. The 32x34 lowest gear ratio helps out, but I didn't really find myself sprinting out of the saddle as much as I did on the Grail – not only because of the weight, but also the only downside of the Future Shock: it bobs about a bit when you are climbing hard and you can't lock it out.

Overall comfort from the Diverge frame and fork is also good, and as I enjoyed riding it so much I was constantly pushing to go out and do longer rides purely on the gravel. I was out for four to five hours at times and suffered from no real discomfort from any of my contact points.

A lot of gravel riding means tying together disjointed tracks, so the Diverge needs to be good on the road as well. The Sawtooth tyres roll pretty well and the double chainset gives you tarmac-friendly gearing so things are pretty good. The only fly in the ointment is that Future Shock again compressing when you are climbing out of the saddle.

Frame and fork

The Diverge comes in both aluminium and carbon fibre, with this model being the entry-level carbon offering, with its FACT 9r frame. It's available in both a men's and women's version.

It's a quality bit of kit, offering a great balance of stiffness and comfort, ideal for standing up to the rigours of off-road riding.

Specialized has followed the usual route of oversizing those parts of the frame that are likely to see the largest loads from pedalling, steering and braking. A beefy head tube, large diameter down tube and massive seatstays keep the bike planted and flex-free, helped by being held together by the chunky BB386 Pressfit bottom bracket shell. Not everyone's cup of tea but so far so good, with plenty of wet rides under its belt.

From previous use of Praxis bottom brackets I've found them to be pretty much hassle-free, so fingers crossed creaking doesn't become an issue over time.

You'll find full internal cable routing, and three bottle cage mounting points.

Wheel retention is taken care of by 12mm thru-axles front and rear, and as you'd expect the Diverge uses the latest flat mountings for the disc calipers.

Tyre clearance is a decent 42mm for 700C wheels, and 47mm if you go down the 650B route.

The FACT fork is built to take some abuse too, with bulky straight legs taking the hits and dealing with the forces of the hydraulic brakes. Stiffness is excellent and under hard braking I never had any issues with the legs chattering or twisting, helped by the aforementioned thru-axle.

Geometry-wise, as I've already mentioned the Specialized is at the racier end of the spectrum thanks to its Open Road Geometry. What does that mean? This 56cm size has a 73.5° seat angle and a 72.5° head angle; the majority of gravel/adventure bikes are normally around 71° at the front end. It has a relatively short wheelbase for this type and size of bike at just 1,011mm, all of which adds up to the sort of quick-handling, responsive riding style I got from the Diverge.

To take into account the added height of the Future Shock, Specialized has kept the head tube short at just 128mm, which is race bike territory, but with the spacers and shock added you still get a decently high front end for when you're clawing your way up gravel trails.

There are six size options, ranging from a 48cm frame through to 61cm in this men's model.

Finishing kit

Now I'm not going to lie, I was pretty shocked to see a £2,100 bike with a Shimano Tiagra groupset and thought it must be a mistake on our extranet, where I get to see all the information about what I'm testing.

But nope. That cash will get you Tiagra gearing as far as the front and rear mechs go, and a set of non-series Tiagra-level 10-speed shifters and hydraulic brake levers.

The crankset is from Praxis, its Alba model that John was impressed with back when he reviewed it.

For my style of riding I'll happily take a double ring setup over a 1x as it just suits me. I spent years as a time triallist, developing a high speed but very narrow cadence range, and I just find the majority of 1x cassettes too gappy.

The Alba has 48/32-tooth chainrings which lowers the gearing a little over a standard compact, paired to the SunRace 11-34 cassette, with shifting across it helped by the long cage rear mech.

For me, the spread of gears was absolutely fine for all of the terrain I encountered, and while the shifters aren't as crisp in use as the actual mechanical Tiagra units, skipping between sprockets and chainrings is dealt with quickly and cleanly.

I've said it plenty of times before, but I'm really not a fan of the shape of these RS405 levers, I just find them too elongated at the hood and they don't lend themselves well to your hand shape like others in Shimano's range.

When it comes to braking power they also seem to lack a little compared with, say, the latest Shimano 105 R7020 models, though whether that comes down to the shape and my hand position or not is difficult to say.

Specialized has gone for 160mm diameter rotors front and rear, which is a good choice for off-road use and they haul you up quickly without too much fuss.

The rest of the finishing kit is Specialized's own brand stuff. The Adventure Gear Hover handlebar is a riser to give you a little bit of extra height, and comes with a 12-degree flare at both ends. This gives you a wider stance and more stability when in the drops and travelling at speed, and also gives a bit of extra clearance for bar bags and the like.

Unlike the more expensive models, you don't get the S-Works CG-R shock-absorbing seatpost on this Diverge, having to make do with a standard 27.2mm diameter alloy model. It's a shame because having that little bit of travel at the front makes the rear feel more harsh than it really is.

Swapping to some sort of flexible post would be on my upgrade list, although the Body Geometry Toupe Sport saddle does a pretty good job of taming the worst of the bumps.

Wheels and tyres

Both the wheels and tyres are out of Specialized's parts bin. The Axis Sport Disc wheels aren't massively heavy and don't hamper the ability of the bike at all. With a 24-spoke build at the front and a slightly beefier 28 at the rear, they are aimed more at faster, unloaded gravel riding than others on the market, but I certainly had no issues with durability after some really hard-hitting gravel rides. Rain, mud and grit haven't seen the bearings start grumbling yet, and they continue to spin with little resistance.

The Sawtooth Sport tyres fitted are 38mm wide and suited more to bigger aggregate gravel as the tread is quite small, so when riding on the smaller sized stones they can be quite skittish.

They work well on hardpacked surfaces like dry mud and chalk, and are great on grass. If things get at all wet, though, away from the gravel you might as well be on slicks for all the bite they'll give you.

On the road they have decent rolling resistance, and pumped hard they grip well while still being comfortable.

Value

This is the one place where the Diverge falls down a bit. I've made references to the Canyon Grail in the review, and the main reason is because to my mind it is by far the best no-nonsense gravel racing bike out there. While the Diverge is pretty close in performance, what you're getting for the money doesn't compare.

The Grail CF SL 7.0 is the entry point into the carbon models with their Hover Cockpit Bars (scoff all you want, it's amazing) and it'll set you back £1,999 plus delivery.

That includes a full Shimano 105 R7020 hydraulic groupset, DT Swiss C 1850 DB wheelset, the excellent Schwalbe G-One Bite tyres and a Fizik Aliante R5 saddle.

That's quite the package, and it has a claimed weight of just 8.8kg which seems about right considering our Shimano Ultegra test model weighed 8.4kg on our scales.

> Buyer's Guide: 22 of the best gravel and adventure bikes

The Vitus Energie CRX might be more cyclo-cross orientated than a gravel machine, but its similar geometry means the racy ride style is quite close to the Diverge but without the bump taming. For its £1,899.99 build you are getting a full SRAM Force groupset and a decent spec list; it's light too.

Conclusion

Overall, I really like the Diverge. It offers a great ride and is really suited to those who want to get out and explore the countryside at speed. It really falls down on price, though, compared to some of the best in the business, and that's its biggest issue. I'd want more bang for my buck!

Verdict

Clever shock system and an excellent ride but expensive for what you are getting