I’ll focus on the frameset for now as reading groupset reviews can be a little tedious (bottom line being it’s Shimano….it works!). Without a doubt the Scultura Comp is the best performing frame I have ridden at this price point (the 904 model equipped with Shimano 105 comes in at £1500). My experience of mid-range carbon bikes from a variety of brands is that the frame tends to be great at one thing. It may be fantastically stiff, or particularly comfortable, but as a rule you have to go up to a top level frame to get the engineering required to give you a well rounded package that can tick all the boxes. Not so in the case of the Merida Scultura Comp, which is packed full of features found on their top level bikes (and that actually work too, not just fancy decals!). The first evidence of this became visible when I was setting the bike up on the turbo-trainer to get my bike-fit dialled in (luckily for me I can get a suitable fit on both sizes that we have in stock!) – with the saddle weighted you can visibly see the ‘flex stays’ in action and the saddle is allowed to spring rearwards to help take the sting out of rough surfaces. I was also pleased to note that there was no such flex laterally which would be annoying to say the least! The frame torturer that is the turbo also gave a hint of what was to come in terms of front end stiffness – the bars barely moved even during pretty hard intervals. Out on the open road this translates to amazingly sharp handling and I was soon tackling tricky descents as fast as I ever have with full confidence. The ‘flex’ seat-stays were working nicely too, and my bottom was reasonably oblivious to the damage the harsh winter has done to our roads!

Despite actually being comfortable the Scultura Comp doesn’t ride like a ‘comfortable’ bike with a wishy washy bottom bracket; it responds well to sharp accelerations, complementing your effort rather than absorbing it! It doesn’t offer the all out stiffness of a top-of-the range carbon frame, but it is certainly no slouch and I had no problems under the pretty harsh demands of racing! The great thing about carbon fibre is that you can build all of these features into a frame so that it can be equally at home attacking on the steepest of incline as it is carrying you through the demands of an all day breakaway. The downside is that this is quite difficult to achieve and usually results in an expensive bike, so it’s really good to see Merida achieving this at an affordable price making the true benefit of carbon fibre bike more accessible than ever before.

Don’t just take my word for it though; get in touch to book a test ride on one of the Scultura Comp bikes or to order one of your own!

This week I have been most grateful for:

We are delighted to be involved in Hay-on-Wye’s first ever cycling festival, which is happening on the 12th, 13th & 14th April. The weekend is looking pretty packed, with rides and activities to cater for everyone – from kids and families, newbies and novices to more seasoned riders; on-road and off-road. There are a lots of guided rides planned to give you a taste of the best local roads and trails, along with a Sportive, ‘fun’ cyclocross race, skills and maintenance workshops, Bikeability for the kids – and plenty more! Check out the website for more info and to book – we look forward to seeing you there!

One of the more epic rides on offer…

Go to http://haycycling.org/ to find out more – and you can keep up with all the festival news on Facebook  and Twitter.

Surly Krampus Custom Build Demo Bike

We have a new arrival here at Drover HQ…. Surly’s fantastic new Krampus “29+” fat bike.  Available to demo as of today!  This is a custom build as the complete bikes aren’t available until later in the spring so if you’d like to reserve your frameset, please get in touch!

Get in touch to book your test ride soon as it’s going to be a busy bike!!

Fun, fully rigid 29er

So we’ve had a Genesis Fortitude Race in the shop for the last week or so as a demo bike. Quite a few people have been down to test it out so we thought it was about time to let you know how they got on.

With the Fortitude sharing much of its geometry with the High Latitude that we are so fond of we knew roughly what to expect from the ride. The slack angles really help you feel ‘in’ the bike rather than perched up on top of it which makes for a very confidence inspiring ride. This is a bit of a departure from the typical 29er geometries that we’ve seen over the last few years and if you currently ride one you’ll certainly notice the difference.

The fully rigid set-up is surprisingly capable and we didn’t find that we were lagging too far behind our bendy-fork equipped counterparts, although we suspect that if you planned to go flat out it might become a bit of a handful. The clear benefit of the Fortitude though is its simplicity. It is pretty light (given the lack of a suspension fork) and has very little that can go wrong (if anything, given the fantastic reliability of the Shimano Deore components that are fitted to the race model). We can see it fast becoming the go-to bike in the shed that’ll guarantee you’ve got a smile on your face when you get back home no matter what the conditions!

If you want to thwart the worst that mud can throw at your gears you could opt for the adventure version which has an internal geared Shimano Alfine hub.

Be sure to get in touch if you want to try one for yourself! (or if you’ve just got some questions of course)

I am not really a fan of riding in the dark, so throughout the dark mornings and evenings most of my rides are done indoors and I get out whenever I can for longer rides at the weekends. Although every winter I feel that I am not getting enough hours in I continue to be impressed with the gains that can be made with relatively little time. I like to train by numbers and despite the low weekly volume of training they still head in the right direction; for the numbers fans out there I have been able to add 5% to my threshold power since the start of the ‘snowy season’ and I’ve only been out on the roads twice!

The key to any training is to have a clear goal for each session and be aware of what you are trying to get out of it in the long term. This need is highlighted indoors because it is so dull compared to getting out in the open air. I have found that rollers help alleviate boredom massively, and make longer intervals feel much less of a chore, but the best mental aid is to have the session plan well sorted in your head; if you make it up as you go along it won’t be long before you decide you’ve had enough and then you might have just completely wasted that time. Obviously I am focussing personally on road racing and the associated physical requirements but its not just roadies who can make the most of indoor training. Whether it’s cross country, downhill, sportive riding or touring all disciplines of cycling have a fitness element which can be improved. It is by understanding what these demands are and how your current ability fits in with them that you are really able to make the most of each ride, be it indoors or out.

Luckily we are well equipped and qualified to help with this! We can run various fitness assessments to create a ‘profile’ of your cycling ability, and then suggest ways to improve. You can even come back for further tests to actually monitor your progress towards whatever goals you have in mind.

Just get in touch to find out more!

Most of Mavic’s road wheels come with tyres supplied. Good tyres too!

Mavic supply most of their road wheels with tyres as part of the package. We’ve got a set of tyres on a long term test at the moment so we will report back with the findings of that, first impressions are good though. A set of the bombproof Mavic Aksium wheels will set you back £220 and come equipped with the ‘Comp’ level tyres, for a lighter but equally solid set the Krysirium elite’s come in at £525 with ‘Pro’ level tyres.

You can also get the tyres individually in varying widths (£29.99 for the comp level and £39.99 for the pro level) so get in touch if you fancy trying some out.

We now have a wide range or Torq nutrition in the shop. We think it’s some of the best tasting sets nutrition out there, and we’re always keen to support a UK brand.

They have also made all the portion sizes such that it’s really simple to use and you know exactly what you are taking on board.

Come on round to try some out.

We’ve also spied that there will be a less green version of the Scultura Sl Team called the Scultura SL 909:

Scultura SL 909, same great team bike…less green.

There are rumours of an aero road bike and a bike for the classics too but no details on these unfortunately. Get in touch if you’d like to hear the latest on any of these bike as soon as we hear it!