Month: May 2018

The SB5 range is everything a trail bike should be – nimble on the climbs and dominant on the downhills. Available in multiple flavours; Carbon or Turq-Series, Plus or Standard, stock specification or factory special “Lunch Ride”, the range has a bike to suit everyone’s taste.

SB5

Last year Yeti redesigned the SB5 with an all-new geometry and design – the seat tube steepened to optimise pedalling position and the heat tube angle made a bit slacker to make it even more capable going downhill. Already an incredibly capable trail bike, the new tweaks to the geometry make clearing technical climbs even more straightforward and descending more playful and speedy than ever before. Plus the Switch Infinity suspension platform and the metric FOX suspension keep things planted and stable.

SB5 Lunch Ride

Yeti Cycles shut down their Colorado factory on a daily basis and head out on a ride, but it’s not just for a jaunt, it’s a proving ground for spec and product decisions. Their love of and commitment to riding shines through in their product, trying new things and constantly thinking has lead to the development of the SB5 Lunch Ride. With a FOX 36 160mm fork for extra travel and stiffness upfront and DPX2 at the rear for ripping descents, the SB5 LR is a bike with a range of capabilities.

SB5+

The SB5+ is a plus-sized dedicated bike that takes on muck, loose gravel and varied trail conditions with ease. It stands on its own in a burgeoning category, due in part to the elevated chainstay and its ability to run 3″ tyres. The geometry is slacker and longer than the SB5, it’s a dedicated plus-sized bike that takes on loose gravel and varied trail conditions with ease.

 

What a day we had! On Friday we officially opened our new store in Ilkley, West Yorkshire and it’s safe to say we had a great time. The store was packed out for most of the day and those who came along managed to put away 500 beers from the Ilkley Brewery as well as 300 hot sandwiches on a day when the fantastic Tour de Yorkshire staged it’s first ever summit finish on the Cow and Calf climb.

The party got underway in the early afternoon as we had two big screen TVs showing live coverage of first the women’s race, where American Megan Guarnier put in a devastating attack on the Cow and Calf to take the stage and the overall win, and then the men’s race with Magnus Court Neilsen of Astana taking the stage victory on the same climb up to Ilkley Moor. Once the racing was done the party came into full swing outside our store with cycling enthusiasts enjoying the local beer and great food on offer while taking in the awesome atmosphere and meeting our store team. We ran a ‘Win a Cannondale’ competition on the day and the lucky winner of a Cannondale SuperSix 105 was Gill Arnett.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who came along and contributed to an amazing day and we hope you all had a great time, we sure did!

Exceptional photography from Dan Monaghan, Cadence Images, who also thoroughly enjoyed the beer!

Taking place this weekend, the Specialized Trail Days promises to be the MTB festival of the year. Set in the stunning Grizedale Forest, with some of the best Lake District trails, the 3-day event will be action packed from start to finish. There’ll be a plethora of MTB stars in attendance such as Ned Overend, Hannah Barnes and Martin Söderström and there’ll be locally sourced food, beer and coffee. There’s camping, live music and Specialized will be bringing a fleet of demo bikes to test out in the forest.

Trail Days is all about riding, so head to Grizedale and take the Specialized bike of your dreams for a spin. This will be the first opportunity for anyone in the UK to test ride the all-new Stumpjumper! As well as the brand-new Stumpjumper, there’ll be the Enduro, Turbo Levo and Turbo Kenevo to demo. Plus there’ll be skills clinics with the experts – Hannah Barnes and Katy Curd will be demonstrating and advising all. There’ll be Riprocks for kids to ride around in a child-specific arena and there’ll be an Airbag for those wanting to score some big air and a pumptrack to test out your skills.

The annual Bike of the Year issue of Cycling Plus magazine hit the shops last week and we’ve picked out some of the winners and contenders from the selection of great bikes featured.

Cannondale SuperSix Evo Dura-Ace

The bike of our elite road race team, Wheelbase Castelli MGD, the SuperSix Dura-Ace is a fine race machine and deservedly took the accolade for the Cycling Plus ‘Race Bike of the Year’. Described as ‘One of the most exciting and compelling pure race bikes..’, the SuperSix Evo strikes a perfect blend of lightweight, stiffness, aerodynamics and compliance that make it ‘the perfect road bike’.

Spec:

Frame: SuperSix EVO, BallisTec Carbon

Fork: SuperSix EVO, BallisTec Carbon

Gears: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100

Wheels: Cannondale HollowGram Si Carbon Clincher

Weight: 6.64kg (58cm tested)

Specialized Roubaix Comp 

Winner of the Best Endurance Bike of the Year was the Specialized Roubaix Comp, the same bike that last year took the overall title of Bike of the Year. With its Future Shock Suspension system, the Roubaix dampens the discomfort of riding over rough roads and is ‘blissfully comfortable so you feel like you can ride for days’. But far from an endurance only bike, the Roubaix is backed with race-winning pedigree. The bike was ridden by World Champion Peter Sagan as he took the victory at this years Paris-Roubaix.

Spec:

Frame: Specialized FACT 10r carbon, Endurance Geometry

Fork: Specialized FACT carbon

Gears: Shimano Ultegra 8000

Wheels: Roval SLX 24 Disc

Weight: 8.81kg (58cm tested)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trek Domane SL 6 Disc Women’s

The Domane SL 6 Disc from Trek is a superb all-round road bike with a lightweight carbon frame and front and rear ISOspeed for riding over rough roads. Hydraulic disc brakes provide ultimate stopping power and the latest Shimano Ultegra 8000 groupset is slick and faultless. The overall winner of Women’s Bike of the Year, the Domane SL 6 Disc is ‘the holy grail of endurance bikes’.

Spec:

Frame: 500 Series OCLV Carbon

Fork: Domane carbon

Gears: Shimano Ultegra 8000

Wheels: Bontrager Paradigm Disc tubeless ready

Weight: 8.45kg (54cm tested)

In addition to the three category winners we’ve featured above, there were also great reviews for many of our other bikes, with four of our bikes featured in the ‘final five’ overall. The Specialized Roubaix Comp made the cut for the final five, featuring again as a previous winner. Another former winner is the Cannondale CAAD12 Ultegra, which is one of our best selling bikes and has been for many years over its various iterations. The ultralight Trek Emonda SL6 Pro is an awesome bike at phenomenal value – with carbon wheels, full Ultegra groupset and Trek’s 500 series carbon frame all for under £3000. The final one of our bikes to feature in the top five is the Cervelo R3 Disc Ultegra which has been redesigned for 2018 with a lighter, racier frame and the option of two colourways including a striking fluorescent yellow. The R3 has been ridden by World Tour team Dimension Data at many of the Spring Classics this year, meaning it’s a bike with real race pedigree.