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As the year comes to a close we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at some of the best ‘Fast Bike Friday’ features of 2021. Every week we publish an in-depth feature on a chosen ‘Fast Bike’ from Wheelbase HQ in the Lake District and accompany it with a large set of crackin’ photos taken by our very talented photographer James Vincent. We’ve seen some amazing bikes over the year, from super-fast aero road bikes to long-travel Enduro mountain bikes, capable gravel bikes and the latest hi-tech electric bikes. To see 2021 out in style we’ve compiled our favourite 45 Fast Bikes for you with handy links to each full ‘Fast Bike Friday’ feature, have a scroll through to find out more about some of the hottest bikes at Wheelbase this year. We’re already looking forward to 2022 when we’ve got even bigger plans for the feature. Happy New Year!
For our first Fast Bike Friday of 2021 we took a look at something VERY special! A unique custom build from our road bike department – a Cannondale Systemsix aero road bike complete with a Fat Creations custom paint job! We love the feel of this bike which is super-aero, reducing drag and helping you to ride faster for longer. As we all know, small differences in performance can be hard to measure but when your road bike is this aerodynamically efficient you don’t just benefit from enhanced straight-line speed but also gain an advantage in tight sprints, technical descents and even on long climbs.
Cannondale SystemSix – Fat Creations Custom Paint Job
Fast Bike Friday took a look at the Merida Big Trail 400 hardcore hardtail in January. Tough trail-focused hardtails with longer-travel suspension forks upfront are very much a staple within UK mountain biking with this simple setup being really popular amongst riders looking for a bike that can handle rowdy, technical trails and aggressive riding. To meet this demand Merida developed a bike with very modern ‘trail bike’ geometry. With a slack Enduro inspired 65.5° head angle the Big Trail 400 features a 140mm travel suspension fork to handle steep, tight, technical trails.
Next our Fast Bike Friday feature focused on the popular Topstone Carbon gravel bike, with this particular model being the Women’s Topstone Carbon 4. This bike has become one of the more established gravel bike options available to consumers and has quickly gained popularity thanks to its unique looks and cleverly engineered performance qualities, with their ‘Kingpin’ configuration on the rear of the carbon frame being at the heart of this capable gravel bike.
Cannondale Women’s Topstone Carbon 4
Within the extensive range of BMC road bikes the Roadmachine is billed as BMC’s ‘One Bike Collection’, a true all-rounder that’s built for epic all-day rides with a frame developed specifically to offer more compliance and comfort, helping to reduce body fatigue and keep you feeling fresher for longer. That said, it’s worth getting one thing straight – this is not your typical ‘comfort road bike’ with a ridiculously high head tube or with gimmicky suspension elastomers; the Roadmachine is still very-much performance-focused.
Fast Bike Friday took a look at the URS 01 THREE from premium Swiss brand BMC. On its arrival to our Lake District store we couldn’t wait to unbox and build the URS, with a lot of fans amongst our shop staff. The URS 01 THREE instantly caught our eye, thanks to its hot colour, BMC’s iconic angular tube profiling and the relaxed-angle fork all hinting at this gravel bike’s progressive geometry and potential for fun, technical off-road riding.
The Merida eOne-Sixty 8000 E-MTB is designed for aggressive trail riding with 160mm of travel up front and 150mm at the rear. As well as being packed full of the latest tech with some very welcome extras there are two key elements to this E-MTB that stand out from the get-go; firstly the eOne Sixty 8000 features Shimano’s brilliant Steps EP8 motor and 630Wh battery, secondly Merida have created this bike around the ‘Mullet Principle’, what’s a Mullet bike? Read the feature to learn more.
In February we looked at the fantastically versatile, super-fun to ride Trek Fuel EX 8 XT full-suspension trail bike. This capable bike is a great option for riders looking for one mountain bike that does everything well; the Fuel EX 8 is only one option within the wide range of Fuel EX models available and is made from Alpha Platinum Aluminium rather than OCLV Mountain Carbon which you’ll find further up the range, this means that the Fuel EX 8 is more affordable while still including many of the key benefits you’ll find on the more expensive Carbon options.
When we focused in on the Kona Rove DL gravel bike our first impressions were that this was one uber-cool, quirky gravel bike with a retro feel; but beyond the styling was there a bike that rode well and which meets the demands of modern gravel riding? Well, yes! This was a case of ‘steel is most certainly real’.
Most of our Fast Bike Friday features tend to focus on high-end super-bikes including Road, Gravel, Mountain and E-MTBs which we can’t help being seduced by but sometimes may come at the expense of looking at more obtainable all-rounders that offer great value for the money. The Cannondale Trail Neo 4 was a great option for those considering buying their first E-Bike and were looking for a versatile bike that can be used for the daily commute during the week, before heading off further afield at the weekend.
Next we looked at the Mondraker Dusk R 29 E-MTB, an all-alloy full-suspension trail bike that included 150mm of rear travel featuring Mondraker’s brilliant Zero Suspension system matched up with a very capable 160mm Fox 36 Float Evol fork up front. The Dusk R 29 quickly proved itself to be one of the most popular E-MTBs on our showroom floor with this model selling through as soon as we had stock.
Fast Bike Friday showcased an absolutely stunning aero road bike which was truly deserving of its ‘dream bike’ title; complete with a custom Trek Project One paintjob which made the bike look super-fast even when it was standing still. New for 2021 the Madone SLR 7 got a serious upgrade over its predecessor; while it kept all of its race-winning aerodynamics and great ride quality it got significantly lighter thanks to the frame being constructed from Trek’s new top-level 800-Series OCLV carbon composite.
Trek Madone SLR 7 Project One eTap AXS
In March we donned our goggles and strapped on our backpacks to take a look at Kona’s full-on Enduro World Series worthy bike – the long travel Kona Process X Enduro mountain bike. We discovered just how versatile this bike was when it came to adjustability, with loads of scope to custom-tune the bike to suit your own riding style and help master the most demanding Enduro stages out there. This bike was a tinkerer’s dream!
Fast Bike Friday looked at the brilliantly versatile Cannondale Women’s Synapse Carbon 105 road bike; this awesome all-rounder offered race-level performance, all-day comfort and all-road capability, meaning unsurfaced tracks were not going to stop you continuing your adventures.
Cannondale Women’s Synapse Carbon 105
In April we focused on this absolute beauty! The Trek Procaliber 9.5 was a super-fast cross-country hardtail mountain bike that featured a stunning flame-coloured paintjob and was captured by our highly-skilled photographer James Vincent. All credit to him, he did a wonderful job of capturing the Procaliber 9.5 for us.
Every now and then a mountain bike lands at Wheelbase and when it’s out of the box and built, nearly all staff (roadies included) stop what they’re doing to take a better look; when we wheeled the awesome new Nukeproof through the shop to prepare it for its photoshoot the Giga got just such a reaction! Our Fast Bike Friday feature took a detailed look at the all-new Giga 290 Elite which Nukeproof billed as a ‘Super Enduro’ bike.
Next up we featured a very special limited edition Stereo Hybrid 140 HPC 10th Anniversary 625 e-MTB from bike brand Cube who had teamed up with their German colleagues at Bosch to celebrate the ten year anniversary of Bosch e-bike motors. As we casted our eyes over James Vincent’s stunning photos we were struck by this Cube’s amazing paintjob described on their website as ‘Carbon n’ Oilslick’.
Cube Stereo Hybrid 140 HPC 10th Anniversary 625
In May our Fast Bike Friday feature focused on not one but two Fast Bikes at the same time! The Cervelo R5 Disc was an amazingly superlight carbon road bike that was well-recognised for being one of the best handling bikes available, providing responsive steering without being skittish; the R5 came in a number of different specification options so we looked at the brilliantly spec’d Force eTap AXS and Ultegra Di2 models together.
Fast Bike Friday featured the Kona Remote 160 DL e-MTB, an e-MTB firmly which was focused on having fun on the trails. A healthy amount of suspension travel and progressive trail-focused geometry meant the Remote was built to be stable at speed to give a confidence-inspiring ride when it was pointed downhill. But what about getting back to the top of your favourite trail? No dramas, the Remote featured Shimano’s compact, powerful EP8 motor!
The super-stylish Genesis Fugio 20 was featured in May and showcased a gravel bike with a split-personality. Part utilitarian gravel adventure bike and part playful singletrack shredder the Fugio 20 was not only capable of ferrying camping gear over endless tracks and trails in remote locations but was also ready for fun-filled, playful trail riding.
Our first Fast Bike Friday feature of June looked at a real gravel speed-machine – the Cervelo Aspero Apex 1. It was very clear from the get-go that this was not a bike that had been built to fit the utilitarian, bike-packing mould; this gravel bike was unapologetically built for speed and performance over mixed terrain and riding surfaces. As Cervelo themselves had put it very succinctly in their own marketing spiel, the Aspero is meant to ‘HAUL ASS, NOT CARGO’.
Next we cast our eyes over the rowdy, aggressive Nukeproof Reactor 290 Factory carbon trail bike. A bike that was built to be super-fun when the trails point downward but was also efficient when it came to pedaling back up to the top. Packed full of clever design details and proven engineering principles the 29” wheeled full-suspension MTB proved to be a true all-rounder which was ready to enhance your riding and make trail riding even more fun.
The Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod Disc Ultegra was super-light, stiff, aerodynamic and just happened to feature the same stunning paintjob found on the SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod bikes that were being piloted by the EF-Education Nippo pro-cycling team in 2021. Cannondale produced an ultralight Hi-Mod BallisTec carbon frameset that also happened to have low-drag properties thanks to its highly truncated airfoil tube shapes which offered the same light weight and equal or better stiffness than the traditional round tubes found on their previous-generation SuperSix but significantly reduced drag by up to 30%.
Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod Disc Ultegra
Later on in June we highlighted how international Cross Country Mountain Bike races were gaining a lot of attention for the first time in around 25 years, with the mountain bike media sitting up, taking notice and giving more air time and column inches to this discipline of mountain biking. With race courses becoming more technical than ever and with demanding sections in each race helping to influence the results riders have really upped their game, spending a fair chunk of their training time focused on technical riding and skills improvement.
What did this have to do with our featured bike the Cannondale Scalpel Carbon SE 2? Well, alongside the evolution of the cross country race courses, the skill of the riders and the brilliant race coverage it’s fair to say that in recent times the bikes have really moved on, being able to handle the extra technical demands thanks to an increase in suspension travel, changes to frame geometry, the use of dropper seat posts and wider tyres – the Scalpel Carbon SE 2 was a great example of just such a bike.
Cannondale Scalpel Carbon SE 2
Next we featured the Teammachine SLR01 One LTD – a stunning all-round road bike from Swiss brand BMC which was a lightweight & spritely climber that also happened to be brilliantly aerodynamic with a beautifully shaped frame-profile featuring a fully integrated cockpit which included an aero handlebar & stem with internal cable routing. Sitting very near the top of the Teammachine SLR range the SLR01 One LTD was packed full of cutting-edge technology; while the aerodynamic fully-integrated frame and fork stood out for all its innovation and aesthetic qualities.
BMC Teammachine SLR 01 One LTD
In early July our Fast Bike Friday feature headed back onto the gravel! Initially, walking around the Wheelbase shop floor the Cube Nuroad C:62 SL gravel bike didn’t necessarily catch the eye; there were no garish colours or quirky frame features designed to isolate you from rough terrain like you might see from other brands. But once we stopped and took a minute to cast our eyes over the Nuroad C:62 SL we soon realised that this was a really premium gravel bike with a great carbon chassis, a fantastic SRAM eTap AXS wireless groupset and super-light carbon wheelset. Then there was the paint job; what we thought was just a matte black finish actually included some stunning iridescent glitter details on closer inspection.
Fast Bike Friday featured a stunning Trek Project One road bike – the Emonda SLR 9 eTap in the team colours of the Trek Segafredo professional cycling team. This lust-worthy ultralight road bike included SRAM’s flagship electronic wireless groupset, featherweight Bontrager Aeolus RSL 37 carbon wheels and some great finishing kit including Bontrager Aelous RSL carbon integrated aero handle bar and stem.
Trek Project One Emonda SLR 9 eTap AXS
Next we looked at a modern classic – the Yeti ARC C2 carbon hardtail mountain bike. Why a classic? Well, the ARC has a very rich history dating back to the early 1990’s when it first appeared at mountain bike races in the States and was piloted to countless victories under such mountain bike racing luminaries as John Tomac, Juliana Furtado and Missy Giove. The all-new ARC C2 was no purist cross country machine though; while it subtly acknowledged its rich racing heritage this new offering from Yeti was a more progressive trail-focused 29er hardtail with a capable 130mm travel fork and long, stable geometry with a fairly relaxed 67 degree head angle.
At the end of July ‘Fast Bike Friday’ looked at a truly versatile bike-packing, adventure and gravel bike from quirky Canadian bike brand Kona – the Kona Libre was a drop-bar-bike that came pretty close to fitting the ‘one bike does all’ job description.
Our first feature of August focused on something a little different – the Reaction C:62 Rookie was a full-on, race-ready carbon fibre cross country mountain bike that just happened to have been shrunk down to child-friendly proportions. OK so the Reaction C:62 Rookie was a little niche but it was clear the bike would enhance your child’s riding and enjoyment of mountain biking; with such a light carbon frame, capable suspension fork and a simple, reliable, precise-shifting SRAM groupset.
Shortly after its launch Fast Bike Friday took a detailed look at the all-new Pinarello Dogma F, the successor to their previous top of the range model the Dogma F12. Launched just before the 2021 Tour De France the Dogma F had already scored an amazing Gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics piloted by Richard Carapaz of Ecuador following shortly after his third place podium spot at Le Tour. At first glance we thought that the new Dogma F didn’t look a whole lot different to its predecessor, but once we drilled a little deeper we soon discovered that there were some significant refinements on the F12.
Pinarello Dogma F SRAM Red eTap AXS
Next our Fast Bike Friday feature looked at the simply stunning, glittery, iridescent Cervelo Aspero-5 Force eTap AXS gravel bike, a premium gravel race bike packed full of cutting-edge technology and performance-focused features. Before we got into the details we encouraged our readers to take a minute to appreciate that attention-grabbing paintjob with its magical colour-changing properties; but there’s more to the Aspero than just good looks, as we highlighted, Cervelo’s gravel bike has been around for a couple of seasons now and during that time has quickly gained a reputation as a gravel bike with its sights set firmly on speed, efficiency and performance.
Cervelo Aspero-5 Force eTap AXS
How best to describe the Cervelo S5 Disc Ultegra Di2 aero road bike which we featured at the end of August? One of our work colleagues probably put it best – ‘Tron called, he wants his bike back’. It was a fair comment; this stunning bike looked like something from a science fiction film, with the Cervelo S5 standing out from the crowd thanks to its unique looks which were a result of some very thorough design development and testing in the wind tunnel and in real world conditions.
At the start of September ‘Fast Bike Friday’ checked out a bike that was launched in early summer and quickly garnered a lot of attention thanks to its stunning looks and its unique suspension configuration; the Cannondale Jekyll 1 2022 was a long-travel mountain bike aimed at super-fast Enduro racers and trail riders who love to push the boundaries and conquer steep, tight, technical singletrack and wide-open super-fast tracks peppered with high-speed berms and huge gap jumps.
Our Fast Bike Friday feature focused on the Cube Stereo 150 C:68 TM next; a capable hardcore 29er full suspension bike aimed squarely at aggressive trail riding and Enduro racing. It’s fair to say that Cube like a long model name, squeezing in all of the bike’s vital stats into a title to indicate what the bike is all about. So what exactly did we have here? Well, Stereo is their full suspension trail bike platform, 150 denotes the amount of the rear travel you get – 150mm (with 160mm upfront), C:68 is Cube’s high-grade carbon fibre frame material and TM indicates that this bike has been tuned to be a no-holds-barred trail bike thanks to its high-performance suspension, brakes and durable wheels as well as a modified trail-focused cockpit, dropper seatpost and efficient 1x transmission.
In mid-September we celebrated the arrival of Scott bikes at Wheelbase by taking a detailed look at the super-stylish, innovative Scott Spark RC Team Issue AXS full-suspension cross-country mountain bike with its unique internal rear shock and progressive geometry; a bike that had already garnered a considerable amount of attention from the cycling industry press and wider mountain bike community thanks to that original suspension configuration. Scott UK had a whole fleet of the all-new 2022 Spark RC Team Issue AXS bikes available for staff training with their retailers and upcoming demo events with the public around the UK. Josh, Scott’s Northern Area Sales Manager (and super-fit racer) joined us at Wheelbase Lake District on a beautiful, sunny evening to run through the technical aspects of the Spark RC Team Issue AXS bike and to ride with us on some of our best local trails so that we could all get a real feel for this new bike. Needless to say I was particularly excited to ride this full-suspension cross-country mountain bike after all of the recent industry chat around it.
Our next Fast Bike Friday feature focused firmly on speed and aerodynamic efficiency with the Pinarello Prince Disc Ultegra road bike in the spotlight. Available in several different guises that particular model featured Shimano’s brilliantly functional Ultegra 11-Speed mechanical groupset, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes and a pair superlight Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST wheels.
The first Fast Bike Friday feature of October looked at the Atlas 6.7, a versatile mile-munching gravel bike from German brand Focus which, thanks to some clever geometry tweaks and intelligent equipment specification, is equally at home flying through tight singletrack at speed as it is taking on endless miles of gravel, fully laden with bike-packing equipment.
We looked at the stunning Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod Disc Red eTap AXS road bike next; in a quirky and rather fetching metallic glitter Lavender colour set off with retro-cool tanwall tyres and featuring SRAM’s cutting edge Red eTap AXS wireless electronic 12-speed groupset this road bike garnered a lot of attention on the showroom floor. Don’t get it twisted though, this road bike was not all style and no substance; with a rich racing heritage the SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod is packed full of innovation and technology which has been proven at the highest levels of competition.
Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod Disc Red eTap AXS
Next up Fast Bike Friday went into full-on gravity mode with the Cube Two15 Race downhill mountain bike. Despite the rapid growth of Enduro racing and the ongoing development of versatile Enduro and Trail bikes which prove popular with the masses there’s still a demand for race-ready downhill bikes that can take on a season’s campaign on the most demanding race tracks out there. For a privateer downhiller, racing on a tight budget then a bike like the Two15 Race is the ideal racing companion; spec’d with everything you’d expect from an out-of-the-box race-ready machine.
This Ibis Ripmo AF comes to us as a build kit, giving one of our lucky workshop technicians the opportunity to custom build this capable trail bike. Fast Bike Friday were on hand to not only shoot and write about this Californian full-susser but film the build process too. Watch the video and read the feature to get a better understanding of what the Ibis Ripmo AF trail bike is all about.
At the end of October we were back on the gravel with the stunning Grevil Ekar from premium Italian brand Pinarello; Fast Bike Friday advised you to leave your bike-packing luggage and camping mug at home because this gravel bike was built to be super-fast and fun, being more focused on aerodynamics and speedy agility thanks to its aero-angles and large volume 650B wheel and tyre configuration.
Our next Fast Bike Friday feature looked at a super-hot, cutting-edge gravel bike from premium Swiss bike brand BMC. The URS One Apex 1 was described as equal parts ‘fast and fun’ with a superlight carbon frame boasting BMC’s unique and cleverly engineered Micro Travel Technology for enhanced comfort, combined with some sophisticated angular tube-profiling which increases stiffness and pedaling efficiency.
Fast Bike Friday cast their eyes over the truly drool-worthy Cannondale SuperSix EVO CX cyclocross bike next, with its stunning ‘Purple Haze’ paintjob and no-nonsense cyclocross-specific components. As ridden by our very own Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli cyclocross team at races all over the UK including the National Trophy Cyclocross series, the all-new SuperSix EVO CX launched in August this year and marked a significant change in Cannondale’s cyclocross line-up, with the older Supercross being succeeded by this more versatile ‘cross bike.
Fast Bike Friday looked at something a little different, which initially needed a little explaining; the BMC Roadmachine X One was part-road-bike (the clue’s in the title after-all) and part-gravel-bike. During the unboxing and bike-build process it got our workshop technicians talking; is this a versatile road bike with some off-road capability? Or a super-fast gravel bike which doesn’t hold you back when you hit the smoother roads?
In December we took a detailed look at a super-light cross-country racing machine from Trek. The Procaliber 9.8 is a fast carbon fibre hardtail MTB and is very much the lightest and fastest mountain bike in Trek’s large range of cross-country-focused race bikes. The Procaliber has been an established model in Trek’s MTB model range for a number of years but it has seen some significant changes for this new-gen Procaliber.
Written by Johnny Dodgin
Photos by James Vincent
Keep up to date with our Fast Bike Friday collection, showcasing the very hottest bikes at Wheelbase. Updated every week, you can see all of our featured bikes in one place over on Pinterest where you’ll find links to each of our Fast Bike Friday Blogs too!
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