Cyclist
Cyclist’s Gear of the Year 2023: Bikes
Spare a thought for the staff here at Cyclist this Christmas. The Covid years saw a dearth of new bike launches and it was damn difficult to get our hands on any bikes whatsoever, what with the boom in sales and supply chain issues. Our main string of travel writing was no better with lockdowns and restrictions sometimes making a ride further than ten miles from home an ordeal.
Put the violins back in their cases though, because 2023 has been a bumper year for bikes. Specialized alone has launched three new road bikes (Tarmac SL8, Roubaix SL8, Allez), while we’ve had an update to the Cannondale SuperSix Evo, Canyon Endurace, the new BMC Teammachine R and a rebirth of the Cervélo Soloist, to name but a few.
But don’t sell your musical instruments yet, as with the cycling industry’s current boom-to-bust cycle, who knows what 2024 will bring? For the meantime, here are the picks of the bikes that we liked the most during the 2023 good times.
Matthew Loveridge, Website Editor
Canyon Grail
The OG Canyon Grail was a seriously Marmite piece of design. It was actually very good to ride, but the double-decker bar came with too many compromises, making fit adjustments a pain and limiting the variety of accessories you could mount.
This year Canyon binned the bar and launched a more normal looking Grail. In some ways it’s a totally unsurprising piece of design – it looks like a Canyon – but based on previous experience of Canyons, I think it’s going to be very good.
I love a gravel bike that can mix it up on the road (cf. my Giant Revolt) and the Grail has the ingredients to tick this box. The geometry is progressive without being wacky, it’s fairly light and it’s reasonably affordable, starting at £2,599 for a bike with mechanical Shimano GRX.
I kinda want one?
- Buy the Canyon Grail CF SL 7 from Canyon (£2,599)
James Spender, Deputy Editor
Moots Vamoots CRD
My bike of the year just so happens to be the most expensive bike we’ve tested this year*, and for that I genuinely apologise. Times are really tough and, well, I don’t know what to say. I’m a bike journo, I ride bikes and write about bikes but I don’t price bikes. What I do know is any company I’ve ever delved into honestly isn’t ripping you off any more than capitalism rips us all off (burn the commie bastard!). They have margins and overheads, they charge what they charge, and everything is just more expensive anyway. So I’m sorry.
I do think bikes are very expensive, sometimes they feel too expensive. They are just bicycles. But then you ride an expensive bike and sure enough, just like spending top dollar in a restaurant or on a shirt or whatever indulgence floats your boat, you forget price for a moment. You tell yourself some things aren’t about price. Then you hand them back to Moots and you miss them very much, specifically as you know you’ll never, ever own one.
For my full review on the Moots Vamoots CRD, check out here, but the main reasons this bike is so bloody amazing are it’s titanium, all its cables are hidden, it has clearance for 35mm tyres, it has absolutely dialled geometry which gives it perfect balance and handling, it is comfortable, it feels absolutely supreme to pedal, to glide on, to corner on, to ride. And then look at it.
*But not the most expensive we’ve ever tested – that goes to the Passoni Fidia, yours for a cool £22,000… mind you, its Gokiso hubs were £5,000 alone – nor featured – that would be the original Factor One-77 for £25,000. Bikes eh.
- Buy the Moots Vamoots CRD from Moots ($13,209)
Sam Challis, Tech Editor
Factor O2 VAM
I think 2023 has been one of my favourite years ever for testing bikes. I kicked things off with the refined Enve Melee and quirky 3T Strada, spent the spring on Cannondale’s Topstone and then saw the year out with a succession of heavy hitters: the Colnago V4Rs, Canyon Endurance, Specialized Tarmac SL8 and Cannondale SuperSix Evo.
I’m picking a bike I rode in the summer months as my highlight from this embarrassment of riches though. Factor made an entirely new factory to produce its new O2 VAM, and it came to market with some bold claims. It is almost as fast as the brand’s Ostro in the wind, but what stuck out for was the bike’s insanely light weight. Added to the frame’s impressive stiffness, I’ve never felt faster up climbs or off the mark. Thanks to some fairly extreme tube shaping around the seat tube cluster, it was even pretty comfortable to ride too.
I can’t say I prefer the practicalities of an integrated seat post over a normal one (the topper clamp was pretty fiddly), I do think the bike owes a fair bit to Black Inc’s superb 28//33 wheels and the price of entry is exorbitant (the cheapest build you’ll find is £9,900!), but goodness me this thing is fun to ride.
- Buy the Factor O2 VAM from Vires Velo (from £9,900)
Will Strickson, Deputy Web Editor
Fairlight Strael 3.0
Recency bias can be a struggle, but I’m going all the way back to the start of the year for this one. I was riding the Fairlight Strael last winter and frankly didn’t want to give it back. Unfortunately the manufacturer is only based down the road from me so I didn’t have an excuse like some other journalists (you know who you are).
This is the third generation of the steel specialist’s road bike and I couldn’t fault it outside of the natural compromises of the material, but what steel may add in weight it gains everywhere else. The Strael features custom Reynolds tubing, with thin oval tubes for the top tube and chain stays the main talking point, which help to add flex while keeping stiffness.
For me, it’s the hobbyist’s perfect bike. It ticks boxes for comfort and performance while keeping practicality at the forefront of everything with loads of mounts, excellent spec and sizing options, and external routing! It’s a classic road bike with modern ride quality and unless you live on a mountain you can’t really argue with that.
- Buy the Strael 3.0 from Fairlight (£4,204)
Emma Cole, Features Writer
Ribble Gravel Ti Hero
The Ribble Gravel Ti Hero is a real charm to ride. Not least because of the elegant titanium frameset but also its great tech and comfortable geometry, which is ideal for riding day after day (after day).
The Hero is Ribble’s top spec Gravel Ti offering and features a SRAM Force AXS 1× groupset with a 40t chainring and a 10-44 cassette. I think this is the ideal range for tackling the steepest inclines while also allowing for some speed on the flat.
The Gravel Ti’s 3AL/2.5V titanium alloy frame uses triple-butted tubes to make sure it can be strong while minimising excess weight, and Ribble pairs it with Gravel Ti carbon forks.
I swapped out the stock Enve Foundation AG28 carbon 650b wheels and Halo GXD tyres for some Mavic Allroad 700c wheels and Challenge gravel grinder tyres. Via Ribble’s online BikeBuilder this build costs £4,166 including the titanium cages, bottles and pannier rack.
The Ribble Gravel Ti handles beautifully in the rough and is nimble on the road. I’ve taken it down muddy tracks, on speedy asphalt, the Surrey hills, the undulating narrow roads of Pembrokeshire and even the Thames Valley in torrential rain. And I’ve also ridden it over 2,000km from London to Tunisia. It has proven itself to be the ultimate workhorse – up for all sorts of adventures.
- Buy the Ribble Gravel Ti from Ribble (£2,999)
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