WOMEN’S BIKE OF THE YEAR
BikeRadar.com’s women’s cycling editor Aoife Glass and her test team take to the roads to discover this year’s Women’s Bike of the Year
Sixteen bikes, three months of testing, two winners. Find out who takes Bike of the Year honours in our two price ranges - under £1000 and £2100-£2650.
Lizzie Deignan, née Armitstead. Tiffany Cromwell. Marianne Vos. Nicole Cooke. Emma Pooley. The women in the pro peloton are on an upward trajectory with more coverage and support than ever before, and the interest from the bike industry is due in no small part to the fact that more women than ever before are cycling.
The Breeze initiative inspired 31,000 women to get on their bikes over 2015/16 and British Cycling has seen a 43 per cent increase in the number of women holding a race licence. When we ride, we see women commuting by bike, on club rides and racing.
More women riding means a bigger market for brands to sell bikes to, offering more choices from budget options right through to high-end carbon dream machines. This increase also creates a positive feedback loop. Brands benefit from the experience of the pro teams they sponsor, which leads to better design, which trickles down to us, the people who get on those bikes not for world cup glory or Olympic medals, but for the sheer thrill of the ride. And maybe medals and the odd QOM too if we’re honest.
The test
We started with 16 bikes, and over the course of three months, hundreds of test miles, two main product testers and a panel of six BikeRadar readers, whittled them down to a shortlist of three bikes in each category – our budget test featuring bikes under £1000, and our mid-range test, with bikes priced between £2100 and £2650.
Emily Chappell; author, adventurer and exLondon bike courier, joined myself as a main tester. When it comes to evaluating a bike’s performance, few people have the extensive experience of Chappell. Her cycling career started as a courier and developed into full-blown, ultralong-distance racing, placing as first female in the formidable Transcontinental race, and general bike-based adventuring around Iceland, Alaska and Yukon.
Chappell tested the more expensive bikes around the mountainous regions of Wales and Scotland. Never one to do things by half, torrential rain was no barrier, so rest assured that these bikes have withstood everything the British climate can throw at them.
I’m based in the South West of England, with my testing grounds focusing on the Somerset Levels and Mendip Hills, with the iconic Cheddar Gorge climb a firm test loop fixture.
Our BikeRadar readers joined us for two test days to offer their feedback. Their backgrounds and cycling experience are wide ranging. Katherine, who is honing her race skills,
We get on these bikes not for world cup glory or Olympic medals, but for the thrill of the ride
descends like a demon. Jordan, another ex-cycle courier, loves climbs and has serious power in her legs. Elle, inspired by Emily Chappell, is in training for the Transcontinental this year. Janine is a keen triathlete and has extended her cycling repertoire to audax-distance events. And finally Gill, for whom cycling is all about long rides, big miles and exploration.
Be specific
The majority of brands in our test produce road bikes with a women’s specific geometry, based on body dimension data taken from either their own bike fit databases, as is the case with Specialized, or other sources.
The question about whether women need a women’s specific frame or whether a unisex frame properly fitted is sufficient is one that hasn’t been satisfactorily answered yet. The view of these brands is that there are enough physical differences between the average man and average women that a bespoke geometry would have
a beneficial effect on the ride and performance for a female rider, particularly for an activity that requires a repetitive motion in a fixed position. In general, this translates to a slightly shorter reach to the bar and a slightly more upright riding position.
A few brands, such as Canyon, offer a unisex frame with finishing kit designed to suit women, again according to their research. This finishing kit usually follows the same pattern across all brands irrespective of design philosophy; women’s specific saddle, and size specific handlebars and cranks.
And what of that much-maligned colour pink? With women’s bikes in the past the issue hasn’t been the shade, per se, but rather the assumption that all women like pink, or that adding pink makes it a women’s bike. Pink in its various forms (some brands call it ‘berry’ or ‘magenta’) did make an appearance on the Canyon and Liv bikes but it wasn’t a dominant shade. In fact, bikes varied from ‘feminine’ shades of purple to badass black. No flowers were observed anywhere.
Prices did go up during testing, with most of the bikes starting the test at least £100 less expensive than the current retail price. Others saw a major jump, such as Specialized’s Ruby, which went up by £250.
On trend
If we had to pick a big trend this year, it’s innovation in the endurance market. Leading the way are Specialized and Trek, both of whom have developed proprietary systems designed to isolate the rider from road buzz and increase comfort.
The Specialized Ruby Comp (£2650), the sister bike to CP’s Bike Of The Year, Roubaix, features a new piece of technology called the Future Shock. It’s a spring-based suspension system that sits in the head-tube and compresses when the bike rolls over uneven surfaces, absorbing the impact.
In action, it feels amazing. The ride is supremely smooth at the front end as a result, and those big jolts you brace yourself for when hitting potholes just don’t come.
At the rear, dropped seatstays and a new seatpost/frame interface allows shock-absorbing flex, plus an elastomer section in the Specialized CG-R seatpost absorbs vibration.
Trek takes a different approach with its IsoSpeed system found on the Silque. This effectively decouples the seat-tube from the top-tube and the seatstays, allowing it to flex and absorb impacts and vibrations. It does a great job,
without compromising that all-important lateral stiffness, resulting in a smooth ride with powerful acceleration and a racier feel than the Ruby.
Pricer models of the Silque have Isospeed at the front as well as the rear, but you’ll need to spend £3800 to get your hands on that.
Canyon has addressed the issue of comfort on its Endurace by developing a seatpost with an unusual leaf-spring design. Split laterally down the centre, the flex in the system works as a shock absorber. We found it highly effective on most road surfaces, but a little too springy on rougher ground.
On the more expensive bikes, carbon frames and forks were the norm, along with lightweight and reliable Shimano Ultegra groupsets. Most offered an 11-32 cassette, which gives a good range for endurance cycling, going low enough to power up climbs.
A notable exception was the race-focused Specialized Amira Comp (£2300), which ran an 11-28 cassette. The Amira gave a lively, nippy ride with excellent acceleration but stable handling. Combined with its DT Swiss R460 wheelset and Turbo Pro tyres, it holds a tight line in corners, rewarding speed with reliable traction, soars down descents and encourages your inner pro-racer to let loose.
Over half the bikes on test featured hydraulic disc brakes, and the speed control and stopping power on these were noticeably superior to that of the bikes using rim brakes. Shimano BR-RS505 brakes were the most common, and allow a subtle, modulated feeling, allowing you to shave off speed with minimal pressure. This is a godsend on longer descents as it’s much easier on the hands.
The use of thru-axles on the disc-braked bikes is a marked improvement on traditional quickrelease skewers, as it results in a much stiffer interface and a more consistent brake feel.
At the budget end of the spectrum, comfort comes in the form of larger, smooth-rolling 28mm tyres and plush saddles that in some cases felt a little too bulky over big distances.
Our testers were impressed with the performance of the Trek Lexa (£900), the Liv Avail SL 1 (£999) and the Scott Contessa Speedster 15 (£999), all of which outperformed their expectations of a budget bike. The former offers a very comfortable ride over longer distances, the latter two have a racy feel that makes you want to push a little harder and a little faster each time.
Ultimately, the Canyon Endurace WMN AL 6.0 offered the best blend of performance and
value for money of the budget bikes tested. It’s light enough – 8.17kg (S) – to make short work of long climbs, with ample gearing from the full Shimano 105 groupset to give you an easy spin up. At the other end, the gearing gives you the range to get some power down along the flats, and it feels energetic when you do, encouraging you to push a little harder. It’s versatile, confidenceinspiring, planted and stable on descents but lively and manoeuvrable when you want it to be. Comfortable over long distances, it makes for a fun ride that encourages you to go out more often, further and for longer.
Comfort clinches it
When it comes to long miles, whether you’re interested in sportives or audaxes, or just epic explorations by bike, comfort is closely linked to performance. The more comfortable you are, the fresher you feel and the longer you can ride for.
At the more expensive end of our test spectrum, the competition was particularly close between Specialized’s Ruby and Trek’s Silque. While the Silque offered the ideal blend of comfort and performance, our test team was also impressed by the Canyon Endurace WMN CF SL Disc 9.0 (£1970), with an innovative seatpost that took the worst of the road chatter out of the equation.
If you’re looking for something more racefocused with an impressive turn of speed and secure cornering, the Specialized Amira is worth your time, and the Liv Avail Advanced Pro 2 (£2499) “accelerates like a caffeinated road runner,” according to Chappell.
Sheer comfort came in the form of the Specialized Ruby. The Future Shock is a game changer, and anyone who suffers from issues with hands, wrists or shoulders over long distances will appreciate its shock-absorbing abilities.
But when it comes to the ultimate in mileeating performance and comfort, our money is on the Trek Silque. Featuring the rear IsoSpeed decoupler, the Silque strikes the optimum balance between stiffness and comfort. Spec-wise, it features the smooth-shifting Ultegra with a compact 50/34 chainring and 11-32 cassette, offering plenty of range for long climbs and fast sprints. What really set the Trek Silque S 6 apart was the power, ease and joy with which it tackled everything we threw it at, from 1:4 climbs to twisting descents, via long sprints on unforgiving tarmac and occasional detours onto gravel. It’s the sort of bike that encourages you to get lost, just so that you’ll get to spend more time riding it.