TIFOSI SS26 POTENZA
£2499.99 > British brand’s all-round race rig
The SS26 is named after the road that runs between the French and Italian sides of Mont Blanc in the stunning Aosta Valley.
Living up to the awesome geography of its namesake, the SS26 is a fine looking bike. Tifosi’s linear graphic styles and colour palette look brilliant and the frame’s styling features angular frame tube profiles - that T-section top-tube comes straight out of BMC’s back catalogue – while the aero-profiled seatpost seamlessly blends into triangulated and dropped seatstays. The interlocked fork crown and forwardarching fork following similar lines to Pinarello’s latest designs.
The bike is built around Campagnolo’s Potenza groupset with a performance-orientated 11-28 cassette and 52/36 chainset. Campagnolo shifts with the rapid mechanical efficiency we’ve come to expect from the brand’s Ergopower design, and is matched to its latecomer disc brakes.
The brakes have definitely been worth the wait, they are the most adjustable of any disc brakes out there, but the feel straightaway is one of a fine balance between power and control. The Deda Zero bar and stem are good quality items. We’ve always been fans of Deda’s bar shape so this, plus the Prologo saddle, means the contact points are sorted.
The ride is a balance between stiffness and suppleness, power transfer is exceptional in the right setup, the bike responding well to sprints. Comfort levels impress too with the space afforded for bigger volume tyres and the D-shaped carbon post offering plenty of flex.
The geometry is aimed squarely at the endurance rider, the 589mm stack and 391mm reach [vertical and horizontal distances from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre of the head-tube respectively] on our large test bike are at the sportier end of things and the frame angles pitch the bike more towards stability rather than rapid handling. The SS26 can still be hustled through corners, and feels composed though tight twists and turns.
The problem, in this spec, is that the middle-weight wheel and tyre combination feels a little sluggish. We swapped them for a lighter wheelset and lighter tyres, allowing the SS26 to come alive with a muscular responsive ride that lives up to its looks. As it stands the SS26 is a good bike, but with some lighter, fasterfeeling wheels, it has the chance of being a great one.