VITUS ZENIUM ROAD
Carbon frame, disc brakes and a grand price
Today’s usual £1000 road bike has an aluminium frame, carbon fork, Shimano 105 and rim brakes. So take a bow, Vitus! Its Zenium has a carbon frame, carbon fork and cableactuated disc brakes.
It may not be made from super-exotic carbon but the standard-modulus carbon fibre is manufactured by Toray – one of the biggest names in carbon – and it has all the features I expect on more expensive disc-braked bikes. The gear and rear brake cables are neatly routed through a down-tube port with the rear derailleur cable piped through the driveside chainstay. It’s all extremely tidy, which is true of every aspect of Vitus’s subtly styled Zenium.
The frame follows all of today’s design cues: a large diameter down tube, a flattish, narrowing top tube and dropped slimline seatstays, designed to deliver comfort and stiffness. Thruaxles maximise braking control and removable levers offer “greater aerodynamics”.
Talk about ‘marginal’ gains! Losing a few grams on a 9.37kg bike, and the aero benefit, would make so little difference it would take a super-computer to determine the it. A cheeky comment, because in reality it’s good to see both thruaxles and removable levers.
Other welcome choices include wide tyres and a good gear range. The 34x32 bottom doesn’t equal 34x34 on steep climbs but I prefer it to the Boardman’s 34x28. Frankly, having access to a lower bottom gear is nearly always welcome. You’ve still got the same top gear with the only downside the bigger jumps.
That most of us would be better off with wider tyres is also true. The difference between 25mm and 28mm might not sound that much but it represents a considerable increase in the
volume of air; and wider tyres can also be run at lower pressures. The Vee Road Runners look great, they’re grippy and they have an Aramid puncture-protection belt. The Zenium has no fittings for ’guards but there is enough room for aftermarket blades.
You do need their width because the Vitus has a firmish ride, presumably the extra strength required to incorporate the disc brakes has upped the stiffness proportionally. But the combination of wide tyres and good contact points stops it becoming wearing even on longer rides.
The Vitus has a long, endurance-friendly wheelbase, but its shortish head tube results in a 576.3mm stack that’s 20mm less than the Specialized Allez, while the reach figures are virtually identical. So you’re not that stretched out and if you don’t want to go too low there are a couple of centimetres of spacers.
The Zenium is one of the heavier bikes here – a kilo more than the Canyon – but that’s only an issue when climbing. And with its gear range you can either spin or crank up hills, with the confidence that the brakes will help you descend. Yes, it may ‘only’ be TRP’s cable-actuated discs but they’re progressive and strong even if they require more effort than hydraulics on your part. They’re more consistent in the wet than rim brakes and hugely extend rim life. A win-win. The levers, drivetrain and derailleurs are 10-speed Tiagra, and worked pretty much as well as its moreexalted, 11-speed 105 sibling.
Overall, it’s very hard to fault Vitus’s Zenium. The ride may be a little firmer than that of Boardman and Ribble’s carbon bikes – but only marginally. And the 300g of extra weight over those is neither here nor there.
With its longish wheelbase I’m not sure it’s quite “perfect” for crits, as Vitus reckons it is, but I do think it’s spot on for the “speedy sportives, weekend club runs and winter training sessions” it also mentions. The Zenium would also make a fine fast commuter or a bike for big days out with no other ambition than to enjoy yourself. And Vitus’s achievement in getting out a disc-braked, all-carbon fibre bike at this price is to be warmly applauded.
“A fine fast commuter or a bike for big days out with no other ambition than to enjoy yourself”