BEST BIKES FOR WINTER
MUST-HAVE MILE-MUNCHERS WITH MUDGUARDS PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES
Mudguard-equipped bikes have been a staple of road cycling for decades, with winter club rides likely to insist on covered tyres as there’s little worse than sitting in a chaingang with a constant spray of muck being delivered into your face. Like all chaingangs, my quartet of bikes on test covers the fiscal range, from just over a grand to top-level titanium at three times that price.
The first comes by way of Italian-infused Tifosi via Leighton Buzzard, home of the UK’s oldest cycle distribution company, Chicken Cycles. The Tifosi CK7 is the brand’s closest thing to a classic British winter trainer. It’s a racy frameset built to take ’guards and running Campagnolo’s Centaur group.
Next up, it’s a thoroughly modern take on the winter bike from Kinesis. The Tripster AT is its do-it-all gravel-cum-road machine designed in partnership with the much-missed ultra-endurance rider Mike Hall, who died in a cycling accident in 2017. So it’s a gravel bike equipped for big winter miles that combines huge all-road tyres and even bigger Fend-Off ’guards.
Third on the agenda is another classic-inspired mudguard machine – the latest incarnation of Condor’s long-running endurance bike, the Fratello, which is disc-brake equipped. Like Tifosi there’s a strong Italian connection as Condor’s frames are built in Italy using Columbus tubes, and it’s finished with Campagnolo Centaur. Its rain-shedding prowess comes from (German) SKS Bluemells ’guards.
Finally, we have Ribble’s titanium Endurance Ti disc. This all-new frame uses butted tubes and is built with attention to detail and matched to a full carbon fork. Ribble’s legendary value for money shines through thanks to a full Ultegra disc group, quality finishing kit and a set of ’guards designed by Ribble, all for a price that some titanium rivals would charge for a frameset.