WOMEN’S ROAD BIKES

Ridley Liz SL40 $3,500

While the Ridley Liz SL40 is fit for the pros – it’s been ridden in the Tour of Flanders and Giro d’italia Femminile – it’s a bike that will also work well on your long rides. It has endurance features, such as a slightly taller head tube to put you just a bit more upright than a race frame would and flattened chainstays that address many of the vibrations produced by the road. The bike comes with 25c Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tires, but you can run treads as wide as 28c. If taking qoms or town-line sprints are your thing, the frame has the stiffness to channel all your watts from the Rotor 3d30 crankset (50/34-tooth rings) to the Shimano 105 cassette (11–32 tooth) to the DT Swiss r460 rims. The stem, seatpost and handlebars are all Cirrus models by Ridley house-brand 4za. ( mec.ca)

Felt VR3W $4,600

Felt has always been meticulous with its carbon-fibre layups. The vr3w may use the company’s second-tier composite, uhc Advanced, however, it’s still a top-performing material. Each tube features different carbon-fibre layers to get the right amount of stiffness, low weight and durability. The shapes are important, too. For example, the skinny seatstays help to soak up road vibrations. The fork can flex, but also has the right rigidity to manage the forces produced when the 160-mm-diameter rotor and Shimano rs805 hydraulic brake are slowing you down. At the bottom bracket, you have the Rotor 3d30 Adventure crank with 46/30-tooth rings. This sub-compact gearing is highly spinnable up almost any incline. This bike will have you trying all-new routes, and thoroughly enjoying them. ( feltbicycles.com)

Trek Domane SLR 6 Disc Women’s $7,450

This past July, Trek revamp many of it women’s bikes, including the bumpy-roadmanaging Domane. With the Isospeed features on the seat tube, you can tune the amount of flex you need when riding gravel, cobbles or the local pothole-ridden routes. There’s also Isospeed technology in the head tube, which will keep your hands and wrists comfortable as you log many miles. Wide, 32c tires by Trek’s Bontrager line provide great traction and a bit more squish than skinner tires over bumps. Shimano’s Ultegra components take care of getting you going (from the 50/34-tooth crankset to the 11–32 tooth cassette) and slowing you down (with hydraulic flat-mount disc brakes). With the Project One program, you can tweak the components and get a custom colour scheme. ( trekbikes.com)—matthewpioro