ALL-OUT AERO – WITH CUSTOM PAINT!

CCabal is a direct-to-public bike company, operating out of Cape Town and shipping anywhere in South Africa.

By sourcing product directly from global manufacturers and making it available to you via their web store, they’ve removed the middlemen from the traditional supply chain, which dramatically impacts their retail price offering. You can’t walk into a Cabal showroom or retail set-up and shoot the breeze, drink coffee or flick top tubes… but you can chat with them online and have all your questions answered before purchase.

Avid cyclists and brand founders Andrew Bloom and →on Colledge have a ‘rider first’ approach, and have chosen this direct-to-public business model to offer you the best possible bike for your money. The guys are also particularly passionate about correct bike fit: after your order is placed, you’ll go through a professional fitting process to confirm frame, stem and bar size before your bike is delivered.

▶or a 30-year-veteran of road cycling who ‘knows it all’, I have to admit I received some interesting insights during my fitting process… and my test bike was supplied with marginally wider bars and a shorter stem than my personal bike.

“There are some amazing bikes on the market, but at significant cost,” says Bloom. “We believe you should pay for the machine and nothing more. Closed moulds, pro sponsorships, storefronts – these are some of the areas we choose not to do right now. The value-for-cost is disproportionate, and would affect our cost to customer. Instead, we focus on quality of materials, the best parts and technology, bike fits, warranties, product testing and service.”

The Aero 1 is thing of beauty: sleek, aerofoil-shaped tubing; compact rear triangle; directmount brakes; integrated seatpost clamp; deep-section carbon wheels… and new for 2020, a custom paint job is included in the purchase price. Choose one of nine flat colours and a gloss topcoat, or go full custom for a R5 000 surcharge. The paintwork is handled by another local maestro, →ared Mahaffey at BMC in Salt River, whose skill and attention to detail are world class.

The build is very attractive at this price point: SRAM ▶orce groupset, ▶abric Scoop saddle, Zipp bar and stem, Cabal CRC50 wheels and Schwalbe Durano tyres. The bike is optimised for

25mm rubber, but can accommodate 28mm – just.

Aero road bikes generate a small but handy speed advantage, and their growing popularity is undeniable. While your body and clothing accounts for around 80% of total wind drag, the marginal gains achieved at reasonable speeds from a more aerodynamic bike are not insignificant.

Indeed, the Aero 1 delivers a stable, solid and fast ride feel. In or out of the saddle, in sustained climbs or flat-out sprints, the bike is super-stiff, and power transfer is good. When laying down watts, the bike responds instantly and gallops up to speed. There are more compliant bikes out there, but that’s not the point with this kind of rocket ship.

Ultimately, at this price you’ll struggle to find a race-ready bike with the same spec. The custom paintjob is just a bonus.