SIMPLON KIARO DISC £4,406 SIMPLON.COM

You’d be forgiven for not knowing much about this Austrian brand, which started life as a family bike shop back in 1930, with the name referencing the 2,005m-high Simplon Pass. The Kiaro Disc was designed around what the engineering team call ‘comfort concept’. This consists of manipulating the hi-mod carbon fibres with the frame to offer compliance where needed and stiffness in critical areas dealing with load – i.e. the head tube for steering duties and the bottom bracket for pedalling forces. Elsewhere, the tube shapes have been manipulated to offer vertical flex.

It’s easiest seen in the top tube, which tapers from a wedge-like profile at the head tube to an almost flat, almond-like shape in the centre before broadening a little at the seat tube junction. The junction is designed to allow vertical flex in both top tube and the stays – so the seat tube is designed to allow fore and aft movement.

The seatstays bow with a flattened profile and the compact front triangle leaves plenty of exposed seatpost. Up front, the fork is slickly integrated into the head tube as a nod to aerodynamics and the cable routing is neatly internalised through the headset and head tube, again giving the bike an aero edge. The fork is slender in profile and the dropouts, named ‘raptor’ by Simplon, are rear-offset, which means that the fork fibre path is elongated; by offsetting the axle away from a direct path to the rider it lengthens the path vibration has to take, thus reducing the fatiguing impact on the rider. So, while the Kiaro Disc may look simple, there’s actually a lot going on underneath the understated skin.

REAL SPARK

The ride position on our 58cm bike is classic endurance stuff. A 608mm stack is on the lower end of things, while the 387mm reach is spot on for comfortable, yet sporty