Ridin' High
What others are reading:
From 29ers to custom road rides to a bike-in-a-box, here are our picks for the best rides you’ll find in stores this spring.
ROAD
Specialized Roubaix Pro SRAM
When it comes to a day-to-day road bike, you won’t find a better investment than any iteration of the trusty Roubaix. The bike can handle anything you want to tick off in the Front Range. It’s a responsive ride that’s just as happy grunting up Mount Evans as it is cruising the plains. We like the SRAM package, which delivers the most componentry bang for your buck.
$4,400; specialized.com
Felt AR 4
We are constantly puzzled as to how Felt can continue to produce such fantastic bikes for the money. The AR4 delivers a monocoque carbon frame and Ultegra componentry for a good deal less than similar rides. A sleek, confident performer on the pavement, it’s the bike to choose when you want to get serious but still worry about paying the bills.
$3,499; feltbicycles.com
Serrota MeiVici SE
Ready to go all out on a custom cycle? Serrota rides high in the saddle when it comes to the bike-of-your-dreams fetish. It’s worth the money—stiff, responsive, classy, light, built to fit. Please tell us how it feels when you buy it. We keep drooling over it but Serrota’s PR firm doesn’t seem yet willing to send us a free sample.
$8,395 (starting); serrota.com
MOUNTAIN
Yeti AS-R Carbon
We love to support homegrown Colorado brands and Yeti makes it so easy. Hop on this baby and you can tell it was designed for our state where we require a ride that can both climb like an x-c racer and bomb sketchy downhills like a trail bike. The AS-R Carbon does both incredibly well thanks to, among other things, the carbon frame (which has become almost mandatory) a suspension placed to get the most out of pedaling and a tipped back head angle for descents. It’s the ideal bike for giving your buddies a good beat down.
$2,700 (frame); yeticycles.com
Kona Abra Cadabra
Kona adapted its Magic Link suspension in order to deliver versatile downhill-esque performance in a scandium frame that can bomb technical downhills or tackle grueling climbs. The Magic Link works by sensing the terrain under tire and jumping the four-inch travel suspension up to six inches when necessary. Plus, it’s nicely spec-ed for the money with Shimano XT and a Fox 32 Float RL fork.
$3,699; konaworld.com
Santa Cruz Tallboy
Once you spend time on a 29er, you become a convert, especially when it comes to rolling over the rocky junk the Front Range can dish out. And no bike symbolizes the new dominance of big wheels better than the carbon Tallboy. The five pound frame is a ride with all the smooth performance of the brand’s famed Blur, but it was designed specifically for those big wheels.
$2,350 (frame only); santacruzbicycles.com
TOUR
Moots Mootour
Thanks to SNS couplings, you can take this cylce to Napa, Tuscany, Bolivia… wherever you want to explore by bike—but it’s just as competent cruising Colorado. Relaxed geometry and longer chain stays make it easy to load and ride for hours. It’s a titanium bike for traveling that will last forever.
$3,125 (frame); moots.com
Electra Ticino 18D
With all the elegance of something you would see in a Fellini movie, the Ticino is porn for bike geeks. Every detail on the bike is immaculate, down to hand-hammered fenders and an updated version of the classic French TA crank. The real payoff, however, is just how much fun it is to pedal it down the bike path. $1,500; electra.com
SINGLE SPEED
Specialized Stumpjumper 29 SS
Meet the perfect bike for hitting the trails before or after work. Runing a single speed 29er, you are sure to at least look hip but this bike truly brings it thanks to a stiff carbon frame and carbon crankset with ceramic bearings that will deliver enough power to keep your multi-geared bros at bay.
$2,400; specialized.com
CUSTOM
Mosaic 29er SS
This custom 29er single speed was built in Boulder by frame wizards Aaron Barchek and Nick Phillips. Their built-to-order brand Mosaic is a work of performance art. The performance? Aggressive geometry keeps the big 29er nimble. Art? Just look at it. Want one? You can test ride Mosaic bikes at Full Cycle in Boulder and Fort Collins.
mosaiccycles.com/fullcyclebikes.com
MUST HAVES
The best new rear hitch rack out there also serves as a repair stand. The nifty Kuat NV ($495; kuatinnovations.com) will also hold those pesky through axle forks. When we head out on an epic all-day ride we strap on the airy Deuter Race EXP Air ($129; deuter.com). The back ventilation system means it doesn’t feel like a big pack but it still holds 900 cubic inches and comes with a built-in rain cover and three-liter reservoir. Lazer’s Genesis ($100; lazerhelmets.com) adjusts with a roller system in the back and is built with removable LED lights for commuting. Named for one of our favorite lunch-break rides, Smartwool’s Betasso shorts ($150 smartwool.com) keep your most sensitive parts comfy thanks to a snap-in merino liner that regulates temperature (and stink). Nalini impressed us with its Corniola Bib ($95; nalini.it) and Magnetite Jersey ($90). Both are made in Italy and performed like far higher-priced European threads. Rudy Project’s Magster (prices vary according to lens; rudyprojectusa.com) was designed to fit bigger craniums and includes a stainless steel perforated grill that keeps them from fogging on sweaty rides. Look for Rudy’s Sunglass Combo through which you can get a free Rudy helmet or polarized lens when you buy certain Rudy shades. Shimano’s new custom fit shoes ($300; http://bike.shimano.com) are a steal at that price. And we couldn’t be happier with Shimano’s Ultegra 6700 group, WH-6700 Road Tubeless wheels ($650), which run at lower tire pressure. We only wonder why it has taken this long to develop them.
POWER SPEAKS
Tour de France commentators like to reference riders’ power output levels. They do that thanks to SRM wireless power meters that record info in the crank and relay it to coaches. That data helps them pace athletes, leading to better results. Power meter training is a hot trend in cycling and no longer limited to pro racers. To learn about and buy your very own power meter go to Boulder-based FasCat Coaching (fascatcoaching.com). You’ll get $450 of free coaching if you purchase a meter. Want more? FasCat coach Mark Rossman was so excited he wrote up some excellent training tips just for Elevation Outdoors. Read them at ElevationOutdoors.com/index.php/fascat-training-tips
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Are you kidding with the Ticino. It seems everyone overlooks the real bike in the field. Nirve’s Eurosports kill the ticcinos in style function and most of all price! Not to mention the one you showed is a derailleur bike. Nirves are fully lugged(painted) Chromo. main tubes and they have (all Internal) a 3 speed, 7 speed and 8 speed(Alfine with a hub generated Light set). They all look better than these Ticinos too. You are simple silly if you didn’t look at these bikes before you made that illinformed “editors choice” or did you really make the choice at all. BTW the most expensive Nirve witht he alfine 8 speed and lightset is 899.99!
No, we are not kidding with the Ticino and we feel the choice was far from “illinformed.” We put a lot of time and thought into our editor’s picks and are quite willing to defend exactly why we choose the gear we choose. The Ticino is an incredible bike, like nothing else we saw on the market including the Eurosports. Here’s why. The level of detail on this bike is truly amazing. Highlights for us included the remake of the French TA crank and the Dia-Compe Center Pulls breaks on the touring handlebars. From the performance side, the Shimano Tiagra drivetrain and Rapidfire shifters were nice specs. Not only do these details and componentry mean the bike looks good and corresponds to retro stye, they make the thing a blast to ride. It’s far more responsive than your run-of-the-mill townie. It also comes stock with a rear carrier mounted (a plus for riding back from the farmer’s market). We actually liked the Ticino’s derailleur for several reasons. One, the bike we profiled is a full 18-speed bike and internal hubs just don’t offer the same performance: your internal hub only offer 8 gears at a lower gear ratio. Call us creatures of habit, but we also like that we know how to repair and adjust our derailleur all on our own. When our internal hub bikes start clicking we need to take them to the store. We also like to haul our little kids in a Chariot on a commuter bike and you can’t do that with the internal hub on the rear wheel. It’s not that we don’t like internal hubs (we LOVE our 3-speed Swobo Otis). “Look” is a matter of personal preference. We liked the look of the Ticino, especially those hand-hammered fenders. When it comes to price… the 8-speed Ticinio 8D is selling at REI for $679 (MSRP of $799), which is less than the 8-speed Nirve you mention ($899). We agree, the Nirve is certainly a nice bike too, but we still give the nod to the Ticino. None of this is to say however, that we don’t like the Nirve bikes (but we were so surprised to get such a vehement response about a company that has, to be honest, never shown any interest in Elevation Outdoors before). Thanks for your comments though. We would rather hear you disagree with us than say nothing at all.
[...] like commuting on my Electra Ticino because I can sit up easily, and I can put both feet on the ground at stoplights (I commute on a [...]