Choosing the Perfect Bike for your Ride

Best bikes for road cycling challenges with lots of climbing

If your chosen trip is full of climbs then a lightweight bike with a decent wheelset will help you float up the mountains with ease. 

If less weight is your priority then look no further than the Wilier Filante SLR. This is a premium bike straight from the pro-peloton and is the climbing bike of choice for 2 world tour teams (Astana and FDJ). It’s super stiff and offers great power transfer. Our Filante SLR bikes come with an Ultegra Di2 groupset and compact gears with an 11-34 cassette for easy climbing, we’ve upgraded the wheels to DT Swiss ERC 1400’s, ensuring the ultimate performance package. 

In the same ultra-lightweight league is the Basso Diamante, the difference? The Diamante is a little higher on the front end offering a slightly more comfortable position. The handling of the bike is world-class and promises a fun and fast ride. Like the Filante SLR, the Diamante is built with an Ultegra Di2 groupset and completed with upgraded DT Swiss ERC 1400 wheels. 

In Barbie Land the Wilier Filante SLR & the Diamante are your Jimmy Choo’s – they look amazing, make you feel amazing and are head turners that will make you the envy of your friends. To best enjoy these bikes on tour work on your core strength & flexibility before you arrive and you’ll be strutting down the catwalk like a pro. 

Finding the bike that’s the best fit for your riding style

However, it’s not all about looks and weight and choosing a bike with the right geometry for you will ultimately help you to finish the ride in comfort and in the long run be a much better choice (unless you are actually a world tour pro).

A bike with an endurance geometry tends to work best for the majority of normal cyclists looking to enjoy long days in the saddle. Aggressive bikes are great for 2 or 3 hour races when a rider is dialed into the position, but can get painful over longer distances for riders not used to the position.

The Basso Astra comes in as a great option for long distance riding, with a super smooth ride quality that makes rough tarmac feel like silk. The stack is also much higher than its lightweight counterpart, the Diamante, making this bike a great choice for riding far in comfort. It comes with wider tyres for added comfort over rough surfaces too.

The Cannondale Synapse takes endurance to another level of comfort again. With an even more comfortable geometry than the Astra, the Synapse has the option to change out the stem, meaning it’s possible to fine tune the position for each rider. The Shimano 105 Di2 groupset offers great shifting, and whilst this might not be the sexiest bike to look at, the bike feels reasonably like an armchair – a good thing when you’re into the last hour of an out-of-your-comfort-zone ride. Yes, the bike is heavier than the Filante SLR & the Diamante, but for those of us who are not world tour pro’s it’s a much safer bet for overall comfort and back health. In Barbie Land the Synapse would be the Birkenstock of bikes.

The Ridley Fenix SLiC is one of the best endurance bikes on the market and is an easy-win for enjoying long, comfy miles. The bike was developed by Ridley to take on the brutal cobbled classics. It’s a true all-round road bike that absorbs shocks from the road. The Fenix has long been a part of our rental fleet and will keep its place for a long time to come, it’s understated, classy, and is the shoe that fits pretty much everyone. It’s like an elegant court shoe with an oh-so-sensible heel that Barbie can run for the bus in. 

For power-house riders who love to sprint for road signs and like to ride uber-fast on the flats, the Ridley Falcon is an aero, lightweight road bike with a race-ready position. If you are heading to a mountain range beware that the gearing is also race ready with a semi-compact and 11-30 cassette. 

The verdict? Based on my own current fitness levels and flexibility, I would go for an endurance bike like the Basso Astra for a ride like the Trans Pyrenees Challenge, and the Diamante or Wilier SLR for a trip with less km’s per day, like the Classic Climbs of Málaga.

Let’s Talk Gravel Bikes 

Ok, so gravel is all the rage and lots of riders are coming to us to try out gravel riding for the first time. Choosing the correct bike can be a bit of a minefield. On my own first gravel rides I struggled a lot until I found the bike that was right for me.

As a roadie I personally need a gravel bike that gives stability and helps me with handling and on changing surfaces. In short, I most enjoy gravel riding when I’m riding a bike that’s as close to a mountain bike as possible. 

Perfect Tyre width + Right geometry = Happy gravel rider

A good starting point when choosing a gravel bike is checking the tyre width. In general, the less confident you are riding off road, a wider tyre is going to help as they offer extra comfort and extra confidence when the trail gets rocky. And extra confidence means you’re likely to have more fun, which is what gravel riding is all about. 

The Ridley Kanzo Adventure is an awesome option for getting started with gravel. It’s built for fun, with a nice, relaxed stable geometry and monster 47c tyres. Ridley, unlike many other bike brands, have a deep history of cyclocross racing, meaning they understand what a bike needs to do to perform well off-road. Our Kanzo Adventures come with a nice simple Shimano GRX 1x groupset with a 42 front plate and a 10-45 cassette. This means you’re unlikely to spin out on fast sections, but you might miss a gear if you find yourself on something super steep. 

Another fun gravel bike designed for exploring and bikepacking is the Wilier Adlar. The Adlar has a super-comfy position with a short reach and high stack. It’s built to carry luggage – so this is a great option if you’re heading off on a self-supported adventure. Again, the Adlar has a Shimano GRX 1x groupset.

Gravel bikes for riders with a need for speed

Ok, so looking for a faster machine for putting the hammer down? These gravel bikes are awesome if you’re looking to mix up road and gravel, they tend to run with narrower tyres, meaning that less speed is lost on the road. 

The Basso Palta – this bike offers incredible handling. Basso really understands how a bike and rider move together, and it shows in the Palta. The bike is light & stable and with 40c tyres runs fast. Whilst the Palta is a bike built to race it’s exceptional handling make this a good bike for beginners too – just avoid anything too gnarly with the 40c tyres until your confidence grows. The gearing is 1x, with a 42 front plate and a 11-42 cassette. Again, avoid anything super steep unless you’re a ninja climber.

The Ridley Kanzo Fast is the Rolls Royce of our gravel fleet. It’s the race version of the Kanzo Adventure, built to be incredibly responsive and with a monster bottom bracket for supreme stiffness and power transfer. The coolest thing about our Kanzo Fast bikes is the gearing – specced with a Di2 groupset and Classified hub gears, this is a bike that can do anything and is capable of taking the rider to their limits – you can climb up cliff faces and/or pedal downhill with power. To pay homage to its race heritage, the tyre width is just 38c – this is a bike for a rider with skilz (or a rider wanting to float effortlessly along the via verde to the beach for lunch). The wheels are carbon too.

The last of our super fast gravellers is the Wilier Rave SLR. Also with electronic gearing and carbon wheelset, this is a bike built to race. It’s light, responsive and has a decent range of gears on the 2x set up. In a big deviation from the Fast, the Rave has 45c tyres, making it more suitable for riders looking to spend all day on the trails.

So, what’s the best bike for which tour? It depends on the rider skill level and the terrain. 

For a tour like our Morocco Atlas Mountains tour which has a decent amount of road and is not technical, I would recommend the Palta – it’s fast and can handle the rough terrain too.

For our tours is Patagonia where the daily distances are shorter but more technical the Kanzo Adventure would be the perfect choice for anyone but the most skilled of riders. For riders comfortable with a more aggressive position, the Adlar would also be great. 

Finally, don’t forget about tyre pressure. Getting your tyre pressure right on gravel is critical. It can be the difference between an uncomfortable, slippy ride from hell or a glorious sweet-spot ride.

Still not sure which bike to choose? Give us a call and we’ll be happy to help!