Groupsets
1 Shimano Ultegra Di2 12-speed
What started as controversial has swiftly become the norm for performance road bikes I was present for the original launch of Shimano’s electronic Dura-Ace Di2 in 2009. Back then Di2 was controversial. Plenty in the cycling press called it ‘a solution to a problem that never existed’, a ‘gimmick’ or just plain unnecessary.
The cabling that required a heat gun to seal the connections and the external battery that piggy backed your bottle cage mounts may have been clunky, but the shifting? Just other worldly. That it accurately shifted every time, required almost no maintenance to continue to do so and you could shift under load and not worry about the chain slipping or dropping really changed the game. Add to that the front mech’s robotic smartness that self-trimmed to avoid chain rub, which meant you weren’t harshly punished for cross chaining as happened with mechanical groups.
Di2 has come on leaps and bounds in the intervening years, including the formidable Ultegra Di2 pictured. Like disc brakes and STI levers, which meant you no longer had to take your hand off the bar to change gears, it’s become the gold standard for performance bikes. With the advent of SRAM’s AXS and its lowercost Rival, along with Shimano’s recent 105 Di2 groupset, I think you’ll soon be hard pushed to find a performance bike that doesn’t have electronics at the heart of its gear shift system. And not before time. Warren Rossiter, senior tech editor, Cycling Plus
Tyres
2 Continental GP5000 Tubeless 28mm
Farewell thin rubber, hello better comfort, speed and grip Tyres are the single best upgrade you can make to any bike as they improve ride quality, speed and effciency. Back when I first started out riding road bikes, the perceived knowledge was that skinnier was faster. Pro riders and racers used 19mm-wide tubular tyres for time trials and ‘bigger’ 21c’s for racing. Us normal riders used ‘fat’ 23c tyres and tourists went big with a 25c or, on a rare occasion, 28s.
Then science showed that larger-diameter rubber led to less rolling resistance thanks to a shortened contact patch. Plus, advances in other tech, wider rims and, more recently, disc-specific frame designs and tubeless standards, have allowed tyre technology to leap forward, as evidenced in Continental’s brilliant GP4000 and later GP5000 28mm tyres. These tyres are faster, more comfortable, have better grip and are far less prone to puncture than the thinner rubber that came before.
Warren Rossiter
“Tyres are the best upgrade you can make to any bike as they improve ride quality, speed and efficiency”
Apps
3 Strava
A CURIOUS PHENOMENON swept the offce at the turn of the year,” began
