Vielo V+1 SRAM Force 1x Carbon Disc Gravel Cyclocross Road Bike - 54cm

Broximo Prestige Steeds presents this Vielo V+1 Carbon Gravel Bike

Size:  54cm but check the geometries or get in touch to confirm whether this bike will fit you.

Specification

Description

The V+1, a road plus/gravel/adventure carbon bike from new brand Vielo, is a triumph of design. It offers a highly impressive ride: smooth and composed, fast and fun, and bristles with smart details that make it as practical as it is intoxicating. If you want a versatile and highly capable bike for taming rough roads and going wild in the back of beyond, you're in for a real treat.

What's it like to ride? In a word – or rather, three – it's fast, exciting and fun. The way it responds so lightly to your input at the handlebar and the awesome cushioning effect of the fat tyres give you the first hint that the V+1 is something special even before you reach the end of the road.

There's a high level of design and attention to detail on display, with the years of experience really shining through. It brings a lot of features and design cues that are increasingly common on such bikes, with a couple of extra ones that are often omitted.

As is common with bikes of this sort, it's designed to accommodate 700C x 42mm or 650B x 2.1in wheels and tyres, allowing the bike to be tailored to the requirements of any rider and terrain. With thru-axles and disc brakes, you could easily have two sets of wheels to suit different requirements: fat slicks for road riding, chunky gravel or mountain bike tyres for off-road exploits. The supplied tyres lean towards a road preference with some off-road capability provided it's dry and hard-packed ground.

It's a lovely looking frame, with squashed oval tube shapes and a slender elegance to the way the tubes all come together. The profile of the top tube, down tube and stays is aimed at providing the best balance of stiffness and compliance, with the down tube increasing in size as it heads towards the press-fit bottom bracket. I'd wager that bottom bracket will lose it some fans, but it presented no issues during testing.

An oversized head tube accommodates a tapered steerer tube and a fork with curved round blades and a lack of bulk compared with some fork designs. It's all very pleasing on the eye, as is the paint job and reserved graphic treatment.

The frame is brimming with neat details. The front brake hose is routed inside the fork. The rear brake hose and derailleur cable enter one of two available ports on the flat down tube. There's even internal routing for the dropper post, an optional extra on this bike, with the left gear shift lever put into action to activate the RockShox Reverb seatpost. The seat clamp is tucked away inside the seat tube and accessed below the top tube, and a rubber seal around the seat tube opening prevents mud and water ingress.

A common sight on adventure bikes are 1x11 groupsets. The simplicity, extra mud and tyre clearance, one less thing to go wrong, and wide-range cassettes making up for the reduced chainring number, are all very appealing on bikes designed to duke it out on any surface. Vielo goes a step further than most brands and has designed the frame entirely around a 1x11 drivetrain; there is no provision for a front mech at all. Freed from the constraints of having to accommodate a front mech, it allows the seat tube and bottom bracket to be better optimised in the pursuit of frame stiffness.  The Force 1x11 is a natural choice here: powerful hydraulic disc brakes with a mechanical rear derailleur presiding over a wide-range 10-42t cassette, and a choice of 38 or 42-tooth chainrings up front. It all works as seamlessly as usual, but top marks to Vielo for making the shifting extra silky

A solid and dependable list of equipment is a prerequisite on a bike like this, and the DT Swiss P1850 wheels are a prime choice.

The new Vielo V+1 taps into the growing appetite for bigger tyres and increased versatility, with a beautifully designed and lightweight carbon frame and fork that provide splendid handling and performance. It's fast and smooth and can be considered an alternative to an endurance bike as it's no slower but the comfort is noticeably better, yet it has the potential to be taken off-road with the right tyre choice.

Condition