First Look: Vielo V+1 Rival gravel bike
There's another V+1 available and it's more affordable......
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Vielo is a relatively new brand, founded in 2017 and producing the V+1, an 'all-road' bike designed for British roads and British riding conditions by a father and son with over 35 years of experience in the cycling industry. Now they introduce the V+1 Rival, a cheaper option to the 5K option, we take a first look here before handing it over for review on road.cc.
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Of the first V+1 Force, Mat over at road.cc says "the V+1, a road plus/gravel/adventure carbon bike 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. At £5,499 it's not cheap, but if you've got deep pockets and 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."
The new V+1 Rival bike keeps the same frame as the original (and still available) V+1 Force, the bikes have identical geometry and sizing with just a change of carbon layup and different spec for the new bike. Due to this, rather than the 5K price tag, the new bike comes in at £3,499.
The new Vielo V+1 Rival uses the same frame mould as the original, with a slightly more economic layup. The frame weight changes in light of the different carbon layup and is 1,110gm compared 880gm. We weighed the complete bike as 8.87g without mudguards and 9.41kg with the SKS custom 3 point mudguards, designed to work specifically with this frame.
The frame itself its lovely to look at, the fork is slender and lacks bulk, whilst the down tube is wider nearest to the (press fit) bottom bracket for more stiffness in that area. The seat clamp is hidden away in the seat tube and there's internal routing for a dropper post too.
Attention to detail is high, protecting the expensive carbon fibre are small metal plates on the chainstay, both behind the crankset and also near the disc brake, the latter to prevent accidentally dinging the brake rotor into the frame when installing the wheel.
The Vielo V+1 is designed for a 1x drivetrain only, it's be better suited for muddy conditions this way whilst allowing the designers to optimise stiffness without having to accommodate a front mech into the design. All cables are internally routed, disappearing symmetrically into the frame near the headtube.
Lastly, the rear seat stays are flattened and slightly bowed for increased rear end comfort and grip, Vielo call it 'passive rear suspension'.
Geometry wise a medium provides the following figures with 700x38c tyres; a 71-degree head angle, 1,026.9mm wheelbase, 48mm fork offset, 52.5mm bottom bracket drop, 150mm head tube and 380mm reach and 554.2mm stack.
To meet the new price tag the new V+1 is specced with SRAM Rival gear, a 1x11 drivetrain with a 42t chainring and a 10-42t cassette. The normal spec for this bike is DT Swiss C1800 wheels rather than the C1600's you see here.
The new bikes keep the same Vielo 3D forged alloy stem, Vielo carbon bars, and Vielo Carbon seat post and the more expensive bike. The customer can choose either 700c or 650 wheel tyre combo, plus crank length, stem length, chainring size and bar width when ordering and all customers get the routing already installed for a dropper post should they want one.
A word on those mudguards, they are custom designed for the Vielo V+1 with SKS. They are wide enough to accommodate tyres 700c x 40 and 650b x 47 plus satin black rods so the mudguards can hardly be seen. The 3 rod fixing at the back means they don’t need a support across the rear of the stays. Vielo says they also wanted the mudguards to finish ‘ground parallel’ on front and back. If you want a longer extension to the front mudguard, we can offer the SKS 15cm ‘Spoiler’ to help keep spray away from the feet of the rider.
In their words, "the V-Plus 1 is a new breed of road plus performance bikes for the road cyclist who is fed up with being shaken to pieces on the poorly maintained British roads and who also wants to combine a bit of fun riding on gravel or loose forest roads". They've also just told us that the bike are available now buy now on their website, follow this link to order a bike and get it sent to your local dealer.
Keep a check on road.cc for a review soon.
- V+1 Force - £5,499
- V+1 Rival - £3,499
- Force Frameset - £2,999
- Rival Frameset - £2,399
- SKS Mudguards - £55
Find out more here - www.vielo.cc
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Comments
Even if it wasn't too expensive for me, Pressfit BB? Sorry, but I'm out. Bokeh remains my dream, Ti I suppose if I'm really dreaming!
Have to agree with andrew above here. Pressfit BB, and still near Open prices but without the pedigree. Mason Bokeh, Reilly Gradient, Fairlight Secan, all better buys. For carbon the Orro, that new Wilier, or an Open UP.
Please allow me to enter open (not the brand) discussions here without becoming a shooting target.
I really appreciate and respect that everyone has their favourite bikes, bike brands and opinions and what they believe is value for money. Also, I would never knock or disrespect another brand or company.
I do have considerable experience in the bicycle trade, over 36 years working with leading global brands, marketing, distributing and now launching and establishing our own brand Vielo. Behind the Vielo brand are a small team of people with a vast range of engineering knowledge and craftsmanship, design and styling and solid business practice.
I'm happy to engage with, share experiences and answer any questions with honesty and integrity
I respect everyone's thoughts and views and happy to engage with any questions.
May I ask why you don't like press fit BB ?
We have designed the V+1 frame for 1X only. This is to provide maximum lateral stiffness in the BB area which in turn, ensures the best acceleration performance for the rider. This performance is noted with every customer and journalist who has riden and tested the V+1. A threaded BB restricts the BB width by nature of the threaded cups. We can simulate all these stats on computer to show just how much performance is gained by engineering the widest BB.
Yes, press fit BB’s do have a reputation for creaking. But only if the machining the frame BB tolerance is not taken care of. Vielo is not a mass produced frame so we can pay really attention to every tolerance detail.
The price argument / discussion is very subjective. We will never compete, or try to compete with corporate or volume brands. We do pay a huge amount of detail and time to our frames and products. This will never change.
Pedigree. I think with over 36 years experience working with some of the biggest and most prestigious global brands in the cycle trade, plus a small team of people with engineering craftsmanship and science know how, plus beautiful design has provided Vielo with a pretty sound foundation to develop our pedigree
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