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TECH NEWS

Video Just In: Forme Longcliffe 0

A £1,100 aluminium road bike with a Shimano 105 groupset and disc brakes

The £1,100 Forme Longcliffe 0 has arrived here at road.cc for testing, the first road bike from the UK brand to feature disc brakes. 

The fame is made from 6061 aluminium alloy while the fork has carbon-fibre legs and an alloy steerer.

The Longcliffe 0 is built up with a Shimano 105 11-speed groupset and cable operated Shimano R317 disc brakes. The complete bike weighs 9.72kg (21.4lb).

The Vitus Zenium SL Disc that we reviewed earlier in the year was £1,299.99 although it’s now available discounted to £899.99. 

That’s another bike with an aluminium alloy frame – this time 6066-T6 triple butted – with a Shimano 105 groupset. The disc brakes are TRP Spyres which, again, are cable operated.

We said: “Very good semi-race bike that responds well to hard efforts.”

Forme Longcliffe Zero - head tube badge.jpg

The £1,299 Whyte Suffolk 105, like the Forme Longcliffe 0, centres on a 6061 aluminium alloy frame and, as the name indicates, it’s fitted with a Shimano 105 groupset.

“An excellent frame with great riding characteristics but let down by its tyres,” we said, the tyres in question being Maxxis Roulers.

It’s worth noting that the Forme Longcliffe 0 is a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than either of these bikes.

The Pinnacle Dolomite 5 we reviewed has a 6061-T6 aluminium alloy frame with Shimano 105 components and Shimano BR-785 hydraulic disc brakes.

We called it a “thoroughly likeable all-rounder with a killer selling point: hydraulic disc brakes on a £1,000 bike”. It’s actually available for £850 now.

Forme Longcliffe Zero - rear disc brake.jpg

We’re beginning our review process now and will be back with a review of the Forme Longcliffe 0 early in the new year.

For more details go to formebikes.co.uk.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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4 comments

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BrokenBootneck | 7 years ago
1 like

Found this review 

 

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/forme-longcliffe-0-road-bike-p375877

 

Nice bike when set up correctly, 25 September 2016
By roadrunner (Swindon)
Took a punt with this bike as there’re no reviews and nowhere to try. Was looking for a commuter / winter trainer, i.e. road geometry and can take full mudguards. Unfortunately, the Forme website is incorrect about the fork mudguard eyelets and Go Outdoors confirmed they couldn’t fix standard mudguards when the bike arrived for assembly. The Go Outdoors T&Cs state you can get a refund if you don’t like the bike, but I decided to keep it as it looked pretty good, especially at sale price. Highlight is the aluminium frame. Feels fast, bottom bracket flex is well contained and power transfer is noticed in acceleration and climbing out of the saddle. When descending at speed there is no sign of twitchiness from the front end, i.e. you don’t start feeling nervous when speed picks up and reach for the brakes to slow down. For longer distances the aluminium was surprisingly very comfortable. Not as comfortable as good steel of course, but I don’t think I’ll have any problems with a full day event. Holding the bike back are the Mavic wheels (re-badged CXP 22, I’ve read) where the weight is noticed when climbing. These will be first to go when funds allow. For commuting, they’re fine. Bike weight is approx 9.5kg (rough estimate with the bathroom scales), and a decent set of wheels alone will probably bring the weight under 9kg. The Lugano tyres are generally ok, but did notice a lot of slipping on a steep wet ascent. You probably wouldn’t want to take a curve too sharply with these tyres. The Sora brakes have the same stopping performance in the dry as my rim brake bike (and no difference to Avid BB7 that I’ve had before), but as expected didn’t lose stopping power in the wet. When I came to collect at my Go Outdoors store no one offered to make sure the bike was ok. Just a case of sign this form and you can take it away. Usually, a cycle shop would sit you on the bike and do some simple adjustments so you at least have a reasonable fit. I can fit myself so not a problem, but if you’re new to cycling maybe you need to ask. I was given the bike build tick list to show the bike was ok, but I flipped the bike upside down on the floor and ran through the gears noticing immediately some chain skip. I pointed this out to the store technician who nicely went though all the gears again. When I got home I did another check and noticed the rear derailleur couldn’t move to the small cog, the front derailleur was set too high, and had chain rub when the rear derailleur was past halfway down the cogs. Sigh. In the end I decided to re-do the entire gearing myself. This is my first bike with 11 speed 105 – rear shifting is just as good as the previous 10 speed, but front shifting is noticeably better. Go Outdoors offer a free bike check at 6 weeks, but I think I’ll pass that one up. So to summarise, a really nice bike for the money, even though disappointed you can’t fit full mudguards (I now have the new Crud Roadracer Mk3 clip-ons which are ok), and if you do buy from a Go Outdoors store then give the bike a good check before you leave, else bring along someone who can do this for you.

Avatar
Dr_Lex | 7 years ago
0 likes

Seems good value.

Interesting that whilst the back has mounts for rack & 'guards and the crown drilled, the fork legs lack such. Pre-production model?

Avatar
Al__S replied to Dr_Lex | 7 years ago
1 like

Dr_Lex wrote:

 the fork legs lack such.

Looks like there's mounts inside on the forks a short way up.

Avatar
Dr_Lex replied to Al__S | 7 years ago
0 likes

Al__S wrote:

Dr_Lex wrote:

 the fork legs lack such.

Looks like there's mounts inside on the forks a short way up.

Ah - couldn't make those out on the mobile site; that makes sense, thank you! 

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