road bike

With its direct front end and general firm character the Mendiz RS9.3 is brilliant at going really really fast for a relatively short time.

If you want a comfy all-day ride or a steady sportive plodder then you'll need to look elsewhere. That's not to say the Mendiz can't do those things, far from it, but its talents lie elsewhere.

The stiff, almost brutal at times front triangle, sharp steering and direct power transfer would make it a great race or crit machine, as long as there were no cobbles along the way.

If you've got some serious cash to spend on a hand built Italian carbon fibre superbike the usual suspects of Colnago, De Rosa et al are probably topping your list. But should the Fondriest TFZero be on there too?

I've decided to sell my much loved Pennine fixed gear track bike due to not using it as much as I'd like.

I custom built the bike a couple of years ago and mainly ride it during the warmer months.

The frame was custom built by Pennine Cycles by a guy called Chris Marshall in the 80s. It comes with the original track forks.
Both have been powder coated black. I replaced the track forks with Ritchey carbon forks to make it easier to ride around town.

The OG forks will come with the bike.

Trek have given their Madone road bike a major redesign for 2013 and we've found the new version to be super-fast and very comfortable. It might just be the best of all worlds.

It has taken me a while to write this review because the deal is this: once it's written, the bike goes back to Trek. That's the way these things work. But I'm not overkeen to send the bike back just yet. I'd like to hang on to it for as long as possible, so I keep doing just one more ride. You know, to check everything one last time.