Alchemy Eros titanium frameset

The Alchemy Eros is a sublime road bike. It handles with grace and finesse and compares very well to not only the best titanium road bikes but to many of the best carbon fibre frames too.

If there's a downside to the Alchemy it's that the £3,300 frameset price is prohibitively expensive and puts it out of touch for many. You are buying a frame that is made in the US, though, and there are a plethora of custom options so you can detail a very bespoke bike.

Ride and performance

What the Eros does extremely well is make the case that titanium still has a valuable place in the bicycle world. What gets some cyclists all misty-eyed when talking about titanium is the magical ride quality it offers, which essentially comes down to the fact that titanium is lighter and stronger than steel and aluminium but offers better vibration damping than both materials, making it possible to build a very comfortable frame.

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That's not to say all titanium frames ride the same way because the performance still owes a lot to how the frame is constructed, and the shape, diameter and wall thickness of the titanium tubes all influence the ride. Alchemy has used large diameter tubes in the Eros, with a beefy down tube, chunky chainstays, oversized press fit bottom bracket and tapered head tube and the result looks thoroughly modern.

What that all means is there is no shortage of stiffness. Put some power down through the pedals, heave on the handlebars and it's responsive, relaying your commands into direction changes with no noticeable lag. Despite the light build it also felt settled at high speeds and in demanding situations, providing all the confidence you need to commit to a challenging road full of bends, curves and dips. Make no mistake, it's a thrilling ride.

But it's not all stiffness and light. It's an effortless long distance bike. Big miles don't faze it or you at all. Cruise along country lanes at a steady speed and it's impressively compliant, the frame doing a good job of dissipating the vibrations from poorly surfaced, cracked and potholed roads. What it's not is plush like a modern endurance bike; it's firm without being soft. It is well controlled on rougher surfaces, precise and direct on smoother and twisting roads.

The way the Eros performs reminds me of the excellent Enigma Evade. The critical geometry details are similar, including a 160mm head tube, 410mm chainstays, 70mm bottom bracket drop, 393mm reach and 563mm stack. Those numbers combine to create a racy balance, that's not too dissimilar to a race bike like the Cannondale SuperSix Evo. The nice thing about the Alchemy is that if the stock geometry is a bit aggressive for you, you can go down the custom geometry route and tailor it precisely to your requirements.

Overall, it's how accomplished it is as an all-rounder that most impresses.

Frame details

Alchemy builds the Eros using US-sourced 3Al/2.5V titanium tubes and the quality of the welding is as good as that I've seen on similarly expensive titanium frames over the years.

An oversized bottom bracket, large diameter down tube and tapered head tube form the backbone of the frame and lend it the high level of stiffness that is so readily apparent when you sprint up a climb.

Also contributing to the stiffness are the chunky chainstays, flaring out quite drastically to the company's own design dropouts. Any worries about heel clearance proved unfounded with my size 45 shoes. The seatstays are more slender than the chainstays and have subtle s-bend shape throughout their journey from the seat tube to the dropouts.

There's no internal cable routing, instead, all cables are run along the outside of the frame, which is just fine by me. Cables are easy to replace and service and small barrel adjusters on the down tube cable stops permit easy adjustment to fine tune the derailleurs. The frame can be specced with Di2 internal wire routing if preferred.

Alchemy specs the excellent full carbon fibre Enve 2.0 fork. It's a popular fork on many high-end and bespoke builds and it's easy to see why. Not only is it light (350g) but it is stiff and the ride is very nice, though it's perhaps a touch on the firm side.

Among the factors that make titanium appealing, aside from its performance, are the longevity that comes from its corrosion-resistance and the unique colour. Painting titanium, as Alchemy has done here, definitely divides opinion. Personally, I'm a fan because it means it doesn't look like just another titanium road bike.

Build and equipment

At 7.22kg (15.9lb) the Eros isn't just light for a titanium road bike, it's light full stop. Granted if you want the very lightest, then carbon is still the way to go, but it's not giving all that much away.

Alchemy's UK distributor Saddleback only sell framesets, not complete bikes, but your nearest dealer will only be too happy to build a bike to suit your budget. Saddleback pulled no punches when it came to the equipment on the review bike, only serving to highlight the performance of the frame.

The highlight of the package and a build contributor to the low overall weight of the bike were the Enve SES 2.2 wheels. They're Enve's lightest wheels and use a shallow and wide rim with the new textured brake track that works impressively not only in the dry but also in the wet. The brakes did take a few rides to bed in but they quickly dished out consistent and powerful braking performance, with the best wet weather braking I've yet experienced with a carbon rim.

I like that the rims are tubeless compatible – I'd definitely go tubeless myself – and the 1,110g weight puts them among the lightest carbon clincher wheels money can buy. You can really feel the lack of weight in the wheels on the climbs, helped by Enve's new all-carbon hubs that are a delight to look at.

To get a measure of the Eros with regular wheels I swapped to another set of wheels weighing about 1,500g and while the weight was noticeable on the scales and the steeper climbs, overall the performance remained broadly similar, evident that the underlying quality of the Eros frame shines through regardless of the extremely light wheels on this build.

You really can't go wrong with Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical groupset, and after a stint on a Di2 test bike recently it's a delight to use Shimano's cable operated gear levers. The shifting is so light and really makes it hard in my view to justify Di2 when mechanical is this nice to use. The Stages power meter integrates cleanly into the left-hand crank arm and delivered consistent power measurement throughout.

Enve's own handlebar, stem and seatpost is a fitting finishing kit for such a nice build. The handlebar has a comfortable shape, nicely curved drops that are easily reachable, and noticeably helps to dampen some of the small road chatter. I've said it before, but the Enve seatpost is a bit fiddly to adjust, but it's really only a job you have to do once.

Vredestein Fortezza Senso tyres in a 25mm width add to the comfort and provided reassuring traction in a range of conditions, from rain-soaked roads to pleasantly dry roads.

I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to saddle shapes, but I found the Astute a real delight and it provides immediately comfortable and even on a six-hour ride it was a genuinely nice place to sit.

Conclusion

If your numbers come up this week in the lottery and you want one of most beautiful handling road bikes, make sure to give the Eros a closer look. It puts in a stellar performance and excels at everything, fast on the flat and climbs, comfortable on longer rides and a joy on the descents.

Verdict

Stunning performance but with a stunning price tag