The Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 is part of Spa’s Audax and Sportive line-up – and its geometry, contact points and beautiful ride quality mean that the longer the ride, the better! Based around a high-quality titanium frame and full carbon fork the Elan Ti Mk2 is comfortable, and quicker than you’d expect given the figure you see on the scales.
Our best touring bikes buyer’s guide looks at our top tourers, while our sister site off.road.cc rounds up 10 of the best titanium gravel and adventure bikes you can buy.
> Buy now: Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 for £2,495 from Spa Cycles
Ride
Like many others, if I was looking for a road bike that is going to give long-distance comfort, an involving ride feel and durability, then titanium would be my frame material of choice – and those qualities are exactly what the Elan Ti Mk2 offers by the bucket load.
First up, the geometry.
There’s no doubt that the Elan’s tall head tube looks a little ungainly when compared with a racier machine, but on a bike like this it put me in just the right position.
It delivers a relaxed, slightly upright position that still allows you the option of getting more aero in the drops should the need arise. Also, if you were to bin all the spacers, you can still get a decent drop from your saddle to the bar if you desire.
It’s good that you can too, as I was surprised how sprightly the Spa feels. At 10.25kg it’s no lightweight out of the blocks, but once you’re got it rolling it feels much more eager to get a shift on than I was expecting.
The majority of my riding miles on the Elan Ti were commuting to the office, a trip of around 18 miles each way. The route is primarily main roads interspersed by a couple of traffic-packed towns, with a trip across Bath at the end or the beginning.
The tall front end allows you to see over and through the traffic, helping you to make quick progress through snarled-up vehicles, while the neutral handling means slow-speed direction changes are easy and stress-free.
With the assurance of the hydraulic disc brakes backing me up, I felt like I could cut through the traffic like a Deliveroo rider on a sugar rush without having to worry about how to deal with the situation unfolding in front of me.
Considering the stretched wheelbase, the bike is nimble too, which makes integrating with the ebb and flow of urban traffic a breeze.
Away from the congestion, though, the Elan Ti becomes a proper mile muncher. It responds nicely to your touch at the pedals or the handlebar, but when you just want to ride and take in the scenery or let your mind wander it is hugely stable and just a real joy to ride.
What really helps is that the bike fitted me perfectly, not through any customisation – it just felt absolutely bang on. When riding, I really felt like part of the bike and whichever way I leaned, or tweaked my ride too just saw the Elan move with me.
Even on high-speed descents it felt unflustered, flowing cleanly through wide open bends with good visibility, and while it lacks a race bike’s razor-sharp steering it coped more than admirably with technical sections.
It’s not a bad ascender either. This bike is running a compact chainset and an 11-speed cassette with a decent 11-32 range, but thanks primarily to the position I could happily stay in the saddle and turn the pedals over.
Even long climbs didn’t play on my lower back, which can be a bit of a nightmare at times, and should the need arise to get out of the saddle there is plenty of stiffness around the lower half of the frame for your hard efforts.
But it’s the big-mile treks where the Elan really comes into its own. The frame has that underlying smoothness that is inherent in titanium alloy tubing, and paired with the full carbon fork the comfort is wonderful.
My longest ride was just over four hours and I stepped off the Elan with sore legs – but absolutely no niggles elsewhere. And that, considering how damaged my body is from various interactions with car bonnets, is very high praise indeed.
Also, ever since I’ve been reviewing e-bikes for ebiketips I’ve got into a habit of staying seated in the saddle on a road bike for longer stints than I probably should. Normally I’m reminded to stand up and stretch when I can feel my back tightening up, but I never got that nudge on the Elan.
Overall, the Elan offers great comfort for epic rides while being great fun and quick enough so that you don’t ignore it if you want to go out for a quicker blast. It’s definitely the kind of bike you could use for commuting and winter training during the week, with longer routes planned for the weekend.
You’ll certainly never tire of riding it – I certainly haven’t.
Frame and Fork
The main changes to the Mk2 compared to the Mk1 is that it accepts 12mm thru-axles rather than quick-release axles, and the calliper mounting has been upgraded from post mount to flat mount, which brings it bang up to date with modern build specs.
The Mk1 is still available on Spa Cycles’ website, so you still have the choice. And this is ideal if you have an existing bike with a quick-release setup and want a frameset to transfer your existing components over to.
The Elan’s seamless tubing is the familiar 3Al/2.5V alloy of titanium blended with 3% aluminium and 2.5% vanadium. It has a bright, brushed finish, which is easy to keep looking like new, and the welding quality is to a very neat standard indeed, even around the small components such as the bottle bosses and cable guides.
This size frame weighs around 1.65kg and it comes with a 10-year warranty for the original owner.
The Elan is primarily a light tourer, given even more versatility with some very impressive tyre clearances. Without the full mudguards it’ll take 45mm tyres, and even 40mm tyres with fenders fitted.
This means that the Elan isn’t limited to the road. With the right kind of rubber, it’s a capable machine when ridden on hard-packed surfaces such as canal paths, by-ways and gravel trails, which gives you the ability to try that track or backlane that you’ve never been down before.
You can also run the Elan with 650b wheels.
Unlike some frames the Elan isn’t adorned with loads of mounting points but from my point of view that isn’t any reason to mark it down. With the amount of frame, bar and seatpost bags available to us now, it would be easy to load up the Elan up for a lightweight tour.
What it does have, though, is mountings for bottle cages in the traditional places and the ability to take a rear rack.
Full mudguards are catered for, and with the mounting points again in a traditional position there’s no faffing around with the stays to get them to fit.
The Elan’s frame doesn’t offer internally routed cables or hoses, so it only really works, or at least looks right with, mechanical groupsets with cable or hydraulic brakes.
I’ve got no real issue with that to be honest. The tubes don’t need to be drilled or have ports or guides welded to them, which both keeps the cost down and makes maintenance either whether on the commute or in the back of beyond.
The titanium frame is paired with a full carbon fork. Ours came with the Elan Mk2 standard option, though for an extra £95 you can upgrade to an Enigma C-Six model.
There are six sizes available in total, ranging from 50cm to 58cm of which we have the 54cm here for review.
It has a top tube length of 552mm, head tube height of 175mm and a seat tube of 540mm. The wheelbase is 1,047mm and the chainstays are 440mm.
From a stack and reach point of view you are looking at 602.6mm and 384.1mm respectively, which ties in with how tall the front end is.
The head tube is a quite shallow 71.5°, with the seat tube steeper at 72.5°.
Finishing Kit
The build we have here uses a Shimano 105 R7000 groupset and hydraulic disc brakes.
As both of those reviews report, the gear shifting and braking performance is hard to fault even in the rain or mud, and it offers excellent value.
As I touched on above, we’ve got the compact chainset with 50/34T chainrings, but Spa provides you with plenty of options including the Shimano GRX 46/30T or for an extra £40 you could get Spa’s own TD2 Super Compact in 46/30T, 44/28T, 42/26T and 40/24T chainrings, giving you a super-low 32×24 bottom gear.
In fact, Spa builds all its bikes to order and offers plenty of customising offers, with Hope Edition builds adding a bit of bling. Go to the website for a full build and upgrade list.
Our bike’s finishing kit has an FSA Wing Compact handlebar and its Omega stem, with a Deda Zero 1 alloy seatpost.
As standard the Elan comes with Spa’s own Navigator saddle and it isn’t one that I exactly gelled with and is probably the only bit of the build I’d change.
The standard price includes Mavic Aksium wheels, which are tough and durable though they are a little weighty. But I’ve ridden thousands of miles on Aksiums over the years though and they are a good choice for this kind of bike.
Our test bike has handbuilt wheels, which Spa says the vast majority of Elan buyers go for. These add a comparatively modest £160 to the cost and during testing these performed excellently in all kinds of weather conditions and over numerous different surfaces – so I’d say they’re a worthwhile upgrade.
Spa also offers a range of Schwalbe tyres, with the default model the Schwalbe One Folding fitted to our bike.
It’s an excellent tyre designed for fast riding, with plenty of grip and low rolling resistance. It’s probably not a tyre I’d use all year-round, but for the spring, summer and autumn it’s a belter and helps give the Elan that bit of a boost.
Price, Value and Options
Overall, I think the Elan Mk2 offers good value, and that is helped even more by the fact that the four different models are currently on sale – I’ll put those prices in brackets.
So, this 105 build starts at £2,950 (£2,495) which includes the kit I’ve mentioned above, although the wheels mean that this bike is £3,110 (£2,655) as reviewed.
Other than that, you can have the same base build with Ultegra R8000 for £3,199 (£2,770). The builds with the Hope components and wheels start at £3,400 (£2,965) for the 105 and £3,549 (£3,240) for the Ultegra option.
A frameset is £1,315 which includes the frame and the fork.
If titanium is a little out of your reach, then there is a Reynolds 725 Mk2 steel option on offer. A 105 build with cable discs is £1,445 or £1,710 with hydraulics. Ultegra R8000 is £1,950, while the Hope Editions are £2,180 for 105 and £2,420 for Ultegra.
Both the Ti and 725 builds are available with Spa’s Mk1 frames too and you can add numerous accessories to your bike at the time of ordering.
From a competition point of view, you could go for Ribble’s Endurance Ti which in a 105 build with Aksiums is £2,599, though that’s without any extras such as the mudguards that come as standard on the Spa.
I rode the Ribble a while back and was very impressed, although I would say that I feel the Elan has a slightly better ride quality, and the geometry was spot on for me.
Alpkit has quite a large range of bikes, one of which is the more gravel-focused Sonder Colibri Ti 105. Way back in 2015 David tested the pre-production model and was impressed. With a 105 groupset it costs £2,549, with mudguards an extra £40.
Conclusion
At the current sale price, the Elan is very competitively priced, but even at its full retail price I think with the build and ride quality on offer it definitely goes on my recommended list. The way the geometry works alongside the comfort of the titanium makes is a great long-distance machine, but with that nippiness there if you want to ride quickly.
Verdict
Belies its weight in terms of performance and offers an incredibly comfortable ride
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road.cc test report
Make and model: Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 105 R7000 11-speed
Size tested: 54, 573mm
About the bike
List the components used to build up the bike.
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105 RD-R7000 GS
Front Derailleur: Shimano 105 FD-R7000
Shifters: Shimano 105 ST-R7020 Hydraulic
Chainset: Shimano 105 FC-R7000 50/34
Bottom Bracket: Shimano BB-R60
Chain: KMC 11 spd X11-93
Freewheel: Shimano 105 CS-R7000 11-32
Headset: FSA Orbit ITA
Stem: FSA Omega OS-167 (60mm to 130mm)
Handlebars: FSA Wing Compact (38cm – 44cm)
Brakes: Shimano 105 BR-R7070 Hydraulic
Tyres: Schwalbe One Folding 30mm
Many other Schwalbe options available
Saddle: Spa Navigator
Seatpost: Deda Zero 1 27.2mm
Grips: Spa Cork Comfort with EVA Gel
Miscellaneous: SKS CAB Mudguards
Wheels: Handbuilt wheelset with Bitex hubs
Tell us what the bike is for and who it’s aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about the bike?
Spa Cycles says: “The Elan is our new 12mm Thru Axle/Flat Mount do anything bike. It’s a light tourer, or you can fit big tyres and hit the trails, or light wheels and join the chaingang. Custom tube profiles as well as sizes mean its stiff enough to be quick, but not so stiff to be uncomfortable. The tall front end means you can get the bars level with the saddle, even though a carbon steerer limits the number of spacers.
You can have 11 speed with hydraulic discs and a compact double or Spa’s own super compact, or you can have 10 speed triple with cable discs.”
The Elan Ti has geometry that is well suited to long rides and commuting, but the way it rides means that it has a performance nature to it too.
Where does this model sit in the range? Tell us briefly about the cheaper options and the more expensive options
The MK2 version of the Elan Ti is available in this 105 mechanical build and an Ultegra option (£3,199). Both of these can then be upgraded to the Hope Edition with upgraded finishing kit from, yes, Hope. The 105-equipped model costs £3,400 with the Ultegra coming in at £3,549, although all bikes are currently available with around a £500 discount.
Frame and fork
Tell us about the build quality and finish of the frame and fork?
Neatly welded and backed up with a ten-year warranty.
Tell us about the materials used in the frame and fork?
The frame is constructed from 3AL/2.5V titanium alloy tubing and is paired with a carbon fibre fork.
Tell us about the geometry of the frame and fork?
The geometry is typical of this type of bike, with relaxed angles for both the head and seat tubes compared to a race bike, which brings balanced steering and a comfortable ride position designed for long-distance outings.
How was the bike in terms of height and reach? How did it compare to other bikes of the same stated size?
A tall head tube gives an upright position in comparison to a race bike, which increases the stack height and removes stress from the lower back. The reach figure is fairly typical.
Riding the bike
Was the bike comfortable to ride? Tell us how you felt about the ride quality.
Yes, comfort levels are good thanks to some flex in the tubing and the overall geometry.
Did the bike feel stiff in the right places? Did any part of the bike feel too stiff or too flexible?
For the type of riding the Elan is designed for stiffness is absolutely fine, and it proved capable even on out-of-the-saddle efforts on steep climbs.
How did the bike transfer power? Did it feel efficient?
Overall, the bike feels lighter than it is, which makes it feel efficient, and the compact gear ratios help you get the best out of the bike.
Was there any toe-clip overlap with the front wheel? If so was it a problem?
No
How would you describe the steering? Was it lively neutral or unresponsive? On the fun side of neutral.
Tell us some more about the handling. How did the bike feel overall? Did it do particular things well or badly?
The geometry means the Elan’s steering has a neutral feel, which works great for long distance rides and riding in poor conditions. I felt that the Elan coped well when descending at speed as well.
Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike’s comfort? would you recommend any changes?
I didn’t get on with the saddle, so I changed that for something more my shape, but other than that I found all of the kit comfortable. And saddle choice is, of course, highly subjective.
Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike’s stiffness? would you recommend any changes?
The 105 crankset is very stiff and I found no flex in the handbuilt wheels that our review model came with.
Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike’s efficiency? would you recommend any changes?
The Schwalbe tyres are grippy and fast rolling, which allows you to carry plenty of speed into the corners and on to descents. This adds to the efficiency of the compact gearing too.
This isn’t really what the Elan – or indeed any bike designed for touring – is designed for, but in practice I found it more capable than I was expecting.
The drivetrain
Tell us some more about the drivetrain. Anything you particularly did or didn’t like? Any components which didn’t work well together?
Dependable and excellent shifting/braking performance from the 105 mechanical groupset.
Wheels and tyres
Tell us some more about the wheels.Did they work well in the conditions you encountered? Would you change the wheels? If so what for?
These handbuilt wheels were excellent straight out of the box, feeling light and strong. They have coped well with plenty of wet weather too.
Tell us some more about the tyres. Did they work well in the conditions you encountered? Would you change the tyres? If so what for?
Schwalbe’s One tyres are very grippy and fast rolling which worked well with the Elan Ti. It helped give the bike a nippy edge to the ride.
Controls
Tell us some more about the controls. Any particularly good or bad components? How would the controls work for larger or smaller riders?
I got on with all of the components other than the saddle, which is the only component that I’d change.
Your summary
Did you enjoy riding the bike? Yes
Would you consider buying the bike? Yes
Would you recommend the bike to a friend? Yes
How does the price compare to that of similar bikes in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
Ribble’s Endurance Ti Disc with the same groupset as the Elan and Aksium wheels is £2,599 although mudguards aren’t included. Sonder’s four-season road bike, the Colibri Ti, will take full mudguards and comes with a 105 groupset for £2,549 with mudguards adding another forty quid.
Use this box to explain your overall score
An excellent ride quality and the fact that it feels much more responsive than its touring/audax design would have you expect mean that I found the Elan much more of an all-rounder than I envisaged. And it’s good value too – especially at its sale price.
About the tester
Age: 44
I usually ride: This month’s test bike My best bike is: B’Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components
I’ve been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,
9 thoughts on “Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 105 R7000 11-speed”
Glad to see road bikes with
Glad to see road bikes with such upright geometry. It seems like a bike designed by riders for riders, not for racers and then offered to riders as the industry predominantly does.
I got close to buying one but
I got close to buying one but it really needed a trip to Harrogate to understand the sizing and fit because of that high front end. It’s difficult to transfer the fit from an existing bike across to it on paper because it’s so out of whack with most other stuff out there. For example I normally ride a “56” in a modern sloping geo but it looked like a 54 – or even a 52! might have fitted better. I’m 5’11” with relatively stubby legs.
I ride a very upright bike
I ride a very upright bike for drop bars, and this Spa seems similar. I feel very comfortable and provides great visibility. I cannot understand why so many people are commuting on race geometries, but maybe because not such geometries are offered.
cyclisto wrote:
That’s exactly right. So many who end up with a racing bike or cheap copy thereof would be very much happier and, paradoxically, “faster” with a bike design like this one.
Most who buy racey bikes don’t really have the body conditioning to ride them well or in comfort and probably never will have. It takes thousands of miles, a great deal of time and quite a bit of other physical conditing to be able to hold a racing position on a bike yet still produce full potential power for significant periods.
And why would you want to if not racing? Fast-as-possible is not what most cyclists enjoy. The journey is the thing, not getting to the end faster than …. ???? . There’s more than one kind of efficieny in cycling.
This Spa bike has other attributes truly beneficial to the owner, besides the normally more upright riding position (with drop bars for the aero descents or rides agin’ a strong wind).
You can get at the cables without an apprenticeship in modern cabledom! Thank gawd. You can change the bar height by quite a lot. The BB allows any sort of chainset of any size, with the added benefit of being able to slide the front derailleur up or down the seat tube to get it in the right position, unlike with many racey bikes with braze-on fitting. Fat tyres or slimmer tyres go in it. Bosses on the down tube for gear adjusters or even old fashioned down tube levers. Fittings for guards, racks and so forth. Etc..
Marvellous, really.
Of course, it won’t win the TdeF. But neither will the wannabees Tarmac SL8, with the wannabee riding it. (A bad back and a stiff neck might be won, though). 🙂
The envy of the racing snakes
The envy of the racing snakes is strong with this one
Cudgel ; the voice of reason.
Cudgel ; the voice of reason.
I like the Pearson Forge,
I like the Pearson Forge, that has some new geo that I am not able to fathom online (from the Stack and Reach numbers, past bike fits ect) and so if I was in the market, would travel to the shop in London so as to get the right fit.
Yup. Too bad there isn’t a
Yup. Too bad there isn’t a picture of the rider in the saddle. Or even with a level horizon.
External cable—I think they
External cable—I think they look just fine. Some others may differ, but they are definitely much easier to maintain and adjust on the fly. You can literally tune them as you ride, which has to be a big plus for an endurance bike, not a negative. Admittedly they could do with better routing for the rear brake pipe!
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