Wilier Cento10 SL 2021

The Cento10 SL is Wilier Triestina's latest aero bike and it's not just stunning to look at, it's stunning to ride too. The frame comfort is sublime for such a stiff bike, and the geometry creates racy yet perfectly balanced handling. You aren't just limited to disc brakes either.

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Stiff bikes can be comfortable. That's been proven time and time again over the hundreds of bikes I've ridden, but few achieve it in the way Wilier has achieved here.

Living on the outskirts of town, most of my rides start with plenty of short, hard efforts – pulling away from junctions, negotiating urban traffic, roundabouts and so on. So the first thing I ever notice about a bike is its stiffness.

With its wide 86.5mm bottom bracket shell and large profile tubing, the Cento10 has a punchy, direct power delivery when you ask it to get a shift on. Stamp on the pedals and it moves instantaneously with no hint of flex anywhere in the frameset.

So, what was surprising when I cleared the hustle and bustle and found myself in the lanes was just how smooth it rides.

It's akin to the feel you get from a quality steel or titanium frame. You notice the bumps and imperfections of the road, but there's none of the harsh vibration found on some super-stiff carbon offerings.

Using a car analogy, this level of comfort makes the Cento10 feel less like an all-out racer and more of a grand tourer. You have all the performance you need without having to sacrifice ride quality to get it delivered. This has led to the Wilier becoming one of my favourite fast big-ride bikes.

When it comes to speed, there are some noticeable benefits from the kamm-tailed tubes, and the Wilier certainly gets a shift on.

Weight

When we first showed the Cento10 SL in our Five Cool Things piece there were a few comments about its weight. True, at 8kg it's no superlight for the money, but it's hardly a bloater either.

At the same time as the Wilier turned up, I was also reviewing the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 which tips the scales at a svelte 6,850g, just a tickle over the UCI minimum weight limit. It costs a cool £10,500, mind.

In reality, we're talking 1,150g between the two bikes, and while it's noticeable on the road it isn't exactly night and day – the Wilier is still a light bike. Especially for one using an electronic groupset with its motors and batteries, and hydraulic discs with all their extra weight over rim brakes.

The extra performance of both elements, though, makes the Cento10 much more efficient and cancels the weight penalty out.

On the climbs, the Wilier feels eager and sprightly. The stiffness in the frame and fork lets you go for it out of the saddle on power climbs, and on those longer drags the riding position lets you dig in and tap out the pace until you reach the summit.

What goes up must come down, and the sweet handling of the Wilier makes descending a joy.

When it comes to the riding experience, the Cento10 SL is right up there with the best.

Short 405mm chainstays (on this medium model) keep the wheelbase short and make the Cento10 SL feel nimble and fun. The head angle isn't as steep as some race bikes at 72° (that figure changes from 71.3° on the XS through to 73.5° on the XXL), which keeps the handling well away from twitchy while remaining direct and very positive.

Overall, the geometry works very well for me. The saddle height in relation to the handlebar give me a compact, aggressive position when in the drops, and with all the feedback from the frame and fork I feel like part of the bike, rather than somebody perched atop.

The Cento10 SL can take my favourite descents at full chat, flicking from side to side for technical chicanes and staying off the brakes much longer than I can manage on less race-orientated bikes.

The Vittoria Corsa tyres fitted helped here, with impressive levels of grip and confidence, though production models will come with the slightly less racy Rubinos.

Frame and fork

The Cento10 SL is a replacement for the Cento10 Air, which started its life as Wilier's range-topping road bike and has gradually become the mid-level option. The Cento10 SL sits mid-table too, but the only real difference to the top-end Cento10 Pro is the slightly cheaper carbon fibre layup used in its construction.

Other than that you're still getting the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a US agency that developed airfoil profiles) tube shapes that use kamm tails, meaning they're cut off abruptly at the back, rather than tapering gradually. It's something we've seen fairly often on the latest frames and forks.

Something else we're also seeing a lot of lately is new internal cable routings for a very clean and aero look. I've ridden new models from Specialized, Trek, Rose and Merida where the cables/hoses/wires enter the frame via the headset spacers rather than ports in the tubes themselves.

The cables enter underneath the Stemma SL stem, while narrow headset bearings allow four cables to slip down through the head tube before heading off wherever they need to go inside the frame.

The design allows you to adjust spacers and the like without having to remove the cables or handlebar.

Many brands have dropped rim brakes from their line-up entirely, but Wilier offers the Cento10 SL in both disc and rim options, the latter using direct-mount calipers; two bolts thread directly into the frame and fork for a very rigid interface.

Both models can accommodate tyres up to 28mm wide, which I think is plenty for this kind of bike, but some – such as the Specialized Tarmac SL7 – fit up to 32mm.

I mentioned the bottom bracket shell earlier, and the reason it's large is that Wilier uses a BB86.5 press-fit BB. So that's 86.5mm wide (compared to 68mm for standard bearing cups) with a diameter of 41mm. This allows all the tubes at this junction to be oversized, increasing stiffness levels.

Continuing with the aero trend, Wilier has gone for an integrated seatclamp with an expander bung inside the seat tube. It's easy to tweak and once tightened shows no signs of slippage.

Wilier offer six frame sizes, with effective top tube lengths spanning from 513mm to 587mm. Our medium which has a top tube of 541mm, a head tube of 138mm, and a seat tube length of 500mm.

The seat angle is 74° and the frame has a stack of 536mm and a reach of 391mm, which gives an aggressive ratio of just 1.38. It's definitely a bike to be ridden hard and fast.

The SL is available in two colour schemes, either black with red highlights or red with black highlights. The overall paint finish is simply stunning.

Build spec

The Cento10 SL is available in a range of builds starting with Shimano 105, although all three main groupset manufacturers are catered for with SRAM and Campagnolo also getting a look in. The model we have uses an Ultegra Di2 R8070 groupset and hydraulic brakes.

Gearing isn't quite as race-derived as I was expecting, with a compact 50/34t chainset and an 11-30t cassette. It still gives a large spread of gears top and bottom which, let's be honest, is probably all most of us are going to need.

I won't go into huge detail about the groupset as it's been said countless times before, but shifting from the electronic mechs is quick and precise while requiring very little in the way of maintenance. The braking is also top-notch, and Wilier specs a 160mm disc up front and a 140mm rear. That's plenty of stopping power.

Wilier has worked with Ritchey on the finishing kit. The Stemma SL stem uses the same sleek design as the Ritchey Chicane stem I previously tested, so you get hidden mounting bolts and a hinged faceplate. The Barra SL bar offers plenty of hand positions and a decent balance between stiffness and comfort.

Ritchey has also created the seatpost to work with the integrated clamp design, and as always their components create a real feeling of quality – this is a build that needs no upgrading at all. The Selle Italia X3 saddle also gets a thumbs up from me.

I've seen bikes upwards of five grand equipped with entry-level aluminium wheels, but Wilier has gone for a set of its NDR38KC. They are 38mm deep with a 24mm width externally, although the internal width is just 17mm. While many new wheels are 19mm or 21mm for road riding, I never thought these looked or felt skinny.

Our test bike came with 25mm Vittoria Corsa tyres, which sat nicely on the rims with a rounded, smooth profile, but production models will come with 25mm Rubinos. The Rubinos are more of an all-round intensive training tyre than the racier Corsas, but the last set I reviewed still offered decent levels of performance and impressive grip levels so all of the important bases are covered.

Our test model also arrived with everything set up tubeless, and the wheels performed perfectly throughout testing. Wilier's claimed wheelset weight is 1,665g, which is perfectly reasonable, and I found they work well for all styles of riding.

Value

This model is the top-level bike (along with a SRAM Force eTap AXS option for the same money) in the SL line up, and comes in at £5,290. Wilier is relatively small compared to Specialized, Trek and the other big hitters, so doesn't have the same kind of buying power, but it still manages to be quite competitive.

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For instance, a Spesh Tarmac SL7 Expert with Ultegra Di2 costs £4,750. That's a build with DT Swiss R470 alloy rims mated to Specialized hubs; if you want carbon wheels with the same groupset then you need the SL7 Pro at £6,250. That Spesh, however, does get a frame that's lighter by about 200g.

Keeping with the new aero, do-everything kind of bike, we can't forget the Trek Emonda. I recently rode the SL 6 Pro which comes with a mechanical Ultegra groupset and carbon wheels for just £3,350. The closest comparison on weight and build is the SL7 at £4,850.

Conclusion

The Wilier is a stunning bike to ride. Going by the spec sheet it's not the lightest option, but in the real world it just doesn't matter. Not once, even on the steepest climb, did I wish it was 250g or 500g lighter.

The ride quality – the beautiful balance of comfort versus stiffness that Wilier has achieved – is all that stays in your mind. Yes, there are bikes out there that for less money or with less weight, but very few make you feel this good when you riding them, and for me – and perhaps for many – that's the key.

This is a bike for the connoisseur.

Verdict

An exceptional balance of stiffness, comfort and riding pleasure