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TECH NEWS
Exclusive sneak peek: B'Twin Ultra AF GF
One of the things we like to do here at road.cc is thumb through the list of UCI-approved frames to see if there's anything new on the Horizon. Yeah, we know. Don't judge us. Everyone has to have a hobby.
Anyway, a new B'Twin bike popped up – BTWI-AL18-RD – and by lucky hap we were off to B'Twin's headquarters in Lille to look at their new electric bikes when we spotted it. So, naturally, we asked if they had one knocking about. And they said they did. And here it is.
Its full name is the B'Twin Ultra AF GF. The GF stands for Gran Fondo and marks the bike out as more of an endurance machine than a racer. That's reflected in the frame geometry which is a bit shorter and taller at the front than the Ultra AF road bike which we gave high praise when we reviewed it in 2016. The GF model also has a more sloped top tube for a more compact frame and greater standover height.
You'll have noticed it gets discs too. This build is a full SRAM Rival HRD groupset with flat mount hydraulic brakes and it'll retail for £1,299. It's a very solid spec for that money, including Mavic Ksyrium Disc wheels, Deda bars and stem and a Fizik saddle. This bike is a pre-production final prototype so elements of the build may change, but it'll look very much like this and the metallic two-tone blue paint scheme is definitely staying, which is good as it looks very fine. There will be a cheaper build too, running Shimano Sora gearing and mechanical discs. The price for that build is yet to be confirmed but it'll be under £1,000.
The frameset (alloy frame and carbon fork) is thru-axle at the front and the rear. It's Di2-compatible too, although it didn't look like you'd be able to fit full mudguards to it, which is a shame as there's plenty of clearance for them. We didn't have the road.cc scales of truth with us but we'd expect the bike to weigh in at around 8.5kg in the SRAM Rival build.
If you want one, then start saving your pennies now: they'll land in June or July.
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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16 comments
The Sora version is now available, cracking spec for the money and a great base for later upgrades:
Aksium wheels + 28mm tyres
12mm thru axles front and rear
Sora mechanical flat mount calipers
Full Sora group with long/med cage mech
Carbon fork
External routing plus what look like Di2 ports in the frame too.
At £899 that's pretty awesome value
As always there's a downer with Decathlon and in this case its no mudguard mounts and I doubt you'd get anything wider than 28mm under the fork. No eyelets anywhere on the frame...
Every time I return to this I think: No rack mounts, no mudguard mounts. Utterly inexplicable.
Serious spec for the money. I do wish they'd tone down the font sizes just a bit though. B'Twin and Rose - both great value, both love a huge "6061 ALUMINIUM" scribble.
And the BTWIN bikes generally have much better wheels and finishing spec too, so not comparing apples to apples...
yet again, the london road thrashes it on price, colour and groupset
i remember when b'twin used to be cheaper than planet x!
People will always find a negative eh.
London road comes equiped with mechanical discs and this comes with hydro ones...so...yeah.
With the money saved on the price you could have it resprayed and stick some cod boutique branding on it (take your pick, mason / genesis / kinesis etc) and no-one will know....
Light fuse, step back, etc.
Blimey, you could take the lumps off of the weld between the top tube and seat tube and make a whole nother bike with it. Also, I think it meeds more annotation too; yes, the flat mounted brakes are nicely pointed out but how is anyone to know where to sit or what to change direction with if not explicitly told?
I just bought a cheap cx bike but if i had known i would have held off a bit, as btwin value for money is off the scale. Mind you 2018 is a long wait. Why has it taken so long?
The bike is released in june/july of 2017. The mechanical Sora version is due out in early October.
Testing took a long time as many other types of disc brakes did not offer decent enough performance and the frame was reworked countless times to guarantee the perfect balance between comfort/responsiveness/weight/geometry. We are very happy with the end result.
But you overlooked how to spell disc?
"But you overlooked how to spell disc?"
There is no consensus on the difference between disc and disk, and in many contexts the two are used interchangeably.
Ooooh! Long time coming, the only reason my latest bike wasn't a B'Twin was because I wanted discs.
Cracking paint job, very odd that it doesn't have mudguard mounts though?
Hi peted76, not for 2017 but there's a tasty 1x11 bike due out in spring of 2018.
Ask em if they have plans for a 'budget priced' cross or gravel bike please?