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Bike at Bedtime: Van Nicholas Ventus

Check out a titanium road bike that has just been updated with disc brakes. It's more affordable than you might imagine too!

The titanium Van Nicholas Ventus road bike is being tested by road.cc reviewer Stu at the moment, and we thought we’d nip in first with a bit of info and a few pics to whet your appetite.

If you don’t know much about Van Nicholas, it’s a brand from The Netherlands that specialises in ti. We’ve reviewed several of its bikes over the years, including the Skeiron and the Yukon Disc – both of which did very well – and we have the Rowtag gravel bike going through the reviews process (ie being ridden ragged in the worst winter weather) at the moment.

2021 Van Nicholas Ventus - rear disc brake.jpg

Back to matters at hand, though… The Ventus is Van Nicholas’ entry-level titanium road bike and it has recently been updated with disc brakes – flat mount standard, which is what pretty much every other brand is opting for on its road bikes these days. 

Van Nicholas says that the disc brakes don’t just provide improved stopping power, they “improve the aerodynamic potential at one of the ‘messier’ points – for wind disturbance, that is – on the frame.”

2021 Van Nicholas Ventus - bars 1.jpg

You get an integrated headset and a full carbon fork with integrated cable routing – features originally developed for the aforementioned Skeiron that have trickled down through the range. The rear brake cable heads internally through the down tube, so that stays out of the wind too.

2021 Van Nicholas Ventus - fork detail.jpg

Like many other disc brake bikes, the Ventus features 12mm thru-axles rather than standard quick-release skewers, the idea being to improve rigidity.

Van Nicholas says that it performs a range of in-house tests on its bikes and that the Ventus is ‘excellent’ in terms of frame stiffness. It’ll be interesting to find out whether Stu agrees.

2021 Van Nicholas Ventus - head tube badge.jpg

The geometry is designed for fast, competitive riding, the head tube on our large model, with a 563mm effective top tube, being a dinky 155mm. It’s a pretty aggressive setup, by the look of things.

Titanium fans often talk about the ride quality; we’ll leave that to Stu, but we have to say that the Ventus looks classy with its engraved head tube, CNCed dropouts, and brushed finish. It’s 3Al/2.5V titanium, by the way, meaning it’s an alloy that’s 3% aluminium and 2.5% vanadium. Being titanium, it won’t corrode.

2021 Van Nicholas Ventus - seat tube junction.jpg

 The Ventus has been available since November in sizes from XS to XL (48cm, 51cm, 54cm, 57cm, and 60cm). Built-up with a Shimano 105 groupset like our review bike, it’s priced €2,499 (about £2,191). It’s €2,799 (about £2,455) with a Shimano Ultegra groupset, and €4,099 (£3,595) if you go for DuraAce groupset. The frameset, including full-carbon front fork, is €1,499 (£1,315).

Standby for a review on road.cc soon.
 
www.vannicholas.com

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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5 comments

Avatar
Secret_squirrel | 3 years ago
1 like

Very very affordable. I wonder how their shipping and VAT payments to the UK are holding up.

Was looking at the Rowtag before I got my Gradient - but seemed lightly reviewed.

Avatar
peted76 | 3 years ago
1 like

That is surprisingly affordable.. a very nice looking bike indeed.

Avatar
Steve K replied to peted76 | 3 years ago
1 like
peted76 wrote:

That is surprisingly affordable.. a very nice looking bike indeed.

Yes. I'm not in the market for a new bike, but also I am eagerly awaiting the review of this to see if that changes!

Avatar
Langsam | 3 years ago
0 likes

Thru axles cannot improve rigidity as they do not take any axial load. 
This marketing BS has been thoroughly debunked. 
road.cc shouldn't be repeating it. 

Avatar
CharlesMagne replied to Langsam | 3 years ago
0 likes

Fascinating. Do please explain.

I thought having a fork leg either side and clamping them to the hub would fix things axially whereupon they might withstand load.

The lack of slots certainly helps, speaking as someone with both through axel and QR discs. That front QR lever does sometimes loosen, which doesn't happen with TA. And if it were to happen with TA I wouldn't cack my pants and the wheel wouldn't pull 20mm sideways under braking because I'd be safe in the knowledge that there's a closed dropout stopping a wheel from falling out.

Reason enough to laud TA in any way, spurious or otherwise.

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