Moser Speed road bike

The Moser Speed is everything you need from an entry-level road bike. It's efficient, quick, not over-heavy and reasonably comfortable too. The full price is nearly £700 but it's currently discounted to just £450 (it's a Wiggle exclusive build) and for that money it's a genuine bargain.

What are you getting for your money? Well, the frameset is 7005 T6 alloy and the tube shapes are unusually angular in the main triangle with more classic profiles towards the rear. Welds can best be described as chunky, and the finish is good quality with red and black decals on the white that are inoffensive, if not exactly stylish.

The fork features carbon blades and an alloy steerer (it's a standard 1 1/8in headset), painted to match the frame. There are no rack mounts or – more surprisingly – mudguard eyelets. If you want to run 'guards you'll need QR adaptors or clip-ons. That seems like a missed opportunity as it'll rule out the Moser as a winter trainer for many.

You get most of a Shimano Sora transmission on the Speed. Shifters, derailleurs and brakes are all from Shimano's fifth-tier groupset which we've reviewed on road.cc and rate very highly (road.cc/content/review/100555-shimano-sora-3500-groupset) as budget running gear. Interestingly it's specced with an 11-25 cassette rather than a 12-27, or an 11-30.

The chainset is an FSA Omega unit which saves a few quid, but it's the MegaExo version, running on external bearings, as opposed to the square-taper one. Fulcrum's entry-level Racing Sport wheels, fitted with Vittoria Zaffiro rubber, do the rolling. Finishing kit is a mix of FSA alloy bits, with a Selle San Marco Ponza saddle. All in the bike weighs an acceptable 9.4kg without pedals.

All in all, this is a bike that looks well specced, with nothing that looks like it needs immediate attention. Well, almost nothing. I changed the saddle out of personal preference, and the bar tape, which has the vibration-damping properties of insulating tape, would be next to go. But that's an issue on bikes costing plenty more than this.

I took the Moser out on a variety of rides from commuting to a big loop South of Bath and it acquitted itself admirably. In a cycling world increasingly dominated by talk of super-light bikes and incremental gains, it's always good to hop on something a bit more budget and remind yourself that it's your legs, and not your bike, that are the real limiting factor.

I wasn't really any slower on the Moser than I had been on the £2.5k Ridley Fenix that was my previous test racer (/content/review/114008-ridley-fenix-classic-ultegra-road-bike); that was 1.6kg lighter and more comfortable and generally classier, but in terms of raw numbers not hugely quicker.

I was still beating the same people up the climbs. And getting dropped by the same people on the climbs. And when you're tucking into a group and hacking along the flat the extra weight isn't really noticeable. Only on the false flats and the stop-starts from junctions does the Moser feel a bit sluggish, taking a few extra turns of the pedals to wind up to speed.

Aside from the dreadful bar tape, the Moser is a reasonably comfortable bike, too. I was riding a 58cm (it appears Wiggle have sold out of the largest size) and turned the stem up to mitigate the fact that I'm not hugely flexible after a recent back injury, but that done the position was good. The 200mm head tube is sportive rather than all-out race but that's sensible for a bike at this price. I was running plenty of the 27.2mm seatpost out of the frame which helped tame the back end bumps a bit. The effective top tube, at 594mm, is longer than you'd expect given the 58cm stated size. Really it's more like a 59/60cm frame, which is worth noting across all the other sizes too.

The frame is stiff enough to deal with some hefty stamping on the pedals without significant deflection, and at the front the fork tracks very well through the corners. It's not in superbike territory, but you wouldn't expect that from a £500 bike and it didn't give me any cause for concern at any point.

The front end can feel a touch bendy if you're sprinting in the drops, but that's more likely to be in the bars and stem than the frame.

Overall, it was very well behaved. Steering is neutral, the bike is stable at speed and easy to move about.

The Shimano Sora gears did their usual trick of being excellent. Okay they're four rungs down the ladder from Dura-Ace and you're a couple of cogs short, but for day-to-day riding it's hard to find fault with them. Shifts are crisp and accurate, they're easy to adjust on the fly thanks to the barrel adjuster on the cable exit, and you can see what gear you're in if you like that kind of thing. Plus, if you need to change your chain and/or cassette you can pick up either for not much more than a tenner.

Cassette wise I suffered like a dog on the 20% grind up to King Alfred's Tower, and would have appreciated a couple of extra sprockets. But like I said, changing to a wider cassette won't break the bank. Coming back down the other side the Sora brakes were fine; the scratchy pad material they use isn't the best, though, and that's another quick and effective upgrade you can make for better performance.

Fulcrum's Racing Sport wheels are decent rather than exceptional, but I've seen plenty worse on bikes costing plenty more than this. If I was to pick a budget tyre to stick on a budget bike the Zaffiro would be near the top of the list: good unflustered performance, decent resistance to flats. It's a shame they didn't spec the 25mm version though.

All in all the Moser Speed is exactly what you want from a budget road bike. It's quick, well built with reliable equipment, reasonably comfortable and reasonably light. With a couple of quick tweaks (bar tape, brake pads) it's good to go for most road riding. At £700 it'd be a very decent bike, but at less than £450 you're getting a serious bargain. The only real disappointment is the lack of mudguard mounts, so it's not really suitable as a winter bike. But for fairer-weather beginners and riders on a budget, it's a great buy.

Verdict

Solid entry level road bike that performs admirably; real bargain at the current price.