Van Nicholas Zephyr

This latest Van Nicholas Zephyr is one of the best blends of performance and comfort I have known from a road bike, and it's not just down to the pleasing ride quality of the titanium alloy either. The geometry is perfect for those who want to ride quickly without needing to get into an aggressive position, and the handling is so easy to live with at speed or when cruising along.

For more options, check out our guide to the best road bikes for our top picks from just £300 to north of £13,000.

> Buy now: Van Nicholas Zephyr for £7,379 from Van Nicholas

Ride

The biggest surprise for me about the Zephyr is the weight – not so much the fact that it weighed 9.23kg on our scales, but more the way that it doesn't feel that heavy out on the open road.

I hadn't seen that weight before I went out for my first ride, and the Zephyr felt quick off the line and once rolling it picks up speed very well indeed, in a similar way to a carbon aero bike. Above, say, 17mph I could feel the benefits of that head tube shape which flows into the top and down tubes, and the deep-section wheels were also playing their part.

When you want it to, the Zephyr behaves very much like a performance race bike. It's stiff around the bottom of the frame where it needs to be for hard efforts, and it has an urgency about its ride – it responds well to being pushed hard, and for your efforts you do feel as though you're getting a big return.

Get towards 25mph, though, and the Zephyr does remind you that it isn't a race machine; the tall head tube and resulting large frontal area of your riding position means that drag becomes noticeable.

This is by no means a criticism – the Zephyr is an endurance bike, so by its nature it is designed to give a comfortable position for riding long distances. It does that very well indeed, but it's great to know that there is that raciness in its DNA should you need it.

While we're on the subject of comfort, if you want to go long you really can't beat a quality titanium frame. They have a natural spring to them, a subtle smoothness to the ride which just takes any harshness out of the feedback, and the Zephyr has it in an abundance.

Welding a few titanium tubes together doesn't guarantee that excellent ride quality though. As with all other materials, the designer and manufacturer have to know what they are doing. Wall thicknesses, butting (variable wall thicknesses along the length of the tube) and geometry all come into play, but the way the Zephyr behaves shows that this is a very well-designed frame.

It has a firm ride; there is a tightness to it throughout. Hit a climb and hammer the pedals and you won't feel the slightest hint of movement around the bottom bracket, and it's the same at the head tube, which restricts any unwanted movement under heavy braking or steering loads.

From a handling point of view the Zephyr is fairly neutral, which is what you want on this kind of bike, but that doesn't translate into boring or sedate. The Zephyr responds well and quickly to rider input, so dodging potholes that you see at the last minute at speed is a smooth and calm experience, and high-speed technical sections aren't a chore either. It's impressively done.

Van Nicholas has also managed to keep the wheelbase quite short. This medium model (a 54cm essentially) is just 993mm long, so the whole bike feels very responsive and surprisingly nimble considering its intended use and weight.

Overall, the Zephyr is a very well-balanced road bike that'll suit any rider who still wants speed, performance, great handling and comfort, but isn't bothered about being able to get completely aero in an aggressive position.

Frame & Fork

The Zephyr's frame uses 3Al/2.5V (3% aluminium, 2.5% vanadium) titanium alloy tubing with a cast head tube, which is what gives the front end its smooth, aero look.

The rear dropouts and the bottom bracket junction have also been cast, with the latter being designed to accept a T47 BB.

T47, if you haven't come across it, basically uses the dimensions of a press-fit design (so a larger shell diameter) but with bearing cups being threaded into the frame, which limits any discrepancy in tolerances between the cups and frame – something that led to noisy running and premature wear on early press-fit attempts.

The welding is finished to a high standard throughout, and the high sheen finish works well against the graphics. The engraved head tube also looks the business.

Cable and hose routing is internal, which gives a clean look overall, although they enter via a port on the head tube rather than inside the stem and down through the headset, like on many modern bikes. It really isn't an issue for me, but some riders who saw the Zephyr out in the wild reckoned it'd look even sleeker with the hoses hidden. Unlike some new bikes, though, the Zephyr is compatible with both mechanical and electronic groupsets.

Tyre clearance is decent at 35mm.

Van Nicholas offers an impressive warranty to the original owner. The company says it will replace any frame that fails due to manufacturer defects in materials or workmanship for the usable lifecycle (lifetime) of the frame, dependent on the type of frame and various other conditions. It says that 'lifetime' works out as an average 25 years across the line-up.

Geometry

Six sizes are available, with effective frame sizes of 48cm (XS) to 64cm (XXL), so a good spread.

Our 54cm medium model has an effective top tube length of 537mm with a head tube height of 165mm. These correspond to stack and reach figures of 577mm and 366mm respectively.

Both the seat and head angle are 72.5 degrees to create that sporty but not necessarily racy riding position.

Build & pricing

On its website Van Nicholas doesn't offer specific builds as such, as it has a configurator to build your Zephyr to your own specification and budget.

Going in at entry level, the Zephyr has a starting price of £4,655 with a mechanical 105 groupset, alloy finishing kit and shallow rim alloy wheels, while our build with Ultegra Di2, deep-section FFWD wheels, an expensive saddle and a smattering of titanium bling like the seatpost, headset and spacers costs £7,379. If you want the twin titanium water bottle cages you see here too, that'll be another £194.

A frameset retails for £2,880 which includes frame, full carbon fork and headset. You'll need to add thru-axles.

I think the build here works well with a frameset of this quality. The Ultegra R8170 Di2 groupset is arguably one of Shimano's best to date – virtually all the performance of Dura-Ace Di2 with a bit of added weight but a much lighter price tag.

As you can see from our review, the gear shifting is top notch in terms of speed and crispness, and the updated brakes offer even more power and modulation than previous generations.

If Ultegra pushes your budget, the lower tier 105 comes in a Di2 setup without sacrificing much in terms of performance.

Van Nicholas offers groupsets from all of the top brands including SRAM and Campagnolo as well as Shimano.

Wheels & tyres

The Tyro II wheels from FFWD (I reviewed the rim brake version last year) have a 45mm-deep rim so they are good all-rounders, giving a decent aero advantage without being affected too badly by crosswinds.

A 21mm internal width keeps a smooth, rounded profile with wider tyres, and their overall weight isn't too bad for the specs.

FFWD says that they can be used for light gravel too, and because of that durability is very good, and you don't need to worry too much about poor road surfaces.

Wrapped around them are a pair of Schwalbe's Pro Ones – one of my favourite tyres for fast road riding. They have a supple feel, something not always achieved by tubeless tyres, and the compound provides a lot of grip and feedback. I've always found them easy to set up tubeless too, and durability and wear rates are good considering their lightweight, racy nature.

Finishing kit

I've used Van Nicholas's own brand alloy finishing kit on many of its bikes, and it's good kit. The logos make it look a bit more expensive than it is and the Wingshape handlebar fitted here is very comfortable.

The stem is, well, a stem and it does the job you'd expect it to.

Our bike has a titanium seatpost with 15mm of setback which is held in place in the frame by a titanium seatclamp. It's a setup that certainly looks the business and provides a very small amount of extra comfort by bringing that smooth titanium feel to the rear end.

Atop the post is a Selle Italia SLR Boost Kit Carbonio Superflow saddle, which is very comfortable indeed, although it does add £239 to the overall price tag.

Its slender padding and minimalistic shape works for me, while also balancing that performance and comfort ethos that sums up the Zephyr.

Competition

Casting titanium is an expensive business, which is one reason the Zephyr isn't exactly a cheap option, but it does compare well against the similar Reilly Fusion I tested last year.

The Fusion has slightly racier geometry, and the model I tested did come with a very expensive handlebar, but the rest of the build was quite similar, with Ultegra Di2 and deep-section wheels, giving a build price of £8,699 back in July last year. Adjusting the spec to something closer to the Zephyr's brings the price down but only to £8,249, and there are no options to upgrade to titanium components.

Another brand offering titanium frames with cast junctions is J.Guillem. Its Orient has endurance geometry and comes with the same tyre clearance as the Zephyr, and can take full mudguards as well. Using its website to spec a bike with a similar build to the Van Nicholas sees it come in at £6,842. That is with an own brand saddle, as J.Guillem doesn't offer the kind of expensive models that Van Nicholas does. I also found the frame overly stiff when I tested it in 2018, which can become tiring on rough roads.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a performance-orientated road bike that doesn't require a race position to ride, the Zephyr will give you everything you need. Plus, you'll get that excellent comfort and ride quality. Ignore the overall weight, too, as in the real world it is immaterial.

Verdict

Offers a great balance of speed and comfort for those who don't want an aggressive riding position