Five cool bikes for every taste — Brompton C Line, Orro e-bike, Merida Scultura, Handsling all-road bike and Vitus CX bike

This week's five cool things is all about bikes! After all of the holiday buzz, January is a month to make plans for the upcoming year, and perhaps one of those plans is to buy a new bike. If you are planning to invest in one, our reviews are an excellent way to see what could suit your needs and budget the best. And, we have always more reviews coming out - including the ones listed here. 

Which one of these would you like to test ride and own? Let us know in the comments! 

Merida Scultura Limited
£3,000

This one is a bike for those who want to perhaps dip into racing. Scultura is a bike model that the WorldTour team Bahrain Victorious put through its paces, winning many of the world-class races - and this little more budget-friendly version that we have to test claims to be a very lightweight, agile and comfortable bike.

> Best road bikes 2023 — find your perfect drop bar bike whatever your budget

For the new Merida Scultura model, the brand has swapped the aero tubing to round to save on weight, and the Scultura Limited model comes with comfy 28mm continental tyres and an 11-speed Shimano 105 groupset, ensuring grip and crisp shifting. 

• www.merida-bikes.com

Vitus Energie 24 Youth CX Bike
£600

Cyclocross is an ever more popular discipline, and that means that more young riders are wanting to get involved, as well. That is the market that Vitus has made the Energie 24 Youth bike which serves the smaller, growing bodies, smaller hands and new young riders who are keen to practise their handling and control. 

The Energie 24 is an alloy bike and is really optimised for smaller riders. It comes with a narrower bottom bracket area and  a compact handlebar with a smaller drop and a shorter reach to prevent the instability of over-stretching. 38mm Kenda tyres offer grip on the mud and bolt-thru axles help to firm up the feel and efficiency of the bike. Shifting is handled by Microshift, and there is a single front chainring combined with an 8-speed cassette at the back. 

• vitusbikes.com

Handsling CEXevo SRAM Force AXS
£4,700

The Hampshire-based Handsling is known for its premium carbon bikes, and the CEXevo is no exception. CEXevo is a gravel/cyclocross/all-road bike that represents the top-end of this batch of bikes and comes with quite an impressive build spec. 

> Best gravel bikes 2023 — adventure-ready rides for leaving the tarmac behind

It comes equipped with SRAM's electronic 12-speed groupset, Handsling Superlight Thru Axles, carbon seatpost and Parcours Alta wheels. The whole build is said to weigh under 8kg and the brand says it will excel both on or off-road. 

• handslingbikes.com

Orro Terra E GRX600 e-bike
£3,900

Orro Terra is the first ORRO electric bike in the brand’s Terra off-road family and at the first glance, you’d not suspect the bike to have a motor in it. 

The bike has a System HM1 hub motor, which can deliver up to 42Nm of torque and a range of about 50 miles. 

> Best electric bikes under £3,000 2023 – best of the bunch for under £3k

The whole system is as integrated as possible, and the rider chooses one of the five modes with a single button on the top tube, and the HM1 250Wh battery is neatly hidden in the down tube. There is a range extender which fits into a bottle cage available, and you can see the battery level and customise the system settings on a mobile app.  

• www.i-ride.co.uk

Brompton C Line Explore
£1,640

We’ve covered the roadies and graveliers, and the youth so the last bike we’ve got to test is a city commuter. The Brompton C Line Explore is the brand’s all-steel workhorse made for all-weather commuting or touring (yes, people do tour on their Bromptons).

It takes plenty of luggage and although most use these bikes for commuting, Brompton says some owners have cycled their C lines around the world. 

The C Line is one of Brompton’s most customisable models and ours comes with six gears, mudguards and a high (H type) handlebar. 

• www.brompton.com

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