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The Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 is a part of Spa’s Audax and Sportive line-up – and its geometry, contact factors and delightful journey high quality imply that the longer the journey, the higher! Primarily based round a high-quality titanium body and full carbon fork the Elan Ti Mk2 is snug, and faster than you’d anticipate given the determine you see on the scales.
Our best touring bikes purchaser’s information seems to be at our high tourers, whereas our sister web site off.street.cc rounds up 10 of the best titanium gravel and adventure bikes you can buy.
> Buy now: Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 for £2,495 from Spa Cycles
Journey
Like many others, if I used to be in search of a street bike that’s going to provide long-distance consolation, an involving journey really feel and sturdiness, then titanium can be my body materials of alternative – and people qualities are precisely what the Elan Ti Mk2 presents by the bucket load.
First up, the geometry.
There is no doubt that the Elan’s tall head tube seems to be somewhat ungainly in comparison with a racier machine, however on a motorbike like this it put me in simply the proper place.
It delivers a relaxed, barely upright place that also permits you the choice of getting extra aero within the drops ought to the necessity come up. Additionally, should you had been to bin all of the spacers, you possibly can nonetheless get a good drop out of your saddle to the bar should you need.
It is good you can too, as I used to be shocked how sprightly the Spa feels. At 10.25kg it is no light-weight out of the blocks, however when you’re acquired it rolling it feels way more desirous to get a shift on than I used to be anticipating.
The vast majority of my using miles on the Elan Ti had been commuting to the workplace, a visit of round 18 miles every manner. The route is primarily primary roads interspersed by a few traffic-packed cities, with a visit throughout Tub on the finish or the start.
The tall entrance finish permits you to see over and thru the visitors, serving to you to make fast progress by way of snarled-up autos, whereas the impartial dealing with means slow-speed course adjustments are straightforward and stress-free.
With the reassurance of the hydraulic disc brakes backing me up, I felt like I might minimize by way of the visitors like a Deliveroo rider on a sugar rush with out having to fret about how one can cope with the scenario unfolding in entrance of me.
Contemplating the stretched wheelbase, the bike is nimble too, which makes integrating with the ebb and circulate of city visitors a breeze.
Away from the congestion, although, the Elan Ti turns into a correct mile muncher. It responds properly to your contact on the pedals or the handlebar, however once you simply wish to journey and take within the surroundings or let your thoughts wander it’s vastly steady and only a actual pleasure to journey.
What actually helps is that the bike fitted me completely, not by way of any customisation – it simply felt completely bang on. When using, I actually felt like a part of the bike and whichever manner I leaned, or tweaked my journey too simply noticed the Elan transfer with me.
Even on high-speed descents it felt unflustered, flowing cleanly by way of huge open bends with good visibility, and whereas it lacks a race bike’s razor-sharp steering it coped greater than admirably with technical sections.
It is not a nasty ascender both. This bike is operating a compact chainset and an 11-speed cassette with a good 11-32 vary, however thanks primarily to the place I might fortunately keep within the saddle and switch the pedals over.
Even lengthy climbs did not play on my decrease again, which is usually a little bit of a nightmare at occasions, and will the necessity come up to get out of the saddle there may be loads of stiffness across the decrease half of the body to your arduous efforts.
But it surely’s the big-mile treks the place the Elan actually comes into its personal. The body has that underlying smoothness that’s inherent in titanium alloy tubing, and paired with the complete carbon fork the consolation is fantastic.
My longest journey was simply over 4 hours and I stepped off the Elan with sore legs – however completely no niggles elsewhere. And that, contemplating how broken my physique is from varied interactions with automobile bonnets, may be very excessive reward certainly.
Additionally, ever since I have been reviewing e-bikes for ebiketips I’ve acquired right into a behavior of staying seated within the saddle on a street bike for longer stints than I in all probability ought to. Usually I am reminded to face up and stretch once I can really feel my again tightening up, however I by no means acquired that nudge on the Elan.
Total, the Elan presents nice consolation for epic rides whereas being nice enjoyable and fast sufficient in order that you do not ignore it if you wish to exit for a faster blast. It is positively the form of bike you could possibly use for commuting and winter coaching in the course of the week, with longer routes deliberate for the weekend.
You may definitely by no means tire of using it – I definitely have not.
Body and Fork
The principle adjustments to the Mk2 in comparison with the Mk1 is that it accepts 12mm thru-axles moderately than quick-release axles, and the calliper mounting has been upgraded from put up mount to flat mount, which brings it bang updated with fashionable construct specs.
The Mk1 continues to be accessible on Spa Cycles’ web site, so you continue to have the selection. And that is superb if in case you have an current bike with a quick-release setup and desire a frameset to switch your current parts over to.
The Elan’s seamless tubing is the acquainted 3Al/2.5V alloy of titanium blended with 3% aluminium and a pair of.5% vanadium. It has a vivid, brushed end, which is simple to maintain trying like new, and the welding high quality is to a really neat commonplace certainly, even across the small parts such because the bottle bosses and cable guides.
This dimension body weighs round 1.65kg and it comes with a 10-year guarantee for the unique proprietor.
The Elan is primarily a lightweight tourer, given much more versatility with some very spectacular tyre clearances. With out the complete mudguards it will take 45mm tyres, and even 40mm tyres with fenders fitted.
Which means that the Elan is not restricted to the street. With the correct of rubber, it is a succesful machine when ridden on hard-packed surfaces comparable to canal paths, by-ways and gravel trails, which supplies you the power to strive that observe or backlane that you’ve got by no means been down earlier than.
You may also run the Elan with 650b wheels.
In contrast to some frames the Elan is not adorned with a great deal of mounting factors however from my perspective that is not any motive to mark it down. With the quantity of body, bar and seatpost baggage accessible to us now, it could be straightforward to load up the Elan up for a light-weight tour.
What it does have, although, is mountings for bottle cages within the conventional locations and the power to take a rear rack.
Full mudguards are catered for, and with the mounting factors once more in a conventional place there isn’t any faffing round with the stays to get them to suit.
The Elan’s body would not supply internally routed cables or hoses, so it solely actually works, or no less than seems to be proper with, mechanical groupsets with cable or hydraulic brakes.
I’ve acquired no actual situation with that to be trustworthy. The tubes do not must be drilled or have ports or guides welded to them, which each retains the price down and makes upkeep both whether or not on the commute or at the back of past.
The titanium body is paired with a full carbon fork. Ours got here with the Elan Mk2 commonplace possibility, although for an additional £95 you possibly can improve to an Enigma C-Six mannequin.
There are six sizes accessible in complete, starting from 50cm to 58cm of which we’ve got the 54cm right here for evaluate.
It has a high tube size of 552mm, head tube top of 175mm and a seat tube of 540mm. The wheelbase is 1,047mm and the chainstays are 440mm.
From a stack and attain perspective you’re looking at 602.6mm and 384.1mm respectively, which ties in with how tall the entrance finish is.
The pinnacle tube is a fairly shallow 71.5°, with the seat tube steeper at 72.5°.
Ending Package
The construct we’ve got right here makes use of a Shimano 105 R7000 groupset and hydraulic disc brakes.
As each of these opinions report, the gear shifting and braking efficiency is tough to fault even within the rain or mud, and it presents glorious worth.
As I touched on above, we have the compact chainset with 50/34T chainrings, however Spa gives you with loads of choices together with the Shimano GRX 46/30T or for an additional £40 you could possibly get Spa’s personal TD2 Tremendous Compact in 46/30T, 44/28T, 42/26T and 40/24T chainrings, providing you with a super-low 32×24 backside gear.
Actually, Spa builds all its bikes to order and presents loads of customising presents, with Hope Version builds including a bit of glitz. Go to the web site for a full construct and improve checklist.
Our bike’s ending package has an FSA Wing Compact handlebar and its Omega stem, with a Deda Zero 1 alloy seatpost.
As commonplace the Elan comes with Spa’s personal Navigator saddle and it is not one which I precisely gelled with and might be the one little bit of the construct I would change.
The usual worth consists of Mavic Aksium wheels, that are powerful and sturdy although they’re somewhat weighty. However I’ve ridden 1000’s of miles on Aksiums through the years although and they’re a good selection for this type of bike.
Our take a look at bike has handbuilt wheels, which Spa says the overwhelming majority of Elan consumers go for. These add a relatively modest £160 to the price and through testing these carried out excellently in every kind of climate situations and over quite a few completely different surfaces – so I would say they seem to be a worthwhile improve.
Spa additionally presents a variety of Schwalbe tyres, with the default mannequin the Schwalbe One Folding fitted to our bike.
It is a wonderful tyre designed for quick using, with loads of grip and low rolling resistance. It is in all probability not a tyre I would use all year-round, however for the spring, summer time and autumn it is a belter and helps give the Elan that little bit of a lift.
Value, Worth and Choices
Total, I believe the Elan Mk2 presents good worth, and that’s helped much more by the truth that the 4 completely different fashions are at present on sale – I will put these costs in brackets.
So, this 105 build begins at £2,950 (£2,495) which incorporates the package I’ve talked about above, though the wheels imply that this bike is £3,110 (£2,655) as reviewed.
Apart from that, you possibly can have the identical base construct with Ultegra R8000 for £3,199 (£2,770). The builds with the Hope parts and wheels begin at £3,400 (£2,965) for the 105 and £3,549 (£3,240) for the Ultegra possibility.
A frameset is £1,315 which incorporates the body and the fork.
If titanium is somewhat out of your attain, then there’s a Reynolds 725 Mk2 metal possibility on supply. A 105 build with cable discs is £1,445 or £1,710 with hydraulics. Ultegra R8000 is £1,950, whereas the Hope Editions are £2,180 for 105 and £2,420 for Ultegra.
Each the Ti and 725 builds can be found with Spa’s Mk1 frames too and you may add quite a few equipment to your bike on the time of ordering.
From a contest perspective, you could possibly go for Ribble’s Endurance Ti which in a 105 construct with Aksiums is £2,599, although that is with none extras such because the mudguards that come as commonplace on the Spa.
I rode the Ribble some time again and was very impressed, though I might say that I really feel the Elan has a barely higher journey high quality, and the geometry was spot on for me.
Alpkit has fairly a wide range of bikes, one in every of which is the extra gravel-focused Sonder Colibri Ti 105. Approach again in 2015 David tested the pre-production mannequin and was impressed. With a 105 groupset it prices £2,549, with mudguards an additional £40.
Conclusion
On the present sale worth, the Elan may be very competitively priced, however even at its full retail worth I believe with the construct and journey high quality on supply it positively goes on my really helpful checklist. The best way the geometry works alongside the consolation of the titanium makes is a good long-distance machine, however with that nippiness there if you wish to journey rapidly.
Verdict
Belies its weight by way of efficiency and presents an extremely snug journey
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Make and mannequin: Spa Cycles Elan Ti Mk2 105 R7000 11-speed
Record the parts used to construct up the bike.
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105 RD-R7000 GS
Entrance Derailleur: Shimano 105 FD-R7000
Shifters: Shimano 105 ST-R7020 Hydraulic
Chainset: Shimano 105 FC-R7000 50/34
Backside Bracket: Shimano BB-R60
Chain: KMC 11 spd X11-93
Freewheel: Shimano 105 CS-R7000 11-32
Headset: FSA Orbit ITA
Stem: FSA Omega OS-167 (60mm to 130mm)
Handlebars: FSA Wing Compact (38cm – 44cm)
Brakes: Shimano 105 BR-R7070 Hydraulic
Tyres: Schwalbe One Folding 30mm
Many different Schwalbe choices accessible
Saddle: Spa Navigator
Seatpost: Deda Zero 1 27.2mm
Grips: Spa Cork Consolation with EVA Gel
Miscellaneous: SKS CAB Mudguards
Wheels: Handbuilt wheelset with Bitex hubs
Inform us what the bike is for and who it is aimed toward. What do the producers say about it? How does that evaluate to your individual emotions concerning the bike?
Spa Cycles says: “The Elan is our new 12mm Through Axle/Flat Mount do something bike. It is a mild tourer, or you possibly can match massive tyres and hit the paths, or mild wheels and be part of the chaingang. Customized tube profiles in addition to sizes imply its stiff sufficient to be fast, however not so stiff to be uncomfortable. The tall entrance finish means you will get the bars stage with the saddle, although a carbon steerer limits the variety of spacers.
You may have 11 pace with hydraulic discs and a compact double or Spa’s personal tremendous compact, or you possibly can have 10 pace triple with cable discs.”
The Elan Ti has geometry that’s effectively suited to lengthy rides and commuting, however the best way it rides implies that it has a efficiency nature to it too.
The place does this mannequin sit within the vary? Inform us briefly concerning the cheaper choices and the costlier choices
The MK2 model of the Elan Ti is offered on this 105 mechanical construct and an Ultegra possibility (£3,199). Each of those can then be upgraded to the Hope Version with upgraded ending package from, sure, Hope. The 105-equipped mannequin prices £3,400 with the Ultegra coming in at £3,549, though all bikes are at present accessible with round a £500 low cost.
Total ranking for body and fork
8/10
Inform us concerning the construct high quality and end of the body and fork?
Neatly welded and backed up with a ten-year guarantee.
Inform us concerning the supplies used within the body and fork?
The body is constructed from 3AL/2.5V titanium alloy tubing and is paired with a carbon fibre fork.
Inform us concerning the geometry of the body and fork?
The geometry is typical of such a bike, with relaxed angles for each the top and seat tubes in comparison with a race bike, which brings balanced steering and a cushty journey place designed for long-distance outings.
How was the bike by way of top and attain? How did it evaluate to different bikes of the identical said dimension?
A tall head tube provides an upright place compared to a race bike, which will increase the stack top and removes stress from the decrease again. The attain determine is pretty typical.
Was the bike snug to journey? Inform us the way you felt concerning the journey high quality.
Sure, consolation ranges are good due to some flex within the tubing and the general geometry.
Did the bike really feel stiff in the proper locations? Did any a part of the bike really feel too stiff or too versatile?
For the kind of using the Elan is designed for stiffness is completely fantastic, and it proved succesful even on out-of-the-saddle efforts on steep climbs.
How did the bike switch energy? Did it really feel environment friendly?
Total, the bike feels lighter than it’s, which makes it really feel environment friendly, and the compact gear ratios provide help to get one of the best out of the bike.
Was there any toe-clip overlap with the entrance wheel? In that case was it an issue?
No
How would you describe the steering? Was it full of life impartial or unresponsive? On the enjoyable aspect of impartial.
Inform us some extra concerning the dealing with. How did the bike really feel general? Did it do specific issues effectively or badly?
The geometry means the Elan’s steering has a impartial really feel, which works nice for lengthy distance rides and using in poor situations. I felt that the Elan coped effectively when descending at pace as effectively.
Which parts had probably the most impact (good or unhealthy) on the bike’s consolation? would you suggest any adjustments?
I did not get on with the saddle, so I modified that for one thing extra my form, however apart from that I discovered the entire package snug. And saddle alternative is, in fact, extremely subjective.
Which parts had probably the most impact (good or unhealthy) on the bike’s stiffness? would you suggest any adjustments?
The 105 crankset may be very stiff and I discovered no flex within the handbuilt wheels that our evaluate mannequin got here with.
Which parts had probably the most impact (good or unhealthy) on the bike’s effectivity? would you suggest any adjustments?
The Schwalbe tyres are grippy and quick rolling, which lets you carry loads of pace into the corners and on to descents. This provides to the effectivity of the compact gearing too.
Price the bike for effectivity of energy switch:
8/10
Price the bike for acceleration:
7/10
Price the bike for sprinting:
7/10
This is not actually what the Elan – or certainly any bike designed for touring – is designed for, however in observe I discovered it extra succesful than I used to be anticipating.
Price the bike for prime pace stability:
8/10
Price the bike for cruising pace stability:
9/10
Price the bike for low pace stability:
8/10
Price the bike for flat cornering:
8/10
Price the bike for cornering on descents:
8/10
Price the bike for climbing:
8/10
Price the drivetrain for efficiency:
9/10
Price the drivetrain for sturdiness:
8/10
Price the drivetrain for weight:
8/10
Inform us some extra concerning the drivetrain. Something you significantly did or did not like? Any parts which did not work effectively collectively?
Reliable and glorious shifting/braking efficiency from the 105 mechanical groupset.
Price the wheels for efficiency:
8/10
Price the wheels for sturdiness:
8/10
Price the wheels for weight:
8/10
Price the wheels for consolation:
8/10
Inform us some extra concerning the wheels.Did they work effectively within the situations you encountered? Would you alter the wheels? In that case what for?
These handbuilt wheels had been glorious straight out of the field, feeling mild and robust. They’ve coped effectively with loads of moist climate too.
Price the tyres for efficiency:
9/10
Price the tyres for sturdiness:
7/10
Price the tyres for weight:
8/10
Price the tyres for consolation:
8/10
Inform us some extra concerning the tyres. Did they work effectively within the situations you encountered? Would you alter the tyres? In that case what for?
Schwalbe’s One tyres are very grippy and quick rolling which labored effectively with the Elan Ti. It helped give the bike a nippy edge to the journey.
Price the controls for efficiency:
7/10
Price the controls for sturdiness:
8/10
Price the controls for weight:
7/10
Price the controls for consolation:
7/10
Inform us some extra concerning the controls. Any significantly good or unhealthy parts? How would the controls work for bigger or smaller riders?
I acquired on with the entire parts apart from the saddle, which is the one element that I would change.
Did you take pleasure in using the bike? Sure
Would you contemplate shopping for the bike? Sure
Would you suggest the bike to a good friend? Sure
How does the value evaluate to that of comparable bikes out there, together with ones lately examined on street.cc?
Ribble’s Endurance Ti Disc with the identical groupset because the Elan and Aksium wheels is £2,599 though mudguards aren’t included. Sonder’s four-season street bike, the Colibri Ti, will take full mudguards and comes with a 105 groupset for £2,549 with mudguards including one other forty quid.
Price the bike general for efficiency:
8/10
Price the bike general for worth:
6/10
Use this field to clarify your general rating
A superb journey high quality and the truth that it feels way more responsive than its touring/audax design would have you ever anticipate imply that I discovered the Elan way more of an all-rounder than I envisaged. And it is good worth too – particularly at its sale worth.
Age: 44
I often journey: This month’s take a look at bike My greatest bike is: B’Twin Extremely CF draped within the newest bling take a look at parts
I have been using for: Over 20 years I journey: On daily basis I might class myself as: Knowledgeable
I usually do the next varieties of using: time trialling, commuting, membership rides, sportives, mounted/singlespeed,
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