The newly launched Vielo V 1 has our attention. It’s a 1×-only ‘Road Plus’ bike designed specifically for UK riders, and it offers a combination of looks and practicality that’s deeply appealing, albeit at a not-inconsiderable price.
Vielo co-founder Ian Hughes dropped by BikeRadar HQ with three bikes in tow, one a pre-production model in lairy camo. We’ve given them the once-over...
Is Road Plus a thing now?
It is according to Vielo. The V 1 isn’t really meant for throwing on your shoulder and hopping barriers (although it’d probably do that too), but with big clearances and practical touches, this is a bike that should do everything from pew-pew go-fast riding to more adventurous rough road stuff.
It takes tyres up to 700×42mm or 650b×2.1in and it’s intended for the conditions that UK riders experience every day: crumbling tarmac and wet weather.
In geometry terms, it’s very much a road bike: a medium has 381mm of reach and 554mm of stack, and there’s nothing too outlandish about the angles. The 71-degree head angle on a medium is around a degree slacker than a road race bike, right on par with your average gravel machine.
The carbon frame itself is an elegant thing with very skinny, flattened and slightly bowed seatstays for rear-end comfort. As we reported in our news piece, it weighs a claimed 890g for a medium (UD carbon weave) and the fork comes in at 400g. Claimed weight for a complete bike (with a standard seatpost) is 7.85kg.
Is that a dropper?
Yep, and it’ll be a cost option on production bikes. The idea of putting a dropper post on an all-road bike isn’t new, but we rather like Vielo’s approach.
With no front derailleur to shift, the V 1 uses the left SRAM Force shift paddle to trigger the dropper. As the Rockshox Reverb is a hydraulically activated post, this requires a cable-to-hydro converter in the seat tube.
The rather brilliant camo paintjob on the pre-production bike is actually a vinyl wrap which Hughes applied to disguise it.
It’s proved sufficiently popular that Vielo is planning to offer something similar for production bikes. In the meantime, the baby and midnight blue options look rather handsome, I think.
Fans of bolting things to bikes will like the V 1. It has bottle bosses in the usual places, but adds mounts on top of the top tube and under the down tube for a bento box and tool kit respectively.
You can fit proper mudguards to the V 1 too, and Vielo will sell you a set that fits straight out of the box with no bodging or adaptation required.
There’s no bridge between the stays, but Hughes says his dedicated guards with twin stays and pads that rest against the seatstays don’t rattle. I’m intrigued to see how that works.
Other neat details include metal protective plates at the dropouts and on the chainstay, which should reduce the chances of paint damage, and a very tidily hidden seat clamp with a bolt that's accessed underneath the top tube.
The V+1 will be available to buy in the next month or two with complete Force builds starting at £5,299. A dropper post adds £200, while framesets will retail at £2,999. Interested? Head over to the Vielo website and make sure you click through the gallery above for lots more photos.
