Along with Thorn, Spa is probably Britain’s leading supplier of touring bikes. It sells tourers from the likes of Ridgeback and Surly, but also its own Spa-designed bikes, including the "expedition-focused" Wayfarer that "provides the ultimate in luggage-carrying capability".
The qualities that make the Wayfarer a touring bike – comfort, racks, full-length mudguards – are equally handy when it comes to commuting and leisure riding.
The Wayfarer is based around a very well-finished Reynolds 725 frame, with three sets of bottle bosses and hand-built wheels. Gearing is from nine-speed Shimano Sora, which is one of my favourite groupsets, with Spa’s own triple chainset.
Triples are rarely seen outside of touring these days and, while there will be some redundant ratios, the small gaps between gears mean you can keep a smooth and consistent cadence, which is what you want for distance riding.
It also gives you a high top gear and a low bottom gear, which you’ll need if you’re hauling kit over hills. If its 28x34 bottom gear isn’t low enough – and for loaded expedition touring you can never go too low – Spa can spec your chainset of choice.
How we tested
We tested four bikes around the £1,000 mark that are all suitable for commuting, but can be used for much more than the daily grind to work.
Their aspirations take in leisure riding, fast fitness and perhaps even racing ambitions, plus loading up for trips away.
As such, while they are all around the same price, each offers a distinct set of characteristics and features.
Be sure to check out all four reviews to see which one might just be a good fit for you and the cycling you do.
Also on test:
I tested the Wayfarer over my former commutes – 12 miles mostly on towpath and 16 miles on a surfaced Sustrans route – as well as longer, loaded days out. It proved an exceptionally able companion at all times.
Apart from dynamo lights and a kickstand, either of which you could go for, the Wayfarer has pretty much everything you could need for touring – or commuting, or getting half a week’s shopping.
Yes, it is a bit of a weighty beast, but a little extra weight is really neither here nor there on a touring bike, and we rated Genesis’s similarly weighty Tour de Fer 30 very highly when we tested it recently.
Far more important when carrying kilograms of kit are comfort and reliability. If you’re halfway across the Gobi Desert, you don’t want your frame failing.
Reliability and ease of servicing are also the thinking behind the TRP Spyre C brakes. They don’t have the power and ultra-light action of hydraulics, but I know which system I’d feel more comfortable fettling in Faisalabad or repairing in Rawalpindi, and it’s not the hydraulic system.
The Spyres are a dual-piston system, with braking controlled and powerful enough, and better than the Tektro Mira single-piston discs on the Forme Monyash 2 I've reviewed.
The Spa’s tubeless-ready wheels are an absolute highlight, hand-built to a high standard and paired with quality Schwalbe tyres.
The 50mm-wide rubber coped well with broken road surfaces, towpaths and gritted surfaces, and would be ideal if your riding regularly takes in such terrain, as well as for touring in the back of beyond.
For day-to-day riding, I’d probably drop down to a slightly narrower tyre, especially as the Schwalbes are a very, very tight fit with the mudguards, even if the front guard is designed to pull away from the hub if a foreign body is trapped between the tyre and guard.
The ride is everything you’d expect from a steel tourer with wide rubber: sumptuous and comfortable.
The riding position is upright and the FSA Wing bar – with its slightly flattened tops – is excellent for long-distance comfort. You’re not going to fly up hills, but drop into the bottom gear and you can sit in the saddle and spin.
The Spa’s front and rear Tubus racks will take more weight than I could comfortably haul, and if you’re using the Wayfarer for the daily commute, you could lose the front rack, keeping it for longer adventures.
The saddle is another touring classic: a Brooks Cambium C17. I’ve never been a huge fan of Brooks’ leather saddles, but I got on very well with the rubber-topped, nylon-hulled Cambium, which I found supportive without being overly firm – exactly what I want.
In fact, there’s very, very little that I could fault the Wayfarer on.
Spa cycles Wayfarer geometry
| | S | M | L | XL | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | |||||
| Seat angle (degrees) | 72 | 72 | 72 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 74 | 74 | ||||
| Head angle (degrees) | 69.5 | 69.5 | 70 | 70 | 70.5 | 70.5 | 70.5 | 70.5 | ||||
| Chainstay (mm) | 455 | 455 | 455 | 455 | 460 | 460 | 465 | 465 | ||||
| Seat tube (mm) | 470 | 470 | 500 | 500 | 540 | 540 | 580 | 580 | ||||
| Top tube (mm) | 522.9 | 513 | 535.5 | 525.6 | 553.6 | 553.6 | 567.3 | 552.4 | ||||
| Head tube (mm) | 85 | 85 | 135 | 135 | 170 | 170 | 210 | 210 | ||||
| Fork offset (mm) | 59 | 59 | 59 | 59 | 59 | 59 | 59 | 59 | ||||
| Bottom bracket drop (mm) | 70 | 70 | 60 | 60 | 57 | 57 | 55 | 55 | ||||
| Wheelbase (mm) | 1,056 | 1,046 | 1,068 | 1,058 | 1,089 | 1,074 | 1,109 | 1,094 | ||||
Also consider
A little more
- Spa Cycles Ti Tourer
- £1,850
Up the ante a little and you can get yourself one of the most affordable titanium touring bikes around. Other than that, it’s a very similar build to the steel tourer, from the hand-built wheels to the wide-range gears and brakes.
A little less
- Spa Cycles 725 Steel Tourer
- £1,225
This is very similar to our test bike, with a Reynolds 725 steel frame, Sora gears and Spa’s own triple chainset, but the 725 Steel Tourer has much slimmer tyres than the Wayfarer, and Tektro RX6 mini V-brakes, rather than disc brakes.
Product
| Brand | spa_cycles |
| Price | 1400.00 GBP |
| Weight | 14.2900, KILOGRAM (54cm long) - with rack |
Features
| Fork | Chromoly steel fork, straight steerer |
| br_stem | FSA Omega 168 |
| br_chain | Shimano HG601 |
| br_frame | Reynolds 725 chromoly steel |
| Tyres | 700x32 Schwalbe Marathon |
| br_brakes | Tektro TRP Spyre cable discs, 160mm rotors |
| br_cranks | XD-2 Touring Triple 48/38/28, Zircal rings |
| br_saddle | Brooks Cambium C17 |
| br_wheels | Hand-built by Spa Cycles |
| br_headset | FSA Orbit Equipe sealed bearing |
| br_shifter | Shimano Sora |
| br_cassette | Shimano HG400 11-34 |
| br_seatpost | Deda RSX02 27.2mm |
| br_handlebar | FSA Wing Compact |
| br_bottomBracket | First F-2001 |
| br_availableSizes | 47, 50, 54, 58cm long; 47, 50, 54, 58cm short |
| br_rearDerailleur | Shimano Sora |
