Vitus Zenium SL Disc 2017

Vitus Bikes has kicked another goal with the Zenium SL, a fast endurance bike with the superior stopping power of disc brakes, a fun and fast frame and an excellent-value spec.

Inevitably, the first thing you notice about the Zenium SL Disc is that screaming bright ORANGE paint job. Loud colours are front and centre in the 2017 Vitus range; the Energie Cyclo X we tested is similarly decked out in an extraordinary green that really is as bright in the metal as it looks in our photos.

Ultra-bright colours aren't to everyone's taste, but the Zenium SL Disc's finish makes me smile every time I look at it, and that's got to be a good thing.

The ride

The Zenium's ride will make you smile too. It's quick without being harsh or hairy, and rolls beautifully on its Michelin Pro 4 Service Course tyres. Until they were replaced by the Power Competition model, these were Michelin's top high-performance tyres. They provide excellent grip and roll quickly and smoothly thanks to their supple casing. I sustained more punctures on these tyres than I'd expect during the test period's dry weather, but it's likely I just got unlucky. Tyre guru Jarno Bierman found the Pro 4's puncture resistance was better than that of a Continental GP4000S II.

In every other respect the Zenium is a big orange bundle of fun that's quick on the flat, grin-inducingly swoopy on twisty descents, and civilised on climbs. You don't expect an almost-9kg bike to fly up hills, but the Zenium doesn't feel sluggish climbing, just calm and measured, and it's plenty stiff too.

I had one of the most fun rides I've done in ages aboard the Zenium SL. I was coming back to Cambridge from riding with friends in South London, when my train stopped at Welwyn Garden City. Thanks to an incident at Knebworth it looked like we weren't going any further, and might even have to go back to King's Cross to take a different route north. I decided I'd ride the rest of the way. After all, it's just a bit under 40 miles or so.

By this time, it was late evening. Not quite getting dark, but dusk wasn't far away. No problem, I had lights. I thought I was in for an hour and a half or so in actual darkness, at most.

Welwyn Garden City to Cambridge might be under 40 miles by car, but it's nearer 50 if your Garmin is loaded with Open Street Map cycling maps that carefully route you off main roads. What followed was a hugely enjoyable voyage of discovery through tiny villages and along lanes and minor B-roads, mostly in the dark. By the time I got home, it was almost midnight.

Floating through the dark on the Zenium SL, I felt a kinship to the ultra-distance riders I've long admired. This must be what it's like to be Kristoff Allegaert or Juliana Buhring, I thought. Then I remembered they'd be doing 30-odd km/h where I was doing 20-odd. Ah well.

Still, on the Zenium I felt like I could just keep going all night, whizzing through the turns where there was enough light, stomping up the hills and using the easy control of the disc brakes when it was too dark to risk going flat-out downhill. Lovely stuff.

Frame & fork

The Zenium SL's frame is made from butted 6066-T6 aluminium alloy tubes. This has a slightly higher fatigue strength than the more common 6061-T6 aluminium, so less of it is needed to make a frame. Vitus uses 6066 for bikes designated SL – others are made from 6061.

Up front is an all-carbon fork with a tapered steerer.

Both front and rear dropouts take thru-axles and there's clearance for 30mm tyres, though going that fat won't leave much space under the fork crown; the back end is roomier.

Our 56cm Zenium SL has a reach of 387.8mm and stack of 566.6mm (stack and reach are the vertical and horizontal measurements from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube). That's at the racy end of the endurance bike envelope, but there's 3cm of spacers if you want the bar higher.

Mechanics will be pleased to hear that the bottom bracket is threaded and the gear cables run outside the frame, so you won't have to deal with press-fit creaks or hassling internal cables into the frame at replacement time. The brake hoses do run tidily inside the frame.

For a bike that's billed as having 'all round…capabilities' the Zenium SL's frame has one mystifying omission, and that's mudguard provision. There are no eyelets on the frame, and no seatstay or chainstay bridges, so the only mudguards likely to fit without bodging are Crud Road Racer Mk 3s. They'll do the job, but it would be nice to have more options.

Components

A complete Shimano 105 groupset takes care of going forward and stopping, and it's all very slick, as we've come to expect. The gears click smoothly and easily from sprocket to sprocket and the front mech chucks the chain up on to the big ring with considerable oomph.

The Shimano 105 hydraulic disc brakes are undoubtedly a standout feature of the Zenium. They provide powerful and easily controlled braking, with no sign of rubbing or any other irritating behaviour. On a ride that involved a section of downhill bridleway I was able to keep my speed under control with just one finger on the levers and minimal force. They really are a substantial improvement on rim brakes, not because you can brake harder, but because it takes less effort to achieve the same braking power, so controlling speed on long or technical descents is a doddle.

Because there's a hydraulic master cylinder in there, the 105 brake/shift levers are longer than those for cable brakes. That lengthens the reach to the hoods and made it easy for me to get the rangy riding position I prefer without changing the stem. That might mean riders who don't have a silly long back will want a shorter stem.

The Vitus stem connects to a Vitus Compact handlebar with 128mm drop and 72mm reach. It also has an unusual rearward sweep from the centre to the brake levers, which doesn't seem to make any difference to anything, aside from moving the levers back a couple of millimetres, but always made me think the bar was bent.

The Vitus saddle and my bum did not get on. It wasn't agony, but it was far less comfortable than my preferred Fizik and Brooks Cambium seats, so after a couple of rides I swapped it out.

The Zenium rolls on FSA Team 30 wheels. These are very similar to the Vision Team 35 wheels Stu reviewed in 2016, but as the name suggests they're slightly shallower. The Team 30s have a reputation for being a tight fit with many tyres, but I had no problems with either the Michelin Pro 4s fitted or the Continental Grand Prix 4000S II I fitted to the rear wheel when the Michelin sustained a fatal puncture.

The Team 30s' slight aero shape seems to contribute to the Zenium's overall feeling of easily achieving and holding speed. They're not up there with the startling extra speed you get the first time you descend a steep hill on 60mm rims, but they feel a bit faster than bog-standard box-section wheels.

At a claimed 2,100g a pair they are heavy, though. You could lop off half a kilo or more with a wheel upgrade. On the other hand, the rear wheel survived an almost-instantaneous tyre deflation completely unscathed. These are tough wheels. For crappy British road surfaces, that's a bonus.

Conclusion

This is the 2017 version of a bike Stu reviewed in 2016 and I think the changes warrant the extra half star I've awarded it. The hydraulic brakes are superior in feel and modulation to the 2016 bike's TRP Spyres, the wheels are bombproof, and the tyres are a step up.

The price has actually dropped too, with the 2016 bike listed at £1,300, the 2017 at £1,250. Even better, you can now get the 2017 bike for £1,125, which is excellent for a bike with a full 105 group and hydro discs. When almost every bike out there has gone up 10-25% since 2016, that alone is almost enough to get it an extra half star.

> Buyer's Guide: 10 of the best £1,000-£1,500 bikes

It's great fun to ride too: racy but without being a hectic handful, its behaviour owes more to European stage race bikes than super-quick-turning criterium bikes.

And, of course, it's orange. If you could fit standard mudguards to it, it'd be a near-perfect all-weather all-rounder.

Verdict

Fast, fun, and hugely orange, with the stopping reassurance of disc brakes