Moda Finale 2022

The Moda Finale is the company's flagship road bike, and it is certainly a looker with its aero tubing, deep red paint job and fully concealed cable routing. This build is a little weighty, but the Finale seems to shrug that off out on the road, and paired with its roadie geometry it's a fun, fast and very capable bike.

Ride

Moda's Finale is a great bike to ride, especially if you like a stiff and responsive platform that feels as though performance has a higher focus than comfort.

> Buy now: Moda Finale for £3,854 from Moda

That's not to say the Finale is uncomfortable – far from it – but it has that typical aero bike feel because of those large tube profiles, the massive bottom bracket junction, and the aero seatpost.

It's firm, shall we say. Which is exactly how I like it.

Its geometry is biased towards getting a move on; with a reasonably aggressive front end, steep seat angle and a wheelbase of just 969mm (54cm model), it has a bit of urgency about it, especially when you hammer hard on the pedals.

At 9.09kg this Finale isn't as light as some of the opposition, but apart from standing starts it never really seems to feel hampered, even on the climbs. I think that comes down to how responsive the bike feels. The eagerness it shows and the impressive feedback coming through those aero tubes offsets the numbers on the scales.

The head tube is relatively short, which gives a great low-slung position, and in the drops I found it allowed a low centre of gravity, great for high-speed cornering.

Handling-wise things are also nicely balanced. The steering is quick in true race bike fashion and thanks to the stiff fork and good feedback levels the front end of the bike feels precise and under control, even on technical sections and when braking hard to line yourself up for the next apex.

On the flat the Moda feels quick, and with some 60mm-deep section wheels that I had on test added, it felt even more slippery.

There is a small amount of compliance in the rear triangle which brings a bit of relief from the broken road surfaces, meaning that the Finale is a race bike that doesn't batter you about, allowing you to put the miles in without fatigue affecting your contact points.

Overall, in terms of the ride, the Finale is a great choice if you want a proper old school race bike feel, with all of the modern touches.

Frame and fork

The Finale is built using uni-directional carbon fibre for both the frame and fork, and alongside the Ruby Red paintjob seen here, it is also available in Pearl White and Gunmetal Grey.

The frameset is beautifully finished and certainly gives off the aura of a high-quality product, with a claimed frame weight of around 1,090g, and 410g for the fork.

Like many of the latest high-end bikes on the market, Moda has gone for a clean look for the Finale, running all of the wires/cables and hoses fully internally, entering through the stem and down through the head tube before heading off throughout the frame and fork. It's compatible with electronic and mechanical groupsets.

The Finale also has an internal clamp system for the seatpost to keep everything smooth. It worked fine with no slippage at all.

For the bottom bracket Moda has gone for press fit, which makes a lot of sense on a race bike because, with the bearing cups being placed internally, the actual shell width can be as wide as a standard shell and external bearing cups together, to give extra stiffness and a wider junction where the down tube, seat tube and chainstays meet.

At 400mm, the chainstays have been kept as short as possible on a bike with disc brakes, resulting in that short wheelbase I mentioned earlier. The recess in the seat tube for the rear wheel helps too, as well as keeping things aero.

As is current form, the Finale uses flat mounts for the disc brake callipers and 12mm thru-axles.

You get mounts for two bottle cages too.

Tyre clearance is up to 28mm (depending on tyre and wheel combinations), which isn't as wide as some on the market, but I'd still say that's plenty for this kind of bike.

Geometry

The Finale is available in six sizes, which is a good spread to suit the majority of the population, ranging from an XXS (505mm top tube) up to the XL, which has a 582mm top tube.

This medium has a 545mm top tube, and stack and reach figures of 546mm and 388mm respectively.

The seat tube length is 505mm, with an angle of 74 degrees, while the head tube is 145mm tall, sitting at 73 degrees.

Groupset

The Finale is available in a selection of builds, using various Shimano electronic and mechanical groupsets, and there are upgrades possible on wheelsets, handlebars and stems.

Moda will also spec component sizes to the customer's requests, such as stem length, handlebar width, crank lengths, and so on.

The model we have here comes fitted with Shimano's brand new 105 R7100 Di2 groupset. It's the first time electronic gearing has made it down as far as 105 and it is really very impressive, with a performance that virtually matches that of the latest Utegra Di2.

If you want all of the details and my findings of 105 Di2 head over to my full review.

The shifting is light without feeling at all vague, so there is still a positive interaction between your finger, the lever and the chain moving across the gears.

This Finale came with a 50/34 compact chainset and a 12-speed 11-34 cassette. That gave me plenty of gears at either end of the range for the type of riding I did on the Moda. Shimano will also offer a 52/36 chainset and 11-36 cassette once manufacturing catches up with demand.

As for the braking performance, it's your usual reliable Shimano quality with loads of power and a huge amount of modulation from the hydraulic setup.

Finishing kit

At the front end Moda has specced a Deda Superbox stem, which is designed to funnel the wires and hoses down through the head tube, and an alloy Deda handlebar.

As an upgrade you can have a Moda Carbon bar/stem combo. This is what the bike builds are specced with on Moda's site, which is worth bearing in mind – if you want to spec the Deda setup you can knock £200 off the price shown.

The seatpost is carbon fibre and sitting atop it is a Selle Italia Short Fit Model X, a comfortable saddle in my experience.

Wheels and tyres

Wheel-wise, the 'entry-level' build uses Mavic Aksium Discs but our test bike came with an upgrade to Ksyrium 30s, which adds £185 to the price. Mavic Cosmic Elites are also available, as are some options from Spinergy.

The Ksyriums are decent wheels. At around 1,800g they aren't the lightest so you could shift some weight there, but they are robust and reliable.

Our bike came shod with Continental Ultra Sport tyres in a 28mm width. These are good all-rounders offering decent levels of grip and rolling resistance, while being a bit more robust than the range-topping race models such as the GP5000s.

Value

Finale ownership starts at £2,779 which comes with the Deda cockpit, Mavic Aksium wheels and mechanical 105 R7000 11-speed groupset.

The 12-speed 105 Di2 option is £3,669 in the same build, or £3,854 for our test build with the upgraded wheels.

Looking at the competition, Orro's Venturi Evo aero bike is cheaper at £2,499.99, but only available with a mechanical 105 groupset.

I liked it a lot when I reviewed it back in 2020, and the Moda matches a lot of things that impressed me with the Orro: the race bike feel and geometry, and a great ride quality for such a stiff bike.

Ribble's Endurance SL R Disc Sport (we tested the SL Disc in 2020) comes with a 105 Di2 groupset for £3,889. The build includes 40mm-deep Level (Ribble's parts brand) carbon wheels and a carbon integrated stem/handlebar.

> Why you should buy a road racing bike

The Reacto is Merida's aero race bike, and while the new models with 105 Di2 won't be available until the 2023 range is released, a Reacto 4000 is similarly specced to the Finale's entry build (we tested the Reacto 6000 in January). It gets 105 mechanical and alloy wheels for £2,400.

I think this shows the Moda Finale to be well priced when taking into account the high build quality, especially when you consider the huge size of brands like Merida.

Conclusion

The Finale not only looks the business, it has the ride quality, handling and stiffness required of a high-end race bike and it offers the latest trends such as fully concealed cable routing and an electronic groupset.

This build isn't the lightest out there, but if that's a problem for you it's easily fixed by the flexibility of being able to spec your own finishing kit.

Verdict

A proper point-and-shoot aero race bike with stunning looks and a great ride quality