Reilly Fusion 2022

The new Reilly Fusion certainly looks the business, with its investment cast tube junctions creating a frame that could almost be mistaken for carbon fibre rather than titanium. You still get that excellent titanium ride feel, though, which combined with the geometry means you can ride the Fusion as hard and as fast as you like, in comfort for many, many miles.

Ride

Often, the reason for choosing a titanium alloy bike comes down to the ride quality of the material; it tends to have the feeling of an in-built vibration reducer, allowing even the stiffest of machines to deliver a decent amount of comfort. That does depend on the makers knowing what they're doing at the design stage, of course. The team at Reilly certainly do.

> Buy now: Reilly Fusion for £7,499 from Reilly

With its aero-esque tube shapes, the Fusion looks every inch the high-speed racer, and on the whole it is. The performance is great.

At 8.27kg it's a decent weight for a metal bike, meaning it's lively off the line or on the climbs, and it ploughs through undulating terrain as if it's the flatlands.

With impressive stiffness levels up front and throughout the lower sections of the frame, focused around the bottom bracket, the Fusion also feels very responsive. I loved the situations where I had to get out of the saddle and fling the bar side to side in a flurry of cadence and power.

The Reilly certainly has plenty of get up and go.

But a glance at the geometry table shows that the Fusion isn't just about being flung through the bends, or clinging to the rear tyre of the rider in front of whatever professional or amateur peloton you are part of.

The steering takes a marginal step back from that of a full-on aggressive race machine, meaning the Fusion feels just as at home on longer road rides, from the club run through to a sportive or self-planned day ride.

It makes the Fusion a bike that is easy to ride fast, but without the associated twitchiness of a race bike. It's capable of being raced, but doesn't feel like it has to be.

With a wheelbase shorter than a metre (size medium), the Fusion feels nimble underneath you, and with the buzz-taming nature of the frame it feels very composed.

This is a match made in heaven, giving you the confidence to push the Reilly hard through the corners as it feels planted, but responds well to quick direction changes either through the handlebar or by a shift of your body position.

The full-carbon fibre fork backs up the frame's performance too. There is plenty of stiffness on offer here, with the legs taking the loads from hard braking or being banked over in the bends without any noticeable flex, without any compromise to the ride feel on rough road surfaces.

Overall, the Fusion rides with all of the excitement and involvement of a great race bike, with the manners and ride quality of a quick endurance machine. It's a difficult balance to pull off, but Reilly has done it.

Frame and fork

The Fusion, like many titanium road machines, is created from 3Al/2.5V (3% aluminium, 2.5% vanadium) alloy tubes.

Instead of them being welded together where they meet, the Fusion uses investment cast sections (from 6Al/4V titanium alloy) for the head tube, seat cluster, bottom bracket shell and dropouts, with the tubes welded to them. This results in great stiffness, and it also allows for the smooth finish you see where the seat tube meets the top tube – not a shape you'll normally see on a metal bike.

Reilly has also embraced hydroforming to shape the tubing to meet the performance required in terms of stiffness and comfort – as well as aesthetics, of course. The dropped seatstays with their elegant curves are a prime example, or the box section down tube.

Elsewhere, the Fusion carries off that classic raw look that only a titanium frame can. The unpainted tubing can be returned to new with just a bit of a buff up, and the little welding details for the water bottle bosses look very well finished indeed.

With performance in mind, those are the only bosses you'll find – there's no provision for mudguards or rack. That's just not what this bike is all about. That said, if you want to go long there are plenty of frame bags on the market, and the comfort and ride quality of the Reilly will definitely let you cover some big miles.

Like many brands, for 2022 Reilly has hidden all of the wires, cables and hoses inside the frame and fork; they enter through the stem and down into the frame via the headset, revealing themselves at whichever component they are mated with via neat exit points. It gives a very clean look.

If you need access to them, it's under the bottom bracket via a neat little titanium door that is screwed into place.

Wheel retention is as you'd expect – 12mm thru-axles front and rear – while the callipers are flat-mount.

Our test model is the standard decal option of brushed black, with mirrored or custom anodised costing £250 extra.

The original owner also gets a lifetime warranty.

Geometry

As always, Reilly has a detailed geometry table on its website for all five sizes, from XS up to XL. Our medium sits bang in the middle, rocking a 547mm top tube, 150mm head tube, and 510mm seat tube length.

The head angle measures 73 degrees, with the seat angle at 73.5 degrees.

The wheelbase is 982mm, while the chainstays are 414mm in length throughout the sizes. The fork rake is 43mm, and the bottom bracket drop is 72mm.

If stack and reach is your thing, you are looking at 555mm and 382mm respectively.

Groupset

Reilly's website offers the Fusion in three builds – Shimano Ultegra Di2 in 11-speed or 12-speed, or Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed.

We have the middle option: the latest Ultegra D12 offering, 12-speed R8170.

As you can see from Liam's review, the performance is pretty exceptional and it offers ever so slightly smoother shifting than its predecessor, with better braking in terms of progressive feel.

The shifters are also now wireless to the battery, and I'm a big fan of the new hood shape. It's very comfortable while offering a natural shape for grip.

If you want the full information on the groupset then definitely go and read Liam's review; if you aren't that bothered about the details, I'll just say that the shifting is fast and crisp, and the braking is awesome.

Finishing kit

At the front end, the cockpit if you like, you'll find Deda's latest DCR version of the all-in-one Alanera handlebar/stem, with this one capable of directing two brake hoses and electronic shifting wires completely internally into the frame and fork. I reviewed a previous version back in 2018.

It's not a cheap addition to the Fusion, but I do like the hand position options, with the flat top section give a wide platform for comfort when cruising along.

It is a stiff handlebar, but the ride quality of the Fusion's frame and fork offset that.

It's not often I talk about bottom brackets as part of the finishing kit, but when Reilly co-founder Neil Fitzgerald took me through the Fusion in detail, I could tell he had a real passion for the engineering behind the design of the SN-Vitae Module 47 unit.

It fits frames that accept threaded T47 bottom brackets, but the design is slightly different. The website is definitely worth a look.

The seatpost is a D-shaped design in carbon fibre which is clamped inside the frame via an internal wedge system.

Sitting atop that is a Reilly-branded carbon-railed saddle. It's quite long and slender – I've found myself moving towards more 'stubby' designs as late, but I still found it to be highly comfortable, the shape and minimal padding working whether you're on the hoods or in the drops.

Wheels and tyres

As with the other components, you have a selection of wheels to choose from. The base model has a DCR x Reilly, 37mm-deep carbon fibre set, but our test bike is running wheels from Strada, its Carbon Performance Aero Discs at 55mm deep.

This is a lovely wheelset, very tight and light, plus the wheels have that all-important 'swooshy' sound that everybody knows is worth at least 20 watts!

Reilly fits Continental's GP5000 tyres as standard, and they are a great option. I've ridden countless versions of them, both tubeless and standard clincher, and they are some of the best performance tyres on the market.

Rolling resistance feels great and the grip of the supple compound is brilliant in the bends.

Value

The base price of the Fusion with Shimano Ultegra Di2 11-speed, 37mm-deep carbon wheels, and FSA ACR Stem/Energy Compact Alloy handlebar is £7,499, with a £3,000 deposit reserving your place in the build queue.

With our upgrades to the latest Ultegra Di2, the Strada wheels and Deda cockpit, that pushes the price up to £8,699.

That's a big old price tag.

Saying that, the Moots Vamoots that I rode back in 2020 was a similar machine (investment casting aside), offering a performance ride that could match carbon fibre but with that supple edge that only titanium can deliver.

An Ultegra Di2 version of that frameset is currently £6,500 (etched titanium; £7,000 for brushed titanium); a Fusion frameset will set you back £3,999.

> Buyer’s Guide: 10 of the best titanium road bikes

Mason's Aspect is a slightly different beast to the Fusion, but it has a very sporty edge to it that you might not expect. While it isn't quite as performance orientated as the Reilly, I can see similarities in the engineering and passion behind both designers. Also, the Aspect is one of the benchmarks when it comes to build quality, being handmade in small batches in Italy, although I'd say the Fusion is also of a very high quality.

The base Aspect model with Ultegra Di2 12-speed is £6,370, or £3,600 for the frameset.

So, it's pricey, but I wouldn't say that the Fusion is overpriced, especially considering that the investment casting of the 4AL/6V components adds to the cost.

Conclusion

The Fusion is a stunning bike, not just in the way it looks but the way it rides. To all intents and purposes it is a race bike; it rides like one and it handles like one. If you want the performance of a high-end carbon fibre machine, but have a hankering for metal then the Reilly needs to be on your list.

With all of its stiffness it still retains that beautiful titanium feel, and that is what makes the Fusion special to me. It's a bike you can hammer the life out of when you feel like it, but when you don't want to, it is also such a pleasure to ride.

Verdict

Excellent bike with the performance and looks of carbon but the stunning comfort and longevity of titanium