The all-road category is a tricky one to define. Some brands use the moniker to describe a gravel bike with a road-like fit. To be cynical, some use it to describe a gravel bike with outdated tyre clearance. And many bigger brands saw a decline in interest in the endurance road category, and sought to bring new attention to it with a fresh name.
However you define it, I truly believe the market is in desperate need of more race-inspired bikes without the race-inspired bike fit. Bikes such as the BMC Roadmachine, Cervelo Caledonia, or Giant Defy do a pretty good job at this, and we’re thankfully seeing more come to the fold – at least at the premium end of things.
One such example is the relatively new FiftyOne Sika. Based in Ireland, FiftyOne has its roots in handmade and custom tube-to-tube carbon frames. A few years back the brand branched into Asian-made production models of its own designs, starting with the Assassin gravel bike, and now, the Sika road bike.
I just recently built up a Sika frameset for review. Our reviews tend to take a long time to come together, and so while I get time with it, here’s a quick little placeholder and introduction to this bike.
A few quick things
The Sika, along with bikes like the Bridge Bike Works Surveyor, sits in a relatively unique space that I suspect will become more crowded with time. Aesthetically, the Sika’s fully integrated front end makes it look like a performance-focused road bike, and if it weren’t for the more relaxed stack height, it would simply be defined as that.
Where things get blurry is in the claimed 700 x 40 mm tyre clearance which opens it up beyond pure road riding. Similarly, the front end may be fully integrated, but that’s contrasted with a round 27.2 mm seatpost and external clamp for easy ownership.
Out back you’ll find a bit of flair with FiftyOne’s signature seatstay design. There’s a T47 internal threaded bottom bracket and it’s one of the few UDH-equipped road frames currently out.
A truly bare frame is quoted to weigh just 690-gram (no paint, no hardware), but my medium-sized sample came in at an actual 838 grams when including the UDH derailleur hanger, bolt-on front derailleur tab, and bidon cage bolts.
Other actual weights include 368 g for an uncut fork (no axle), 148 g for 380 mm-length seatpost, and 348 g for the one-piece handlebar/stem in a 38 cm width / 100 mm stem length. Add a further 168 grams for the thru-axles, headset, seat clamp, and steerer compression plug.
FiftyOne offer the Sika as either a frameset (US$4,500 / €4,500 / £3,900 / AU$7,300), a price that includes the company’s own one-piece bar/stem and matching seat post. Complete builds start from US$7,500 / €7,500 / £6,250 / AU$TBC with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and matching wheels (effectively how I’m testing it). FiftyOne also offers complete bike options with SRAM Force AXS, SRAM Red AXS, or Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, and with a choice of Shimano Ultegra, Zipp 303S, Zipp 303 Firecrest, Enve Foundation, or Enve 3.4 wheels. For now it’s just offered in the shown raw clear-coated frame with colour-shift graphics.
Geometry
The Sika’s geometry sits in similar territory to the likes of the BMC Roadmachine and Cervelo Caledonia. It’s still evidently a road bike on the sporty end of things, and while the stack is taller than most race-focussed bikes, it’s still noticeably lower compared to bikes like the Trek Domane or Specialized Roubaix.
Fit-wise, each size comes with a prescribed cockpit size, but the company is happy to change it when ordering. These cockpits are available in stem lengths of 80-120 mm (fixed -9.5° angle), with bar widths ranging from 38 to 44 cm (surprisingly, all combinations available).
The build
With the Sika frameset including the headset, handlebar/stem and seatpost, much of the bike was already decided upon. Whenever possible, I prefer to test bikes in a marginally more affordable guise, and so I’ve built up my test bike with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8100 groupset. Currently, the wheels are Shimano Ultegra C36, shod with Continental GP5000 30 mm tyres (31 mm measured width). It’s a build that closely mimics FiftyOne’s most modest build kit option (US$7,500).
The assembly of the bike was impressively simple and smooth, with no additional preparation (such as frame facing) needed to make it work – just as a high-end product should. I needed no special routing tools, with the front fork offering guided routing and the rear featuring smooth transitions throughout. I was even able to route through the one-piece bar without any stress, with a cheater window at the front giving bonus access (it doubles as a computer mounting point, and yep, the mount is included).
The bike weighs 7.26 kg (without pedals or cages), which is not crazily light but pretty good, considering that those Ultegra C36 wheels weigh 1,520 g.
Coming later
The full review will come in a few months, in the meantime, I’ll be focussing on elements such as ease of ownership, ride quality, and fit-related matters. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to answer in that review.
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