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This makes cycling great fun: gliding effortlessly along finely tarmaced country lanes, the chain whirring quietly, feeling free in the wind. The lightweight fitness bike is the most suitable vehicle for this: a bike that is as light and reduced as possible. The bare essentials are on it. Nothing else.
Road bike with straight handlebars?
The somewhat cumbersome-sounding generic term "fitness bike" came about when Shimano made shifters and brake levers for straight handlebars compatible with its road bike groupsets around 2003: Now it was finally possible to combine finely stepped road bike cassettes, lightweight cranks with large chainrings, super-light road bike frames and forks and lightweight wheels with narrow tyres with straight handlebars without having to compromise. Previously, this was only possible with gear levers mounted far away on the down tube.
However, brake levers for straight handlebars, which already existed for mountain bikes, were not compatible with the shorter cable travel of a road bike brake. The new combination option mainly appealed to sporty cyclists who did not want to make friends with the racing handlebars and the low-slung riding position on a racing bike. On the fitness bike, they also sit in a decidedly sporty position, but less bent forwards than on a road bike, but are still travelling with the lightest possible equipment. And they really enjoy it.
Sports bikes at favourable prices
In Germany in particular, the fitness bike has played a modest but not insignificant role in the increasingly diversified bicycle market ever since. Manufacturers such as Stevens, Cube, Rose and Canyon have been focussing on this topic for years and have a whole range of models in different price categories on offer. "We can put decently equipped, lightweight bikes on our bikes for around 800 euros," says Marketing Director Volker Dohrmann from Stevens in Hamburg. That's why we decided to include two current models from individual brands in the test field in order to be able to represent the range of equipment and offers as comprehensively as possible. The twelve bikes in the test reflect the market as a whole relatively well.
Fitness bikes have the licence to race
Technically, the bikes are very interesting - despite or perhaps because of the fact that there is actually not much to the slim speedsters. They impress with maximum reduction. Even the cheapest bike in the test weighs just 11.3 kilos, the most expensive only 7.9 kilos, which means it is already poaching in the territory of thoroughbred racing bikes. This means that you can also shred through hilly terrain in a sporty and dynamic manner. The frames and forks are made of aluminium or carbon, with some forks combining both materials; in many cases they are taken from the manufacturers' current racing bike series.
The design effort is sometimes enormous. Trek integrates the IsoSpeed suspension system into the frame, which is also fitted to the US manufacturer's professional racing bikes. In many cases, both wheels are fixed with stiffness-enhancing thru-axles, cables are routed in the frame and threads for mounting mudguards, pannier racks and rear stands are cleverly integrated and elegantly concealed so as not to detract from the tidy, sporty look. Lightweight wheels with high-quality, narrow tyres accelerate effortlessly and roll smoothly over the asphalt; the bikes are light-footed and nimble.
All components are emphatically light and functional. The derailleur gears come from Shimano's highly developed Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace road bike groupsets with double cranks and ten or eleven sprockets on the rear wheel. Exception: An inexpensive, exotic nine-speed Microshift drivetrain with an extremely wide cassette is used on the affordable Specialized bike. BMC and Rose use Shimano's relatively new GRX drivetrain, which has shorter ratios across the board on gravel bikes and is therefore better suited to uphill riding than classic road drivetrains, some of which don't even have a 1:1 ratio on board.
All bikes are fitted with cheaper hydraulic disc brakes, which, after a proper run-in procedure, are at most noticeable for their unproblematic function. However, brake discs with a diameter of at least 160 millimetres are recommended; smaller discs can become too hot too quickly on long, steep descents and/or for heavier riders weighing 75 kilos or more, and in the worst case can even fail completely.
Details of the fitness bikes
High-end technology for low weight
Even at prices between 1400 and 1700 euros, the bikes impress with their low weight and practical features. At the same time, the bikes emphasise different aspects. Sometimes the focus is on a lightweight frame, sometimes on lighter wheels, wider tyres or an emphatically versatile design. The more expensive the bikes, the more consistently the manufacturers focus on a low overall bike weight. On the other hand, the construction costs increase significantly, as it takes a lot of effort to make a fast bike both very light and as stable as possible. The super-light frame-fork sets from Scott and Canyon or the very light wheels on the Stevens Strada 1000 are examples of how bikes can be designed to be even more dynamic and sporty.
It is also interesting to see the technical tricks that manufacturers use to make ascetic sports bikes more comfortable to ride. Trek's frame damping and Canyon's seat post are innovative technologies designed to make the rider more comfortable even on long journeys. As you can see: The topic of fitness bikes is alive and kicking. Probably also because pure cycling is a pleasant contrast to our mechanised environment. And it shows that riding pleasure has less to do with a fat wallet than with well-trained thigh muscles and fitness.
The 12 fitness bikes at a glance
All fitness bikes in the test
- SPECIALIZED SIRRUS X 3.0
- STEVENS STRADA 600
- MERIDA SPEEDER 900
- CUBE SL ROAD SL
- GIANT FAST ROAD ADVANCED
- CANYON ROADLITE CF 7.0
- ROSE MULTISTREET GRX
- BMC ALPENCHALLENGE 1 THREE
- STEVENS STRADA 1000
- SCOTT METRIX 10
- TREK FX SPORT 6
- CANYON ROADLITE CF 9.0
You can download the complete fitness bike test from MYBIKE 03/2020 as a PDF below the article for a fee.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in MYBIKE. We don't charge for them, but the opposite is the case: we do charge for them - tens of thousands of euros every year.
