Review from Cycling Plus

Expectation is always high when a Focus rolls into the Cycling Plus bike shed. Experience has taught us to look forward to a decent German-made frame raised another level by the outstanding value made possible by Wiggle's hefty online buying power. Even a quick once over confirms that the Mares Expert is no exception. Full Ultegra SL, including the chainset, works as well as ever ? excellently ? and the 34-tooth small ring alongside the 50-tooth outer makes for a wide range of gears that even load-hucking tourists or hilly commuters will be grateful for if the Focus is put to work away from the cyclecross track.

But the Mares Expert is first and foremost a rough stuff racer, built for the cut and thrust ? and mud ? of the 50-minute-plus-one-lap cyclecross race. To this end, it's serious stuff and solidly built out of 6061 aluminium tubing to the same design as Hanka Kupfernagel's 2005 world cyclecross championship winning bike. With design features such as the ovalised top tube with its top mounted 'guitar fret' of routed cables for comfortable shouldering of the bike, big mud clearances between frame, fork and tyres front and rear, and no-nonsense welded on gussets reinforcing the join of the headtube and the downtube, the Mares Cross clearly means business. It's good to see in-line adjusters on the cables within easy reach of the bars for time saving mid-ride or mid-race indexing tweaks too.

The ride is equally business-like. The Focus might not be lightweight, but once you and the bike are caked in mud, all up weight might not be the racing be-all-and-end-all anyway. Thanks in part to the tight, shallow drop of the FSA Comp Pro bars and the high, pistol-grip like Ultegra gear lever hoods, you always feel you can take loose or muddy trails by the scruff of the neck. The faster and harder you go in, the more rewarding the handling feels.

The Schwalbe Racing Ralph triple compound 'cross tyres certainly help too. Better known as a mountain bike tyre, the Ralphs are nice and fat, with aggressive tread, and racers may also like to know the tyre is also now available as a 'tub', although you'll need different wheels to glue it into. Their hard cornering grip was especially good, thanks perhaps to angular chunks of tread protruding from the 35mm width. The wheels on the Mares Expert are CSL 2800 rims made by Taiwanese manufacturer Alex, laced to reliable 105 hubs.

On versatility front, it's disappointing to see no rear eyelets for fixing racks or guards. But at least you will be able to keep your feet dry, as there are mudguard eyelets at the drop outs of the carbon blade, aluminium-steerered fork.

When we complained to the cyclecross racers on the Cycling plus team that the 'low-pro' cantilever brakes on all the bikes in this test were a bit weak, and were best operated from the drops, they told us you shouldn't need to use the brakes in a 'cross race anyway. We were almost surprised they didn't say the same about gears... But brakes on a bike are always a good idea, and focus must have thought so too, as those on the Mares expert are the best in test. Not only are there bar-top brake levers, but the Tektro cantilevers are easily the most powerful here. This is certainly due to their more traditional, wider horizontal set up, based on the 'L' shaped brakes originally designed by 'Mafac' for tandems. Looked at from the front, they are much less compact than the other low profile cantilever brakes in this test group, but with much more leverage ? which is perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing but is evidently much more effective.

In conclusion...

Race-bred frame completes high-end, high value package

Rating: 8/10