Verenti Rhigos.03

Review from road.cc

We went to get a see the new range of Verenti bikes for a pre-launch sneak peek a few weeks back now two of them have come to us, we'll show you the Kilmeston soon, but first out of the box is the Rhigos 03.

As the name suggests it's the third bike in the Rhigos range sitting behind, you're ahead of us the 01, and the 02. For our money in stealth black this is the looker of the bunch and, on paper at least, for £1400 it is an incredibly competitive piece of kit. It'll need to be though because it will be going up against some really good bikes including the benchmark setting Boardman Road Pro Carbon, and some of the very stylish offerings from the likes of Comtat.

Even on looks, spec... and promise the Verenti looks to be a winner. Yes, the Boardman is no off the shelf generic carbon machine, a lot of thought has gone in to it, but comfortable though it is, it's an out and out race tool. And it costs £200 more. And while Comtat too have performance oriented sportive offerings in their range, stylishly finished too, they have used their experience to build great bikes from off the shelf parts they haven't been put together 'from the ground up' for the sorts of conditions that British sportive riders will face in the way Verenti have gone about their task and believe us Verenti have gone about this process with an almost obsessive approach to detail.

Named after the killer Welsh climb the Rhigos 03 is intended to be a bike to get you up the mountain after a long day in the saddle and leave you fresh enough to nail the descent on the other side. At 8.16kg comfort rather than all-out low weight is key, so is smooth handling and the sort of planted descending on rails stability that inspires the sort of confidence you need to enjoy fast descents on British roads.

Spec highlights? Well first off, that lugged high modulus 3K carbon frame. The Rhigos 03 has the same frame with different coloured lugs as the 02 (white lugs) and the 01 (red). Some people can get a bit sniffy about lugged carbon, but it makes sense, it's still the method of choice for top end carbon from Italian marques like Colnago. In many ways it's no less complex way of building a bike than a monocoque, all those lugs need to be different for every frame size and it does allow for a very clean, strong method of construction, with some interesting tube profiles too.

That frame, and it's upgradeability is a really strong card in the 03's favour. So too though is the buying power of Wiggle/Verenti which means that for your £1400 you are getting a very well equipped bike. Groupset is pretty much full SRAM Rival save for the Truvative 50-34 Elita chainset. Wheels are Mavic Acksiums - plenty strong enough to deal with even British roads and worth hanging on to as training wheels when the time comes to upgrade to something lighter. There's a fair smattering of Verenti own branded kit on there too - the Me2 brakes have the look of the higher end of the Tektro range and the full carbon monocoque fork looks a quality bit of kit too.

In conclusion...

Our Rhigos 03 is heading out into the hills very soon, Roger Blessed is revved up and ready to go, so well see if the reality matches the promise straight from the box though it's so far so good.

Rating: Exclusive: Just in

Review from Cycling Weekly

VERENTI'S first carbon bike,the Rhigos.03, is squarely aimed at the sportive market. So is it the sort of
machine to whose handlebar the aspiring sportiviste will eagerly
zip-tie their laminated number?

Price-wise the Rhigos.03 sits right in the middle of the Verenti range. Below it are the alloybased Millook and Kilmeston and above it, the platform-sharing .02 and .01 Rhigos.

To keep life simple, Verenti bikes use SRAM groupsets exclusively and the .03 is based around the Rival family (third from the top), but with a few key changes to help it hit the price point. A compact Truvativ Elita
crank and own-brand Verenti Me2 brake calipers are the most noteworthy. The brakes match nicely with the other Verenti products namely the Me3
stem, bars and saddle.
Mavic Aksium wheels complete the ensemble with Vittoria Diamante ProTech tyres,
which show that corners haven't been cut.
From the first look the Rhigos
looks muscular and well built,thanks to the oversize tubes, but with a nod to the past as the tubes are joined with lugs. This style of manufacture allows Verenti to offer six sizes without a sky-high price.

It's when you hit the corners hard that you discover just where Verenti's designers have spent a lot of their time and effort. With the diameter of the head tube it's not a surprise that the Rhigos's front end is stiff, but that fact gets away from the subtle feel it can impart. There is plenty
of information coming through, which allows you to really get the most out of the corners, and it does this without giving a harsh ride impressive stuff. At the same time the rear end is stiff, which is good for drive, but I'd like to see a little more comfort built in for our ever-deteriorating British roads.

It's worth checking the head tube length suits as it's one of the longest we've seen, but due to the subtle design this is easy to miss.

With the Rhigos.03, Verenti has come up with a great handling, very affordable, lugged carbon, sportive machine.

In conclusion...

a great opening
gambit in its bid to become a major
player in the sportive market.

Rating: 9/10

Review from road.cc

Verenti sounds like a boutique Italian brand that you should have heard of... but haven't. You wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that they had a string of Giro d'Italia victories to their name back in the 1950s... but they didn't. Verenti is actually the new in-house bike brand from online retail maestros Wiggle and they're based in Portsmouth, which is nowhere near the Med.

There are initially five bikes in the Verenti range and they're all designed with sportive riding in mind we hear that other genres are coming. The current crop share the same back-friendly geometry which means a longer than normal head tube and a slightly foreshortened top tube resulting in quite an upright ride position. And they all come with compact gearing to keep you spinning up the climbs even at the end of a long, tough day in the saddle.

The Verenti range kicks off with the £900 alloy Kilmeston, then comes the £1200 Millook, which is alloy with carbon seatstays, and then you get the three carbon Rhigos starting with our Rhigos.03. The other two share the same frame and fork package but get equipment upgrades. The £1800 02 features a SRAM Rival groupset and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels while the range-topping 01 is equipped with SRAM Red and Ksyrium SLs and it'll set you back £2900. That might sound like a lot of money but you get a whole lot of spec for your cash with each bike.

The Rhigos' frame is made from high modulus 3K SL carbon tubes that are joined using carbon lugs. The down tube is teardrop shaped in profile and bows inward slightly along its length, while the top tube starts out as a flat bottomed triangle at the front before flipping over so the point is facing down by the time it reaches the seat tube junction.

The head tube houses a standard 1 1/8in headset bearing up top but flares out massively as it descends and holds a 1 1/2in bearing at the bottom for a considerable hike in rigidity. The wishbone seatstays and chainstays weave about all over the place before hooking up together at the rear dropouts, while up front you get a full-carbon monocoque fork that blends almost seamlessly into the frame.

The cable stops are pop riveted in place securely enough while the graphics are classy and understated rather than loud and loutish, although we wish they were a little more durable ours started to look a bit tatty fairly early on. While we're on the decals, the figures on the top tube are the map reference of the Rhigos climb which, if you haven't been schooled in such things, is in South Wales and is included in the Verenti-sponsored Dragon Ride sportive. See, it all makes sense.

Okay, when it comes to naming bikes after climbs, Mid-Glamorgan lacks the glamour of the Madone outside Monte Carlo or the Ghisallo near Milan, but it's good to see a bit of recognition for British riding for a change. Oh, and the weird squiggle on the down tube: that's an outline of the Dragon Ride route. Quirky. We like that.

Ride: Think marathon not sprint
Right, on to the ride. Things didn't start out particularly well, to be honest, because the Verenti's gears were out when we got it and we had to adjust both mechs a lot to get them running smoothly. Fine, it's a 10-minute job if you know what you're doing, but it's a pain if you've just bought a bike online and you don't have much experience in the old bike fettling game. Gripe over! Thankfully, things soon started looking up...

Verenti have set out to produce a great value sportive bike and that's exactly what they've achieved here. For a start, the ride position is spot on for racking up the big miles. Slightly shorter than a full-on race bike and quite a bit higher at the front, you can sit aboard the Rhigos for hours without your back screaming for you to pack it in for the day. You're not so upright that the wind catches you full in the chest, though it's a good compromise position, and you can always lower the bars slightly if you like; we had 4cm of headset spacers to play with.

It's also a smooth ride, the carbon at both ends damping out the vast majority of the buzz from the road and gel pads under the tape around the top section of the bars doing a great job of keeping your palms from going numb. It's a small detail but it makes such a difference to the ride quality. Verenti's own cromo-railed saddle isn't going to give Fizik's designers sleepless nights but it's a decent shape and it's well-cushioned without being squidgy it's certainly a useable choice to be going on with.

Hitting the scales at 8.1kg (17.8lb) without pedals (for the XL model), the Verenti comes at a weight that's easy enough to coax up the hills. Although none of the bikes in the range come equipped with a triple chainset, with a compact (50/34-tooth) double chainset from Truvativ matched up to a 12-27 cassette, you've probably got all the gears you need for

In conclusion...

Lightweight and comfortable sportive machine with an excellent spec for the cash excellent value.

Rating: 8/10

Review from Road Cycling UK

The Rhigos.03 is the entry level model of the three Rhigos bikes in online retailer wiggle.co.uk's new Verenti road bike range...For many potential and existing sportive riders, however, those high handlebars and the associated upright riding position will be a very attractive proposition...That said, there's more to this machine than a relaxed, undemanding cockpit arrangement, as a quick run-over as it comes from the box will reveal...The frame tubes and fork are finished in 3K carbon twill with black-painted lugs, head tube and bottom bracket. A close inspection is needed to reveal that these parts are, in fact, also carbon-fibre, for the only visual evidence that they are not cast aluminium is a subtle label on the top tube stating that these are Ultra Contact Bonding Verenti Carbon Lugs. Their sturdy, immaculately-smooth finish sure is reminiscent of cast aluminium, especially with the Verenti badge set into the side of the head tube one-piece moulding, but the weight of the bike says otherwise...Detailing is impressive; not only is the trident logo set into the head tube, but it appears on the back of the rear dropouts, on the underside of the down tube lug extension and on the front of the seat tube cluster. The CNC-machined replaceable derailleur hanger also has a machined logo...One interesting feature is the extended tip to the front ear of each fork dropout. This, it transpires, is designed to be rested against the ground when the front wheel is removed for, say, a puncture repair. The fork has a 1.5" lower bearing with suitably oversized carbon steerer and the machine is nicely finished off with a sleek trident head badge...Finishing kit is wiggle's own ME componentry; ME3 in the case of the bars, stem, seatpost and saddle and plain old ME for the bar tape, bar ends and headset spacers.

In conclusion...

SRAM Rival shifters and mechs with ME2 calipers and a SRAM Elita compact chainset equip a machine that rolls on good-looking 2010 Mavic Aksium wheels and Vittoria Diamante Pro rubber. This is a fine-looking, beautifully-finished machine that looks more than capable of tackling some serious mileages, just as long as the rider does not want to get too aero.... We shall be giving it something to do.

Rating: First Look

Review from road.cc

Half way up the Rhigos, on a Rhigos, it was clear that the bike is aptly named. Verenti are a company without a back story, the decades of racing history that many of their competitors can draw on. This bike isn't a Galibier or a Mortirolo, with all the memories that those sinews of tarmac can evoke, but it is a proper bike for the hills nonetheless, and a homegrown one too, designed for these shores. The Rhigos is a proper climb, not the longest or the steepest but a challenge and a rewarding one; you might call it good value and that's certainly what you get with the bike.

 

Our day on the Dragon ride climbs started on the final descent of the Bwlch climb and my first miles on the Rhigos were a short downhill followed by a bit of high street traffic dodging through the valley towns of Treorchy and Treherbert which wouldn't be all that much fun on any bike. However, the highish position of the Verenti gave a good view of proceedings, and also the clear sense that the flattish miles were delaying the inevitable. It's obvious there's no way out of the valley bar climbing the walls, and the odd glint of a car window in the sun high up to the right only reinforced the fact that the road was bound to go up.

 

 

The must cursory of homework on Google maps the night before meant I knew that it did anyway, for four full miles to the pass at 500m. That's a long climb for the UK, and a high one, but at 5% it's not especially steep and mercifully there are no surprises, the gradient is about as constant as they come. On top of that there's some amazing scenery to gaze upon as you winch your way up to the ice cream van: on a glorious spring day there's few things I'd rather be doing than this. On the day of the Dragon you'll be facing this climb after already having hauled yourself over the Bwlch and you'll be glad of a bike that's happy over the long haul and eager up the cols. The Rhigos is just such a bike.

 

Verenti haven't set out to create a thoroughbred race iron here, but a bike that'll happily cover a long sportive at a decent lick without beating you to a pulp. Key to this is the frame: its geometry and ride feel will be at the centre of your ride experience. The Rhigos' lugged Carbon frame has a high front end (a 215mm head tube on the XL I was riding) and a fairly short cockpit; 570mm in this case when I'd normally expect a frame this big to be about 15mm longer. That's mitigated a bit by a long stem so it's really the height that you notice most. The bike sits you up a bit more than a race bike which means that you can enjoy the view, and a few hours in your back will be thanking you too. It's not quite as wind-friendly of course but with 3,500 other wheels to suck that's not going to be a problem, now is it?

 

 

Ride-wise, the climb shows there's lots to like about the Verenti Rhigos. It's a solid, dependable platform and there's enough compliance in the frame and components the soften the blow from the inevitable potholes the winter ice has left for unwary sportivistes. Out of the saddle it's plenty stiff and eager, seated and spinning it feels very stable and efficient. Our £1400 Rhigos 03 scratches under 18lb even in XL guise so it's light enough to feel sprightly, and the Aksium wheelset complements the frame well. Come the top of the climb and the long, fast descent to Hirwaun and you'll be wanting a bike that goes where you point it and isn't nervous at speed, and the Rhigos is that too. The beefy head tube and monocoque fork keep things nicely planted for the blast down to the valley, although the more upright position and shallow drop bars mean you'll struggle to stay with the more hunkered down racers.

 

 

An about-face at Penderyn had us facing the Rhigos from the other side after a valley section which the bike handled in an unflustered, unassuming way. On the steeper north face the Verenti was just as happy, on the long descent back to Trehebert and a bacon sandwich stop there were no foibles to report. This is a bike you could happily spend a day on on any sportive, and it'll reward you with a great quality ride.

 

Is there a down side? There is, but it's more about heart than head. Verenti have set out to produce a capable, good value sportive bike and they've done exactly that: you can spend a lot more than this on a bike that's considerably less fit for purpose. For all that capability the Verenti's not really a bike you fall in love with, in the sense that buying one would be a considered and sensible decision, rather than a more emotional one. I've no problems with folks buying bike

In conclusion...

After the cafe stop I was positively eager to tackle the Bwlch and the shorter climb to Llangeinor, such is the appetite of the Verenti for those road miles. There'll be plenty of these bikes carrying heavy-legged roadies over that same final climb on the day of the Dragon, and those riders will have spent wisely.

Rating: A day out on the Rhigos