The Ventoux is a well-equipped German lightweight designed with a focus on comfort. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of some excitement compared to a race-ready weapon.
Ride & handling: Light and well equipped, with particularly good wheels
German bikes have picked up a reputation for riding harshly. In some cases it's true but the Ventoux immediately proves that such a generalisation is unfair. It takes the sting out of sharper hits and road vibration well. We've ridden smoother bikes but they've either been twice the price or sacriï¬ced all lateral strength.
Manufacturers would like us to believe we must choose between pedaling stiffness and ride comfort but it is possible to have both, it's just difï¬cult. That's why there are many good bikes and only a few greats.
The Ventoux has decent power transfer for its comfort level. There's no tangible ï¬,ex but it doesn't have the rock-solid feel of some of its peers. This is most noticeable when climbing a steep gradient out of the saddle in a low gear, when there's a bit of pedaling stiffness missing. This isn't to the detriment of upward progress, though, and it's this characteristic that benefits its endurance capabilities.
The Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels keep weight down and they help the Ventoux â€" named after the huge, treeless mountain in Provence made famous by the Tour de France â€" to climb in a manner beï¬tting its name. As you'd expect from the incredibly beefy front end, the steering is very precise and the bike feels rock solid when descending at speed.
Stevens haven't made the head tube too tall so, while you can still set it up for comfort by raising the Scorpo stem on the spacers, you can also get quite low. The anatomic bar has deep drops, giving a wide range of positions. The Shimano Ultegra kit all works very well, brakes included, but shifts require a lot of lever movement compared to SRAM.
We don't recall seeing an Oxygen saddle before but the Speedlite specced here is comfortable whether you like to sit on the back or perch on the nose. It sits on a high-quality Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost that was selected by Stevens for its vibration absorption ability.
Chassis: Comfortable frame with numerous intelligent details
Stevens made their ï¬rst carbon ï¬bre frame back in 1991. That bike used dead-straight carbon tubes that were joined with lugs and at the time it was regarded as cutting edge. Since then, a lot has changed, but not everything.
The Ventoux is made from unidirectional, high-modulus carbon ï¬bre and is close to being as advanced now as its ancestor was in 1991. Despite the altitude-seeking name, Stevens describe the Ventoux as being 'comfort-optimised'.
The seatstays are very skinny, as is the latest convention, to allow some give and save weight. The seat tube has an interesting asymmetrical shape that ï¬,ares out towards the non-drive side of the bike. This creates a larger junction area at the pressï¬t-type bottom bracket without creating a bigger Q-factor, the horizontal distance between the pedals.
For sharper handling, the head tube tapers from 1-1/8in at the top to a huge 1-1/2in where it meets the full-carbon fork. To ensure that stiffness isn't wasted, the down tube has the longest possible join with the head tube, coming right up to meet the top tube to form a much stiffer front end.
The Ventoux frame is a semi-monocoque. The front triangle is made in one piece and the rear half is joined using a tube-to-tube process of carbon-wrapped junctions. The chassis features several classy details such as the internal cable routing for the rear derailleur which emerges just above the dropout and also the seatpost clamp, which is partially integrated, smoothly shaped and forward facing so that it doesn't ï¬ll with road grime.
We weighed the frame and fork respectively at 984g and 360g. Those are impressive numbers, even for an upper-mid-range bike. If you agree with us that the Ventoux looks a bit dull and dated in this colour, check out the crisp white alternative. Our test bike came with standard gearing, although compact is an option.
This article was originally published in Triathlon Plus magazine.
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Original: BikeRadar.com Road Bikes & Gear
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