I spotted an item about a new bike, the Factor Monza, in the cycling press this week. The more I read the more I had to resist the overwhelming urge to pull my hair out.
It’s certainly true that the latest bikes are technological and engineering masterpieces – but then even the most basic bike is an incredible machine. A bike turns a basic walking human into something that can travel, entirely under his or her own power, ten or more times further and faster. For sure, some of that gain is from aerodynamics, reduced friction and mechanical advantage, but by far the most comes from freeing the legs and postural muscles from keeping us balanced and upright, and using just the biggest and strongest muscles, those in the hips and thighs, to move us forwards.
As a bike fitter I spend my time seeing how much difference adjusting the setup of a bike makes to how the bike feels and performs. Except that isn’t what I see at all. What I see, and what my clients learn for themselves, is how different the rider feels and performs. The bike is an inert object that doesn’t actually ‘feel’ anything. It can’t feel the tension in the rider’s back and shoulders: It can’t tell that the pressure on the saddle and the handlebars is causing the rider ‘a bit of discomfort’ as the ride goes on. It’s the rider that feels the benefit of a fitting becuse the bike is adjusted to fit the rider, not the rider to the bike.
It’s very rare that the only adjustment that I make is to change the saddle height. Most of my clients have tried that already. If it worked for them they wouldn’t require my bike fitting services.
Any (well maintained) bike feels great when it’s perfectly set up for you. If it’s heavy, or has knobbly tires or a limited range of gears it probably won’t be fast, and that could certainly spoil things for you if you’re in a hurry. A really great bike is one that feels great and doesn’t hold you back – one that it stiff, light and aerodynamic – maybe even with electric gears and disc brakes (These don’t actually affect the ride, by the way, but it’s difficult to find a new bike without them). It’s such a shame that so many bikes, like the new Factor Monza under discussion here, with many of the features to make them really great, have forgotten the basics that make any bike great to ride in the first place.
A few years ago I wrote this piece about the emerging trend for unadjustable bikes.
As you’ll see from the article about the Monza, the trend is, unfortunately, showing no signs of abating. Here we go…
Factor has made official its latest new bike, the Monza.
It is based on Factor’s top-spec Ostro VAM aero all-rounder race bike, ridden by the Israel-Premier Tech men’s and Human Powered Health women’s pro teams.
Factor has simplified some aspects of the construction to lower costs though, resulting in full builds with its new Black Inc 45 wheelset and a SRAM Force AXS (with a power meter) or Shimano Ultegra groupset that come in at £6,599 and £6,399 respectively.
Lower costs maybe, but still a lot of money.
When we reviewed the Factor Ostro VAM, our only quibble was that we had to give it back, and it performed well in our wind tunnel test of 11 superbikes, where it came out as the most aero on test when averaging the results from the various conditions, beating a field that included some all-out aero bikes.
So it’s based on a bike that was great in the wind tunnel. What are the differences? Here we go…
User-friendly features for the non-pro
Factor’s director of engineering, Graham Shrive, points out that non-pros are often racing and training on the same bike, so Factor has added features to suit amateur riders, including in-frame storage and front and rear removable GoPro mounts for a light, a radar or an action cam.
Shrive says that keeping spares in the frame rather than in a saddle pack can save up to six watts in aero drag. There’s a sleeve to fit inside the cavity and stop items from rattling.
So far, so good.
Shrive adds that while pros often get to race on newly-laid tarmac, everyday riders have to take what they’re given, so the new Monza has 34mm tyre clearance, keeping abreast of current trends towards wider road tyres.
I’m not sure that many pros would agree with the observation about newly laid tarmac, or indeed having any choice at all over where they ride. It’s the amateurs who have the choice. Anyway, I’ve no issue with additional clearance.
Key geometry figures, including the head tube angle, fork offset, chainstay length and wheelbase, are identical to the Ostro VAM, so Factor says that the bike has similar handling and stiffness characteristics and a similar ride feel.
This is where it starts to get silly. As a bike fitter I’d argue that for a road bike the key geometry figures are those which affect where your body weight is. Head tube angle and fork offset mean very little as steering and handling are almost entirely controlled by lean and bodyweight. And chainstay length might have mattered in the days of steel frames, when it affected stiffness, but it makes no difference with carbon. Likewise wheelbase: If anything, longer bikes are likely to be more aerodynamic and handle more predictably up and down hill.
At the same time, Factor has increased the stack and shortened the reach a little, for a less aggressive ride position. In a size 56cm frame, that amounts to a 9mm increase in stack and a 3mm shorter reach.
Er, wtf? That’s one headset spacer difference in handlebar height and, er, 3mm of reach?!?! If 3mm made a difference stems would come in 3mm increments, not 10mm increments.
The reach is shortened further by the new Black Inc HB04 integrated bar/stem. This has a 5mm greater backsweep than the HB02 bar/stem fitted to the Ostro VAM. It also has a new profile, which Shrive claims is more comfortable and easier to grip for riders with smaller hands.
Ah, 3mm of reach + 5mm due to the integrated bar-stem combo = 8mm. That’s almost one stem length of difference. Which is OK. If it happens to be what you want. Which you have to hope, because swapping the stem on the Monza is a bit of a palaver to say the least, as it’s integrated into the handlebars. Which means that you’re also stuck with the new HB04 bar profile. Fortunately it is ‘more comfortable to grip with small hands’. But what if you have big hands, like a pro? No, I didn’t realise that pros have big hands either.
As with the HB02, the Monza’s HB04 offers full cable integration, but it interfaces with the Monza fork’s round steerer, which replaces the Ostro VAM’s D-shaped steerer.
Ah yes. Not only does swapping the stem mean swapping the handlebars too, it means disconnecting the hydraulic brakes. And then re-routing, re-connecting and bleeding them. I suspect the convenience of the round, rather than D shaped steerer doesn’t really provide much relief amidst the nightmare of hydraulics. And if you (or a pro) should happen to prefer the alternate bars…? Tough. They don’t fit.
While the Ostro VAM has fancy CeramicSpeed SLT headset bearings in 1-⅛” top and 1-⅜” bottom sizes, the Monza’s headset turns on industry-standard 1-½” bearings top and bottom. The oversized top bearing allows Factor to route the brake hoses into the head tube between the bearings and the steerer tube, which it says simplifies build and maintenance.
Finally, something helpful for the home mechanic! If you do want to make any adjustments or do any servicing it’s still completely proprietary of course, but at least it’s different from the Ostro VAM setup. And that 1-1/2” top bearing? Industry standard? Hmmm. Standard to Giant and Canyon, but not the rest of the world.
The larger bearings also point to another design change between the Ostro VAM and the Monza – the latter is slightly less narrow in frontal profile, both at the front and the rear.
Ah, so it’s not as aerodynamic after all!
That’s allowed Factor to use the same wider seatpost profile as in the first-generation Ostro VAM, in place of the new Ostro VAM’s ultra-skinny seatpost.
Is this good news? A wider seatpost? It’s less aerodynamic, but it’s still not a round seatpost, so you can’t swap it if, say, the saddle is in the wrong place and is causing you backache (or neckache, arm ache, saddle soreness, numb hands, burning quads, nervous handling, dodgy braking…)
In turn, the Di2 battery can be housed in the seatpost, again simplifying assembly over the Ostro VAM’s seat tube battery, which is accessed from behind the bottom bracket.
Just so you know, you could equally well house the battery in a round seatpost. Just sayin’. But personally speaking I think that accessing the battery through a dedicated hatch makes more sense than the complete hack of wedging it up the seatpost …which is hardly convenient as gravity is doing it’s best to unwedge it and the connecting cable has to be fed upwards from the bottom of the seat tube and be long enough to connect and disconnect.
The seatpost is still clamped from the rear, but Factor says its new two-bolt clamp design should be easier to maintain and grease, reducing the risk of it freezing.
At last – something that you really can maintain and adjust yourself!!
Factor has, in addition, simplified the lower junction between the fork and the headset, which is now a straight line, in place of the Ostro VAM’s curved shape.
There’s no reason given for this change.
Maintenance and part replacement should be made easier with a T47 bottom bracket and a UDH derailleur hanger, although Factor says that it has a mini-UDH hanger in the works that will save weight over the standard design.
Don’t get me started on bottom bracket and mech hangar standards. A new standard ‘in the works’ is just what we need.
The Factor Monza is available in sizes 49, 52, 54, 56, 58 and 61, one fewer than the Ostro VAM, which is also sold in size 45.
And a final mixed message to wrap things up: No small size for small amateurs. …but just a few moments ago we were reading about the handlebars being suitable for small hands.
Oh dear.
Read more about the relationships between bike fit, body shape and muscle fatigue. And why not browse some my other items?