Road Bike of The Year WINNER | Rondo HVRT CF0

Our Road Bike of the Year winner 2019 is three bikes in one — and all of them a blast.
Rondo made quite a splash in the gravel world with its innovative RUUT CF1. The patented TwinTip fork allowed you to adjust the bike's geometry between racy and relaxed with a flip of the insert in the thru-axle dropout.
The Rondo HVRT (High Velocity, Rough Terrain) CF0 is the second bike to use this system, and the team at Rondo has managed to produce an aggressive, aerodynamically optimised race bike that can be switched into a more relaxed all-day machine — add in 650b wheels and you can take advantage of huge tyre clearances, making it a massively capable gravel machine as well.

Could this be one bike to rule them all? Let us know in the comments.

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[bikeradar]

So, the Rondo HVRT is our Road Bike of The Year! Do you think we've made the right choice? Or should it have been something else? As always, Let us know what you think in the comments below.

[tomaszzambrzycki]

i'm from poland it's home of rondo bike company, rondo's bikes are so so good especially that designer is from ns bikes which is fr/dh type of bikes, nort shore bikes are also top end performance

[MAGAIVER]

That bikes seems amazing. I like the ideia of 2 different wheel sets . I'm currently working with my LBS to get a set of 650b wheels with 2.2" mtb tires for my trek checkpoint to ride the rougher stuff around here. I borrowed the wheels from a mountain bike for a test fit and they fit nice with plenty of clearence.

[chiefrocker]

Interesting. I'm not expert but have been building and modifying bikes for the past decade and what I have observed is that the big 5 manufacturers have gone aero everything, and when you strip away the components, the frame pricing is above US$5K. When you look at the rondo frame only, it's at low US$3k...based on that I am keen to understand quality of build....just that alone makes this rondo an amazing value. I think this frame built up as 1X with new SRAM force AXS would be a great competitive build. Try doing that with specialized venge, tarmac, madone, and I feel we are looking at a far higher price without the versatility. Potentially my next build.... impressed!

[NewtonInDaHouseYo]

So it’s an aero gravel bike? Kind of like a Land Rover 2-door convertible? Certainly a unique concept.

[TrailPOV]

Very cool bike! Never heard of them in North America, but out of the box thinking in terms of design.

[MrSmoothasf]

Nice, this is a good shout. I much prefer riding 'gravel bikes' as they are much more fun and comfortable but what I ideally would want would be a trek emonda with tyre clearance for 42s. This bike seems to be pretty much that.

[chrisk]

I had a custom built road bike in 1981. It was made for me by Gary Klein.
I saw a first iteration when I was on an AYH (American Youth Hostle) organized local day country road ride in south eastern Wisconsin. This was during the first "golden age" of publicly popular non-fanatic recreational riding in the 70's.
I worked and managed a small bike store (there NO "large" stores yet) staffed with young addicted bikaholics like me. That was the entire focus of our lives at that time. Work, eat, drink, sleep, socialise and ride. What else?
So our dream was to build our vision of the perfect bike. At that time it meant lugged frames with beautiful craftsmanship, the perfect paint job, the best components (Campy was the dominant high-end choice). Well, I had something in that arena, but I wanted something more creative and unique.
The Klein first and second versions weren't that refined, but when I saw the third, I was hooked. It was work of rolling bicycle sculptural craftsmanship. The guy that had one was a fellow student at MIT with Gary Klein in Material Science. Other than some dubious "Rube Goldberg" aluminum fabrications as in "glued and screwed" as seen raced in the US Nationals held annually for several years in Milwaukee Wi), this was from outer space. There were no aluminum bikes to speak of, all bikes had small diameter tubing and the the top of the line bikes of the time weighed from 21-25lbs. This one had FAT tubes and weighed around 19lbs.
All aluminum tubing that was welded and had totally smooth joints, the rear seat stays had boron fabric applied to add more stiffness and strength in some vectors and flexability and dampening in others. Efficient and comfortable!
I cherry picked components without regard to "groupos". Modolo Brakes which made Campagnolo parts look cheap, Campy Record derailleur (no front derailleur as I eliminated one front chain ring and derailleur), Zeus track crank, Campy black track pedals, one Huret shift lever, Cinelli seat post and stem, 3T handlebars (now referred to as "vintage"), Unicanitor nylon track saddle, alloy tubeless sew-up tires, High-e aluminum hubs. I had everything that could be, "milled and drilled". So all the teeth on the front chain ring had a hole drilled through etc. Less And the crowning touch was a custom paint color I remembered in my mind that I thought I had seen at one of those US Nationals, ready for was a flat grey/pink. To find the color I found a GM paint chip color catalog and it turned out to be a 1957 Cadillac color called "dusty rose pink".
I approached Gary Klein by phone to arrange to see if he would a bike to my specs. His sales materials offered, at extra cost that option. He thought it was a little weird to fabricate a six speed (the most number of sprockets that could be put on the rear hub back then), but he okayed it, but didn't want to paint it that color as he felt it was too wild.
It was my bike and I was willing to pay the money! The frame finally arrived! It was stunning (in a good way). I assembled all the bike "jewelry"and now for the long anticipated first ride!
It was spectacular! Super responsive, very light, no bike creaking etc, "stomp" on it and it would just go, smooth not harsh, tracked as if on rails (going down curvy downhill roads at speed was totally confidently stable), climbed without flexing, WOW.
I used it on my first Wisconsin SAGBRAW bike tour (sponsored by the then Milwaukee Sentinal newspaper). This was a one week tour on one of three routes (325 riders max on each) from which to choose ending up back in Milwaukee after having bussed to the starting points and riding back (350-450 miles depending on the route). I rode nine of them, each three times from 1981-1989.
The point was whenever I leaned my bike against something especially after each day's ride, there would be ten to fifteen people standing around it. No one had ever seen anything like it. Fat tubes, grey pink paint, only six gears, unusual parts
and so light.
It was worth the time and money for so much enjoyment and conversation.
Sorry for the rambling

[luckykl]

Hey Warren it was great riding with you in Cyprus, I ended up buying the ruut after you guys left ;)

[leftymadrid]

HVRT!!! THIS is very interesting for sure, Dura ace mechanical is just fine by me! The 2nd wheel concept possibility n discount is a big plus! Like having two 2.800 £ bike types in one!! And when you get to know both type of rides I'm sure falling in love with it would be easy...
K, this is gonna HURT!!!

[superflex]

I have the stainless ruut. It’s sick. Need this

[kevinpunter]

Seeing your choice for BOTY I was initially ready to poo poo the hell out of your choice, but watching the video changed my opinion and has made me very curious. About the only thing I can criticise the bike for in appearance is having a bird's nest of cables at the bars on something with an aero intention ... that's what I expect to see on a feather weigh race bike .. not an aero bike. Fix the spaghetti and for me this could well be the one bike (with two sets of wheels) you take everywhere. Crazy to think that I've recently got a top spec TCR, added a Giant Revolt for gravel and I'm now researching an aero bike with a comfort bias - oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have watched this video :( ... now I'm thinking go SRAM AXS on this with appropriate range cassettes on the different wheels and there's less ugly cables to criticise :O

[RepsacZ]

Wow. Didn't know about this brand. Beautiful bike. But those cables... ah man they hurt my eyes.

[caperider]

Very interesting bike to say the least. I like it!

Its in the right direction of where road bikes are heading to.

[Andy_ATB]

Interesting concept - and seemingly it works. Will it tempt other major brands to try something similar??

[rickykiller]

My road bike of the year is tcr sl 2019!!

[edwinkluvers]

Nice bike. And I can understanding your choice. But the cable routing is awfull.That is not aero. And the wings i have steen before, Scott I thought. And the price with Ultegra mech. ?? Have not seen a dealer yet in Holland.

[DolleHengst]

2:38 The Scott Foil Disc has had those fork wings for the last two years. On both fork legs.

[Roedygr]

Surely end users are not expected to build the rear wheels with the Ace Hub and the spokes.

[davidmcilvenna]

Nice video... Thank you!

Can you tell me what bike(s) the presenter has in his private collection?

Which is hit favourite?

Dublin Dave