Dawes Diploma

Firstly, I think this looks a really attractive stylish bike. For £320 it looks great value and could make an excellent buy for someone want something a little more stylish than a gharish coloured mountain bike.

It is not built for speed but for a comfortable and practical ride. The ladies version comes with a step through frame design – suitable for skirts. (The Men’s Dawes Diploma comes with a standard horizontal top tube). The chain guard helps protect any loose clothing from getting oily. It means you don’t have to worry so much about tucking your trousers into your socks. The basket is practical and large. Though filled with heavy items it will make steering more difficult.

At 17.1Kg it is not light and with only 3 sturmey archer gears it may prove somewhat inhibiting for hillier cities. However, for most cities, a 3 speed sturmey archer is sufficient. If you buy this bike, you won’t be racing people at traffic lights. But, you will get a few admiring glances. At £320 its pretty good value. You could get a hybrid or mountain bike for £200 and it would have more gears. But, they wouldn’t have anywhere near the same class as this.

• Dawes Diploma at Evans Cycles

• Dawes Diploma 2009 Women’s bike

Related

• Dawes Galaxy touring bike
• Best Hybrid Bike

Campag claim that the new cassettes will still fit existing wheels and take up the same space as a 10 sprocket. They have managed to get an extra sprocket on by reducing the width of the chain from 5.9mm to 5.5 mm.

For someone who is still happy to ride 9 speed Groupset (mostly Shimano Ultegra 9 speed), I’m not sure how important / beneficial 11 speeds actually are. What it does mean is that if you choose a 12-23 cassette then every gear ratio would only change by 1; if your keen to retain a very constant cadence then the 11 speed will certainly help.

Campag Super Record

Campag, have also announced a new top of the range groupset Campag Super Record. It is based on the record groupset but makes extensive use of titanium to reduce weight. Industry sources suggest that the Titanium based super record groupset could push the price upto £1,600 – making it one of the most expensive groupsets on the market. Maybe Campag just want to have the kudos of having the most ‘expensive’ and therefore ‘best’ groupset on the market. This is currently held by SRAM ‘Red’

Different Types of Gear Mechanisms

9 and 10 Speed Cassettes