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Will one of these new road bike releases be the best road bike of 2026? Cube releases its 2026 road bike and gravel bike range, we take a look at whether they're the best value bikes for 2026. Scott releases a new 2026 Addict endurance road bike, Pinarello launches more affordable road bikes and lots more.
Jamie also takes a look at the equipment that Geraint Thomas used for his last ever race at the 2025 Tour of Britain and runs you through his latest project - A SEKA Spear road bike.
Jamie also takes a look at the equipment that Geraint Thomas used for his last ever race at the 2025 Tour of Britain and runs you through his latest project - A SEKA Spear road bike.
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00:00In this episode we take a look at G's rather special setup for his last ever race as a
00:06professional cyclist. Cube might have just released the best value bikes of 2026. Scott
00:13have just made their road bike more comfortable and Pinarello have made their road bike more
00:18affordable. Right where to start? How about with this because I've got a new toy. So this
00:25is a Sika Spear. This is China's answer to the Specialized Tarmac SL8 and it's basically
00:31a do it all all rounder. It's a lightweight and aero bike and well I'm going to be building it up
00:38and seeing how it performs. Not only does it come with some pretty big claims but it also comes with
00:44an in-house all-in-one one-piece cockpit integrated of course. It's called a Rapier and I've gone for
00:51it in a 375mm width. It's got six degrees of flare which is suitably modern and a 120mm stem. I'm
00:57pretty impressed with the rest of the frame as well. It is nicely done and as you can see I've
01:01gone for it in one of their more subtle paint jobs. I'm joking of course but they have done a nice job
01:07of it and here we've got a wind eye. That's quite a unique feature and yeah it's just all the
01:14accessories that have come with it are really nice and it's also like they've done a nice job. These
01:19threads are nice and clean. They've obviously masked off where the bottom bracket is going to go
01:24and the idea with this frame is that I'm going to build it up and I'm thinking I'm going to do it
01:30with components exclusively from the far east and then put it up against a dream build of western
01:37components and seeing if it's lacking behind in any areas, where it's ahead in any areas and where it's
01:45on a par in other areas. So let me know in the comments what you think I should put on it. Maybe
01:51some Elite wheels, maybe some Fast Sports, maybe some Craftworks, Alili Cranks, maybe they even look
01:56good on it. You name it we'll try and get it in and see what we can do and if you could also hit
02:02subscribe then that'll really help us out because 80% of you still aren't subscribed so click it now
02:08and you won't miss me building this up. Right, moving swiftly on and by the time this video goes
02:14live hopefully Garrett Thomas will have very almost completed his final ever bike race. I never thought
02:22I'd see the day and I've got my fingers really tightly crossed that he does actually finish this
02:27one but we can only hope. Now on his final trip around the UK he has got a pretty tricked out setup.
02:36So here's his Pinarello Dogma F, he's obviously got a custom livery for this race and as we all know
02:42the Welsh have probably got the best flag in the world and he's used the dragon absolutely everywhere.
02:48It's on the head tube of the bike, it's on his shoes, it's on, it's even on his helmet a bit.
02:55He's also got these gold sunnies, they're sun gods. Let me know what you think of them down below.
03:02I'm a little bit torn on whether someone who isn't an Olympic road champion should be wearing gold
03:08glasses on the road but if anyone can get away with it it's probably G. I just think there's all
03:16these faces, all the crowds are holding up these faces and they've all got his white glasses on.
03:21They've been a staple throughout his career and now his final race and he's chucked the white ones in a
03:27hedge. Got a new set of gold ones. Not sure, maybe he should have stuck with the white ones.
03:33As for his bike, well it's a Dogma F. I was slightly surprised to see that he's using Continental's
03:39GP5000 STR TT tyres because as we know the British roads are not always the most forgiving. Plenty of
03:47potholes for them to contend with and a lot of parked cars. That's one thing that I have noticed from
03:52watching the coverage. As for the rest of his setup, Shimano wheels, Dura-Ace Di2 as he's used for
03:59for years and years and years. And then his shoes, I'm a big fan of them. They're the Kwok M3 Air Pros,
04:06also with the dragon on the side of them. I reckon I'd have them, they're nice. And then his helmet,
04:12that's a cask elemento. And again, it's got that sort of dragon scale pattern on it. And the whole
04:19Ineors team is in custom kit. That's also got a Welsh dragon on it. Let me know what you think of any of
04:25that down in the comments below. Now, the next thing I want to talk about is AI because, well,
04:31it's literally everywhere and now it's coming to training too. So you might have seen in a previous
04:37video that I've been using Relevate. Now, it's designed for both indoor and outdoor training.
04:43Now, I first came across this app because I was looking for one that would allow me to track my
04:48rides on my phone. But not only that, but I also wanted to see where my friends are whilst we were
04:54doing a bikepacking trip across France. So I wanted to see where they'd all got to because we're all
04:59going different speeds. We'd all stop at different cafes and whatever. Anyway, they do indoor stuff
05:06too. And they've just released this AI generated workouts and training plans. Now, that means that
05:12you can use your standard workout design and planning tools, but with AI generated suggestions
05:19as your starting point. Now, I've been having a play with it. And I really do think that it could save
05:24people quite a lot of time. And not only that, quite a lot of money. So my question to you is,
05:32would you use an AI training plan? Let me know down below. Oh, and I've also just found out that you
05:39can take segments from outdoor rides and you can use them in the app on the turbo. So I'll be trying
05:46that out now that the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Now, I realise that's been quite a
05:51whistle-stop tour. So if you want to find anything else out for Relevate, then we'll pop a link to the
05:56app down in the description. The next thing I want to cover is what might be the best value bikes of
06:042026. Now, I can say that with some confidence because Cube arguably released the best value bikes
06:11of 2025 and they've just dumped all of their new bikes on their website for the 2026 product year.
06:18And yes, I remember in last month's edition of Tech of the Month, I promised you better valued bikes.
06:24So here we go. Let's take a look at their range. So I've got the press release here. It definitely
06:30seems like they've released every kind of bike under the sun. There's hybrid bikes, mountain bikes,
06:36gravel bikes. Oh, this one looks good. New Road C62 SLT. What's that? Full SRAM Red Explore. If you want
06:44to see how I found that groupset on the road, it's a gravel groupset, but we had a road bike with it on,
06:50then click the card up there. That one's £6,299. How about this one though? New Road SLX. It's got
06:58Shimano GRX on it. £1,799. But this is when things get serious. C68. So that's the one like Binyam
07:07Gamay and Intermarche would use in the mountains. This has got to be the one that I'd go for. The
07:12attain C62 SLT. It's so it's got the full carbon frame and fork. It's then got Shimano Ultegra Di2,
07:21the 12 speed. It's got a 5034 tooth chain rings at the front, 1134 tooth cassette at the back. It's
07:27£3,099. Actually, I'm going to look up what the RRP of Shimano Ultegra. RRP £2,399.
07:37This bike is £3,099. So basically what you're doing is you're buying a groupset for £2,399 and then
07:48for an extra 700 quid, you get an entire carbon frame, carbon fork, carbon bar, carbon seatpost,
07:56saddle. It's got Newman carbon wheels on it. It's got Newman advanced A50 wheels. People say bikes are
08:01getting more and more expensive. I think already we've probably found the best value bike of 2026.
08:07The other good news is that we should have at least some of those bikes coming in for review
08:13and for some videos shortly. So make sure you subscribe to that. Just another reason to subscribe.
08:20Right, more new bikes coming up. But first, a short inslude on how to protect yourself and your bikes
08:26from potential financial mishap. Whether you ride road bikes, gravel bikes, touring bikes,
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08:37the Insurance Emporium. If you're considering getting your bike insured or perhaps want to explore
08:43another provider, the Insurance Emporium is worth checking out. They have a de facto 5-star rating,
08:49a Trustpilot score of excellent and a FIFO Platinum Trusted Service. You can cover up to 6 bikes on
08:56one policy, all of which can be protected from things like theft, loss or accidental damage.
09:02Having anything bad happen to your pride and joy is always painful, but with an insurance policy you
09:08can at least mitigate some of that heartache by knowing that someone has your back. If you'd like
09:14to check them out then there's a link down below and there's also details of a discount available on
09:18their website. Right, more new bikes, and so Pinarello and Scott have also been jumping on the
09:29September release bandwagon. Seems a slightly odd time of year to release new road bikes, but hey,
09:36we're all here for it, so let's take a closer look. Pinarello F Series first, and I'm not sure I need to
09:42say a whole heap about it because it does look very similar to the flagship Dogma F. Now this shouldn't
09:50come as much of a surprise. The F Series has always been the mid-tier option just below the Dogma F,
09:57and it basically aims to bring all that racing pedigree to more people at a more affordable price point.
10:05That's how Pinarello sell it anyway. And the F Series has been about since 2023, and before that
10:12you might recall that it was called the Prince. So this new bike, well it does look mighty similar
10:18to the Dogma F. It is in fact 100 grams heavier, so not a whole heap, and it is a lot cheaper.
10:25There's currently five bikes in the range, ranging from the F1, that's the cheapest one. Don't know how
10:31they've got away with the copyright on that. I feel like F1 would be coming down on them quite hard.
10:37And then there's five bikes up to the F9, which is the highest spec one, and obviously it's different
10:44components across them. Now we've had a first ride on the F7, which comes with Ultegra ZI2,
10:51and our first ride review is now live on the Cycling Weekly website. Spoiler alert though,
10:56given, well I say spoiler, given that it's a fairly tried and tested recipe, it won't come as much of
11:02a surprise that the bike was very good. So if you want to read more about it, link down there.
11:08And then we've got that Scott. Now I know that something with comfort in its name is sometimes
11:14slightly hard to get excited about, but bear with us because this one actually does look like it might
11:20be a really good bike for lots of people. Now both me and Sam did get to ride the the race
11:26orientated addict that of course released earlier this year, and we both really loved it actually.
11:32It's stupidly light, the handling's great. The only thing is it is unapologetically a race bike.
11:38The position is quite aggressive and basically it was also surprisingly better value than actually
11:45most things from Specialized and Trek as well. That made it a big appeal. But anyway, it's got quite
11:51an aggressive position. This new bike basically aims to take all the good bits of that addict
11:57and update their addict comfort with a slightly more relaxed geometry.
12:03Now, according to the press release, the new model is supposedly 25% more compliant at the rear end
12:11than the race focused model, and 50% more compliant than the outgoing model. Now,
12:17no doubt that is helped by this sort of half there, half not there seat post, but still,
12:23that's a hell of a lot. It's also got 38 millimetres of tyre clearance. Pretty sure that basically makes
12:30it an all road bike, doesn't it? And then the other thing that's different with this one is obviously
12:34it's got more relaxed geometry. So that basically boils down to it's got a much taller head tube,
12:40which will hopefully allow more people to get comfortable or find a comfortable position without running
12:46a load of, let's be honest, ugly spaces under the stem. I'm reading here that it is a little bit
12:53heavier than the race focused model, but I mean, that's still pretty darn light for a disc brake road
12:59bike in 2025. And there's too many models to go through now, but we do have some in the post,
13:07so we should be able to get one in the future. Right. Let us know your favourite bit of bike tech
13:13that we've covered today in the comments below. Let us know anything that you think we've missed
13:17and we should have covered. As always, if you liked this video, then please give it a like,
13:22subscribe to the channel for lots more bike stuff, and we'll see you next time.
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