First look: Heroïn Bikes, designed specifically for the Haute Route

Luxury French bike brand Heroïn Bikes have unveiled their latest lineup of super high-end bikes, designed to tackle the rigours of the infamous multi-day Haute Route challenge and guaranteed to offer an addictive ride. 

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Designed in France and hand-crafted in Italy, Heroïn say their bikes are "a product of pure exception" that are built to excel on climbs while also being stiff enough to sprint on the flats. A rounder seat post and thin seat stays are chosen to offer more comfort, with a chunky bottom bracket area and chainstays providing more stiffness and downhill stability. 

The frames have a really interesting dimpled surface, presumably to smooth airflow, with a fully integrated carbon handlebar and stem combo and no cables on show for the disc brake version. A 53.7cm top tube, 38.2cm of reach and a 74° seat angle on the medium-sized frame add up to a race geometry that's not too aggressive, ideal for coping with multi-day riding on severely undulating tarmac. We don't have any concrete info on the weight for either the top-end H1 or HR versions, but a previous rim brake model of the HR tested in this Guardian article was a mere 6.3kg; so we can expect that even with disc brakes it will still trouble or even break the UCI's 6.8kg weight limit. 

The street value of Heroïn appears to be pretty high, as the H1 Limited Edition bike with a Rotor crank-based power meter and Lightweight Wegweiser wheels comes in at a whopping €14,900. The cheaper Heroïn HR starts at €5,490 for a frameset and integrated cockpit, and the least expensive full build is €8,500 with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset and Scope R3C carbon wheels. You can also spread the cost of your Heroïn by paying the dealer monthly. Free test rides can be booked by appointment in London, head over to Heroïn’s website for more info.