Spa Cycles Wayfarer 2020

Spa Cycles' Wayfarer is an out-and-out touring bike with a quality frame and fork and a solid spec for an attractive price. A relentlessly draggy and jarring ride turned out to be almost entirely the fault of the tyres.

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The 'Wayfarer' name is a nod to the early days of rough-stuff riding and what we would now call adventure touring (they just called it touring in them days). 'Wayfarer' was the byline of cyclist and writer Walter MacGregor Robinson, whose exploits a century ago inspired a whole movement that coalesced into the Rough Stuff Fellowship.

There's a fair bit about Spa Cycles' dedicated touring bike that Robinson would have recognised: a steel frame and fork, plenty of braze-ons for rack and mudguard mounts, a leather saddle and the stylish British Racing Green paint job. He might also have been familiar with the weight of a package like this, and if he lugged something similar over the Welsh mountain passed then good on him, I say.

Frame and fork

The frame is, for the most part, a handsome thing, neatly welded from Reynolds 725 heat-treated tubes. This is a lightweight tubeset but the inclusion of frame gussets, presumably for extra stiffness, rather offsets this.

The paint looks traditional, but up close reveals a glittery depth that's very appealing. Spa uses a process called Electrophoretic Deposition for the paint, and it makes for a quality finish that certainly seems to stand up to some robust use. It only comes in green, though; or blue if you're choosing a short frame.

There's everything you could need in terms of places to attach things: two bottle mounts inside the frame (Spa supplied the cages) and a third under the down tube. The fork comes with low-mount rack mounts and separate mudguard eyelets. At the back, the mudguards and rack also have their dedicated places, all neatly done. The Tubus rack comes as standard and is good for 25kg of gear.

The TRP Spyre cable-operated disc brakes are the main addition to this incarnation of Spa's touring bike. The big advantage of fitting disc brakes is that it frees up a lot of space for tyre clearance, and this was huge both back and front, even with the full-length SKS mudguards and 32mm tyres. You could go much bigger, stick a mountain bike transmission on and call it a gravel bike.

Geometry

Frames come in four sizes, between 47cm and 58cm, and two 'lengths', meaning you should be able to find one that's right for you depending on your height and reach. After discussions with Spa, I chose the 58cm Long frame size and it was an excellent fit (I am 6ft 3in).

That amazing stack of spacers under the stem amounts to 75mm. I did ride it like this, once, to see if I could understand why some tourists ride in this position (I couldn't). After that I dropped the bar to the level of the saddle and that gave me a still fairly upright ride – enough to remind me I wasn't on the speedy bike now, but still with somewhere to go (the drops) to get out of the headwind that seemed to blow without end through the test period.

The enormous 1,109mm wheelbase made for an incredibly stable ride, not to mention outstanding toe clearance, even for my size 11s. While high-speed cornering was in short supply due to the nature of the riding and the endless headwinds I encountered, this still felt like the most stable and non-threatening bike to take down a hill.

Similarly, if you've ever been blown off your bike – and that's not nearly as funny as it sounds (unless you're watching it happen to someone else) – then you can be sure it's never going to happen on the Wayfarer, which rode straight and true into belting Pennine gales. The neutral head angle made steering steady; the fairly steep seat angle kept my weight over the cranks for slow-speed hill toils.

Braking and shifting

The TRP Spyres proved adequate performers once bedded in – which is to say, they were quite capable of pulling up a laden tourer in descent, quite a bit to ask of any brake. The rear seemed to lack the evident bite of the front brake. I'll put that down to the longer cable run. The frame bracings at the rear dropouts are a bit agricultural to my eyes, but necessary for disc braking forces and to ensure enough stiffness for heavy load carrying.

Given a free choice over how the bike should be specced, it was tempting to go for the best of everything but I opted to stick fairly closely to the basic package. This included Spa Cycles' own triple chainset with its Zircal chainrings. Those are really smart; the chainset itself is a bit rough and ready in comparison but stiff enough for sure.

Shifting at the front, taken care of by a Shimano Sora triple mech, seemed fine in the workstand, but on the road I had some difficulty getting down onto the small ring, with any hint of a load on the chain. I resorted to an unusually wide gap between mech and chain in the lowest gear, and used the trim function to reduce chain rub in higher gears. That's what trim is for, I suppose, but it wasn't an elegant solution. (I have achieved perfect shifting on another bike with identical spec so it can be done with a bit of patience).

The rear combination of a Shimano Deore mountain bike mech on an 11-32 9-speed cassette worked flawlessly in combination with the Sora STI shifters.

Handbuilt wheels

At this price, handbuilt wheels from Spa's own workshop are a rare and welcome addition. These are built with Sapim double-butted spokes on Kinlin rims (32 holes at the front and 36 at the back) and were good and tight. They've built up into tough, smart-looking wheels that will undoubtedly be strong enough for some serious touring.

The rear hub is a trusty Shimano Deore, disc version. At the front, one of my upgrades was to an SP PD8 dynohub, allowing for an SP/B&M dynamo lighting upgrade that added £125 to the price.

The lights are good and bright enough for daytime running and murky conditions. One welcome feature is that they have little auxiliary bulbs that run on after you stop moving. I reckoned on an extra five minutes' glow-time.

Finishing kit

Seatpost, stem and bar are all standard FSA fare and worked fine, though I didn't much like the handlebar and couldn't find a comfortable position anywhere. The tape is Spa's own and is traditional cork-type and decently thick.

The saddle, one of Spa Cycles' own range of leather seats, looks like it might account for half the weight of the bike but it's surprisingly okay when you take it off to check. I found it comfortable from the start, though a bit too wide for me. I also have one of Spa's saddles with titanium rails, which comes in a sportier cut that suits me well. I fitted that for the rest of the test. They're definitely worth a look as they're good value.

Spa threw in one of its canvas saddle bags. I like this: plenty of room inside for full waterproofs, tools, snacks and so on. It attaches with three simple straps. I suppose you can attach it to the bar, as in the photos, but more traditionally it's secured through the saddle loops and on the seatpost, Carradice-style. I thought the quick-release buckles made it more practical, if slightly less stylish, than a Carradice.

The dynamo also powered a USB phone charger, made by Adept Electronics. This worked only when the lights were switched off, and above a certain speed. The elongated shape was most bike-unfriendly and made it difficult to find anywhere on the frame or bar where it would fit comfortably. It also tended to slip out of the inadequate Velcro strap.

The ride

One small change I made over the standard spec was that I opted for a 50/40/30 chainset over the standard 48/38/28. I should have listened to Spa Cycles really, as even on unladen bedding-in rides around my local hills I plummeted into the gearing basement at every hill. I thought I would grind to a complete halt once loaded up but managed not to, in spite of taking it fully-laden over the North Pennines in what can only charitably described as 'early spring' conditions.

My other complaint was that the bike delivered a chattery, jarring ride over anything less than good surfaces. Even small stones sent a sharp jolt up through the bar, which I've never experienced on any of my steel bikes.

There's no doubt that the nearly 15kg weight of the supplied build is one of the reasons it's a grind on the climbs, but even on the flat, where the weight counts for less, the Wayfarer was reluctant to maintain any pace. The best description I can offer for the ride is that it was like piloting a tandem when the stoker's trying to have an easy day. If I tried putting in extra power, to coax the bike along, my ghostly stoker backed off even more. Throw in a minor gradient, or a headwind, and I was straight down into the small ring.

My winter Pennine crossing, from Consett to Penrith, amounted to 60 miles, and 6,000 feet of climbing, into a relentless westerly wind. It took me eight-and-three-quarter hours; an average of just over 7mph. At the end, I was pedalling the biggest squares seen outside of Elton John's spectacles case. Even in much more benign conditions, on fairly level riding and over 30 miles or so, I had to have a rest day the next day.

I'd had my suspicions all along that the Schwalbe Marathon tyres might be contributing to these unwelcome qualities. Eventually, I swapped them for a pair of Continental Contacts, which I knew to be comfortable and surprisingly quick because I've put in a thousand miles on them on my winter bike.

The transformation was incredible. I had my stoker back! Now, when I put in some extra effort, the bike responded by going quicker! I found myself riding in the middle ring where I had been in the small ring, and the large where I'd been in the middle. Not only that, but the tooth-rattling, jarring ride over rough tracks was tamed.

It's the most remarkable turnaround. The Wayfarer went from being a bike I couldn't wait to see the back of, to one that I'd certainly recommend for serious touring duties, though the overall weight means there are better places to look in Spa's range for more versatile all-rounders.

Value

At £1,351 the Wayfarer compares very well on price with some obvious competitors – even better when you consider most of the extra £250 cost over the basic package is accounted for by the dynamo hub and lighting system.

The basic package at £1,090 still includes the same quality handbuilt wheelset, which is rare on a bike at the thousand pound mark, and the frame, fork and finish are all very good.

> Buyer’s Guide: 13 of the best touring bikes

The Genesis Tour de Fer 20, for example, with the same tubeset, lower-geared triple chainset, dynamo and lights, is listed at £1,499.99. The Dawes Super Galaxy is £1,499 with a non-dynamo front hub.

Another option, the Thorn Club Tour Mark 5, also offers Reynolds 725 tubing, disc brakes and big clearances, with prices starting from £1,675.

Conclusion

The Spa Cycles Wayfarer came close to getting a bad review; with the supplied tyres it was such a drag to ride I needed a lie down after every outing. Switching the tyres changed all that and we are parting as friends. It goes to show how one poor component choice can scupper a good bike – a lesson for bike suppliers as well as customers.

Verdict

Super looking bike, well specced for the money and a surprisingly good ride for the weight – once you swap the tyres