Van Rysel EDR AF 105 Road Bike 2022

Van Rysel's EDR Aluminium 105 road bike is, by today's standards, quite a retro machine. With external mechanical cabling and rim brakes it's part of a dying breed, but you can't deny its fun factor. With a stiff frame and sharp handling, it's a pleasure to ride, although the geometry is more racy than many endurance bikes.

EDR stands for endurance, but this is one of the most aggressive 'endurance' bikes I've ridden over the years.

This medium has a 555mm top tube, and a very short 138mm head tube. Most endurance bikes of this size would be sporting a head tube of something around 155mm to 175mm to give a much more relaxed, taller position.

> Buy now: Van Rysel EDR Aluminium 105 road bike for £1,1299 from Decathlon

This could be down to the fact that Decathlon, the sports superstore giant behind the Van Rysel range, is French, and on the continent their idea of endurance riding is much more racy than we think of it in the UK. Anyone who has ridden a European sportive will definitely relate to that.

This doesn't hinder the EDR in any way, I'm just setting the scene. Take the endurance moniker with a pinch of salt, basically.

That out of the way, I enjoyed my time on the EDR.

Ride

Its stiff frame certainly gives a performance feel, and in a world of electronic groupsets, power meters and various technologies appearing on the modern bicycle, the Van Rysel's simplicity is quite a breath of fresh air.

The frame is made from aluminium alloy tubing which has been butted; this takes the edge off what could be a harsh ride considering its stiffness, by allowing a small amount of flex.

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The bottom bracket area is tight too, making the bike feel responsive on hard efforts out of the saddle – if you are new to the sport this is definitely a bike you could sign up for your first race on and not be out of your depth. True, its 9kg weight means it's no cheetah off the line, but once rolling it's reasonably responsive and agile.

It climbs well too, the stiffness offsetting the weight to a degree, and the 32-tooth sprocket on the 11-speed cassette gives you a bit of a bail-out gear.

As for the handling, things are quick, just stepping a touch back from being twitchy, and that makes the Van Rysel fun in the hills.

My favoured descent for testing road bikes showed the EDR to be planted and easily controllable through the bends, the directness of the steering helping it through the fast off-camber chicane with relative ease, and the feedback through the frame and fork allow you to make small adjustments through your body position or a tweak of the brakes.

The head angle sits at 73 degrees with the seat tube sitting a half degree steeper, which puts you in a forward position for getting the power down, and at 990mm the wheelbase keeps the Van Rysel nimble, which makes it a laugh in the corners.

When it comes to comfort things are pretty good. I've ridden smoother feeling aluminium frames, but I wouldn't go so far as to call the EDR firm. Away from the short blasts, I headed out on some longer jaunts of three to four hours and found the Van Rysel a pleasant place to be.

On the whole, with the level of comfort and its geometry, this isn't the bike I'd choose for what I'd consider an endurance event, but if I was after a capable race bike that wasn't going to beat the crap out of me over a good few hours of hard riding then the Van Rysel would be on my list.

Frame and fork

As mentioned above, the frame is made of aluminium alloy; Decathlon doesn't disclose its grade, but it does say it's of variable thickness. This means it has been butted – where the wall thicknesses of the tubes vary from one section to the next. For instance, the walls will be thicker at the ends where they need to be stiffer or to cope with the welding, the middle sections thinner. It drops a touch of weight and allows some flex, which increases comfort.

For this size frame Decathlon quotes a weight of 1,450g to 1,470g, and 640g for the fork, which isn't bad for the budget.

The welding is neat enough considering the overall price of the bike, and to be honest it is hidden well by the matt black paintjob.

Many aluminium frames these days have some kind of internal cable routing, but here everything is kept on the outside. It might not look as smooth as some on the market, but if you are trying to save a few quid on maintenance then this setup enables you to fettle with ease.

When it comes to mounting points, this is very much a race bike, with just a couple of bottle cage mounts, and, as you'd expect with rim brakes, wheel retention is taken care of by quick release skewers.

Groupset

Shimano's 105 R7000 is a quality groupset – privateer level is how Dave described it in his review. The quality of shifting and braking is just shy of the next tier Ultegra, but unless you were riding the two side by side you'd be none the wiser.

Van Rysel has gone for a compact 50/34-tooth chainset paired to an 11-32 cassette. That, for me, is a decent spread of gears for the type of riding the EDR is intended for.

Disc brakes are often touted as the be all and end all, but in the dry a quality dual-pivot rim brake like the R7000 is just as good, offering great levels of power and modulation. Even Shimano's OE pads offer decent bite without the need to upgrade.

The main step away from Shimano is the cassette, from Microshift.

It didn't feel as though it hampered shifting, but the one thing I was most impressed with is how clean it remained. Even after around 600 miles it still looked spankingly shiny!

Finishing kit

All the other stuff is pretty basic aluminium components, but they work. The stem is stiff and holds the handlebar tightly, so job done.

The handlebar is also stiff enough for out-of-the-saddle escapades and there's plenty of room either side of the stem on this 42cm width for computer mounts, lights and so on.

It's the usual shallow drop shape, which means getting into the drops isn't too extreme, and that helps with such a short head tube length.

The seatpost is a simple affair, but adjustment is easy, and perched atop is a Van Rysel Sport 900 saddle, which has firm padding to reduce numbness and a 350mm length, providing plenty of room to move around should the need arise.

Wheels and tyres

This EDR comes with Fulcrum Racing 6 wheels, a simple enough set of hoops with a 27.5mm-deep rim for the rear and a 24.5mm one for the front.

They have quite a narrow (by today's standards) inner rim width of 17mm, but that's fine considering standard dual-pivot calliper brakes are limited to 28mm tyres anyway.

The claimed weight is 1,760g which isn't too bad at this price point.

They've been reliable, staying true throughout testing, and I wouldn't be in a hurry to change them unless weight was an issue.

They came fitted with a pair of Michelin Lithion 2s – entry-level tyres but a model I used for years as a year-round training tyre. Grip is decent in all kinds of conditions, and the rolling resistance isn't bad either.

Value

At £1,199.99, this Van Rysel is competitively priced.

Merida's Scultura is available in both rim and disc brake versions, with its Rim 400 being a similar build to the Van Rysel. It costs £1,355 but does come with a full-carbon fork rather than the carbon/alloy mix of the Van Rysel.

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Canyon's Endurace range includes the 7 RB which comes with a 105 groupset and alloy frame for £1,249.

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Dolan's Preffisio has very similar geometry to the Van Rysel, especially at the front end. The wheelbase is a touch longer but that is because it can take full mudguards and a rear rack. For a 105 build you are looking at £1,149.98.

If this is your budget, though, the Boardman SLR 8.9 is definitely worth a look. It is based around a 105 build with a few exceptions, but you are getting a comfortable carbon fibre frame (not that I'm saying carbon is better than aluminium) which is just ripe for upgrades, and for 2022 comes in at £1,150 (I tested the previous model in October 2020).

Conclusion

The biggest point I'm trying to make in this review is that by UK standards this isn't an endurance bike; its geometry is steep, and the front end is low. That aside, if you want an affordable road bike that you can blat about on, and even race, then the Van Rysel is a worthy contender.

Verdict

Blurring the edges between race and endurance geometry-wise, but a decent build for the money