There are a lot of big names out there, as well as numerous new ones entering the road bike fray, often with hard-to-distinguish offerings. Trigon’s name may not be that well known but the Taiwanese company have been manufacturing components for 20 years.
Their RCC11 belies its unimaginative monicker with an interesting looking, partly lugged frame that boasts an excellent weight for the price and – crucially – a fantastic ride. This Trigon is more a racing snake than a sportive bike, with a low head tube, tight tyre clearances and short wheelbase.
The head tube makes this suitable as an occasional time trial or triathlon bike, though if toe overlap is an issue the tightness of the front end is worth checking. When it comes to performance the Trigon flies on the flat, climbs beautifully and handles nimbly. But not only is it light, there’s also a great air of efficiency to give faultless, smooth acceleration.
The box-section Monobox bottom bracket may not be as oversize as some, but combined with FSA’s Energy cranks there’s no sense of wasted energy, ever. SRAM’s Rival groupset has the fantastic braking and crisp shifting of its dearer siblings, though it did require a bit of an effort to shift to the big ring.
Our model was specced with a carbon bar, stem and seatpost; production bikes will have aluminium equivalents, which will add a few hundred grams. The handbuilt Intrepid RC24 wheels are – like the bike itself – a very good weight for the price (2,400g with tyres and tubes, 1,860g without) and run smoothly. They’re paired with Schwalbe’s Ultremo ZX tyres, some of our favourite racing rubber.
Gripes? There’s a tiny amount of front brake block rub when cranking up hills, and minimalist bar tape. But these are minor criticisms on what is an exceptional bike for the price, and one that gives much more expensive machines a serious run for their money. It’s also available as a ‘framepod’ for £750, consisting of frame, fork, headset, bar, stem and seatpost.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine.
