Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the Aardvark. It is, in fact, the completed Roberts All-Roadster previewed in half-assembled form back in mid-January, since when it has received a full house of Shimano componentry chosen, in each case, to contribute towards a machine designed, if not necessarily destined, to go anywhere in the world there happens to be a road of some sort.
It is, in short, an adventure bike. Machines of a similar bent have been ridden around the world or to remote locations in the South American land mass, which they are more than capable of reaching. A few commuting rides through central London will demonstrate that such bikes are also an increasingly popular choice amongst those who choose to confront the rigours of the capital’s road system.
Ride the Aardvark and it is not hard to see why, for the very attributes that make for imperturbable poise when the Tarmac runs out also lend assurance when it takes on the moonscape left by the recent freezing weather.
First of these is the wheelbase, which at 1090mm is long by any standards. This not only provides incredible stability but means there is plenty of clearance for tyres of 50mm or more in width. With Continental Sport Contact 42-559 tyres fitted, bottom bracket height is 280mm, affording plenty of clearance when negotiating lumpy terrain – or pedalling over speed bumps.
Those same tyres swallow smaller holes left by frost damage and give the rims a fighting chance even when they meet the edge of a bigger pothole. Not that a dented rim need pose a real problem, since disc brakes work whatever the state of the rim and in any conditions.
Those on the Aardvark are cable-operated, road brake lever-specific Shimano BR-R505 calipers biting on 160mm discs. With less than 75 miles on the clock, they are already awesomely powerful as well as being squeal-free. Chas Roberts says that most of his customers buying a round-the-world machine quickly appreciate the advantages of disc braking over rim brakes when a long way from spare wheels, since spare pads and even a disc are easy enough to carry.
Wheels are Shimano WH-M505; affordable entry-level mtb fare with rims machined for braking and hubs able to accept disc rotors. 28 bladed spokes at both ends might or might not help the fat tyres cut through the wind but they look trick enough. The rear will, at some point, be replaced by one with an Alfine eight-speed hub gear…
Nine-speed bar-end shifters control the derailleur mechs and leave room for non-STI BL-R600 brake levers; when the Alfine hub goes in, a Jtek shift lever will replace the right-hander without too much disturbance to the cabling.
Steering geometry is standard Roberts rigid mtb, with plenty of trail lending an eager tendency to oversteer on Tarmac with neutrality on the dirt the desirable trade-off.
So, the ride… No point in denying this is one weighty cycle. It’s hard to see how it could be otherwise given the component specification and the necessarily bomb-proof frame and fork construction. I’m guessing 26lbs as shown. Thing is, the ‘Vark doesn’t feel heavy once in the saddle. Slighly sluggish, for sure, but only in comparison to a lightweight road bike.
On a climb, of course, there’s a slug of extra mass to push along, but it doesn’t feel “slow”. In fact, on the flat it feels fairly quick and, judging by my times from home to the Angel and riding speed compared to other commuters, is barely slower at moderate levels of effort than a “normal” bike. Try to get it to go a lot faster and it quickly finds plenty of resistance but then it is not exactly built for speed.
Comfort, yes; the wheelbase, tyres and weight combine to smother road imperfections to a degree hard to convey to afficionados of narrow tyres, while the brakes offer a level of reassurance at the kind of speeds reachable downhill with a tailwind that offers greatly enhanced peace of mind…
Frame materials:
Top/down tubes – Reynolds 853
Seat tube – Columbus Nivacrom
Seat stays – Reynolds 725
Chain stays – Columbus Nivacrom ATB
Fork blades – Columbus Tapered Unicrown
Price: around £950 depending on exact specification
I like it. More soon.
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