Condor Italia RC Disc

The Condor Italia RC Disc is nimble, twitchy and exciting to ride fast. Aimed at racers, the frame is stiff and very well balanced, providing direct handling that makes the bike great in tight corners. The Campagnolo Chorus groupset impressed me with its braking and snappy shifting, but if you'd prefer something else, don't worry – you can choose whichever components you want.

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The Italia RC Disc is available to buy as a frameset, for £1,199.99, or with a fully customisable spec, allowing you to build up the bike on Condor's website to your budget or component preferences. So if the components that we have on this build aren't for you, you can change things easily.

Ride

A few miles of riding left me in no doubt that this is an out-and-out race bike. The frame and fork are stiff, a rather tight wheelbase keeps things fun, while the 8.2kg overall weight is very respectable for an aluminium disc brake bike.

I'm not the biggest rider out there at just 62kg, but I still prefer a stiff frame for attacking climbs. The Italia RC Disc doesn't disappoint, responding quickly when you stamp on the pedals with no hint of flex at either the bottom bracket or the front end. It's a nice reminder that aluminium is far from inferior when it comes to frame construction.

I've been mainly heading towards the hills when I've ridden the Italia RC Disc. It's not that the bike doesn't ride well on the flat – it holds speed around the 30kph mark perfectly easily – it's just that it climbs so beautifully, with a flick that rewards out of the saddle efforts on the steep climbs that we have here in the Mendips.

The semi-compact (52/36-tooth) chainset, paired with a decently wide 11-32T 12-speed cassette, helps here. I had the gears I needed to maintain a good cadence on the steepest slopes, though you could always spec a compact chainset (50/34T) should you want to go lower.

If stability is what you're looking for then the Italia RC Disc might not be for you. It was designed to be lively and that is exactly what it is, suiting those who like tight corners and dynamic climbing.

The frame geometry is anything but slack, though you can still achieve a comfortable riding position thanks to the relatively tall 165mm head tube. It made for a position that was comfortable both in the drops and on the hoods, even though I had removed all the spacers from under the stem.

Condor is using the traditional method for sizing its frames so this 55cm frame comes with a 55cm seat tube. The top tube is marginally longer at 55.5cm. This translates into a stack of 56.6cm and a reach of 38.7cm. Pleasingly, for fans of symmetry at least, the head tube and seat tube angles are identical on this 55cm model at 73 degrees.

> Bike geometry 101: Why stack and reach are important

Condor keeps the chainstay length at 40.5cm for sizes 46 to 55, before lengthening them to 40.8cm and 41cm for sizes 58 and 61 respectively.

What does that all actually mean? Well it's got quite a comfortable reach and is slightly on the taller side, but keeps things fun with a tight wheelbase. It's best suited to riders who prefer a quick smash in the hills to those who want to tick off long miles.

Frame and fork

The frame, as you might already have noticed, is a proper double triangle that will please the haters of the trend for dropped seatstays. 'Handmade in Italy', the double-butted 7000-series high-performance aluminium frame is paired with a bladed carbon fork with a 1 1/8 to 1 1/2in tapered head tube.

Mechanical and electronic systems are both catered for – cable routing for the brakes (and electronic shifting, if you were to choose it) is internal, while mechanical shift cables run externally.

While the exposed shift cables might not look quite as tidy as internal routing, it does make adjustments and maintenance so much easier.

The flat mount discs are set up for 140mm rotors, though 160mm rotors can be used with adapters, and the frame is finished with a lovely imprinted Condor logo down by the rear brake. (For those who aren't fans of disc brakes, Condor still makes a rim-brake frameset.)

The finish on the Italia RC Disc is very pleasing to the eye, with lovely touches that make it look very well made. The way the frame welds are smoothed at the head tube and seat tube give the frame a high-quality look.

The Italia RC Disc uses what is now the unofficial road bike standard of 12x100mm and 12x142mm thru-axles along with a BSA threaded bottom bracket shell for simple maintenance. This might seem like a simple feature, but I'm a big fan of a threaded bottom bracket. I certainly couldn't feel any loss from a pressfit system.

Groupset

Our Campagnolo Chorus-equipped bike with Campagnolo's WTO 33mm carbon wheels is a very nice build, but as I said up top, if you want something different – and I have to say this wouldn't be my preferred build – you can spec what you want on Condor's 'Build a Bike' site. It's like those 'Build-A-Bear' stores, but you'll spend a lot more and come away with something far more useful.

Campagnolo's Chorus 12-speed disc brake groupset is a beautiful collection of carbon, but I do have a few gripes with what is a £1,275 option on Condor's website.

The first is with the shifter where, although the hood ergonomics are generally very comfortable, there is a large bump where the shifter body meets the bar. I found it uncomfortable, sitting right against the heel of my palm.

The shifting, on the other hand, is great. It's the snappiest shifting that I've used and there are some neat multi-shift functions built in too. These allow you to flick through a huge five sprockets on the downshift and three on the upshift. How often you might wish to use this functionality might be limited, but I found it very useful when cresting a hill. The rapid dumping of the chain down five gears allows you to surge over the top of climbs.

The actual action of shifting using Campagnolo Chorus is pretty easy to get used to too. The finger and thumb paddles are quick to actuate a shift, so only a small press is needed. You also get a reassuring click. This is easily one of the most positive mechanical groupsets that I've used.

It's not all roses. I'm really not a fan of the thumb paddle on the right hand when sprinting – with my hands in the drops, I found it very difficult to reach. This isn't ideal when racing for a (town sign) finish line, as I was often left focusing more on finding the shifter than getting the power down. It's personal preference, but I simply find the finger-operated paddles on Shimano and SRAM shifters easier to access.

While I know Campagnolo holds a dear place in many a rider's heart, this Chorus disc brake mechanical groupset wouldn't tear me away from my Shimano Ultegra R8070 Di2 disc group. Ultegra R8020, the disc brake with mechanical shifting, costs less at £925, a significant saving over the Chorus equivalent.

Wheels

If you want to highlight a race frameset then a top-end £1,749.50 set of wheels should do the trick. Campagnolo's WTO 33 Disc wheels are sublime, combining a fast ride with trouble-free handling, good support for wider tyres, and low weight that helps when accelerating out of corners and when heading uphill.

The rim features Campagnolo's 2-Way Fit technology. That is to say, the wheels are tubeless-ready and benefit from a 19mm internal width and no spoke holes in the rim bed. That means there's no need for rim tape, making tubeless tyre installation far easier.

These are shod with Vittoria's Corsa Control G2.0 tyres in a 28mm width – the maximum width specified for the Italia RC Disc, and I'd suggest you use every millimetre. You can run them at lower pressures than narrower tyres, which helps to hide some of the harshness that such a stiff frame can produce.

Finishing kit

Our test bike is decked out in Fizik finishing kit, with an aluminium Cyrano R1 bar (bull shape) and R3 stem, along with a carbon Cyrano R1 seatpost, topped with Fizik's Antares R3 saddle.

The components at the front end are light and stiff and I especially liked the 'bull' shape of the Cyrano R1 bar. It provides a short reach and easily accessible drops for a comfortable position. The tape that it is wrapped in was a little hard for my preference – it's been chosen for the classic look but I'd prefer something cushier.

I've never been a fan of Fizik's Arione – I just don't get on with it – but it's a very popular saddle. I did like the seatpost, though, with its easily adjustable tilt and good vibration damping on rougher tarmac.

Value

While the price of this build is very high for an aluminium disc brake bike, the only way to really judge the value fairly is by comparing it with other framesets.

At £1,199.99 it's more expensive than the Cannondale CAAD13 Disc, at £999, although the Condor's frame joints look far tidier (and personally I'm not a fan of the colour of the Cannondale).

> Buyer’s Guide: 25 of the best production framesets to build into your dream bike

Trek's Emonda ALR costs even less, at just £800. That's a big chunk of cash to save that could be spent on components, so if you're restricted by a tight budget then the Emonda would be worth considering.

Conclusion

Condor's Italia RC Disc is a very good aluminium frameset that, in this build, has been a joy to ride in the hills. The handling is sharp and it is genuinely fun to ride – and you don't have to spend nearly five grand to enjoy it: with a massive range of components to pick from, you can spec it to your heart's desire.

Verdict

Stiff aluminium bike with nimble handling and a fun ride – and a fully customisable spec