Tech of the Month August: Favero Assioma power for Shimano, Canyon Grizl and Zipp 303S vs 353 NSW

This month we have launches of Favero’s Assioma DUO-Shi power meter pedals, Scott’s updated Addict Gravel, new Conti sidewall colours and the Canyon Grizl as Bike of the Month – alongside some quick hits of hot reviews and news shorts.

But before we get into all of that, we wanted to let you know about this month’s giveaway prize. We’ve partnered with Garmin to equip one lucky viewer with a pair of Garmin Rally XC100 power meter pedals, £619.99. This set is single side reading and compatible with Shimano’s MTB/gravel two-bolt SPD cleats. However, upgrade kits are available, should you wish to get dual sided reading or switch to a Look Keo or Shimano SPD-SL road cleat set up.

To be entered into the random prize draw, simply click this link or fill in the form below. We’ll get in contact with the lucky winner by the end of this month. If you don’t end up being the lucky one – don’t worry, we’ll be running it again next month.

News shorts

New Scott Addict Gravel launches

Scott’s update to its gravel platform brings with it wider tyres, although with clearance up to 45mm in 700c, it’s not exactly pushing the boat on that side of things. The geometry has seen more of a shake up, with the top tube being lengthened by around 10mm and the bottom bracket dropped a further 2mm. The head angle remains in the region of 70–71 degrees, depending on size.

All of this adds up to a bike which is should be a little more capable and more fun to ride on rougher terrain. For all of the details, you can check out our launch story on the Scott Addict Gravel here.

Cream-wall Conti tyres make a return

First launched at last year’s tour, the cream sidewall option of Continental’s flagship GP5000 has now made a return. Although “naked” carcass tyres are much lauded for their suppleness, there aren’t such performance gains here – the tyres are essential identical to the standard GP5000s, the sidewalls have merely been dyed. Which in itself has added 25 grams per tyre

They do look good though, and that’s got to be worth something.

You can find all the details on the return of the cream sidewall GP5000s in our story here.

Favero Assioma DUO-Shi

We’ve been roundly impressed with Favero’s Assioma DUO power meter pedals, finding them accurate, reliable, easy to live with and reasonably priced.

And so we’re very interested to see how the new DUO-Shi pedals stack up. Unlike other power metal pedals, these ship as just the spindles – you need to have your own Shimano SPD-SL pedal bodies and then swap over the spindles.

On the face of it, this might sound a bit of a retrograde step – you need to factor in the price for a set of Shimano pedals, in addition to the power meter part and then set about doing some extra spannering yourself. 

But that overlooks just how popular the Shimano pedal system is – there are many who would very much like a power meter pedal, but just don’t want to switch over to another cleat system. If the internals are just as reliable as in the standard Assioma pedals, this stands to be a very compelling option – undercutting the price of Garmin’s Rally RS200 pedals. 

For all the details, you can check out our launch story on the Favero Assioma DUO-Shi power meter pedals here.

Reviews

Zipp 303S wheelset

With competition from brands such as Hunt and Parcours, offering excellent wheelsets at around the £1K price point, Zipp has felt the need to recoup some market share. The 303s wheels seek to bring some of the technology of Zipp’s much more expensive hoops down to a much more palatable price point.

And they’ve done a good job. The wheels are easy to set up tubeless, are impressively fast and offer a great ride quality – Zipp has pretty much achieved exactly what it set out to do. 

You can read our full review of the Zipp 303s wheelset just here. 

Pirelli P Zero Race road tyre

Billed as the fastest clincher tyre the Italian brand has produced, Pirelli even claims that these are faster than its tubulars. The speed the P Zero Race tyres went at on the road left little grounds for doubts – they certainly felt fast. 

The levels of grip in both the wet and the dry were considerable and didn’t leave us wanting. One criticism would be that the 127tpi nylon casing doesn’t feel quite as supple as that of some cotton cased competitors. However, at £54.99, they are pitched at a reasonable price compared to many other top end tyres. 

Our full review of the Pirelli P Zero Race road tyre can be found just here

Bike of the month

This month we have the Canyon Grizl gravel bike. Instead of replacing the venerable Grail gravel bike, Canyon see this as more of an addition to the range – fleshing out that area between gravel bikes and mountain bikes a bit more fully.

To that end, it has clearance for up to 50mm wide 700c tyres, a longer top tube paired with a shorter stem, and a headtube which is rated to be able to handle the stress of a suspension fork. 

Currently, there aren’t any Grizl builds with front suspension available. But considering Canyon’s close ties with SRAM together with the notable absence of any SRAM builds in the line up and the fact that SRAM owns suspension giant RockShox… well, you don’t have to be Sherlock to connect the dots there.

For a deep dive into the entire range, you can find all the details in our launch story on the Canyon Grizl here.