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Over the years there have been thousands of tests and reviews that essentially ask the question “will X help you ride faster for longer”. Usually the focus is on the aero, weight or power transfer benefits of a particular bike or component, but never before has there been a scientific test that compares the effect that the colour of a bike has on performance.

Always eager to push the frontiers of bicycle science, London Phoenix took the opportunity of the Devil Ride – held in glorious Wales – to do just this. The colours we chose to compare were blue and red, and the widely held opinion in the club was that the red bike would be marginally faster.

The experiment started at around 8.30am in what can only be described as ‘Welsh’ weather conditions. The red bike looked strong from the off (especially on the short, sharp climbs), and showed it could accelerate explosively. However, after the first couple of hours it began to look like the blue bike might be marginally faster. This became more apparent on the brutal 25% climb known as the Devil’s Staircase, where the blue bike was able to create a considerable gap.

On the very windy sections along the breathtakingly beautiful lakes and forests of the Brecon Beacons National Park the combined effect of the blue frame AND matching blue tires really began to show. By now there was no real doubt that the red bike, although excellent, was no match for the speed optimised blue version. Red tires may have helped the red bike of course, but the black ones it came with certainly didn’t offer any advantage.

Another surprising and unexpected advantage of the blue bike was its ability to calm wild horses and effectively sheperd flocks of sheep, which it did during the latter stages of the ride.

So, in short, the Devil Ride was a great testing ground, and in the end we showed that in those kinds of conditions and over those kinds of distances, blue is really the way to go.