Wilier

Cento1NDR Disc Road Frameset

When we look at the Cento1NDR, it evokes images of riding the beautiful "white roads" around Tuscany or tackling famous sections of pave at Flanders or Roubaix. It's hard not to channel your inner classics specialist and picture yourself duking it out in a select group of fast riders that have made the selection late in the race. And in races such as these, both in reality and in our heads, the equipment demands require an efficient machine that can soak up the rough roads. Essentially, a bike that keeps a rider comfortable for hours over the punishing stones, yet efficient so as to not waste any wattage to unwanted flexing so when it's time to put in the big attack, a rider can push all their chips to the center of the table and hopefully get into a winning scenario. At least that's the one we replay in our heads. Wilier's Cento1NDR Disc Road Frameset is such a ride and its comfort-oriented geometry, race-stiff chassis, and huge tire clearance all conspire to help the pros, and more importantly, you, perform at your best on the most heroic rides.

Wilier pitches the NDR as an endurance bike, which it does do quite well, but we also feel it serves the racer on terrain where some compliance goes a long way towards staying fresh and leaving some reserve in the tank. When we get in the thick of the spring classics, we fully expect to see both the Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia and the Direct Energy teams campaigning the bike over the cobbles. That's because Wilier is still a racing company first and foremost and the oversized tubing and burly bottom bracket provide intuitive handling and a stiff pedaling platform, perfect in racing situations, while the more stable geometry helps for going faster over a rough parcours.

The Cento1NDR isn't a full-on gravel bike by any means, it has the Jaroon for that. What it is though is a bike that is much more forgiving on traditional and rougher road surfaces than Wilier's standard Cento, and the efficiency and weight penalties are virtually non-existent. It's also disc brake-compatible, which is another nod to the new norm in cycling. Just a few years ago we figured that disc brakes would be a short-lived fad on road bikes, destined to join road suspension in the garbage bin of history. Disc brakes are ubiquitous now, especially in endurance cycling, but—with some parts swapping—the NDR can handle rim brakes if you want to build up the bike as light as you can or that's where your braking allegiances lie.

Traditionalists may balk at the frame and fork's ability to flip-flop between brake standards, but clearance and geometry provide even more compelling reasons for them to avoid the Cento1NDR and stick to their traditional tube shapes and 20th-century frame designs. We think it's great to have that brake choice, and it allows for a frameset that can be upgraded as you go. Special inserts at the dropouts, available separately, let the frame transform quickly and safely from a thru-axle set up to quick-release and generous tire clearance (28mm with rim brakes and 30mm with discs) which provide one more nod to the current direction of cycling innovation.

Much like the CentoAIR models, this frameset features integration that is easy on the eyes and wind. When using electronic shifting and hydraulic brakes, like we have here, Wilier's Barra and Stemma allows up to 3 pieces of housing to be routed directly through the stem and into the frame. This gives the front end an extremely clean look and provides superior aerodynamic considerations that Wilier applies to the rest of the frame, from the tube shapes and hidden housing.

The frame's tube cross sections borrow from the Cento10PRO, a design that combines a classic NACA leading edge with a truncated, Kammtail trailing edge. The shape maintains the aerodynamic advantages of a traditional NACA teardrop but with the added benefit of fewer grams by requiring less material, increases in torsional stiffness, and additional stability in crosswind yaw angles. This design is mimicked in the industry today; but Wilier's progressive geometry, which tailors the angles and tube lengths of each size to the bodies of the riders appropriate to that size, and the NDR's reduced reach and higher stack make for a frame that's not only aerodynamically proven, but looks far cleaner than bikes with static geometry across sizes and a few centimeters of spacers.

The frame is finished with a final pair of details that combine old and new in a typically Wilier-esque way. The round, 27.2mm seatpost adds road bike suspension the old-fashioned way, by dispelling road noise with the slightest bit of flex. This may seem inconsequential, but it's a welcome departure from the latest trend of "aero" seatposts, whose ovalized cross sections tend to have the unfortunate effect of eliminating any give, thereby magnifying any bump in the road. The nod to the new is Wilier's interchangeable routing plate, which lets you swap between the electronic or mechanical if you're feeling nostalgic for analog.