76 / / June 2019

Rondo’sHVRTCF0

maybea roadbike

atheartbutit’s

thrillingtoride

acrosscountry,too

ondo is the latest project of

Szymon Kobylinski. He started

NS Bikes about 15 years ago on

the basis that he couldn’t find

the sort of bikes he wanted to

ride in his native Poland

(Kobylinski raced mountain

bike downhill at a high level).

Thebrandis stillgoingtoday and its gravity, freeride

andjumpbikesarehighlyregarded.

In recent years, Kobylinski has put away his full-face

helmet and body armour and taken up road and

cyclocross, which has led to his latest venture: Rondo

bikes. According to the Rondo website, it was started

‘because we wanted to change the way drop-bar bikes

are perceived, by both roadies and mountain bikers’.

Rondo’s first bike was the RUUT, a gravel machine

with ‘vario geometry’ (a system of oval inserts in the

fork that can be flipped around to alter the bike’s

effective geometry). And, while it was versatile enough

to cover the gravel, adventure and cyclocross bases,

Kobylinski wanted something that could also handle

fast road rides while retaining the RUUT’s off-road

chops. That led to the creation of Rondo’s newest bike:

the HVRT CF0, which stands for high velocity, rough

terrain. The CF0 suffix refers to the bike’s frame

material: carbon fibre (it joins the steel-framed HVRT

ST and HVRT AL, which is made from aluminium).

Kobylinski is at pains to point out that the HVRT

isn’t simply a gravel bike with aero elements. “It’s

a road bike,” he says. “A unique one, but still a road

bike. It can take big tyres and occasionally ride gravel

road segments. But it’s not a gravel bike or any other

kind of off-road bike. The HVRT puts the rider in a

more aggressive position, the frame is stiffer and

more responsive. You can really feel the difference,

especially when compared to a bike set up on the

same wheelset.” And the wheels are a key element,

because you can run the HVRT with either road 700c

or off-road 650b wheels.

I’ve been following the development of the HVRT CF0

since August 2017 when we saw an early prototype while

visiting Rondo HQ in Poland. We’d been pestering them

ever since to get a ride on it as soon as we could and

finally, late last year, Kobylinski got in touch to say the

first production bikes were on their way. So we hatched

a plan to meet in Cyprus for some off-season riding

(you’ll note we photographed this bike in the green

R