- 4 weeks ago
We take a deep dive into the brand new Bianchi Specialissima, the lightweight and aero climbing bike set for the Tour de France. Discover its features, from the 750g frame to its Countervail technology.
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00:00Another new bike destined for the upcoming Tour de France. Bikes designed for us. More
00:06Chinese bikes looking to upset the establishment. The most powerful e-road bike that I think I've
00:11ever seen. And we also take a look at some of the tech from the Tour of Verne-Ronault,
00:17or Tara as I'm now calling it. Oh, and two of the coolest bikes that I think I've seen
00:21in quite some time. This is Cycling Weekly with all the latest cycling news. Let's get into it.
00:30Bianchi is back. This is the updated Specialissima and it's the bike that Bahrain Victorious will be
00:44using at this year's Tour de France. So, how much faster do you think it is compared to the old
00:50one?
00:505 watts. 5 watts? No. 10 watts? No. Apparently this is 16 watts faster than its
00:59predecessor. Although, to be fair, they have tested it at 50 kilometers per hour,
01:04which results in a bigger gap than some other brands test at. It's also got a 750 gram frame,
01:11and the bar is not quite as wild as on the Ultra ARC, but it does have a natural convergent
01:18shifter
01:18position, i.e. they're pointing in slightly, but not so much that the UCI won't be very happy. They hope.
01:25Remember when the Bianchi Ultra ARC released and it had those nose, it had nostrils. UCI,
01:32well, they didn't like them, so they had to take them off. But hopefully this one is all UCI compliant.
01:37Also, the other interesting thing is bikes now have to not only be light and aero,
01:43but they also have to be comfortable. And Bianchi, well, they have exclusive rights to countervail
01:50technology in the cycling industry. Now, countervail, they get involved with all sorts of aerospace and
01:56automotive things. It's basically the carbon and it's the layout that makes it comfortable as well.
02:03But we haven't ridden it, so we don't know if it's worked or not. But they have been using it
02:08since 2013.
02:09So, if you like the way a Bianchi rides, then you'll probably like this one too, because it uses a
02:14lot of
02:14the same technology. It's available, obviously, SRAM RED. It's available with Shimano Dura-Ace.
02:19Both of them priced at $11,500. There's two tiers. Well, actually, there's three tiers. The top one
02:27gets the really fancy layout. That's the 750-gram one, the Specialisma RC. And then there's the
02:34Specialisma Pro, which comes with like SRAM 4, so Tegra, et cetera. That one's 850-gram frame,
02:427,700 euros for that one. That's about 6,600 pounds. I think it's an improvement over the
02:49Ultra RC. It's another brand that appears to be going down the one bike to do it all approach,
02:54rather than having a dedicated aero, dedicated lightweight bikes. But what do you reckon? Are
02:58they onto a winner? Let me know down in the comments below. So, moving on, there's another new bike,
03:05the Eddy Merckx 525R. Eddy Merckx says that this is the bike if you're not a pro, but you still
03:11want to
03:11go fast. It's interesting. Even if you have no intention of buying a bike that says Eddy Merckx on
03:16the side of it, this is quite an important release. Why? Progressive geometry. Oh, yeah. I treat you to
03:24all the exciting things, don't I? So basically, the Belgian brand says that the new 525R model
03:29focuses on the rider as much as it does the bike. Good idea. Bikes are ridden with riders.
03:36The progressive geometry, that basically means it's got a longer reach. It's got a steeper seat tube
03:41angle. The brand says that that will help you hold faster and more aerodynamic positions for longer.
03:48Now, this isn't the first time we've seen this progressive geometry. We had the Factor 1 and
03:53the Ridley Noah Fast with quite steep seat tube angles last year. And I did say when they released,
03:58I expected more brands to follow suit. But I didn't predict that amateurs would be able to benefit from
04:04this change quite so quickly. So, Eddy Merckx says a progressive seat angle ensures that riders of every
04:10frame size can achieve an optimal hip angle with reduced setback behind the bottom racket. So,
04:15if you're a tall rider, then particularly important to take notice because you used to sort of have to
04:20shift your saddle rearwards. You have to use a setback seat post. You'd be a long way behind the bottom
04:27racket. So, yeah, nice idea. I think the looks will be slightly polarizing. It's got that sort of cut out
04:36on
04:36seat tube like the Canyon Endure Race. It's got space for 34 mil tyres. Probably could have stretched
04:41that a little bit more, Eddy Merckx. And it's also not the lightest. It's 952 grams in a size medium.
04:49But there is one thing I absolutely love about it. You can customise it until your heart's content on
04:55their online configurator. You can change everything, basically, not just the colour. You can change the
05:01crank length, the bar width, the stem length, the groupset, your tyres. You can change it all,
05:06which is absolutely great. And more brands should 100% be doing this. If you're shelling out £3,000
05:14on a bike, all the way up to, some brands are selling bikes for £15,000. It's like off the
05:19shelf.
05:19You just have to have it that way. This is how to do it. More brands should take notice.
05:26Right. DJI. They do drones, right? Well, it turns out they also blimmin' good at making e-bikes. So
05:34good, in fact, that they've basically dominated the e-mountain bike market. Apparently, that's not
05:41good enough. They're now coming for road bikes and gravel bikes, too. The first bike to feature their
05:47new Avanox M2S motor is this Megamo Uppon. Megamo is a Spanish brand, if you haven't heard of it.
05:53They're really big in Europe. We don't get them so much here in the UK. But the most controversial
05:59slash bonkers thing about it is it's got a peak power of 1,500 watts and 150 newton meters of
06:08torque.
06:08And to put that into perspective, that's around six times more than you get from some e-road bikes.
06:14This is controversial because is it necessary? No. So I'm going to reserve judgment on how it actually
06:21rides do you need that much power until I ride one because we've got a Megamo on its way. So
06:27subscribe to the channel so you don't miss that. But I mean, mountain bikers have been falling in
06:31love with DJI motors, not just for their power. So it could be exciting. The range topping up on 05
06:39has got Ultegra Di2. That's £6,499. There's the up on 15 with Shimano 105. That's £5,995. But there's
06:48also
06:49some lower range models with a slightly different motor, less powerful motor. Megamo says that the
06:54bike targets experienced cyclists aged 45 to 70 who want to maintain their pace on climbs
07:00and group rides. I think 1500 watts. They should be all right. Also in the world of things going bonkers,
07:09we've got the UCI. They've decided not to change finishes or anything like that. They've decided to
07:15change computer sizes because, you know, that's a massive problem within the Pro Peloton.
07:23Basically, if you haven't heard from 2028, they're going to ban super sized bike computers. Basically,
07:28anything bigger than a Wahoo Ace or an iPhone 5 is going to be banned. They're saying that it's
07:35cognitive overload or something like that. I'm not sure I quite agree with that. I've found bigger
07:42computers easier to glance at so you don't have to look down and stare at it. Everyone in the Pro
07:47Peloton that we saw is using smaller and smaller computers. The Wahoo Bolt, for example, some Garmin
07:54users were using the mountain bike version because it's lighter than an 840 or 850 or whatever we're on
08:01now. I've got a theory though. I think that they're not necessarily doing this for cognitive load or safety.
08:10I think they're trying to make sure brands aren't going to bring out one that is basically an aero
08:16fairing that you can sort of put between your bars to close that gap. I think it's just like a
08:22preventative step before this happens or could happen. Let me know what you think down in the
08:29comments below. If you haven't watched our XDS video, we went out to China, we saw the absolutely
08:36insane scale that some of these Chinese brands are producing bikes at. It really was eye-opening.
08:42It broke a lot of misconceptions for me and if you haven't watched the video then we'll pop a link
08:47up there. Well, XLAB bikes have proved hugely popular since they launched in the US. They're
08:54offering some serious performance to value and now Pardus want to replicate this in Europe. Now, if you
09:01haven't heard of Pardus, you probably will pretty soon. Pardus is owned by one of the largest carbon
09:08fibre sports product manufacturers in the world and just like XDS, they're an OEM so they produce
09:14bikes for other brands and they weave their own pre-break carbon from Torre fibres. What are they
09:21offering? Well, there's two that I'd like to highlight. There's this SPK Gen 4 Aero and then there's this
09:27Robin Evo. Now, the Robin Evo weighs 6.7 kilos so it's under the UCI weight limit. Now, if you
09:34want
09:34that from the big brands, you're looking at £12,000 and maybe the rest if you want it to be
09:41a Colnego
09:42V5 RS or a Tarmac SL8 or a Trek Madone or a Cervelo R5. Pardus, 6.7 kilo race bike,
09:51carbon frame,
09:51integrated cockpit, carbon spoke, carbon saddle, €5,000. Half the price. Don't know what it
09:58rides like though, so can't recommend it yet. Now, if you are considering getting your bike
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10:25all of which can be protected from things like theft, loss or accidental damage. Now,
10:30we all know that having anything happen to your pride and joy is always painful, but with an
10:35insurance policy, you can at least mitigate some of that heartache by knowing that someone has your
10:41back. Especially when they offer new for old for life, so that you can replace your bike with a new
10:46one of similar value should it be stolen, lost or accidentally damaged. Now, if you want to check
10:51them out, then there's a link down in the description below, as well as some details of how to take
10:56advantage of up to 20% off. Right, on to Tara, Tor Avern Rhone Alps. It's no longer called the
11:05Dauphiné
11:05and Tor Avern Rhone Alps is just really long, so I called it Tara. What did we see? What didn't
11:13we see?
11:13We saw a Specialized Tarmac SL9 full video over there. We saw an Orbea Orca Aero. Now,
11:21we didn't cover this one in a dedicated video, but here's some shots of it, complete with children
11:28crayon graphics. Let me know what you think of it. It looks super aggressive, especially this one with
11:34a super long stem. It's certainly got more tyre clearance than the outgoing model. It looks like
11:40they've stuck with the dedicated aero bike route, so we have fully assumed that this will be the
11:45Orbea Orca Aero. We saw the Ridley Falcon RS, or at least we assume that's what it's going to be
11:50called, this prototype with some super wide clearances. We've got a video on that one.
11:55We've also seen a new Cube Aero bike. We've got a video on that one. We also saw a new
12:00Van Riesel that
12:01Paul Sexes used and then fell off of at very high speed. Fingers crossed he's all right because he was
12:06absolutely phenomenal when he was on his bike. Obviously a big hope for the Tour de France,
12:11and I really hope someone can take it to Tadeu Pogaccia because his Tour de Swiss antics just
12:18shouldn't be a thing. So yeah, new Van Riesel as well. We assume that one's going to be called the
12:23RCR Pro, and you can check that out using the link in the description. We also saw Matteo Trentin getting
12:30his tyres pumped up by Tudor Pro Cycling mechanic. Tudor Pro Cycling are using Schwalbe click valves,
12:37which I'm a big fan of. I don't think they get talked about enough, so I sort of wanted to
12:41include
12:41them in this video. They're really good. They just click on, and I think this could finally be the end
12:47of the Presta valve. Lezyne have brought out a whole range using click valves. It finally seems to be the
12:54sort of the one. I hope it continues to gather momentum and we just see more and more pumps use
13:00it and more tyres use it. We also saw Isaac Del Toro use Colnago V5 RS rather than the Y1
13:06RS.
13:07Quite an interesting thing considering Tade used the Y1 RS in almost every stage in the Tour de France
13:13last year. And some really sad news, Wout van Aert is out of the Tour de France. We saw him
13:19bandaged up
13:20at the start of the Tour of Erne Rhone Alps. Then he went on to win a stage and we
13:25thought,
13:26great, he's recovering from this. He's apparently gone to hospital though and had his elbow checked out
13:32and he won't be starting the Tour, which is going to be a massive blow. Oh dear. Tearing up.
13:39Sounds like you're getting choked up. Tearing up. A Tour without Wout. There's no point watching, is there?
13:44It's going to be a massive blow for Visma Lisa bike and well, only time will tell whether Jonas
13:50Vingegaard will regret not having him there. So onto those two really cool, super cool bikes that I
13:58promised. First one, Chanel cargo bike. Don't normally get excited about cargo bikes, but have a look at
14:04this. Whoa. Yes. Let me know what you think of that one down in the comments below. And then also,
14:11this Cannondale Cad 14 X Team Dream. Team Dream is a Los Angeles based team. The Cad 14 is Cannondale's
14:21latest aluminium bike. Super cool. I absolutely loved that raw aluminium one that they only made
14:27250 units of, but they have made some other cool bikes. However, they've only made 50 of each.
14:32There's this Player 1 colourway, it's red. There's a Player 2 colourway, it's blue. They look super cool.
14:38They're all sold out in every size. You can't have one. But there is some clothing available.
14:43So let me know what is your favourite bike from this video down in the comments below. Make sure
14:49you're subscribed to stay up to date with all of our Tour de France coverage, which is obviously
14:53coming very soon, and we'll see you next time.
14:56Let's get out of here.