This past week we have heard the same thing said over and over: “The Tour de France is coming! The Tour de France is coming!” While the AG team anticipates the Tour with a sense of excitement (we wait all year for these three weeks!), the Tour also means a litany of new product launches is on the way. And to be honest, it can be a lot to keep up with! In fact we’ve already seen multiple launches with just a week to go, and there are plenty more in store. The AeroGeeks will be starting full coverage next Monday.
As a quick teaser, lets cover a few of the big announcements hitting this week. First up was Specialized with their 5 minutes faster campaign, which is centered around their new Venge ViAS (Venge Integrated Aero Solution). We first showed off the Venge on our Facebook page early last week, but this week we will break down the new bike in detail including its very unique brake configuration.
At the end of the week, Scott showed off their new Foil aero road bike. The new Foil has a claimed 6-watt advantage over their previous Foil. Like the Venge, stay tuned for a complete breakdown.
Next week we will also break down Trek’s big “Bear Witness” announcement, which is set for June 30th. Make sure you’re following both our @AeroGeeks twitter page and Facebook to keep up with all the latest news!
Readers’ Rides
This week we have a truly special bike to add to our Readers’ Rides gallery. Benjamin had a serious injury that took him away from sports for more than a year (pelvic overload). After working very hard to rehabilitate the injury, he decided to treat himself to a dream bike. Because of the hip injury, he decided to go for a fully made-to-measure frame from Legend (the Italian pope of frame building Marco Bertoletti who hand makes carbon frames in an autoclave).
For wheels, he also went for a small wheel builder in France: GT race wheels. While we haven’t had a chance to experience them, Benjamin tells us they pay an astounding amount of attention to detail.
Full build is:
- Handmade to measure carbon frame ‘Legend’
- Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset
- Rotor Q-Rings
- Handmade ‘GT race wheel’ R56 aero front/ R86 Aero back, (27mm width)
- Swissstop brake pads
- Veloflex tubular tires, carbon 23mm front / arenberg 25 mm rear
- Specialized Sitero pro saddle
- Look Keo 2 max pedals
- Profile Design Ozero tt base bars
- Profile Design T3+ extensions
- Lizard skin bar tape.
You can check out our complete Readers’ Rides gallery at http://on.fb.me/12jEqE3. To have your bike featured in our album, tweet us at @AeroGeeks, Facebook message us, or email us at info@AeroGeeks.com.
New Colors for the Wing57
This week Rudy Project introduced six new colors of their Wing57 helmet. For those who haven’t read our review yet, the Wing57 is one of the premier aero helmets out there. We also had no hesitation using it on race day during our testing process. And while adding six new colors may not be huge news, we know we aren’t the only ones out there that want our kit to perfectly match our bike. And having six new ways to do it certainly opens up the options.
The Mailroom
The mailroom was quite a bit quieter than last week with only one package making its way to AeroGeeks headquarters. But the good news is this was a package we have been waiting on for months. SRAM sent us their new 1×11 Force1 groupset! The plan is to get it on our Cervelo P2 test bike sometime in the next few weeks. Part of the testing will be centered on the Force1 groupset itself, while the other part will be seeing how a 1×11 groupset works on a tri bike. While South Florida is not known for its mountainous terrain, we plan on finding every elevation change we can to test out this new product.