Let’s start with a big congrats to not just Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno, but to all the finishers of yesterday’s Ironman World Championships. It’s easy to forget that there are more than just pros out there. If you’re like us, you couldn’t help but be inspired while watching the age groupers coming in at 16+ hours. If you ever want to help a friend understand why you tri, get them to wake up at 5AM EST and check out the finishers cam from the 2016 World Championships. The next thing they’ll be asking is where they can sign up for their first sprint.

Photo: Iri Greco / BrakeThrough Media

For those looking for our race coverage, check back tomorrow as we break down the bikes of the world champions.

This week was a big week at AeroGeeks.com. We shared all sorts of goodness from Kona. Giant, Zipp, and Canyon were all showing off their latest and greatest. And Cervelo hinted at a big announcements coming in just a few months. Stay tuned this week as we share even more great products introduced this past week.

For those who are new to AeroGeeks.com, one of our favorite ways to showcase our readers is our Readers’ Rides album on Facebook. You can check out our entire collection at http://on.fb.me/12jEqE3. If you would like to have your bike featured in our album, just tweet us at @AeroGeeks, Facebook message us, get us on Instagram, or email us at info@AeroGeeks.com.

This Week’s Posts

Tuesday – Kona 2015 – Zipp 808 NSW Carbon Clincher, Kona 2015 – Cervelo New Super Bike Coming in 140.6 Days

Wednesday – Kona 2015 – Canyon Speedmax CF SLX, Kona 2015 – Giant Trinity Advanced Pro

The Kona Bike Count

One of the long-standing traditions at Kona (no, we’re not talking about the underwear run) is the Kona bike count organized by Lavamagazine.com. The count is handled by dozens of industry members and helps give a better understanding of what the best in the world (whether they be pros or top age groupers) are riding. You can head over to http://lavamagazine.com/2015-kona-bike-count-results/ to get the complete results, but there were a few very notable numbers we wanted to look at.

Cervelo won the bike tally with 522 bikes. Trek was second with 275, and Specialized third with 218. Zipp is the clear favorite of the athletes as they had 2,006 total wheels at Kona. Enve was a distant second with 308. Continental appears to be the athletes’ choice of tire—they came in with a count of 1,362 (Vittoria was second with 149).

For drivetrains, Shimano won with 1,860 ,and SRAM came in as a distance second at 402. As a side note, we expect those numbers to change with the introduction of SRAM eTAP, especially considering the popularity of electronic drive trains on tri bikes.

Once again, ISM won the saddle count with 732. Hydration winners were split between Profile Design, XLAB, and Speedfil. Profile Design won the front hydration count with 669 (XLAB took second with 402), XLAB reigned supreme in the rear hydration category with 696 (Profile Design took second with 171), and Speedfil was the winner of Aero Frame Hydration with 45.

The Power Meter split was fairly even with Quarq at 289, Garmin at 222, and Stages at 170. And finally Rudy Project once again won the helmet count with 639 examples (Giro came in second with 369).

Current Reviews

Fuji Transonic

We received our Transonic a few months ago. However, between the office move, Interbike, and Kona countdown, we weren’t able to get it on the road until just this week. The first ride was a short one, but so far its stable in cross winds, accelerates quickly, and handles nimbly around the turns. Expect quite a few more updates as we start to put it through its paces.

Bontrager Aeolus 9 TLR D3

As we are wrapping up our review of the Zipp 808s, it was time to put a new set of wheels on our Speed Concept. The Aeolus 9s are our first set of aero wheels that are tubeless ready, and we have to admit that riding without an extra tube is a bit of a nerve wracking experience the first time around. The 9s are both deep and fast, and we’re happy to report that we didn’t have any issues riding tubeless.

Rotor QXL Q-Rings

We also equipped our Speed Concept with a set of Rotor QXL chainrings. While we have ridden with “ovalized” rings before, this week was our first chance to ride them back-to-back with standard circular rings. It always amazes us just how easy it is to immediately start riding ovalized rings, but how funny it feels to switch back to circular during the first mile or two.