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We might have found the ultimate bargain superbike! Cube's new Litening Aero C:68X packs a World Tour punch without the astronomical price tag. We also check out the Gearrista, a wild new gadget that promises a perfectly clean drivetrain while you relax. Plus, we analyse the new Trek Domane and ask if we've finally reached 'peak bike'.
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This aero bike might be Europe's answer to Chinese direct-to-consumer brands
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With the release of the new Trek Zemane, we ask the question, have we reached peak bike
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And how much would you pay for a machine that cleans your bike whilst you drink coffee
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All that and lots more of the latest tech. So this is Cycling Weekly, let's get into it
0:22
Right, I want to kick off with this. It's called the Gearista, and it's been all over my Instagram
0:30
for the last few weeks. Now, initially, I must admit, I did think that it was AI
0:37
but no, it appears it really does exist. It is real tech, and it is available to pre-order
0:43
Now, according to the Danish company, you could be losing 5 watts from light particle buildup
0:49
on your bike's drivetrain or around 20 to 30 watts in extreme abrasive conditions
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Their answer is this, preventative maintenance rather than infrequent drivetrain cleaning. The process, it takes around 10 minutes. You don't have to do anything. You just put your bike in it
1:08
and leave it. It uses a brush to clean particles off your chain and cassette to keep your road or
1:15
gravel bike's drivetrain running smoother and faster for longer. There's two brush sizes depending
1:20
on your cassette size and apparently, I'm not too sure how this works, it leaves the wax or your
1:27
chain lube in place. Obviously we haven't tried one yet as they're not available to anyone yet
1:33
but let me know whether you'd consider dropping 800 euros for one of these down in the comments
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below. Right, next I've got a new bike. It's called the Cube Lightning Aero C68X. The C68X means it's
1:47
the top tier carbon layup. The Lightning is spelt wrong and this replaces the old Cube Lightning
1:55
Aero which was I believe the oldest bike in the professional peloton. So these updates don't come
2:01
around very often. It looks like they've made some significant improvements. So this version is 150
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grams lighter that means that you can get complete builds under seven kilos which i know isn't
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setting the world on fire but take a look at how deep this handlebar is and that's also with 60 66
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mil deep wheels so like there's plenty of carbon fiber being used here um it's also apparently 6.2
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watts faster than the previous version 10 more comfortable uh a much more welcome update is that
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It's now got space for 34 mil tires because that was something that was holding back the previous generation
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It comes with a power meter. It comes with these Newman carbon spoke wheels
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This top spec build with full Dura-Ace, full Total NG's spec, a world tour level bike for £7,500
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pounds. I understand that is a hell of a lot of money, but it is £5,000 less than what you'd pay
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for something in a similar spec if it had Colnago or Specialized or Trek or Cannondale or even a
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Canyon with a power meter and a Dura-Ace build is going to set you back significantly more than that
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So this might be the best value race bike of 2026. Let me know whether you agree or disagree
3:24
with me in the comments below and we will have a full video looking at all the other bikes in
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Cube's 2027 range coming very soon so make sure you're subscribed to the Cycling Weekly channel
3:35
for that. August has seen some other bike releases though this is the new Trek de Mane
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and well the Trek de Mane used to be one of the most popular endurance bikes on the market Then it sort of feels like it got superseded in terms of spec for price by the likes of the Canyon Endurance for example
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Maybe the giant Defy as well. Now, Trek appears to be trying to return the Domane to its roots, which kind of feels like we were wrong
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We made some mistakes, but that might not be such a bad thing
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So this fifth generation bike, gone is the ISO speed. Gone is the downtube storage
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Gone is some of the weight. And gone are some of the proprietary components
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So this new generation De Mane will take a regular round profile seat post
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I like that. It will fit up to 40 mil tires. So it's sort of endurance bike, all road bike, even light gravel
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and then there's also this riser bar which will make the effective stack 20 mil higher
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I think that's going to be really welcome for a lot of Domane riders. There's some other updates
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of course it's now got UDH like most modern bikes it's still got mudguard and fender mounts
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It's 305 grams lighter than the previous frame set. The lightest build 6.63 kilos and that's a
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kilo lighter or just under a kilo lighter than the top spec fourth generation build
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There's some big changes going on here. One of the less good changes is that you've now only got
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six sizes to choose from whereas you used to get nine. Looking through the website it does at least
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appear that you get some more sensibly sized cranks so 160 mil on some of the smaller sizes
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170 mil on some of the larger ones so I like that too. Complete builds they start from $2,400
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although the Domane SL4, the lowest tier one, that's available only in the US at the moment
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That's cheaper than the previous generation and then you're looking at the range topping
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Domane SLR model, that's £11,250 or $11,499. Is this too little too late or is this a returned
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form from Trek? Let me know in the comments below. I'm a bit torn. I think a lot of the changes are
6:04
very welcome. I think they will be far more competitive than the previous generation
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but to me, it does look a lot like the previous generation of Canyon and Dura-Ace, so
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maybe Trek and playing catch up. Let me know your thoughts down below
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Right, next, let's talk Shimano because there's some new Dura-Ace wheels. Shimano's gone for
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carbon spokes. These aren't much of a surprise because they've been, well, Matthew Vanderpoel's
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been using them for absolutely ages. But yeah, carbon spokes, they're wider, they're everything
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you'd expect from a carbon wheel. They've got sensibly sized internals. They're a sensible depth
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They're a really sensible weight. They're not mind-blowing. They certainly do seem competitive
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and I'm sure that will make a lot of the Shimano-sponsored teams in the World Tour very happy
6:51
now we were just going to talk about a 13 speed free hub leak from shimano but it seems like they
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weren't happy with that and they wanted to share a load more details because they sent one of the
7:03
alfasyn premier tech riders to the welter espania knowing damn well that they would be photographed
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using what appears to be the new shimano durace so this is durace r9300 and the big news is that
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its 13-speed. There is now multiple evidence that that is what's happening and well that's not to be
7:25
unexpected considering that SRAM has already gone 13 with its Gravel Explore groupset and Campagnolo has already gone 13 on its e gravel group sets and of course now on its latest super record road group sets Now Shimano Dura it was
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I believe the current generation the 12 speed generation was launched back in 2021 so some
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five years ago whereas SRAM Red its top flight road group set that came out in 2024 so SRAM Red
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is definitely a lot more modern than Dura-Ace and so it's fair play to Shimano, it's made a
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groupset that can still compete five years later. So what does the groupset look like that could
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take us into the 2030s? So yes to save you doing some counting that cassette does indeed have 13
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sprockets. Whilst we can't see what the smallest cog is, Shimano and SRAM have both been making the
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smallest cog, smaller and smaller. So on Shimano XTR for mountain bike that's a nine-tooth sprocket
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and SRAM use a 10-tooth sprocket to get more range out of their cassettes. I wouldn't mind
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betting that Shimano is going to go for a 10-tooth sprocket on this 13-speed group set because it
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means you can get more gear range. I think they're going to do this because it looks like they've got
8:47
a new cassette body. We spotted this leak and it indicates that you're going to have to use a
8:53
different cassette for Shimano 13 speed. The only reason you'd do that is to be able to fit a
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smaller cog. What else can we see? Well the cranks are rather surprising. Now obviously this is just
9:05
a prototype so this is by no means the finished article but they do still appear to be alloy which
9:12
I know is going to, I don't know about upset, but I know a lot of people were expecting and maybe
9:17
even hoping for a carbon crankset assembly which well it could be lighter. Shimano cranks are not
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known for their low weight. Also the other interesting thing is the chain rings. Now Shimano
9:31
has always used hollow forged chain rings. They've got a load of patterns on them which is preventing
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lots of other manufacturers from using them and then you'll often find that the chain ring on the
9:44
12-speed ones and 11-speed ones. They meet the crank spider really smoothly
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but here it appears that, well, they might be aftermarket chain rings maybe
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but they're not as flush to the chainset. The other interesting thing is you will notice
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a little wire coming out the back of this frame, which would indicate that Shimano R9300
10:04
is not going fully wireless like SRAM Red. The most likely situation is this will remain the same setup
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as the 9200 system where it's semi-wireless so you've got your shifters which are wireless
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but then you've got one battery connecting the rear derailleur and the front derailleur
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and the final thing i want to draw your attention to is this little extra button on the shifters
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yeah it looks like it's kind of going to go campagnolo-esque and you're going to get an
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extra little thumb button let me know whether you think you'd use that down in the comments below
10:40
Now, before we get on to some other cool bikes, if you are considering getting your bike or already
10:46
have your dream one in your garage, then have you considered getting it insured? If so, then today's
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six bikes on one policy, all of which can be protected from things like theft, loss, or accidental
11:09
damage. Having anything bad happen to your pride and joy is always going to be painful
11:15
unfortunately but with an insurance policy you can at least mitigate some of that heartache by knowing that someone got your back especially when they offer new for old for life so you can replace
11:26
your bike with a new one of similar value should it be stolen lost or
11:31
accidentally damaged if you want to check them out then there's a link down in the description below and also some details of how to take advantage of up
11:39
to 20% off right before I get on to some new bikes I thought that we should
11:45
probably cover the news that Raleigh and Lapierre are in trouble. We recently wrote an article on
11:54
the website, if you want to read it, and it's got all the tech details in. And a title that I found
12:01
particularly poignant, Pat Kinsella, one of our writers, wrote this, Nostalgia Does Not Pay Wages
12:08
Well, that basically says it all, doesn't it? Raleigh, they've been in trouble before. Raleigh
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is one of the oldest bike brands in existence I think it was found in 1887 which was actually
12:20
four years before Cycling Weekly was founded it's of course done a lot since then including
12:26
the very famous Rally Chopper which I know a lot of a lot of our audience will be uh hold very
12:32
dearly to their hearts um well Accel Group is who owns Rally and Lapierre as well as a load of other
12:39
brands and the Dutch company has begun its insolvency proceedings. It was declared bankrupt
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and no one quite knows what's going to happen to the brands under it. Oh how could I forget the
12:51
Raleigh TI as well? If you want to see me ride a replica of that bike against a modern bike
12:56
then we'll pop the video up there. But yeah let me know do you think that Raleigh or Lapierre which
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one would you save? If you could only save one, which one would it be? Right, following on with
13:10
some more bad news and that is that those of you in the US can't buy this next bike. It's the Merida
13:16
Speeder. We cover a lot of very expensive bikes on the channel and people are always asking for
13:21
cheaper bikes and this one might be it because the Merida Speeder is available from £800
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pounds. It's a flat bar commute touring style bike. It's got loads of mounting points. It's also
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got space for up to 50 mil tyres. There's some good spec options to choose from which is very
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exciting. I'm also reviewing a reader reacto at the moment so stay tuned for that video which will
13:48
be dropping shortly. Subscribe and we'll finish off with this. Does it make a lot of sense? No
13:56
probably not is it really cool do i like it yeah absolutely um so this is a collaboration between
14:04
albion the clothing brand and sturdy who are famous for making titanium very pretty bikes
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and they've built this the albion x sturdy tt bike which will be used at the uk national 24 hour
14:19
tt championship that's a bit of a mouthful we've obviously got a tri-spoke on the front full disc
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on the back, watch shop components. I just really like the look of it. You don't often see titanium
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mixed with all-out aero, aero chain ring and those wheels and things like that. Also, I love this
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paint job and there's also some matching kit. It'll be used by Charlie Stewart to see how far he can
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get in 24 hours. He's the co-founder of Albion. So yeah, let me know what you think of that one
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down in the comments below. As always, let me know your favourite tech down in the comments
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Have I missed anything? What do you want us to cover next? What bikes do you want to see us review
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Make sure you subscribe to the channel. If you enjoyed this video, then please do give it a like
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and we'll see you next time
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