Cycling Weekly's April Tech Of The Month

April has not only brought some longer evening, but there have also been some new tech launches

from the likes of Campagnolo and Hunt. We also saw some hilarious April Fool's content

and I want to start with one that Trek put out there, because they did something quite cool

They launched a pseudo denim Madone, and they said, introducing Carpe Denim

an all-new finish available exclusively to Project One. And I think it looks quite cool

I mean, obviously, it's not possible. You could never put that much epoxy into some denim

But I think when you look at the pictures, it does look pretty sick. It's pretty cool, isn't it

I think as much as this is obviously an April Fool's joke, I think potentially maybe it's Trek putting out a little bit of a feeler

Could this be a future Project One paint job? I'd love to see that. Personally, I think it's really cool

Well, exactly. Do that as a paint job and then do the saddle because you could do the saddle in denim

How cool would you look? That'd be amazing. I also like that in the caption as well, they put some care instructions

Hand wash in the tears of the less fashionable riders. Tumble dry low

But that wasn't everything that we saw because there was another one. There was another good one. There was indeed

So Precision Fuel and Hydration, who sponsor Lotto Destiny, also jumped on the bandwagon

They said that they came up with a collaboration with Victor Campenarts for a more aerodynamic way to dispense electrolyte tablets

Yes, that's right. It was a sort of Pez dispenser, if you've seen those sweets back in the day

that clips onto the frame, also said to double as an aerodynamic fairing yeah it was quite good that one yeah good i think

a little bit easier to see through than the uh project one paint job you know that's true i mean

for a second that trek paint job i was like really but then i'm a simpleton so that was also why but

um i mean away from april fool's content i did also see a video on instagram um from i think

potentially the dubai police because they have now got this range of they've got a fleet of new bikes

custom painted Colnago V3 RSs. Very cool. And it's nice as well

because they match the paint schemes of like all their police cars, obviously, as they would

because they're also quite famous for having a load of supercars within their police fleet as well

It makes me wonder though, like what they're going to be using these bikes for. Like who are they chasing down

And also surprised that they're just V3 RSs. You'd think for the Dubai police

why not go for the V4s? A little bit outdated. Also, I want to know what kit they're riding

because you can have a V3 RS, but you're not going to catch someone on a specialised alley if you haven't got a skin suit on

So Dubai Police Department, do you have custom skin suits for your patrolling duties

Indeed, it's a very good question. But on to something a little bit more serious, because we did see one more thing

which looks pretty cool, was off the back of the Tour of Flanders last weekend

we saw from Escape Collective on their Instagram that Ronan McLaughlin made an incredible spot

of some Goodyear tyres, which supposedly cost $650 with a 30-day lead time. Now, we can kind of

deduce that that is because, due to UCI rules, those tyres need to be commercially available

But when you look at the tread pattern, they've got quite an interesting one because the shoulders of the tyres have got quite a fine tread pattern, kind of lots of very packed-together ridges

and then the centre of the tread is a lot more kind of similar to other Goodyear tyres. I mean

that's all the information that we have is just what we've seen so i think it's going to be interesting to see like what the casing's like what the tpi is like like what the compound's like

why why are they so special for sure i think we can probably deduce that they're a classic special

tire yeah um you know lightly designed with that extra grip so many of the crashes we see in the

cobbled classics is somebody washing out on a bend so maybe just to have a touch more grip on the sort

of off camber corners makes sense but as you say in terms of casing for example if they've got any

added puncture protection for the likes of Paris-Roubaix remains to be seen. But $650

quite the price tag, isn't it? Well, exactly. I mean, you don't know whether or not, again

it's just a prototype and if maybe these tyres could potentially be a lot more affordable later

down the line. But moving away, moving on, there was big news, as mentioned, from Campagnolo

They have finally released their power meter. Been a long time coming, this one, hasn't it

Well, exactly. So when Super Record was launched last year now, I was on the launch for that product and they kind of teased it a little bit, but they were still pretty tight lipped

What was interesting is that when you looked at the non-drive side crank arm, there was kind of a little cover and you kind of wondered, well, is that going to be for a future power meter

Turns out it wasn't because the power meter itself sits on the drive side and kind of looks like a quark power meter of yesteryear

But now that we've actually seen some numbers, it does sound kind of interesting. So Campagnolo are claiming a plus minus 1% accuracy. It's available in lengths 170 to 172.5 to 175. The construction is a hollow carbon crank set with a titanium axle. We've got a claimed weight of 656 grams and that is for 172.5 crank arm length with 29.45 chain rings

when I saw that way I did have to double check to see how that compared to

red and duro race because obviously those are the closest competitors duro race ranges between 685 grams and 696 grams so a little bit heavier Red comes in at around 570 grams but that for a 175 mil crank arm and 4835 chain rings So clearly SRAM is leading the

way here. And I think it's also worth mentioning that comparative weights are actually quite hard

to do with chain sets because everyone has their own ethos on gearing. And then obviously different

size chain rings play into that but that being said back to the campag power meter it's got a

rechargeable and serviceable battery which is nice again that just makes it a little bit more user

friendly and then it's got a magnetic cable which looks to attach at the outside face of the outer

chain ring and it uses the same charger as the super record wireless group set as well so it's

just nice that there's actually been a bit of integration there a bit of nice bit of forethought there. Runtime on that battery is said to be five weeks on a single charge and that assumes a 500

kilometer riding week at 20 degrees C. I mean it looks pretty cool, it looks nice, it's good that

it's finally landed. I guess the sad thing is that this will be an extra cost to the already existing

Super Record wireless groupset which is already very expensive. Not cheap is it? I couldn't see a

price but if we can get hold of one we'll flash it up on screen for you now

on the surface it looks good the numbers do look good it's a shame that there's not more

crank lengths available say a 165 but i think until we can get our hands on a unit and test it

i think we'll reserve judgment but i think the key things that we'll be looking for are one how

accurate really is it and then also how well does it actually integrate with the my campy app because

that's something that campagnolo put a lot of time into creating was this new interface to control

your group set and kind of other periphery. So yeah, looks good. But I think let's wait and see

how it actually performs in the real world. 2024 seemingly has been the year of wheel releases

We've covered countless in the last sort of few months. And there's another one. But this one is

really quite interesting. So it's from Hunt, isn't it, Sam? They brought out their sub-50

Limitless Aero wheels a few weeks ago. That was their real top of the range, cutting edge technology

these are much more at the budget end what can you tell us about them well i think there's a lot

to go through here and we will get onto the price in a second but just to run through again some of

those headline specs the range is called the carbon disc range which was formerly known as

the carbon aero disc range so this is a refresh on kind of a bit of a fan favorite actually

specs on those you've got a 22 mil internal width which is compatible for tires from 25 mil all the

way up to 50 mil so really versatile there you've got a 30 millimeter wide external width you do

have a fairly basic 36 to 10 degree engagement free hub but again at this level i think that's

actually perfectly fine and it will work absolutely perfectly well you've got triple butted spokes

they come in three different depths 30 40 and 50 millimeters and the weights go from 1408 grams

to 1,433 grams to 1,464 grams. Now, I don't think those are bad jumps when you consider that that

is going 10 mil deeper every single time. So I think for a nice entry level wheel upgrade

I think these stand to be a really solid and functional purchase. And just to get onto those

prices for the 30 mils in pounds you'd be paying 779 pounds or 979 dollars or euros that's kind of

in that territory of i want to upgrade my wheels from what's stock on the bike and i think these

would perform really well for a pretty decent price for sure i think the other thing there to

remember is that so many wheels now are really in that price bracket well above three thousand pounds

three thousand dollars and the reality is obviously we don't know till we test these but the reality

is for you know someone that wants to go and do their chain gang go and do some club rides

this is probably a high percentage of that performance for a low percentage of that cost

so what are we actually missing well carbon spokes for one thing yeah the internal rim width is ever

so slightly narrower than their sort of top line wheels and also it's worth mentioning they're hooked

rims as well not hookless yeah well but i think a lot of people would actually see see that as

a huge benefit over hookless so definitely for some after they've been in the spotlight for so

long these last few weeks maybe just some more stress-free riding the other thing there as well

the engagement of that free hub yes it's slightly less again will you particularly notice it probably

not will it perform just fine almost certainly so yeah absolutely and i think actually when

considering how much more you'd have to spend to get a lot of those features you're going to be at

two three times the cost but the performance isn't going to be that much greater in the real world

So if you're running some stock wheels and you want to be a bit quicker, enjoy the benefits that some kind of deep section wheels can bring you

I think these are a really good option. Now for something a little bit more innovative from Body Rocket

So they a company that is creating the world first and only real time aerodynamic drag force measurement system That quite a mouthful What is it Essentially they got four sensors on all the contact points on the bike so one on the stem one on the saddle That is coupled with

an out front airspeed sensor. And by knowing the parameters of the airspeed, along with the force

in which that is applied to the rider by the resistance of the air, they can work out a CDA

number from that. Now, the bike you're seeing on screen is, of course, a road bike, though this was

developed initially for that sort of time trial setting the athlete that body rocket is now

working with christian blumenfeld is an olympic triathlete and of course they use road bikes in

their competitions so that is why the new system is on his giant propel so he can enjoy many hours

of aero training which to me seems like a tricky sentence to say with a straight face but yeah i

mean it sounds like it'd be pretty painful well i mean it'd have a rock solid core yes absolutely

I'm sure we can hold that position. I mean, what are the benefits of this, really, over and above other ways of testing your aero drag

So there's two main factors here, cost and time. First of all, aero testing, particularly in a wind tunnel setting, is stupidly expensive still

You know, you can be talking £1,000, $1,000 an hour by the time you've hired an engineer, hired the facilities

And the other thing is time. We did some aero testing in a video which will be coming up pretty soon in the next few weeks

We were only in there for two hours. And if you're really trying to train a position, it's hard to get a feel for that position in just a two hour slot when really, even if you just move, you know, any tiny movement of your head or shoulders is going to cause a massive difference

So being able to train with those numbers in front of you is a real big benefit

Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is also really interesting when it comes to just the sheer amount of data that you could collect

It's that constant feedback loop, essentially. And it's essentially, if something's telling you

you know, keep your elbows in, keep your shoulders in all the time and you can see yourself get faster

I think that probably just trains your mind to always be so aware of every single position that you should or should not be in

For sure. And I think it gives you the ability, crucially, to fail fast, doesn't it? Yes

You know, you can really, as Sam said, you can just collect loads of data and you can work specifically on a position

So it might be that, take Thomas de Gendt, for example. if he has one of these and he can train his breakaway efforts in a position that as we found

out depending on optimization can be a lot of what's faster at the speeds of racing you know

that could be a really worthwhile investment for someone to be actually able to train a specific

position for a specific part of a race absolutely i think there's one more thing just worth touching

upon which is when you look at this bike it's not something that is going to be adoptable for the

masses but i think the most exciting thing from our point of view potentially is over the next

five ten years how does this technology get smaller and start to integrate on road bikes in a

more commercial way where you could say go and buy a kit fit it to your bike and then get that

feedback loop directly from your head unit that i think would be really cool

now a couple of tech of the month episodes ago you might have seen that we highlighted a amulet

that was created by Bastion. And it seems as though we've got something else

of a very similar ilk, because Joe, I believe you have taken delivery of a watch

Indeed, I have taken delivery of one of the new watches that comes as part of the Bravure Team Heritage Collection

Now, why are we talking about watches on Cycling Weekly, you might ask? Well, the Swedish watch brand has actually taken inspiration

for the new faces of the watches from cycling. So there's a total of three new watches as part of the Team Heritage Collection

The MER, the REN, which is the one on my wrist currently, and the PEU

Now, keen-eyed viewers amongst you, if you like your sort of 50s to 80s cycling

may have noticed that those are actually representative of old iconic team kits

So probably the most recognisable of all is the MER. That throws it back to the Mercia team, which Raymond Pouliador used to ride for

That's Mathieu van der Poel's grandfather. The REN, as I say, this is the one I've got on my wrist

Lovely sort of black and yellow face accents. Quite nice as well that it's sort of two levels to the face as well

It's pretty cool. And the Peugeot one, which is probably the most classic of them all, a more sort of monochrome colour palette

All of these have little nods to cycling culture. So we've got like an upside down 13 on the clock face, for example

That's cool. There's a Team Heritage logo on the back of the watch face as well. They all come with a Swiss automatic movement

and quite cool as well. Last little nod here is that they come in a Team Heritage handlebar bag

Now, this is real leather. First of all, it's the packaging for the watch. The watch comes in this

when you take delivery, but it actually can be used as a handlebar bag as well, which I think

is quite cool for that vintage aesthetic. Not particularly waterproof, as you can see

it's a leather clamshell design, but for the right day, for the right cafe ride, I think it's pretty

Perfect for a baguette on a summer's day, perhaps. A very small baguette

Or maybe a gazette. And I must stress, the right day and the right bike as well

Please, let's not go putting this on modern bikes. Steel frames only For this month Bike of the month we have the pretty newly released Giant TCR Now to give you the rundown on the headlines of this bike this is the 10th

generation of the TCR. It's been around for a fair bit of time now. I think we can all agree

though, it looks pretty similar to the previous one. I'd say this is more of a facelift

but there are some quite good differences to be able to spot. You might not be able to spot them

but that's because there's a lot going on underneath the skin. So I'll run you through

some numbers as quickly as I can. Like I say, this is the 10th generation frameset. It's claimed to be

10% lighter, 5 watts faster, and a little bit stiffer than the 9th generation. The claimed

frameset weight is 690 grams without paints, which is 75 grams less than the previous TCR

There's a key stat though that Giant would actually rather you hear about, which is that

this is claimed to be 12 watts faster than the previous but that is a total system efficiency

so that isn't just the frame that's all of the bits that are attached to it as well so 12 watts

faster important to note though as you say you might not be able to see loads of the changes but

small things like for example the cables or hoses have gone integrated at the front that will make

you know probably a fair portion of that 12 watt improvement but still it looks really smart doesn't

And I think they've definitely taken an if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach to the bike

The release of this bike definitely raises a couple of questions as to how much longer the TCR is actually going to be around for

Because I think if we all cast our minds back to when they launched the new Propel, that bike slimmed down a lot

It dropped a lot of weight. And actually the TCR and the Propel now actually sit a lot more closer together

So for example, the TCR is now only 155 grams lighter and five watts slower than the Propel

And actually, when our colleague Stefan was out of the global launch of this bike, he was speaking to one of the global marketing managers

And he said, the question that we are looking for in the next three to five year plan for both of these products is when do the two combine

So clearly at some point, a Propel and a TCR will come together, have a baby, and there'll be a new bike, which in theory will just be the best of both worlds

But if we focus on the bike that has just been launched, obviously the TCR has always been about, you know, being lightweight and being stiff

Now to put some kind of comparative numbers on that, one of the key bikes that you can compare against the TCR would maybe be an S-Works Athos

So if we look at a full build, a S-Works Athos with Dura-Ace will weigh 6.23 kilos and the TCR comes in at 6.4

So it's still incredibly light, UCI illegal, but there is still just a little bit of a difference there

Yeah, I think there's a lot to be said here more than anything for carbon fibre technology

The material science has just improved so much that now a bike manufacturer can create a bike that is 6.4 kilos

stiffer than the previous bike they can shable that weight off the frame set and incorporate

some aero features as well there's definitely sort of a culmination of knowledge coming together here

that is why we're seeing a lot of very similar bikes in the in the last sort of 12 months and i

think it's probably a trend that will continue isn't it yeah true i think the one special thing

about giant though is that they do own their own factories in taiwan and they actually changed up

how they process carbon fiber so they used to laser cut all of the pieces but now they do this

cold blade cutting technology which means that essentially the carbon fiber isn't exposed to

kind of excess heat but because giant own those factories they have a lot of control over the

manufacturing process and that then does allow them to kind of really push the boundaries in

terms of what they are capable of doing and as we all know giants do tend to be quite good value

for money in comparison and actually let's touch on price the bike that we've got behind us is the

most expensive and will cost you either $12,500 or just shy of £12,000. But since it is giant

there are some good value options out there and prices start from either $3,200 or £2,699

and that's for a mechanical 105 12 speed build. So I think there's a really nice range there

For sure, there's a range there for everyone, isn't there? Also, some new Cadex wheels

Yeah, exactly. So this bike here is fitted with the Cadex Max 40s. Now, not a cheap wheel set

I mean, if you're going to buy them after market, they would cost you about £3,500

So quite a lot of money. They do look very cool, though. But we also then have to think about how they're constructed

because the hub flange is also integral to the spokes as well

So they are very light. They're in that 1,200 gram region. So super light, super stiff

And I imagine that they're going to feel amazing. but you really not want to go into snap a spoke

Yeah, for sure. It definitely wouldn't be cheap. But yeah, as we spoke to Stefan

who has already ridden the bike and he said that the wheels really make the bike

He said the frame feels great, obviously. It's really light. But yeah, the pièce de résistance, if you like

was really that wheel set. But yeah, as we mentioned there, I'm sure they are strong

but I'd be careful. Yeah, absolutely. Let us know though, what do you think of this new TCR

is it something that you would like to ride