- This is the Pinarello Bolide TT bike
belonging to current World Time Trial Champion Rohan Dennis.
Rohan himself?
Well he's got a list of results as long as my arm.
He's won, like I've already said,
the World Time Trial Championships.
But he's won it twice!
He's been an hour record holder.
He's won a stage at each and every Grand Tour.
And he's probably held the leaders jersey at each one too.
I know definitely the Giro and the Tour,
and I reckon the Vuelta.
He's also won gold medals on the track too.
And he's a resident here in Adelaide,
so I thought whist I'm here at the Santos Tour Down Under,
let's go and check out his bike.
And he's been very kind and loaned it to me for the day.
(air whooshing)
(upbeat music)
Let's start then with the frame and forks.
As I've already said it's the Bolide TT,
which is an evolution of the previous model,
just the Bolide.
And in doing so they've actually
reduced the weight by 350 grams,
which is an awful lot on a time trial bike,
'cause they're not always the lightest bikes out there.
How they've done it though,
is through widespread use of Torayca 1100 fiber.
So that's the carbon type that's been used,
and they've laid it up in such as way
that stiffness has been increased in certain areas
and weight has been decreased in other areas of the frame,
where it doesn't need to be quite so stiff.
The frame itself actually has two sets of bottle mates here.
So we've got one there in the standard position,
right down by the bottom bracket.
And there's another one a little bit further up,
but it's not really going to be used for a bottle cage
because if you look here,
they're actually a bit closer than standard.
So it's going to be used for maybe attaching something else.
Quite what? I don't know.
Maybe you could use it in a triathlon.
But there is a triathlon version of this bike out there too.
Now this frame does feature some interesting bits on it,
which I'll get into very shortly.
Let's have a look at them.
(upbeat music)
Let's start then with the handlebars.
They're from Pinarello's own brand,
which is MOST or MOST,
depending on which way you like to pronounce your words.
They are a pretty standard setup really,
there's nothing untoward about the shape
or curvature or the handlebars.
They're just a flat cowhorn or bullhorn type bar.
When we look at the actual TT extensions though,
where they come up from this base bar,
there is a fair amount of spaces there.
And I suppose it's probably around about 5.5 cm
with the upper spacer actually takes an angle,
and that enables the actual extensions to be up at an angle.
Remember years ago riders
used to get super low at the front end
thinking well that's the most aerodynamic position.
Possibly it is,
but they weren't able to unleash quite as much power.
So there's a position now
which a lot of riders tend to take.
And they call it the Praying Mantis position.
Rohan, he's kind of in that,
I guess you could say.
If we look at the extensions,
where we've got a pack of Shimano R671 shifters
on the end of them.
They have two buttons on each
so he can control his rear mech with the right hand one
or his front mech with the left hand or swap it around.
You can configure these buttons every which way you like it.
In between the extensions here we've got a bar,
which has kind of been taped into position.
And then we've got a GPS mount on there too,
which has been nicely trimmed down.
It looks like they would've used that
on a standard road handlebar.
But it's been put on there,
you can see,
where the mechanics just kind of cut through that
with a Dremel or something similar,
so obviously Rohan can keep an eye on his data
as he's riding along.
The pads on the,
well the elbow pads,
they're not too cushioned out.
Some of the riders I looked at bikes of last year
they were really big.
This is, this is kind of standard.
Now there is a little white dot on one of them,
and that must be for some kind of measurements
with the mechanics of the team.
I'm not that sure.
There is also a couple of dots around on this bike,
so I think he's had a bike fit recently
because it looks like something from the Retul design,
the Retul bike scanning,
just these little dots that are on there.
I don't know.
The TT extensions,
they can be lengthened or shortened to your heart's content,
within the UCI's regulations, of course.
And they're not fixed in position with any Allen bolts,
which is standard on lots of equipment.
Instead, it's a kind of a nailed nut.
There's a couple of flats on either side
probably I reckon about a 28 mm.
God, I'm getting really geeky with this bike.
On the ends of the handlebars, base bar,
we've got the Shimano DURA-ACE levers down there,
which, of course, have the Di2 integration on there.
We've also got some grip tape on the handlebars
both extensions and base bar for Rohan.
No handlebar tape on there.
He's obviously quite a minimalistic guy
when it comes to this.
And the Di2 cables they just poke out
and run internally inside of that bar.
Nice!
It's getting ever so windy.
Wired up then, to those Di2 shifters,
is a pair of Shimano DURA-ACE Di2 derailleurs,
both front and rear.
Let's talk about gearing then.
We've got a whopping 56-tooth chainring on there.
Not the biggest in the Peloton,
but certainly not the smallest.
And the inner ring on that is a 44.
That's paired up with a Shimano DURA-ACE cassette
on the rear of 11/30.
It's becoming increasingly common actually,
to see 32 sprockets on there,
particularly with sprinters and also time trial riders too
because it enables them to stay in the big ring
for just a little bit longer.
A lot of riders believed to do that
just because it's slightly more efficient,
and it stops them from momentarily
dropping from one chainring to the other.
Now the bike's power meter is from Shimano,
and it's a dual-sided one.
And interestingly as well, is that Pinarello have decided
to use the Italian bottom bracket standard on this bike.
One of the few brands
who actually still do that on their bikes.
There's also on the left-hand pedal,
this is where things get a little bit interesting really.
I'm going to have to ask Rohan exactly why this is.
But anyway, there's a pedal extender.
So the axle on it is slightly longer
than on the right-hand side.
Probably by about a centimeter, believe it or not.
Now those pedals are Shimano DURA-ACE SPD-SL
in the 9100 model.
Going to try and find out what cleats he's got too.
Just the more you find out about people,
it's really interesting.
Wheels-wise we've got a pair of Shimano wheels.
Well, arguably,
because PRO, which is the rear wheel,
is part of Shimano's own brand.
But the front one then,
Shimano DURA-ACE C60.
Fitted onto it is
a Continental Competition PRO Limited ALX tubular tire.
So that's got a latex inner tube inside of there,
and it's 25 mm in width.
The one on the rear on that PRO Textreme Disc Wheel.
That's the Continental Podium TT Limited.
Again that's got a latex inner tube inside of it,
and a slightly different file pattern tread on there.
I remember racing on those many years ago on the track,
although mine were 19 mm,
and they didn't have a latex inner tube.
The pros, they get all the good stuff.
That rear wheel is held in place
in those dropouts horizontally.
So they're backwards facing, in fact.
So, similar to that you'd find on a track bike.
And the way that the mechanics can easily line up that wheel
is thanks to some nailed adjusters inside of the dropouts,
which enable you to kind of twist them.
And then the little rod inside
will match up against the axle.
You essentially can't pull the wheel over
once you've got them lined up and set up.
Now something really interesting about that too,
is that those dropouts are actually aluminium.
So they're not carbon.
You tend to see a lot of full carbon dropouts but,
probably because on a TT bike a lot of riders like to
really torque up the quick-release skewers
so they don't lose any power whatsoever.
So by having a aluminium dropout
instead of a standard carbon one
you're going to do it less damage I guess,
if you really do torque it up.
And whilst we talk about the dropouts,
well, the front ones here,
they do have these wings or these tabs
which enable the airflow
just to go over it a little bit smoother.
So just cleaning out that dirty air.
The brake calipers,
they aren't the Shimano DURA-ACE.
In fact, they are unique to this bike,
the Pinarello's own designs.
They're fully integrated with the frame.
And there is also an aerodynamic fairing here.
So then just beneath that
you just have to take that off
with a little grub screw in there.
Then you can start to work on them.
Brake pads in there are Shimano's too.
And they're the carbon-specific model
to aid braking on carbon rims.
Nice.
Set up really smooth.
(upbeat music)
Finishing touches on the TT bike,
pretty sparse to be perfectly honest.
There's not that much you can do with it.
And if anything,
riders want to keep the bikes as clean as possible.
But we've got a Fizik RS saddle up there
on top of the Pinarello's own brand seat post.
No carbon rails on there,
just the standard alloy ones.
We've got an Elite bottle cage.
I'm not sure on the exact model of it.
It could be a VICO of some sort,
but it takes a different shape.
But I reckon it could well be a new Kit Crono
'cause it's certainly not the same diameter
as a standard bottle cage on there.
Because Elite do make a certain bottle design for TTs.
In fact there's two out there.
There's one with dimples,
and then there's another one
which is just a shrunken-down version of a normal bottle.
There's also quite a bit of electrical tape
going on on this bike
to try and smooth out any holes
because on the base bar here
you can actually move the TT extensions,
so the stack across about three or 4 cm.
So those holes they've been covered up.
Likewise have the bolt holes
where the fairings go on the brakes both front and rear.
There's also one here on the top cap of the headset too.
And there's a couple more bits and pieces too
that have been covered up here and there.
I love attention to detail.
I might actually speak to Ryan,
one of the mechanics,
and tell him there's a load of holes
underneath the elbow pads there too.
Now we've already mentioned about the World Champ stripes
as well in the intro,
but on the top tube there is some more information too,
including the date that he won his most recent world title,
the time it took him to do it,
and also the GPS coordinates on there to.
So if ever he wants to go and relive it,
he could easily type those into his GPS
and well, find the same place.
That though, really is about it
for all of the finishing details on this bike.
Let's talk weights and measurements then.
Well, Rohan he stands at one meter 82,
which is just a fraction under six feet tall.
So his saddle height
from the top of the saddle
to the center of the bottom bracket is 78 cm.
Then the tip of the saddle here
to the center of the elbow pads is 57 cm.
And the drop,
now this one I'm going to have to explain how I came to it.
From the top of the saddle
down to the center of the elbow pads,
that's just 10 cm.
Showing that nobody slams it anymore.
Well, a few still do.
Now the weight of the bike.
That comes in a eight kilos on the dot.
Sadly, the mechanic who I loaned them to
a couple of days ago,
my scales that is,
haven't been able to track him down.
But I did borrow someone else's.
And finally, the free hub sound check.
The moment you've all been waiting for!
Although, it is going to sound slightly different
to what it would when it's rumbling down the road.
But hey, let's have a listen.
(wheel spinning)
Nice!
Oh, it's windy!
There we are.
The bike of Rohan Dennis.
Let me know what you think of it
in the comment section down below.
I have been told that he's going to be expecting
a new pair of triathlon extension bars
going onto that bike pretty soon,
so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
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