Mark Threlfall: Right. If you're a regular viewer, you'll know that we like to get stuck into the
events through the year, and then associate the expos where we get to see some nice, new, shiny
tech. Well, 2020 hasn't been your normal year, so we haven't really been able to go to those events,
but fear not. We have been keeping a close eye on some of the tech releases,
and I thought today I'd bring it all together in one video. Our favorite tech of 2020.
[music] Given we're triathletes, it probably shouldn't be
a surprise that I'm going to start with the swim. What have we been getting up to in the water this
year? As I mentioned already, 2020 hasn't been your usual year. Many of you have been limited in
terms of access to swimming pools, so we've seen the tremendous uptake in open-water swimming, and
with that, a lot of you needing wet suits, unless, of course, you live in nice tropical conditions.
One that has caught our eye this year and early on was the Orca Openwater SW2. It's all geared around
safety in the open water. It's bright in design, so you're nice and visible.
It's also got a Restube connector built-in and attached to the back of the suit.
A really interesting bit of technology is this new NFC contactless technology that's built-in,
which will allow you to gain instant access to an athlete's details and information should you find
them in difficulty. Another suit that's caught our eye more recently has to be the Deboer Ocean 1.0.
It combines technology from their previous suits along with a thermal fur fleeced lining to stop
the cold. In fact, when teamed with their specific underlayer hoodie, gloves, and socks, Deboer claim
that it can allow you to swim in temperature as low as 6°C or 43°F. That's pretty cold.
Another tech release or more of an update to a previous product is with the Form goggles. I
talked about these a lot on the channel before. They are goggles with augmented reality display
within them that allow you to see your speed, your distance in real-time whilst you're swimming.
Today, that has been limited to the pool using accelerometers when you're swimming up and down.
Now, with this recent update, it allows you to link it up with a smartwatch, the Apple
smartwatch, or a GPS sports watch and use that functionality to then send it to the goggles so
you can see your speed, your distance, again, in real-time whilst you're swimming in a lake,
in a sea so on and so forth. Pretty, pretty cool. Another really cool tech release this year was the
Incus Nova. This allows you to see metrics that you didn't even know existed such as
how long you spend on your left, on your right when you're swimming, your pitch, your roll angle,
so on and so forth. Pretty geeky stuff. They have developed this further, and are bringing it out to
the running world as well. Again, probably a whole bunch of metrics you didn't even
know existed. I think it'd be really interesting. That is called the Core Run.
Let's move on to talk about all things on two wheels. My word, it has been an exciting year.
It almost feels like a number of brands have been spending the last few years developing
bikes and this was the year, 2020. The first one that springs to mind was the Orbea Ordu.
Now, the Ordu model has been ridden to a Kona title in previous years by Craig Alexander,
as well as numerous Ironman bike course records from Andrew Starykowicz.
Now, this newest iteration of the Ordu claims to have changed a staggering 11.5% drag across the
entire bike, something that Orbea says took over 2,500 hours of calculations to achieve, something
that I hope was done by a computer and not manually. Aside from just the aerodynamic gains,
Orbea paid close attention to its comfort, its adjustability, and its handling. The front end
is very adjustable. It's got this front post system that you can quickly adjust the height
and the tilt and all sorts on it. They've also changed the geometry of the bike, particularly
the top tube length to increase its handling. Next up in our bike releases has to be the
Scott Plasma 6. This was a much-anticipated bike having seen leaked photos a couple years ago.
Scott say this was four years in the making, and they hope to release the fastest triathlon bike
the world had ever seen. In doing so, they actually broke a number of UCI rules. This
purely is a triathlon racing specific machine. Now, there's a number of differences between
this one and the old model. First of all, there's disc brakes on the Plasma 6. Also, there's quick
a big gap between the front wheel and the down tube. The previous model almost hugged
that front wheel. Then the big change has to come from the hydration system in the bento box. Now,
the hydration system on the previous model could be found between the aero bars above the
front wheel. That hydration system is now in the down tube of the frame with a straw coming out,
and then the storage for your food, the bento box, it's now found between the aero bars.
There's more because we have the new superbike from Canyon. Their new Canyon
speed bike, which I've got to say is not what I was expecting considering the previous model has
five consecutive Kona victories. I honestly just expected them to whack disc brakes on it,
and that was it. They have totally redesigned it. You're going to spot some themes here because
the hydration system of the previous model was on the front end above the wheel
and between the aero bars. That is now within the down tube of the frame.
The bento box can still be found on the top tube. It's integrated within the frame as well as some
storage down by the bottom brackets. They try to keep the mass as central as possible to
try and improve the stability and the feel and the handling of the bike. They've also
changed the shaping of the tube, so it really does look like a totally new bike.
That, they claim, has saved 8 to 9 watts in drag across the entire bike. Something that I
thought was really cool is that all electronic gear bikes, even on the lowest model of the CF
range come fitted with power meters as standard. I know that is a ton of bikes, but I have one
more for you, probably because this one really does break the mold. It is a new rim brake bike
for starters, but also from a small British brand called Reap. This bike is called The Vulcan. It's
quite a standout design probably because it is a beam frame design, so it's missing that seat tube.
These have become quite popular in recent years. One of the really cool features in this bike is
that it comes as standard with these arm-hugging aero extensions, which is
one of the first production bikes to come with this sort of feature. It's also very adjustable,
but they've also managed to design a custom travel case for when you're jumping on a plane
and giving you that peace of mind. Which I should add Canyon had done with the new Speedmax, too.
Now on to running. We couldn't get through 2020 without talking about carbon-plated shoes,
now could we? Now, they have been dominating and running for some time now. Firstly, we have
the Nike Vaporfly 4%, their more recently the Alphafly Next% as worn by Eluid Kipchoge to his
sub-two-hour marathon attempt. 2020 seems to be the year for the other brands to catch up.
We had the Hoka One One Carbon X where they have the New Balance FuelCell, zirconia dolphin pros,
and also the On Cloudboom all hitting the shelves. It was Adidas that produced perhaps the most
able competitor to the Nike carbon plate dominance. They took their time with it,
but it was worth the wait. We have the Adizero Adios Pro. Now, whereas the likes of Nike and
other brands used a single plate of carbon through the sole of the shoe, Adidas opted for a carbon
energy rod that ran under each metatarsal of the foot providing what they describe as a more stable
platform. Either way, it seems that the days of the lightweight minimal racing flat are gone. It's
now all about the high-stacked springy foam. A final bit of tech which, to be honest,
I could've popped into the swim and the bike sections as well, but I'm putting it here.
It is this, the Wahoo Elemnt Rival GPS sports watch, which has been quite anticipated amongst
Wahooligans and fans out there. I have been very fortunate to have been able to use it for the
past month or so. It's packed full of features and functions, but one that really stands out
to us triathletes is the handover function, which comes into its own in multi-sport events.
If you have a Wahoo Elemnt bike computer, then you'd have that on your bike. As you're doing your
swim, record your swim on your Rival GPS. As you come out of the swim, it will start tracking your
transition time to get to your bike and close to that Wahoo element computer, it will automatically
transfer your data over onto that computer without a touch of the button. Head off on the bike,
all the data there coming from the bike, the same in reverse, automatically transfer over
on to the watch. There's no messing around with buttons like we ordinarily do when we're
in a triathlon, which I think is pretty smart. Well, that is it for the tech of 2020. I have
obviously missed a lot out. There has been quite a bit over the years, so do let us know if there's
any that you loved in the comments section down below or any that we missed this year altogether.
We'd love to hear from you. Let's hope that 2021 is a little bit more normal for us all, and we
get to go to some expos and see these products in person. If you enjoyed today's video, please
do give it a like, give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to give us a follow over on social media,
and give us a subscribe just down below. [00:09:46] [END OF AUDIO]