- This is the legendary Mavic neutral service bike.
They have been the saviour of many a pro rider.
Even Jens Voigt has ridden most of a stage
on a Mavic neutral service bike,
but in recent years,
they've received a few significant tweaks,
and in my opinion, upgrades.
So, the bikes are now Canyons.
This is of course a Canyon Ultimate.
They also have Canyon Aeroad's, so a more aero road bike.
Maybe you'd prefer that
if you got one of the neutral service bikes
on a flatter day,
but the most significant upgrade has come through
what I think is a bit of innovative thinking
in the last few years.
This right here is a custom KS Lev dropper seatpost.
Of course, the need from this arises from the fact that
any rider may need
to get onto a Mavic neutral service bike.
So, if they have a small, a medium, and a large frame
on the roof, you may still have to adjust the seatpost
to get it to your perfect height.
You can drop the seatpost.
You can adjust it on the fly.
It has 65 millimetres of drop,
which means that it covers, actually,
a really big range of saddle heights.
You could go from 70 centimetres to 76.5 centimetres
which probably covers riders from say 165, 170 centimetres
to on through to those who might be
over 180 centimetres tall.
So, it really does solve any problem with getting
a Mavic neutral service bike.
Previously, pedals have been toe-clip pedals.
They now have a range of pedals on the roof.
So, of course, these are Shimano Dura Ace pedals.
Other popular brands in the Pro Peloton include Look
and Speedplay.
So, those pedals are also present on the roof
of each and every Mavic neutral service car,
and there may be four Mavic neutral service cars
on each stage of the race.
Starting at the top of the bike,
I know I've already mentioned the dropper seatpost,
which we will talk about again later,
is a Fizik Aliante saddle.
All of the Mavic neutral service bikes
have Fizik saddles,
and some of them even have a kind of a custom touch
of yellow underneath which is very cool.
Moving forward from that, there's Canyon's own brand,
standard Canyon's own brand handlebars.
All of the bikes are equipped
with Shimano Ultegra mechanical.
Makes sense, a very practical choice.
So, we've got Shimano Ultegra mechanical levers
connected to Shimano Ultegra brakes,
connected to Shimano Ultegra mechanical front
and rear mechs.
The chain sets, they are also Shimano Ultegra,
and they come in, again,
a very practical choice of chainrings.
So, these are 36-52 chain rigs.
So, on 50 to 11, you maybe slightly under-geared
at certain points,
but you're likely to be going very, very fast
when you are under-geared,
and the 36-25 on this bike will allow most riders
to get up most hills, even the worst of them in a race
like the tour.
The chain on this bike is Shimano,
and the wheels are, of course,
Mavic, as are the tyres.
So, on the tyres on this bike are currently
Mavic Yksion Pro Powerlink.
Tubular on the rear and a Mavic Yksion Pro Griplink
up on the front.
The wheels, well, these ones are some of the latest
Mavic Ksyrium wheels,
but there's a huge range of wheels, of a range,
from a range of years
across the Mavic neutral service bikes,
and on all the Mavic neutral service cars.
Once a pro-cycling team deal finishes,
or at the end of each year,
they will get the wheels back from the teams
which will then be used
to restock the neutral service supplies
which I think is very cool.
It means there's not too much gone to waste,
and it means that a rider, theoretically,
could get a neutral service bike and race
on the same wheels that he may have raced on
the year before.
The final point on this is that bottle cages are supplied
by FSA.
With all of the major points on the build covered,
it's time for some vital stats.
I'm going to do this with a twist.
We're going to weigh the bike,
and then I'm going to try and get the saddle height
to my perfect position.
The bike weighs in at seven point five kilos.
So, when you consider the seatpost alone is 450 grammes,
it's really super light,
and the saddle height, well, it's now my perfect height,
74.5 millimetres, on the dot.
Thanks, Mavic.
I hope you've enjoyed looking at the legendary
Mavic neutral service bike as much as I have.
I've particularly enjoyed the new dropper post feature.
Let's have your thoughts down in the comments stuff.
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