- This is the BH Ultralight Bike,
belonging to French cycling Tour de France,
and just general cycling legend, Thomas Voeckler.
Compared to many other pro bikes
which might have weight-saving features,
or features to improve aerodynamics,
or other such things like that,
Voeckler's bike is, on first impressions, at least,
impressively-paired down.
Starting at the very top of the bike,
he is riding a Prologo Scratch Pro saddle,
it's got carbon-fiber rails,
and that is attached to an FSA K-Force
Carbon-Fiber Seat-Post.
The seat post has got quite a lot of lay-back,
and Voeckler's saddle is thrown
right towards the back of that,
so this position will have quite a big distance
between the nose on the saddle,
and the centre of the bottom bracket.
Moving forward from that,
Voeckler has an FSA Headset,
an FSA OS-99 Carbon-Fiber Stem,
and FSA Carbon-Fiber Handlebars.
The handlebars are in an ergonomic shape.
Matching the saddle,
he's using Prologo Bar Tape,
which you can tell from the stickers on the drops
and also the bar ends.
Attached to the bars is an out-front mount
for a Garmin Head Unit,
and braking and shifting is supplied
by Shimano's latest Dura Ace Di2 Levers.
He has one Satellite Shifter,
and that's right up towards the stem for his right hand,
so that's the shifter that he's gonna use
when he's climbing in the saddle, on the tops.
Attached to the Dura Ace Di2 Brake Levers,
are the FSA K-Force Brakes,
so that's a brake, if you will,
for what we'd usually see where teams who have
some Shimano parts, tend to go 100% in with Shimano parts.
Shifting is supplied by Dura Ace Di2 Rear Mech
and a Dura Ace Di2 Front Mech.
Staying with the FSA theme, from the brakes,
is the FSA K-Force Light BB386 Chainset,
so it's got carbon-fiber arms,
BB386 is FSAs chain-set standard,
and it's super adaptable,
which in a confusing world of bottom-bracket standards,
I think is a very important thing.
The chain-rings on this are the traditional 3953,
this bike is a very traditional setup.
Attached to those FSA Cranks,
one of the only French brands on this bike,
are the Look Keo Blade Pedals.
Something that's conspicuous by its absence on this bike,
is a power-meter,
there's no power-meter in sight.
Voeckler, if you haven't ever seen him race,
is a rider who definitely just goes for it, by gut,
he rides as hard as he can,
gets and brakes,
he doesn't, at least to a viewer,
appear to be a particularly by-numbers bike racer.
Like I mentioned, back at the start of this video,
one of the most striking things on this bike,
apart from the bright, I guess,
red-orange paint job on the BH Bike's Ultralight Frame,
is just how paired-down and how simple the build is.
Lastly exemplified by the fact
that Voeckler has only one bottle-cage,
he's got a Tacx Carbon-Fiber Bottle Cage,
on the down-tube, no other bottle cage,
so on a hot day, either he,
or possibly one of his teammates,
are gonna be going to and from the team car
rather a lot to stay hydrated.
Alongside the FSA brakes, chain-set, bar and stem,
the wheels also come from an FSA brand,
they are Vision, and they are the Vision Metron 42s.
So, we actually see a lot of riders,
whether they're on Shimano wheels,
or Campagnolo wheels,
choose a depth of rim that's between
35 and 42 millimetres deep,
it is, pretty much, especially for a smaller rider,
the perfect balance between aerodynamics and lightweight.
Wheels are a component
which are usually shared amongst the team,
so a rider might need a different depth,
a different tyre width,
a different cassette,
so wheels just tend to switch between bikes.
That doesn't look to be the case here, though,
because Voeckler has got name sticks on the wheels,
and he's also got his initials on the side walls
of each of the tubulars,
which suggests that there's something
about this wheel set that is particular for Voeckler,
and that he's perhaps,
very particular about how his tyres
and his wheels are set up,
and to be honest,
they're a component where that makes absolute sense.
Pro mechanics tend to shy away
from using excessive zip-ties,
which means nearly every zip-tie on a pro bike
is pretty much necessary.
This one right here,
not only is the finish perfect,
you can't see any zip-tie under there,
is used just to keep the Dura Ace Di2 wire,
flush into the frame, stop it flapping around,
means that if you crash, or something like that,
it's not gonna get caught
and pulled out of the mech, or broken.
So, onto the vital statistics,
the ones that we can see,
he is running 172.5mm cranks,
and he's got 53/39 chain-rings on that.
The cassette is actually a very small,
tight-range cassette,
he's running an 11 through to 25 cassette,
usually we'd expect to see riders on 11 to 28.
The tyres are Hutchinson,
and they come in at around 23mm wide,
both front and rear, according to my callipers.
Saddle height is about 74cm,
reach is around 56, aided by the 12cm stem.
The handlebars are 42cm centre to centre,
and the weight of the bike,
that comes in right on the dot at 6.85kg,
so the mechanics have got it spot on, there,
as you can see, cause it's such a paired-down,
very light build.
One last thing, the free hub sound-check.
Vision Metron 42s,
that's a good, loud, free hub.
(wheel spinning)
I've really enjoyed looking at Thomas Voeckler's
BH Ultralight Pro Bike,
I think, one of my favourite things about it,
apart from the really simple build,
is the colour,
I think it just looks stunning.
Let's throw your thoughts, though,
in the comments below,
and if you have enjoyed this video,
hit the thumbs-up button,
and don't forget to share it with your friends, too.
To subscribe to GCN,
all you need to do is click on our logo,
which is on-screen right now,
and then there's also a link to our shop, on-screen,
where you can get our limited-edition t-shirts,
just like this one.
To see more videos from the 2017 Tour de France,
they're all in our playlist,
and that is right there, just for you,
and to see another pro bike video,
from a random race, just click there.