(electronic swoosh)
- This bike is absolutely cutting edge.
Released just this year, it's got disc brakes,
electronic gears, it's super light, it's super aero
and yet it's also still comfortable,
thanks to the compliance from its carbon fiber frame.
I mean, it is absolutely a super bike.
But how good is it really?
I mean, I only ask the question,
because this has been designed to be raced
and therefore it has to comply
by a really strict set of rules that's been laid down
by cycling's international governing body.
Now, I haven't done a road race in six years,
I suspect many of you have never even been tempted.
And yet, I can almost guarantee that your bike
will have been designed to at least
allow you to take to the start line.
So what would happen if you ignored those rules?
Threw off the shackles, you know, got a little creative?
(clicks fingers) Hah hah! Boom!
(upbeat music)
This rather funky little number is a TriRig Omni.
As the name suggests, it is a triathlon bike,
or more specifically, a non-drafting triathlon bike.
And as such, it's been designed
to be used with aero handlebars up front.
But it does, as you can see, have the versatility
to allow it to fit drop handlebars if you wished.
Now I suspect that no-one has ever wished
to before, but here you go.
(upbeat music)
Now first things first,
other than the love it or leave it aesthetics,
this bike has been designed purely around aerodynamics,
'cause seemingly the one rule that Iron Men and Women
are governed by with their bikes,
is to balance straight line speed
against crosswind stability.
So in this case, what they've done firstly,
is to make the bike insanely narrow.
The theory being that you'll then
keep that frontal area as low as possible.
The second thing, is to remove as many edges as possible,
between the front and the back of the bike.
So in this case therefore, you can see
I have no down tube and I also have no seat stays either.
That does mean that I've lost
where I would normally put my water bottle,
so instead I'd have to tuck it behind my seat.
But what I get instead (knocks bike)
from that giant carbon fiber beam
is an integrated top tube bag.
Yes, Iron Men and Women love a storage solution,
even more than Ikea do.
And so right here, built into the carbon fiber,
is a little storage compartment.
So what kind of things can you put in there then?
Well, I have quickly learnt, anything long and thin.
So in this case, I've got a Ginsters sausage roll
and also several wriggly worms,
which have the added benefit of being able
to be eaten almost entirely hands-free.
(light music)
I tell you what though, I have got a really dry mouth.
So what do our good friends at the UCI
have to say about this then?
There we go, right.
Preamble, their words, not mine.
Bicycles shall comply with the spirit
and principle of cycling as a sport.
The spirit presupposes that cyclists will compete
in competitions on an equal footing.
The principle asserts the primacy of man over machine.
Principles definition, 1.3.007,
the bicycle is a vehicle with.
1.3.010, the bicycle shall be propelled solely
through a chain set, by the legs,
in theory a muscular chain, moving in a circle.
[Man] Excuse me, excuse me sir, hello, hello?
- Fairings, what?
Sorry, sorry.
Basically the tubes of a road bike
need to fit within this outline.
As you can see on the Trek Madone,
some of them are a squeeze,
but unsurprisingly, they all fit perfectly.
When we swapped to our TriRig Omni,
ah, well not so much.
And we haven't even mentioned the fairings
that makes the brakes more aero,
they contravene rule 1.3.024,
but I'll spare you the details of that one.
Now, I suspect there are two burning questions remaining.
Firstly, does ripping up the rule book
actually make a bike better?
Well, shall we see?
Now, it's perhaps not fair to compare them too closely,
given that I'm not remotely using this bike
for its intended purpose,
which is of course time-trials within triathlons.
And so it's perhaps for that reason
that the bike's not particularly light,
it comes in at about nine kilos.
Which is kind of ironic I suppose,
given that the UCI also have their minimum weight rule
and this doesn't remotely trouble it.
And of course because this is designed
primarily for steady-state effort,
it doesn't have to be particularly stiff.
And that's part of the reason why
they've managed to get it quite as narrow as they have,
given that most top-end, modern, carbon road bikes
are typically built with quite wide tubes,
with more material placed at the edges,
where it's better placed to brace against torsion or stress.
But then it doesn't really matter in time-trials,
indeed there's a growing band of advocates
for flexier frames for just this kind of purpose.
But it's when you take it out on the open road,
where you might wanna lay down a bit of power
to go over a steep climb, or throw in a little sprint,
that you might actually want something
a little bit on the stiffer side.
You've gotta say, on fast roads,
this thing in insanely quick
and it feels pretty damn special.
(dramatic music)
Ooh, baby oil's slippery stuff.
So in this case then,
it's clear that our hyper bike
is designed specifically to excel
in one area, possibly two.
And like most things that are designed
to excel in one area, possibly two,
you're gonna have to make compromises in others.
A bit like a Formula 1 car I guess,
which is amazing at driving around a track,
but you could imagine would probably come unstuck
if you were driving around a multi-story car park.
But what's become clear
from riding this bike and that Trek Madone,
is that although professional road racing
is the pinnacle of cycle sport, just like Formula 1,
you can't actually draw a parallel between the two.
Because an aero road bike is way, way,
more versatile than a Formula 1 car,
it's more versatile that a Bugatti Veyron in fact.
I mean, it's stiff, it's light,
it's fast and it's comfortable as well.
The only thing missing really is massive tire clearance
so you could take it off road.
But I think the fact is the market for aero gravel bikes
is relatively niche and the one we know of,
the 3T Exploro actually doesn't break any UCI rules.
So the question then, is that actually
could you build an all-rounder better
by throwing off the shackles of those UCI rules?
I mean, certainly you can make a super bike lighter,
in order to make it into a hyper bike,
you can go way lighter than 6.8 kilos,
which is the current limit, if you have the cash.
But the fact is, that super lightweight bike
will not be aerodynamic,
because in order to make aerodynamic tube shapes,
you have to add more material.
So does that mean then, that the UCI rules
are not stopping super bikes from becoming hyper bikes?
Well, we put that question to a couple of our mates.
Firstly, Director of Engineering at Cervelo, Graham Shrive
and also the Head of Education at The Bicycle Academy,
Tom Sturdy and both of them independently
said that actually the 100 year old,
double triangle frame design ends up being pretty darn good.
Now there are still some UCI rules
that restrict the aerodynamics.
So for example that 3:1 ratio,
which controls the width of the tube shape,
compared to the depth of the tube shape,
still exists on components
like your handlebars and your seat posts.
So I guess the answer to that question
is both yes and also no,
at least with the materials that we have at the moment.
Who knows, with graphene infused resin in our carbon fiber
or with the rise of metallic foam,
maybe we will be able to have the holy trinity
of super aero, super light and also super comfortable.
Until that point though, I guess we're just gonna have
to make do with having hyper bikes
that are dedicated to excelling in one specific area.
A little bit like hyper cars then,
the problem being that you're gonna need more than one.