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Road bike filth from De Rosa, Wilier, Argon 18, Cervélo, Deda, Time, Orbea, Ridley…

Pure, unadulterated bike porn from some of the sexiest brands

If you want cool bikes dripping with class, take a look at what we’ve got for you here. We’ve been wandering the halls of Eurobike and the place is bursting with road bike exotica. Here are some of the bikes that have caught our eye on day one.

We’re not pretending that this is in any way comprehensive. We’ll have plenty more models to look at as the week goes on, but feast your eyes on this lot for the time being.

Once you’ve had a good look, don’t forget delete your internet history.

 

De Rosa

De Rosa make some of the classiest looking road bikes out there, even managing to put many other prestigious Italian brands in the shade.

The De Rosa King XS is a new model that looks super-stylish to us. The frame, constructed from T1000, T800 and XN10 carbon fibre, uses a BB386Evo press-fit bottom bracket and the head tube is tapered, as is usually the case on new performance bikes these day. De Rosa claim a frame weight of around 950g.

De Rosa use direct mount brakes on the King XS, where each brake arm is attached straight onto the frame/fork rather than via a central mount. It’s available in several different colour options.

De Rosa have updated the Idol frame, and it’s available with regular rim brakes or with discs. This one uses regular rim callipers from Campagnolo.

While we were visiting De Rosa, we couldn’t resist a snap of the Protos. We love this finish. We’re used to seeing big down tubes on road bikes these days but this one is an absolute beast.

 

Wilier

Wilier have updated their Zero7 road bike for 2015. Unfortunately (as is often the case at shows), the background didn’t make for great pictures but, believe us, this is another looker.

The changes for 2015 are relatively minor: Wilier have integrated the fork into the head tube/down tube slightly, altered the entry point for the cables at the top of the down tube – things like that. They still guarantee that every frame will weigh in at sub-800g – hence 0.7-something kilograms, hence the name.

This version with vivid yellow accents comes in a Shimano Ultegra Di2 build and weighs a claimed 6.8kg complete. It’s priced at €6,998.

 

Dedacciai

This is the new Dedacciai Atleta which boasts many of the key features we’ve come to associate with aero road bikes over the past few years – skinny fork legs and frame tube profiles, a seat tube that’s cutaway around the leading edge of the rear wheel, seatstays that join the seat tube low, and so on. The bolt for the seatpost wedge sits flush with the top tube and that looks like a very short head tube.

The frame is Toray unidirectional carbon fibre with a PressFit 30 bottom bracket, Dedacciai offering BB30 and BSA adaptors as spare parts, and the monocoque carbon fork has a tapered steerer (1 1/8in to 1 1/2in). Dedacciai claim a frame weight of 980g for a size medium, and 370g for the fork.

Unusually, though, the battery for the Campagnolo EPS electronic shifting is sits outside of the down tube, just in front of the bottom bracket, on this model. Surely, that has to go inside the frame.

 

Time

We’ve already shown you Time’s new Skylon which is a neat-looking aero road bike. Check out our previous story for all the details.

Time call the Izon their all-round road bike. Like the Skylon, it’s available with Time’s new Activ vibration-dampening fork with a mass, a sandwich of two spring blades and a damper in the leg.

 


Argon 18

Argon 18 are introducing the Nitrogen aero road bike into their range for 2015. It uses TRP’s linear pull brakes tucked behind the legs of the monocoque carbon fork and the rear brake is similarly sheltered behind the seatstays

The headset is what Argon 18 call their Aero 3D design which tunes the height of the front end while maintaining good aerodynamics.

The 2-way Aero SP5000 seatpost allows you to adjust your ride position for both road and triathlon.

 

Focus

If you have €9,499 to play with, how about the Focus Izalco Max 0.0? With a SRAM Red groupset, an exclusive Schmolke TLO seatpost, THM Fibula brakes and DT Swiss RR32T wheels, Focus boast that it weighs in at just 4.95kg (10.9lb).

 

Carrera

The Carrera Erakle TS isn’t a new bike but we think it looks cool in this blue/orange finish.

The SL730 has a claimed frame weight of just 730g for a size medium with the fork 330g. The wide-stance seatstays are intended to provide rear end stiffness while the flattened profile is designed to encourage up and down movement.

 

Cervélo

The Cervélo RCA has been around for a while but it has now been updated. 

The RCA is hand-made at Cervélo’s Project California design facility – in the US, not surprisingly – from nearly 500 pieces of carbon prepreg. Cervélo say that every piece of material is individually weighed before layup and that each frame and fork is weighed before and after paint and again after final assembly to ensure maximum uniformity. Frames or forks with more than 15g variance are rejected and destroyed!

Cervélo have strengthened the top tube and down tube for improved impact resistance and they say that the boron-filament reinforced Project California fork is 20% stiffer laterally and 31% more compliant longitudinally, improving ride quality in both planes. They claim that the fork weight is reduced by 38g.

The updated version is available to order now and will be in stock from October.


Ridley

Ridley have introduced a new Noah SL to the range for 2015. They have added grooves to the leading edges of the tube profiles, the idea being to cause micro turbulence which ultimately leads to lower drag (we’ll give you more details on the tech in a separate story).

The split fork has been updated and it is integrated into the head tube/down tube.

The SL is considerably lighter than the Fast. Ridley are claiming 980g for a size medium frame.


Orbea

We’ve already told you about the new version of the Orbea Orca for 2015, and now we’ve had the chance to see it for ourselves for the first time.

It’s a major update, Orbea claiming a 900g weight (53cm) for the carbon frame, as well as increased ride comfort and stiffness. That increased stiffness has been achieved by using a PF86 bottom bracket.

They have also developed a new fork, which looks to borrow heavily from the fork used on the Avant. All cables, as before, are routed internally.

Another noticeable change is the switch from an aero to round 27.2mm seatpost, and dropping the integrated seat clamp in favour of a regular external seat clamp. That might seem a backwards step, but Orbea says it was a required move to reduce weight. They’ve also reduced the number of aluminium inserts in the frame.

 

Click here to read all of our stories from Eurobike 2014 - the world's biggest bike show.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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14 comments

Avatar
CJSTEVENS1955 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Orange is the next black.

Avatar
Paul J | 9 years ago
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UCI stopping the progression of the road bike... What piffle.

Vendors can sell whatever bikes they like. The UCI isn't going to send the heavies in to smash up the shop if a bicycle doesn't have their sticker. Hell, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of bicycles sold don't have UCI approvals.

The issue of course is that a certain segment of the bicycling market wants to "look pro". They almost always don't actually race themselves, but they want a bicycle that's like what racers use.

Now, for actual racing, there are certain considerations the UCI have to take into account:

* Cycling is historically a fairly accessible sport. You didn't need to spend massive amounts of money to get a competitive bicycle. While money isn't an issue to many "look pro" MAMILs in the developed world, those racing may be younger and less well-off, and they may be in not-as-rich parts of the world. Not approving equipment that is not widely available, or unaffordable, keeps racing more accessible.

* Neutral support for races (wheels, etc) is made more difficult if those racing have all radically different & incompatbile equipment. Minimising the differences, and/or waiting for standards to develop makes life easier, particularly for smaller races.

So, it makes quite a bit of sense for the UCI to be conservative about equipment, from a sporting point of view. Which is, you know, the view that matters when it comes to approving equipment, given the UCI are a sports governing body.

That some gadget-obsessed MAMILs, with too much money and not enough sense, are left with the dilemma of having to choose between "looking pro" and buying non-UCI approved equipment, is frankly not something the UCI should give the slightest fuck about.

As for holding up cycling, I wonder if any of the odd "look pros", on their expensive bikes, that I've passed on climbs on my gunged-up, 1970s, steel clunker road bike (with original drive train) on the odd occasion have berated the UCI similarly. It'd be ironic if they did, because clearly it's more about the human than the bicycle.

Avatar
theendinfrench | 9 years ago
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totally underwhelmed... IMHO the UCI is killing the progression of the road bike (or maybe i'm just getting old?).

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Him Up North | 9 years ago
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I wonder, when the people behind Argon 18 named their company, if they ever thought argon would become a banned substance on the WADA list.

Come to think of it, Argon is a strange name for a bicycle brand. It's an inert gas with a name that comes from the Greek for inactive.  37

Avatar
Jon Burrage | 9 years ago
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"The 2-way Aero SP5000 seatpost allows you to adjust your ride position for both road and triathlon"

That is good, we were told otherwise by Argon earlier this month when we saw it. Very good to hear this news.

Avatar
jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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Is it just me that was slightly confused by Carrera bikes that aren't Halfords specials?

Avatar
Chuck replied to jollygoodvelo | 9 years ago
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Gizmo_ wrote:

Is it just me that was slightly confused by Carrera bikes that aren't Halfords specials?

Different Carrera, which we don't get in the UK because Halfords have the name.

Avatar
Timsen | 9 years ago
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It looks like Carrera are fans of the Madison Genesis Team judging by the borrowed colour scheme

Avatar
jova54 replied to Timsen | 9 years ago
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Timsen wrote:

It looks like Carrera are fans of the Madison Genesis Team judging by the borrowed colour scheme

With no disrespect to Madison Genesis, the Blue/Orange colour scheme has a proud history in sports, particularly motorsports with the John Wyer Gulf Racing GT40s and Gulf Mirage.

There was a bike at the London Bike show earlier in the year, of which I cannot now find the photo, in full Blue/Orange colour scheme, beautiful.

Avatar
Bob's Bikes replied to Timsen | 9 years ago
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Timsen wrote:

It looks like Carrera are fans of the Madison Genesis Team judging by the borrowed colour scheme

I thought Holdsworth were the original when it came to orange and blue colour schemes

Avatar
Roberj4 | 9 years ago
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It's the silly season when manufacturers state " it's 10% lighter, 6% stiffer than last years frame"  37

The photos are pure filth and need reporting to the 'Internet Police'. (so when's the next batch due!)  8

Avatar
notfastenough replied to Roberj4 | 9 years ago
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Roberj4 wrote:

It's the silly season when manufacturers state " it's 10% lighter, 6% stiffer than last years frame"

Do you ever get the feeling that the marketing department people were poached from a washing powder company? Last year's whites were whiter than white, but this year's whites makes last year's white not alwight. Right?!

Avatar
notfastenough | 9 years ago
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I'll take an R5 that's 16g heavier than it's supposed to be! Please!

Liking the De Rosa King/Protos, and the Time. The Argon 18 would look ace in a different accent colour.

Avatar
Nick T | 9 years ago
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"Frames or forks with more than 15g variance are rejected and destroyed!"

Cervelo, please, if you're reading: I run a bicycle sanctuary and I'll always take an unwanted bike on, where they can roam freely as nature intended. I never put a healthy bike down.

I urge you to send any of these overweight RCAs to me. It's the right thing to do.

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