The aero bike that's a quarter of the price of a Factor Ostro Vam

We’re always telling you about the latest and greatest products from the biggest names in cycling, like Trek, Specialized, and Giant, but you’ll also hear us banging on about lower-priced models from Chinese brands, a case in point being the recently released Winspace T1550 Aero Gen 2 frameset. Made with Toray T1000 and T800 carbon fibre, it costs just £1,350. 

Before anyone shouts, we know that £1,350 is still a lot of money, but although not all T800/T1000 frames are mega-expensive, you’d typically expect to spend more on one from a mainstream Western brand.

 

 

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Jamie pointed out in a recent video that “Chinese bikes are coming” and that’s a sentiment we strongly believe in. Of course, it’s no secret that most bikes, including a huge chunk of those from Western brands, are already made in China, but the point is that we expect Chinese brands to make major headway in 2025. You get the distinction, right? We’re talking about the difference between Chinese manufacture for Western brands and Chinese manufacture for Chinese brands.

> Chinese bikes are coming and slamming your stem won't make you faster — 10 things I learnt whilst making 101 cycling videos in 2024 

L-Twoo and Wheeltop are already gaining market share on the component side of things, and China’s XDS has just begun supplying its X-Lab bikes to the Astana professional team (now called XDS Astana Team), so you'll see them raced in the 2025 UCI WorldTour. We expect brands like Winspace to grow more popular too.

 

 

 

 

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Based in Xiamen, China, Winspace was founded back in 2008 and sells worldwide, both direct to consumers and through authorised dealers. Although it’s reasonably well known in the Western World, we’re hardly talking about Specialized, Trek, or Giant levels of brand recognition in these parts.

That said, the T1550 has gained plenty of fans since it started life – as the T1500 – in 2017. The initial design was updated as the T1550 in 2022, with a new version unveiled last year. Naturally, Winspace claims a lower weight and greater stiffness for the new model. That hardly needs mentioning; when did a bike brand ever not claim that?

To get more specific, Winspace now puts a figure of 828g (+/-35g, unpainted) on a medium-sized frame. Okay, we’re not talking about a Specialized Aethos level of lightness here, but neither are we talking about a Specialized Aethos price (a Specialized S-Works Aethos frameset is £5,000 and is a claimed 585g in a 56cm size). 

The T1550 features what Winspace calls its T-Tail design, meaning that a flat section at the top of the one-piece seatstay intersects with the seat tube, the idea being to ensure rigidity in the rear triangle while separating airflow around the rear wheel to reduce drag.

The head tube is made for a 1.5in ACR (Aerodynamic Cable Routing) headset, allowing for fully internal cable routing (the T1550 is compatible with both electronic and mechanical shifting). The fork crown is integrated into the frame.

You get space to fit tyres up to 32mm wide on 700C wheels and a T47 threaded bottom bracket for simple at-home maintenance. Several major brands have moved back to threaded BBs – screwed rather than pressed into place – over the past few years.

As you’d expect, the T1550 is built to an aggressive geometry, although Winspace has dialled it back a little from the first generation with longer head tubes on most sizes. The medium frame, for example, has a stack of 535mm and a reach of 381mm giving a stack/reach of 1.40 (it was previously more like 1.35 on this size). If you’re concerned by such things, the T1550 is UCI-approved.

Performance? Alas, we can’t help you out on that one because we’ve not reviewed the Winspace T1550, but we’ll see if we can put that right in 2025.

A Winspace T1550 Gen 2 Aero frameset (frame, fork, proprietary aero seatpost, headset, Di2 cable stoppers, spare derailleur hanger, axles) is priced at £1,350.

Check out loads more Bikes at Bedtime here. 

www.winspace.cc