Charlotte Head 2 Feb 2023 British Continental team AT85 mix things up with new name, bike sponsor and power meter partner Sam Culverwell is one of several new riders on the roster of AT85 – formerly WiV-SunGod – for this year, alongside the likes of Chris Lawless, Max Stedman and Kiaan Watts, a young New Zealand rider who recently placed third in the NZ Crit National Championships. Though the team has gained several talents, they’ve lost hitters Rory Townsend, Matt Bostock and Jacob Scott to ProTour team Bolton Equities Black Spoke. Culverwell joins from Trinity Racing at a time of sizeable ..read more

Emma Cole 1 Feb 2023 Three years in the making, the new wheels are handmade in France and have a host of fancy tech to balance weight, stiffness and aerodynamics Mavic has launched its latest carbon road wheelset, the Cosmic Ultimate 45 Disc, weighing just 1,255g (claimed) thanks to the use of novel carbon spokes. Priced at £3,575, Mavic says the top-of-the-range wheels balance low inertia and high lateral stiffness, with the low weight, durability and aerodynamics of the handmade carbon rims and spokes. The new Cosmic Ultimate 45s are 45mm deep, disc brake-only clinchers and, thanks to ..read more

Sam Challis 26 Jan 2023 A clever trick has hidden the new 3T Strada’s cables When the original 3T Strada was released in 2017, the controversy around its 1× gearing system (a 2× version, the Strada Due, was later released) overshadowed other arguably more important aspects of its design.  Ultimately, the Strada was a design that tried to balance performance with practicality. It had an aero-styled frameset but one that was designed around wider tyres, so going fast and staying comfortable on real roads didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Likewise, in contrast to many aero bikes ..read more

Charlotte Head 26 Jan 2023 The hubs are now lighter with redesigned shell and axle and new grippier end caps The newest iteration of DT Swiss 350 hubs are now lighter thanks to a lightweight axle and a milled hub body, as well as featuring new end caps with better grip. The Ratchet system The Ratchet or ‘star ratchet’ system has been a feature of DT Swiss’ hubs since the brand’s inception almost 20 years ago. The system spreads drive loads across a larger surface area than standard pawls and the design allows each tooth to engage simultaneously, evenly distributing the force applied. R ..read more

Paul Norman 24 Jan 2023 New aero glasses debut at the Tour Down Under with EF Education-Tibco-SVB If you followed the Tour Down Under, you may have spotted some new sunglasses from POC being sported by the EF Education-Tibco-SVB women’s team and the EF Education-EasyPost men’s team. POC has now officially launched the new model, which it calls Propel. The large lens is designed to improve aerodynamics and there’s a wide range of colours for the swappable Clarity lens that sits in a frame made mainly from renewable sources. The Propel glasses will retail at €249 / $250, with UK pricing t ..read more

Paul Norman 19 Jan 2023 New model Orbea Gain is designed for on-road action and light gravel riding Orbea has launched an update to its Gain carbon electric road bike. The new model gets a change of geometry with shorter chainstays and clearance for narrower tyres than its predecessor. It also swaps from the Mahle ebikemotion X35 rear hub motor to the newer X20 for an 11.5kg claimed weight in the flagship spec. Orbea says that the new Gain is designed to allow any user to enjoy cycling as never before, riding faster and further, regardless of their age and sex. The bike is designed to have r ..read more

Robyn Davidson 13 Jan 2023 Bike.Rent lets riders browse and book third-party rental providers in real-time Bicycle rental software company Bike Rent Manager has launched a new platform called bike.rent that aims to connect cyclists to rental shops across the world. Working with over 650 bike stores, the site lets users can see how many bikes a shop possesses and when they are available instead of navigating multiple individual rental shop websites. The company hopes to become ‘the booking.com of the cycling world’ with the ability to access over 40,000 bikes across 27 countries. You may als ..read more

Charlotte Head 19 Dec 2022 Ineos Grenadiers rider put down a sub-23 minute effort whilst on team training camp in Spain Pro cyclist Tom Pidcock has become the latest rider to seize the coveted Sa Calobra Strava KOM. Posting a blistering time of 22:46sec on 18th December 2022, he broke the previous record by almost 2 minutes. The Ineos Grenadiers rider, who can apparently also run a killer 5k, averaged 386W and 24.9kmh throughout the effort, with a peak heart rate of 183bpm. The Sa Calobra KOM is a gruelling 9.4km climb, averaging at 7% gradient, and is well known among road cyclists ac ..read more

Matthew Loveridge 15 Dec 2022 ‘Ultimate analogue rear derailleur’ features bronze bushings and promises mechanical involvement The René Herse Nivex is a brand new rear derailleur from a niche maker that specializes in doing things a little differently, with the focus on mechanical purity. Compatible with cassettes from 6 to 12-speed, the Nivex is a twin-cable design that operates ‘desmodromically’, i.e. using a positive action for both up- and downshifts rather than relying on cable pull for one direction and spring tension for the other in the way that a conventional mechanical derailleur d ..read more

Paul Norman 15 Dec 2022 Wilier’s new endurance bike includes aero and compliance features and borrows from the race bike range too Wilier has launched its latest generation endurance bike, the Granturismo SLR. Its rear suspension system is the headline feature. Wilier says it allows 5mm of vertical travel while still maintaining a frame stiffness close to that of the brand’s race bikes. The new bike also has aero tube profiles and a one-piece bar/stem with integrated cabling. There’s room for 32mm tyres. The Granturismo SLR is available now in five guises, with prices ranging from €7,40 ..read more