kbarch

The source of the complication is the presence of two derailleurs. No doubt a smart electronic shifter to control both would "figure it out for you," but HOW does it figure it out? And if you don't need (and can't effectively use) so many gears to begin with, why go to so much trouble when you can eliminate the complication simply by eliminating one of the derailleurs?

HCB

Here you go.

macca33

I've been reliably informed that the current Allez is not, perhaps this one will be....

Inpd

Thanks for the article an interesting read on technology.

But with all of these thin walled round shaped structure I wonder how it will handle being dropped if you crash. Consider even a low speed crash if one forgets to unclip and falls over and the pedal or BB strikes the ground. Will it shatter given the thin walls?

69chevy

The funny thing about the "stiff/compliant/light" formula is that any modern road bike can handle nearly any amount of force that a person can apply to the pedals/seat/bars, but for the bike to be light, the tubing thickness is scary thin on all modern bikes.

When you apply force to a road bike on any other axis than the ones designed to handle it, things can get pretty hairy regardless of the material used.

That being said, for the bb area to be stiff enough to handle the force of pedaling, it will handle a drop no problem.

The pedal hits, the wheels/tires come off of the ground and the twisting force in the bb area does no harm (you put more torsion on the crank shaft axis than the weight of the bike can). The cylinder inside this bikes bb area is there to tie the two sides together. It will counter the compressive forces of the pedal/crank hitting the ground, no problem

Now if you somehow pinned the wheels on the ground, had a pedal on the ground, and then stepped on the top tube, you would be able to bend/break the frame with very little effort. Lucky for us, these types of forces are fairly uncommon.

To give you a visual, stack some weights on an empty soda can and see how much weight the super thin alloy can hold up before it crushes.

andr0id

I understand what you're saying but I don't think it would be popular with experienced cyclists. We want to independently control the front and rear, not move mathematically through the exact gear progression to the very next gear ratio. I don't want a front ring shift if I'm out of the saddle and what you proposed might try to give me one.

It might be popular with Triathletes though.

Lazyass

High end alu tubing has always been thin walled. Someone did a fatigue test on the different frame materials in the late 90's and aluminum was more durable than steel and ti. By a large margin. I'd like to see someone do a similar test on current frames.

EFBe Biketest: TOUR-Frametest

69chevy

If you've never seen it, here is a good shot of wall thickness on a CF frame.

Blue Belly

im a DT shifter kinda guy. It wouldn't float my boat either. I think there certainly is a place for it in the market though. More so than only having one ring up front. It would be a seamless shifting range, controlled by a brain that could be easily programmed. Just makes sense. Pro level riders may or may not like it. Something tells me that time might change that to a certain degree. Maybe a poor example but, in our cars, automatic transmissions have allmost overtaken the market. I personally have two cars, both with standard trans. One is a vintage car & the other a modern truck. I had to ask for the standard, in the truck. & they still wanted to talk me out of it. There will always be those of us who prefer things to be under our control. Even if we are the minority.

LGHT

I was basing the interest on cost alone. Most the guys I know who ride fixies are young broke and would probably never drop that amount of $$$$ on a bike.

bikebreak

My commuter/rain bike is 1x11 and gearing is fine for group rides, flats and hills. I would need a bigger chainring to race though.

Lazyass

Anyone know what kind of gearing this bike has? The cassette would be too wide for my tastes but I'm curious.

69chevy

Hard to say for sure, but the SRAM force 1 components allow for a 38T chainring with a 10-42T rear cassette.

The one pictured looks like the 11-36T cassette with a 48T or 50T crank.

Lazyass

That's about what I thought. I like the concept, but that gearing is WAY too wide for me. I'd be interested in this frame if they made one to fit a front derailleur.

69chevy

It will be available in December.

Seems like cyclocross is the reason for releasing the 1x drive bikes first.

Lazyass

Oh, cool. I wish carbon fiber has never come into the cycling industry. Imagine what kind of sweet alu frames would be out today if that's the material all the companies had been concentrating on for the last 15 years.

69chevy

I'm just glad companies are still advancing alloy designs.

I had one CF frame, and the bb shell cracked. When I got the warranty frame, I got rid of it.

My wife rides a CF frame, but she's really light and dainty, so I'm not paranoid that she's gonna break it.

Lazyass

The 2016's are on Specialized's website now.

Specialized Bicycle Components

Specialized Bicycle Components

gsa103

XTR Di2 has the capability already. Single shifter handles sequential shifting. Goes up the cassette, then switches chainrings, and offers completely tunable shift points. I suspect it will make it into the next generation of Dura-Ace/Ultegra Di2.

Blue Belly

Cool! That will be interesting.

Campag4life

No. You miss the point. It is the shaping capability of AL that makes it better than steel.
I just bought and customized a 2014 AL Secteur and it rides better than any steel roadbike I have owned and it is stiffer where you need it.
The new AL bikes...like available from Specialized are pretty amazing.

baribari

I was going to point this out to.... obviously a clearcoat-finished bike is going to have visible welds. And being hard to see is not necessarily the ultimate criteria for weld quality; strength is.

max5480

I think it's a sick concept - never would want to use it for road cycling, but for racing it would be great i think!