Tour Tech 2007

By Outside Online
Jul 06, 2007

By John Bradley

For the truly bike obsessed, the Tour de France offers more than simple race drama. It's also the place where bike and component manufacturers trot out new products, sometimes to mark official launches, other times to test prototype gear under race conditions. Here's a brief sample of some of the new stuff that will be hitting the peloton in July. Click for larger images.

SPECIALIZED
S-Works Tarmac SL2
Although two teams will be riding Specialized frames in the Tour—Gerolsteiner, of Germany, and Quick-Step, of Belgium—it's clear that Quick-Step, the team of 2005 World Champion Tom Boonen and 2006 World Champion Paulo Bettini, has been driving innovation for the California company. Boonen and Bettini are two of the most popular and successful riders in the sport, and Specialized relied on extensive feedback from the two demanding sprinters to develop the 2008 Tarmac SL2, which the company claims is the stiffest frame system on the market.

Using a new carbon-construction method and various design tweaks, the engineers at Specialized managed not only to make the bike stiffer laterally (for pedaling efficiency) and torsionally (for better handling), but also about 100 grams lighter and more vertically compliant (for comfort) than the previous Tarmac SL. The most notable change is to the steering. On recent test rides in the mountains of central Spain, the Tarmac dove into high-speed turns with more authority than any bike I've ridden. Specialized claims this is the result of two design tweaks. First, the head tube now tapers from the industry-standard 1 1/8 inches at the top to a beefy 1 1/2 inches at the bottom. A few other manufacturers have begun doing this, also, as the increased width enhances strength and stiffness. But Specialized went a bit further, moving the headset bearing higher into the head tube, so that steering forces are transferred directly into the oversized down tube. It may not sound like much, but the difference in feel is remarkable.

S-Works Transition
Specialized's new time trial rig will also be getting an official rollout at the Tour. The full-carbon Transition features a narrow one-inch head tube to reduce frontal area, and everything from there back is designed to further cheat the wind, with internal cable routing, a specially designed aerodynamic brake system, gussets to channel air around the down tube, and a top tube that picks up wind turbulence from the handlebars and funnels it toward the back of the bike. Look for the Transition under pro triathletes, too.

S-Works 2D helmet
The lightest approved helmet in the world, the 2D is also the first helmet that Specialized felt worthy of its top-end S-Works designation. Dual-density foam, a Kevlar reinforcing matrix, hollow fasteners, and featherweight webbing get the 2D down to an unbelievable 184 grams, about a third less than other top-end lids. Five of the 20 ProTour teams will be wearing the 2D at the Tour.

S-Works Road Shoe
At just 250 grams, this is the lightest shoe you'll find with a mechanical Boa closure. And unique cable guides let you change the cable routing to adjust tension at the top and middle of the foot, something notably missing in previous Boa-equipped shoes.

TREK
Madone
Perhaps the most radical departure in frame-design convention at the Tour will be the Discovery Channel team's flashy, all-new Trek Madone. Built with extensive feedback from Discovery riders, the Madone, like the Specialized Tarmac, incorporates a 1 1/2-inch diameter on the lower steerer for improved handling. Like most modern race frames, the bike also has a sloping top tube—a design that reduces weight and, in theory, improves stiffness but that Lance Armstrong refused to ride during his race career. But the big change with the Madone comes in the bottom bracket shell, around which Trek engineers built the rest of the frame.

The Madone's BB shell is a full 90 millimeters wide—the industry standard is 68. This offers more surface area on which to attach beefier seat and down tubes, enhancing down-tube rigidity by a whopping 48 percent (claimed). More interesting, though, is Trek's “Precision Fit Sockets” design, which allows for BB bearings to be pressed directly into the frame, rather than into traditional threaded aluminum sleeves. Fewer parts, fewer tools, reduced weight, and compatibility with all major crank manufacturers (Shimano, Campognolo, FSA, SRAM): the design is a huge leap forward.

Trek has also settled on an interesting compromise between the standard seat post and the integrated-seat-post design, which is stiffer and lighter but requires that the seat post be cut to fit—a scary proposition on a $3,000 race frame. The new Madone incorporates a shorter integrated seat mast that is topped by a carbon cap to offer the height adjustability of a traditional design.

Also gone is Trek's old naming system for the Madone, which was getting unwieldy (OCLV 55, OCLV 110, OCLV 120). Instead, the Madone will now come in OCLV Red, Black, or White, with Red being the top-end carbon and White being the value designation. But before you think that only Red will do, note that the Discovery Channel team will be aboard mid-range Black frames for the Tour, as Trek won't have Red frames available until the fall. "The 5.2 [predecessor to the Black carbon layup] is our most popular model of OCLV Madone, so they were the first fuselages out of the molds," explained Trek product manager Scott Daubert, who also acts as the company liaison to the Discovery Channel riders. "We chose to satisfy the needs of the consumer before making the higher-end frames for the team, so the team got what we were making at the time."

GIRO
Ionos
Careful eyes might have noticed during last year's Tour that three Giro-sponsored teams (Discovery Channel, Rabobank, and Phonak) weren't wearing the company's top-end Atmos lid made famous by Lance Armstrong. Instead, those riders raced in a prototype design of Giro's all-new Ionos helmet. Based on feedback from the riders, Giro spent another year tweaking the design for better ventilation. The company claims that the 21 specially placed vents channel air over the head so efficiently that a rider wearing the carbon-reinforced Ionos will actually stay cooler than a rider wearing no helmet at all. Look for the 295-gram lid on the heads of riders for Discovery Channel, Rabobank, and Caisse d'Epargne.

SRAM
Red
The biggest gear story in cycling last season was Chicago-based SRAMs entry into the road-drivetrain market, which, until then, was dominated exclusively by Shimano and Campognolo. With its Force road group already on par with or besting the weight, price, and performance of top-end offerings from Shimano and Campy, SRAM is looking to become an industry leader with its new Red group. Cycling blogs have been buzzing about the rumored group for a couple of months, but photos have begun to leak out. SRAM PR manager Michael Zellman, speaking Friday from London for the start of the Tour, confirmed much of the hype. "It will be the first sub-2,000-gram road group. We don't have the exact weights yet, but it will probably come in in the mid-1900s once it's in production."

Like Force and the more affordable Rival group, the Red group will rely on SRAM's Double Tap technology, which uses a single lever for both up and downshifts. But SRAM has improved on the already superb ergonomics of the Force group by making the shift lever about 1 cm longer and allowing for independent reach adjustment of the brake and shift levers. In back, the Red cassette also marks a departure from convention. The eight largest cogs are actually a one-piece unit cut from a single block of steel, which supposedly improves stiffness and also allows, ultimately, for the use of less material, to reduce weight. The whole package is wrapped in a unique graphics scheme unlike anything else in cycling, where components are generally bare metal, black, or, at the flashiest, carbon. "We're outsiders in the road market," Zellman explained. "And that's enabled us to redefine what can be done."

Most of the SRAM-sponsored Saunier Duval-Prodir ProTour team will be riding Force-equipped Scott bikes during the Tour. But look for pre-production Red components on the bikes of David Millar and Iban Mayo. Production versions will be available to the public on October 1.

SHIMANO
Carbon cranks?
There probably won't be any official announcements from the Japanese Giant at the Tour, but keep an eye out for prototype full-carbon Shimano cranks aboard Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher's bike, as reported at Cyclingnews.com last week. In fact, Gerolsteiner seems to be a good place to watch for Shimano innovation, as the company's prototype electronic drivetrain has also been spotted on Gerolsteiner bikes.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Green
Not exactly a gear story, but the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team announced on July 5 that, as of the Tour, it will be a carbon-neutral operation, retroactive to January 1, through a combination of energy savings and carbon offsets.

“Global warming has become a major concern worldwide, and our sport and team is uniquely positioned to raise awareness about the importance of being more green,” Discovery Channel sports director Johan Bruyneel said in a team press release. The team will also plant 30 trees each time a Disco rider wins a stage or spends a day in a classification jersey.

To signify the new program, the team will wear uniforms that incorporate green highlights.

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