Time Alpe d’huez 01
‘Socks and sticks’ make up a world-class climbing machine
‘Socks and sticks’ make up a world-class climbing machine
Icouldn’t help being drawn to the Time Alpe d’huez. The light road bike by the French bike maker debuted in January. The frame isn’t simply named after the iconic climb that’s featured in the Tour de France consistently since 1976, but the town of Huez has officially let Time use the name. The bike is made a mere 75 km away from the Alpe. It was these connections with geography and history that caught my attention, as well as the sleek look of the frame. And, I like to climb. Where I live, however, is cursed with very “unclimby” terrain. OK, that might be a bit melodramatic. I do like my home roads, but there’s nowhere with more than two hairpin turns in a row, let alone 21 like the Alpe. When I do get the chance to ride on mountain roads, I’m ecstatic. For my rides with the lightest frame Time has ever produced (840 g in size small), I had to be content with my local cols. Yet, even on climbs measured in metres instead of kilometres, the Alpe d’huez goes upward effortlessly. The bike’s build is one for the mountain goats. Time’s Canadian distributor, Spaso, put Shimano Ultegra R8000 components on the frame, including a compact 50/34-tooth crankset and cassette with a gloriously spinnable 32-tooth cog. It all came in at 7.42 kg. While I would like to give a little credit to the engine that is me, the bike did help me set a personal record on a local segment. Xavier Roussin-bouchard, the director of R&D at Time, attributes much of the bike’s snap to the company’s method of constructing composite tubes. Most carbonfibre bikes are made with prepreg, carbon-fibre fabric that’s pre-impregnated with resin. At the Time manufacturing facility in France, employees weave carbon-fibre “socks.” These are joined together, and then placed in a mould. With the structure under pressure, resin is injected into the system. The process is called resin transfer moulding (rtm). “After we inject the resin, we have very low porosity inside the structure,” Roussin-bouchard says of the voids that can occur when setting carbon fibre. rtm is said to result in fewer voids compared with a prepreg-based processes. “If you have low porosity,” he adds, “your composite structure is more able to transmit power and force throughout the frame. With some bikes, when you climb and you’re not in good shape, you have the feeling of being thick on the road. With the Alpe d’huez, you don’t get this sensation. It’s always easy to accelerate the frame.”
While stiffness is a significant feature of the frame, so is comfort. Along with carbon fibre, the composite tubes have Vectran woven in. The polymer does a good job of soaking up vibrations sent up by the road. The second-tier version of the frame, the Alpe d’huez 21 (“21” for the first turn of the climb, the “01” on the top model is for the final turn) doesn’t use Vectran, but a basalt. The folks at Time got the idea of using the volcanic rock from their parent company, Rossignol. The skiand-binding brand has used the material in high-performance skis for its damping properties.
The fork of the Alpe d’huez was equipped with Time’s Aktiv technology, which has been available on other Time frames since 2015. Aktiv features two “sticks” inside each of the fork blades. Each stick is affixed roughly at each dropout. At the top of each stick is a small mass that swings back and forth like crazy when the fork faces vibrations in the 40-Hz range. The
sticks take the shakes out of the fork itself. This method of managing vibrations, with mass-tuned dampers, is used in varying degrees in motor vehicles and skyscrapers. “If you look at vibration damping, it’s hard to have both performance and comfort,” Roussin-bouchard says. “Many times, when people want to damp vibration, they introduce some soft elements between the frame and the fork or the seatstays and the front triangle. But, if you have a soft element, like an elastomer, you will lose or absorb mechanical power inside the system. With the Aktiv system, we don’t absorb any of the mechanical energy from the rider.”
The fork did do very good job of mellowing certain road noise, while keeping the bike snappy. At speed and in swooping turns, the mass dampers worked away producing the desired effects. But, they were a little intrusive at slow speeds. When I would brake and roll to stop, the still-vibrating mass dampers would tug at the steering as they would continue to shake out. It took some getting used to. I’d have to maintain some extra strength on the bars when coasting to a stop. On time, as I rolled down a back alley to my office, a pedestrian stepped out from behind a parked truck. I had to swing wide. That action required much more arm strength because of those moving dampers. My conclusion: the Aktiv fork isn’t for commuters. (Obviously!) It excels on the open road.
So, I took the bike back out, looking for climbs.
“The bike’s build is one for the mountain goats.”