2018 TRENDS

While aero bikes have grabbed most of the headlines this year, a lot of R&D continues to go into making bikes lighter too. Despite the UCI’S minimum weight limit of 6.8kg remaining for now, there’s nothing to stop the rest of us from riding super-light bikes. Trek claimed that its 2018 Emonda was the lightest ever production frame, with the rim brake version coming in at 640g in a size 56 and the disc at 665g. It’s safe to say that 700g has become the new kilo, with most of the big brands offering lightweight frames that claim to be close to that mark. Ever-more powerful design software, such as Red Cedar’s HEEDS suite, as used by Trek, is driving the development of lightweight frames and what’s striking about the new breed is that they’re, well, not very striking. Look, a brand that always pushed the envelope when it came to idiosyncratic design, launched a traditional-looking 785 Huez RS last year. In fact, the straight tubing was conceived via the French brand’s use of an ‘optimised inertia section’ program which prescribed nano layers — multiple layers a hundredth of a millimetre thick of different types of carbon for the best possible combination of light weight, stiffness and strength. The Bianchi Specialissima, with a frame weight of 780g, follows suit with its businesslike ramrod-straight tubes, while the Cannondale Supersix Evo is the original super-light bike. So we’re seeing increasingly sophisticated computer-driven carbon-fibre technology behind very clean silhouettes, and these featherweight machines have caught the UCI napping.