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TECH NEWS
3t strada 2018 team bike2.jpgAqua Blue Sport's 3T Strada 2018 team bikes unveiled
Aqua Blue Sport will cause a stir next year when they turn up to their first race aboard their brand new 3T Strada race bikes, with hydraulic disc brakes and SRAM Force 1x11 drivetrain.
Today, at the Rouleur Classic show in London, the team bike has been unveiled for the first time. The bikes are painted in the teams blue and gold and will be built up with SRAM Force 1x11 groupsets, with hydraulic disc brakes, and 3T deep section wheels and matching finishing kit
The 3T Strada really put the cat among the pigeons when it was launched earlier this year (and Tony and Dave took it for a first ride in the mountains) but it was the announcement of the Italian company’s sponsorship of UCI Professional Continental team Aqua Blue Sport that really got people talking.
It’ll mean the first time a team has been sponsored by a bike brand that only offers a disc brake bike, and unlike concessions that have been made by other bike brands, we really can’t envisage 3T making a rim brake version of the Strada simply because it would mean a radical redesign. It would basically mean a completely new bike.
But we’ve seen pros on disc brakes already, even winning a few races. But it’s the lack of a front mech that is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the bike. This will be the first time we’ll see a pro team racing a 1x11 drivetrain, and how they get on, or not get on, will be of huge interest to a lot of people, both sceptics and fans of 1x drivetrains.
There was some speculation about whether the team would go Shimano or SRAM (they’ve been Shimano Dura-Ace this season) and they’ve gone with the latter, and it’s clear SRAM were keen to be involved in this project, as you’d expect from a brand that has really pushed 1x.
- Is the front mech dead? Is there a future for the front derailleur on modern road bikes?
“With 3T launching the world’s first dedicated 1x road frame and Aqua Blue Sport choosing it as their team bike for 2018, we knew we wanted to be involved in this project. It fits with our product innovations, and both 3T and Aqua Blue Sport will be perfect partners to test our 1x drivetrain options to the extreme,” explains Jason Phillips, SRAM’s Sponsorship Director.
“In only its first year at the top level, Aqua Blue Sport has already made a name for itself and SRAM is enthusiastic to be a part of their progress in 2018 and beyond.”
Rene Wiertz, CEO of 3T added: “SRAM has been our drivetrain of choice since we launched the STRADA earlier this year, and we are super excited to work with them in supplying bikes to Aqua Blue Sport. With all the developments in the works at 3T and SRAM, we’re sure we’ll be able to give the team a real advantage and fans something to look forward to for the coming years.”
- Just In: 3T Strada - the future just arrived in the road.cc bike shed
So there you go, without doubt, the most interesting team bike reveal ahead of the 2018 season.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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29 comments
I think people are over-estimating the professionalism of many of these teams. Believe me, the chances of someone analysing the parcours of the following days racing and adjecting gears is fairly remote.
Don't get me wrong, the obvious stuff, like big mountains etc. they'll adjust, but byond this, it'll be a case of sucking it up. Reason being is that most route maps provided by races are fairly inaccurate both in relaying credient, or indeed the roads to be used.
I anrticipate double chainrings by May.
Ona safety note, the 1x group will have an advantage. The cluthced rear mech and single narrow /wide chaing ring mean two things... with one ring, the chain will always be on the big ring, effectively covering the 'blades' of the ring. The clutched rear mech also means that chains are far less likely to come off in a crash, so also far more likely to protect riders.
As touched on previously, I think the more immediate and serious issue, may be the combination of powerful front disc brake and very tight clearances between front wheel and down tube.
Forget all this argueing about the somebody doing someything different, can we please get back to admiring some techie-bling - what's that funky spider on the crank and where have those discs came from that have the shimano fitting but intricate black spider?
Looks like SRAM Centerline X rotors, e.g.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram-centerline-x-disc-brake-rotor/rp...
Discs are already faster downhill and will only get better, as will the wheels freed from the design limitations imposed by rim brakes. You can approach corners faster and brake later, twice as late in fact! I wouldn’t have a 1x, but then I don’t have a pro team calculating my daily needs and swapping out the cassette accordingly. Maybe less of a hindrance than people think, may be a daft idea. We’ll see...
Yes. Soon it will be a common see riders' wheels moving ahead down the road faster than the framset and associated gubbins as they descend.
[/quote]Yes. Soon it will be a common see riders' wheels moving ahead down the road faster than the framset and associated gubbins as they descend.
[/quote]
What were you saying about childish and stupid? Discs aren’t sharp, they rotate far slower than most of the wheel and they are far more powerful and reliable than rim brakes. Would you fit all round drum brakes on your car because it’s more ‘traditional’ or would you like to be able to stop instead? They’re even more aero than rim brakes nower days. Each to their own, I’m not anti rim brakes, but your criticisms are nonsense and your openness to potential benefits non existent.
I think someone needs some more coffee...
The first 2 I can somehow live with but the last feature is unforgiveable.
Keer-ching! Spot on. I'm marketing a top tube that slopes the other way to reduce gravity on climbs. Perhaps they'd be interested in that too?
As an amateur riding flats I would use it, because less complicated drivetrain is easier to maintain. Useless in pro peleton.
I use them cos I find them useful. No rim wear (especially carbon rims).
Not in pro peleton. Wheel change would require caliper micro-adjustment to avoid misalignment and disc rub.
Could be worse...
"Different is good / innovation is good"
Absolutely. Cycling needs its interrupters.
How long til custom frames show up with front derailleur mounts for double chainrings....?
The big advantage of this bike seems to be the disc brakes, which should provide more control, especially if it is wet.
The 1x drivetrain is a moot point as far as weight savings go, as there are already bikes with 2x drivetrains that are well below the UCI minimum weight limit.
So what advantage is left? Aerodynamics? Not having a front mech is going to save how many watts, 0.5? One watt? Two? Big deal.
It will be interesting to see if and when Aqua Blue start winning everything just because they dropped a front mech.
Lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The thing about people being cut by rotors, thats not even a thing, so move on from that. The way i see this, is rather like the way smaller f1 teams will build a car to specialise at certain circuits in the hope of getting points; they know they arent in the overall hunt. The same goes for aqua blue; this bike may die spectacularly on certain stages but on others it should utterly fly.
Please, let's not still be banging on about discs being dangerous, surely we're over that now.
I think the Aqua Blue riders will do just fine on this bike. I've recently being riding on a road disc machine with 28mm tyres and I assure you there is no loss of speed, quite the reverse if anything. Climbing will be no big deal unless gradients are super stupid and that doesn't happen often in races. And if it does, we're not talking about these bikes being ridden by middle-aged weekend warriors like me but by super-skinny young pros. Somehow they will manage.
The more relevant questions for a pro team will be how wheel changes and neutral support are handled.
I actually pity the riders that have to use this setup. For a world tour rider I can see no advantages whatsoever. Infact, I can't see any advantages for the team either. 1x works, but setup is so course specific that anything that isn't either all up or all down is just going to be horrible. Shame that marketing is trumping common sense.
I look forward to Aqua Blue's PR department explaining why their riders are now using doubles later on in the season.
@robthehungrymonkey: I hope youre right. I didn't know about the new cassette but I'm still dubious. However, agree innovation is good.
I think the comments here show the lack of understanding of a 1X drivetrain. In theory, the gaps in the part of the cassette are the same (with 3T's new cassette). A 9t tooth will also make a big difference to range. I doubt they will have made the jump without testing this beforehand.
I've got a nice road bike with normal gearing and a gravel bike with an 11-40 cassette. On the climbs you really don't notice the bigger jumps (I'd actually say it's preferable). When you notice it is on the flat when you want your ideal cadence. This should be sorted by the new casettes.
I think it's really interesting and shold be encouraged. We've got enough bikes that are very similar, different is good.
Aside from looking like an absolute dog aesthetically it's going to really restrict the riders, transitioning between inclines and flat/descents is going to be so less effecient. There's a very good reason why you have the ratios fairly close together.
pointing out that losing a chainring is better than adding two more metal discs is ludicrous, how many times have you ever spiked your leg on a chainring, this was never ever a problem in racing because the chainrings are central, adding two solid lumps of metal that can easily cause damage even when not sharp because of their position increases that liklihood without adding any greater safety factor.
I guess having them so you can race on 35mm tyres is always the upside
Couple of times actually - the chainrings might be central but they protrude beyond the downtube/bb/chainstays and so in a crash I've had bike land in such a way that the chainring has put some nice teeth marks into my leg.
Never been cut by a rotating disc rotor - even brave/stupid enough to try it deliberatly and while not excatly comfortable, no skin was cut/torn in the process. (various videos on youtube can be seen showing this).
The only injury I've ever seen in the wild from a disc rotor was a burn, but that was straight after a really big mountain bike descent when a mate stopped and rested with his leg a little too close to the front disc.
I have suffered a nasty injury when accidentily letting my finger get caught between the disc rotor 'spokes' and a fork - that hurt, pretty unlikely out on rides/races that one though, especially with the more 'closed' rotors shimano are now producing.
Here's one though - would you prefer to put your finger near a spinning disc rotor or a bladed spoke on the same spinning wheel? I'll take the first option every time.
FRstly I mentionedit because someone said remiving a chainring made things safer than adding discs, that's just bollocks.
Second, the position of the rotors mean are more likely to come into contact with a part of the body, for you to then compare that to sticking your fingers in the spokes is both childish and stupid.
That seems to be misrepresenting what was said quite significantly; his first point was
..which seems reasonable - the more so given that the 'disc injury' that lead to the last reintroduction of the ban by the UCI was almost certainly caused by a chainring.
Pretty sure VeloNews ran some tests on sharpness between various objects and Owain Doull. Doull ranked just below a spoon, which at least put a dent in some plasticine.
The really good news was that he remained unscathed by a hot disc, but then he took to Twitter, where he unfortunately got badly burned.
This is makes no sense to me. Notwithstanding the removal of close gear ratios that most prefer, this has a Knock on affect for neutral service bikes with the more standard cassettes.
I can only guess they have taken a collective decision to just abandon any ideas of winning mountain stages and just concentrate on breakaways and sprint stages?
This is going to be interesting to watch!
My guess is that riders are going to hate these bikes...
40 with a 10-40 on the back, hey it's progress /facepalm
(6'8" 85kg) Conor Dunne was on the cycling podcast recently talking about his gearing for the Angrilou stage of the Vuelta and having a compact with a 34t biggest sprocket on the back, guess he isn't going to be thrilled with this news!
I think it's interesting that the disc brakes are kind of being ignored here.
The addition of two smooth edge metal discs is being completely ignored due to the removal of one very pointy one.
And now I'll sit back and wait for the backlash.
They have to have chamfered edges I believe ? Can't see what the fuss is about now they've had discs in the peleton all year.
I'm not sure aqua blue will be around for the bunch sprints anyway - those jumps in gearing can't help.