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TECH NEWS
WEALD FULL BUILD 3 4-3.jpgBowman unveils Palace Disc and new Weald endurance bike
Britain's Bowman Cycles has unveiled a disc brake version of its Palace aluminium road bike, along with a new model called the Weald – also aluminium – that replaces the Pilgrims Disc endurance bike.
Go to our review of the rim brake Bowman Palace:R
Palace 3
The Palace 3 is the first disc-brake version of this aluminium race bike, rim brake models having been launched in 2014 and 2017.
"The Palace 3 is Our Go-To Speed machine, perfect for racing crits, descending your favourite local back road, chasing KOMs or outsprinting your friends for the town sign," says Bowman.
The new frameset features the geometry of the rim brake model – praised by reviewer Stu – but the 6069-T6 aluminium alloy tubeset has been updated and the full-carbon fork has been slimmed down.
"Combined with the flat mount disc brakes, 12mm thru axles and updated cable routing, we’ve increased comfort without sacrificing the punch," says Bowman.
The Palace 3 frameset is available in six sizes at a price of £845.
Weald
The Weald (main pic, above) is made from 6069-T6 aluminium too, although it's a very different bike.
"The Weald is ready for long day rides through to nights away, right up to the most inspired of long-distance adventures," says Bowman.
It takes over from where the Pilgrims Disc left off as an endurance bike, so the geometry is more relaxed than that of the Palace 3 (above), a slightly longer head tube putting you into a more long distance-friendly riding position.
It comes with clearance for tyres up to 32mm wide and you get a full set of mudguard mounts. The CNCed head tube is an unusual size, housing a 1in upper bearing, flaring out to 1 1/2in at the bottom. Bowman says it has chosen this configuration to reduce weight while maintaining front end stiffness.
The fork is full-carbon and, like the frame, it takes a flat mount disc brake and a 12mm thru axle.
The Weald frameset shares a price with the Palace 3: £845.
For more info head over to bowman-cycles.com.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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7 comments
They are lovely - especially Palace 3. I am not able to make up my mind (orange-black-orange-black). Bowman as a brand is in that beautiful group (in my eyes at least): Kinesis, Enigma, Reilly, Fairlight, Mercian...I just hope all of the guys survive possibly hard times coming ahead (Brexit and all) and are able to compete with high volume giants.
Well done Neil! I hope you sell loads of them.
Thanks Ogi.
It's great to be included - in your mind - in such illustrious company like that.
As for surviving, I hope we all do too. I think we are all in for an 'interesting' few years.
Neil
Orange!
Now I have a couple of months to decide on the wheelset I want to build for this... and build it.
Am seriously considering white spokes... we'll see
The Weald looks lovely but I'm struggling to see how much different it is to the Pilgrims Disc.
Most of the changes from Pilgrims Disc to Weald come around the seat tube geometry. Bringing it closer to the Palace family.
As a road-focused endurance bike, we wanted to make the Weald and Palace a little closer in terms of swapping between the two road models. With similar seat angles, for a given riders fit - it would be easier to replicate. If a rider has a Palace, or knows someone with one, they can easily find out how to get the correct seat position on a Weald. This rationalises fitting and sizing across the range.
The weald now has more tyre clearance than the Pilgrims Disc had, whilst gaining the seat stay shaping from the Palace 3, improving comfort.
The Pilgrims Disc will likely come back in the future as a model better suited to where the multi-surface riding scene is going - as better fits its name (It was named after the multi-surface pilgrimage route - the Pilgrims Way)
Hope that helps.
Neil
That pick to show frame clearance. Not sure which frame it is, but either the frame is out of alignment, or the wheel isn't dished correctly.
May not be a problem for most, but would annoy me, and could be problematic if you want to push the tyre width up towards the limits of the frame.
Hi Joules, You have a keen eye sir - good spot.
the clearance pic was both taken off-centre and is a of a sample we were testing, rather than a full production frame. We hoped it would show a good example of the room around a 30.5mm wide tyre (28c Conti on a 19.2mm internal width rim).
Production frames will have 6mm of clearance around quoted - mm - tyre sizes - as per ISO specs. And alignment will be checked at multiple stages during manufacturing. Like you, we don't want to be riding a production bike that's just not straight.
Hope that helps.
Neil