Brakes on the extensions is, umm, interesting. I can't see if those are stack-able spacers on the aero bar monopost, or if you just cut it to size once fit

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

That rear of the monopost clamp looks super bulky and unaero. As does the back of the nutrition storage. Looks and reminds me of how blocky the rear of the S-Works cockpit is. Seems like it could have been made for more streamlined

It looks less ugly from the side than what I saw in the previous pictures, but that front hydration system still looks out of place or completely the wrong shape or something. I would've hoped it would be something somewhat integrated like on the Canyon Speedmax/Cube Aerium C68/Profile Design Aeria Ultimate.

Brakes on the extensions seems like an accident waiting to happen, at least 80% of people don't descend in aero bars.. And I like the mono riser from a visual perspective but it seems like a pain having to cut that.

there's some nice touches there and its good to see more innovation
however, brakes on the extensions = no from me
also the arm cups look very flat and its hard to be sure from those pics but i suspect not readily replaceable with aftermarket options as they look to be integrated with the connection to the mono-riser. similarly, it doesn't look like you can adjust the width of the extensions (probably constrained by the bento anyway).

The absence of hoses, shifters and chain makes me thing someone just stuffed the levers in there.
At least that's what I'm hoping.

From the look of the clamp fixing I'm guessing the bracket has grooves to match those on the tower for security. Having a tower that the bracket moves on would be their way of getting around the patent issues for mono risers.

They finally solved the riddle of getting rid of the chain and pedals, nice!

The front end setup is clearly designed to have the brakes in the normal position and an etap groupset. You can see where shifter cables can be routed out the back of the extension but there doesn't appear to be an obvious place to hide a junction box. The lack of complete front end integration probably helped them get around patents related to the riser on the front end but means the bike is designed for etap.

The front end system also makes it potentially easier to live with fully hidden hydraulic hoses as you can adjust the fit without messing with the hose. You may also has enough room to remove the bar for travel without disconnecting the hoses which would be a win. The down side is some serious creativity may be needed to wiggle the bars and frame in a bike bag without disconnecting the hoses. The riser poses a significant geometry challenge in terms of getting the bars the right plane to fit into a bike box.

I'm not seeing any obvious way of adding tilt, but I guess there could be something in the clamp contraption to allow that?

---

Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

I guess they could put the brake levers inside the hydration container for more aerodynamics too.

---

USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

Brakes on the extensions, a BTA bento box???? Ugly paint....??? Hope this is just a concept?

That's definitely a bento box.

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Is that monopost meant to be cut?

The rear lever under the nose of your saddle... Saves cable length too

You know...if the brakes were hydraulic RIM configuration, it would actually be possible to run levers at BOTH the extensions and the base bar ("Y" configuration on the levers to the calipers).

But, with hydraulic disc (with the necessary fluid reservoir) configuration, that's not possible...sigh...

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

The grooves on the base bar are interesting. They may actually be slots that go all the way through the bar. It'll be interesting to see what the claimed advantage is.

Agree with cyclenutnz that the mono post is grooved and meant to be cut. I don't see the ability to tilt, though nowadays you can just replace the arm pads with cups and get upturned extensions to take care of that. Mantis is the future only limited by how high you can bring your hands up to see down the road.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Basebar "grooves" look like cosmetic striping to me...

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

+1

I also find the large space between the down tube and front wheel interesting. Back during the wind tunnel shootout my faulty aero eyeball thought that a large gap in that location would be the downfall of the Premiere Tactical given the direction some other manufacturers took, but I was wrong. I wonder if Scott and others have done some work that show an advantage of having that space. Perhaps particularly when the wheel is turned?

---

-------------
Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I think there is a series of different length bolt that go from the top into the base base
and the grooves you see are loose and stackable / cut-able sections?
Just a guess

Ah, yes, now that I'm looking at them on my laptop and not my phone, I see them more clearly. Lol.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I'm thinking they just are mimicking the downtubes on 29er MTBs (that make room for the suspension travel on the 700C wheels)...it's got disc brakes on it now, after all. What's next, front suspension? ;-)

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Actually it is possible to operate hydraulic hose with a splitter where the reservoir sits in. We dud a built for a customer with 1 functional hand to operate 2 hydraulic disc brakes with 1 lever. But you could also run 2 cables to two separate brakes, but the hardware is quite big and not easy to integrate in a bar or frame.

Jeroen

---

Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

2 brakes from 1 lever is different than 2 levers (and reservoirs) to one brake. In the latter, you'd end up just pushing fluid from one reservoir to the other...

Conversely, hydraulic rim brakes don't require a reservoir and can be set up as a "closed" system. No problem there for 2 levers into one brake...or 2 brakes from one lever, for that matter :-)

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Hmm,yes, i think you ate right. Now that i think back to that splitter it has 1 entry port and a double output to the brakes.
I guess i was to quick with my reaction ;-) it would be a nice idea though ;-)

Jeroen

---

Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Are those brake levers seriously on the extensions or is that someone just playing around during setup??
I could not imagine the instability created when braking from the extensions......
Surely that is just someone putting them there prior to installing properly??!!

I do find it entertaining that Jtek and 'aero or die' have been forgotten.

Not my style, but brake levers on extensions are not new (as you, at least, well know)

My feeling on the frame design is that they've focused on what happens to the air that comes off the front wheel into the fork crown area.

The only way there would be tilt here is if the extension bracket swivels against the mono clamp. But I don't see room for the hardware to do that so I'm not hopeful.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I knew a few people who used mechanical splitters to run levers on the extensions...

---

"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Exactly. The intend was to mount at least the rear brake lever (on a splitter) on the extensions, so that one could easily scrub off speed and take minor turns without getting out of the aero position.

Doing that split is a lot easier and better performing with a hydraulic system (without lever reservoirs, that is) than a cable system. In fact, one can buy a "Y" splitter for Magura rim brake hose that's intended for trials bike purposes that will do the job: https://www.trialprod.com/...t-hose-splitter.html


Of course, the old Hooker "Aero or Die" aerobars took that concept of brake levers on the extensions to a whole 'nuther level, with no basebar (per se), a brake lever mounted on the right extension out near the tip, and with the brake lever on the left extension further back. The idea was to more easily perform a left turn at a turnaround, as was typically the fashion for a 40K out-and-back TT course ;-)

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

If you need to brake, why do you need to be in a position intended to go faster. If you want to bleed speed, should you not just sit up for a sec? This only makes sense if the fact you have the brakes on the extension is beneficial when you are trying to go faster. So that would be the aero penality of having the levers out there vs in a stagnation region perhaps.

I get why brakes are on extensions on an AoD setup, but with a base bar? I don't know. Seems like a silly idea.

Beautiful picture of the Hooker btw. Thanks!

Interesting design on the downtube of the new Plasma. It seems like what works is either minimizing the gap to the wheel, or make it large enough that interference drag is not an issue. Will be interesting to see tunnel numbers.

Nice bottom bracket gusset!

I don't think there is without going the wedge route.

I really don't think that Scott will put brakes in the aerobars, at least for triathlon market.
(maybe, for TT races)....
All pics that I saw for this new Scott Plasma, the breaks are in the basebar ("normal").

In this Instagram, there are more pics.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJ9uq7hsFI/

Two built-in hydration bottles. Interesting.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I dont know, back end looks nice, that big gap between the tube and the front wheel, i thoght i read somewhere that would make a bike less aero, guess not??
The many straws and bladder seems interesting but does not please the eye, i actually think the old design was really solid! Big question is if they will release it in XL as they did with the old one.

There's zero chance this is an option even if someone wanted to do it that way. There's no way to run the brake line from the extensions to the brake calipers. The front brake hose goes through the fork in one of the tech drawings I saw.

Interesting that the bottom bracket is another bottle, seems like overkill particularly since there is a frame bottle. I had the same question when I saw it initially, but just chalked it up as a "storage". I think if Scott thought about this bike being as versatile as possible, there are ways to make the BB & top tube bottles storage.

The base bar doesn't appear to have any foldable feature for ease of travel. It does appear it can be set-up to have drop or rise which is nice.

They do an XL, Just saw it in their B2B website, 7k for the frame set

Jeroen

---

Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Looking at the exploded diagram Andres posted on his site there are fixed tilt options by switching out the mono riser clamp
Angles are written on the side of the shim




This sort of thing provides some of the answer to the other thread about why bikes are so expensive - all those proprietary parts in the bars cost a lot to make.

Also appears that electronic cables will go into the rubber cover on the top of the mono, then down into the basebar, so you won't want too much mono left sticking up.
Basebar grip height comes from changing the bar, not flipping it.

Yeah that plus all the storage. I don’t get it. We aren’t going camping for a week on a bike like this.

Ah, now I get it... it's an aero bikepacking bike! Lol.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

The fit chart has been posted a long time ago. Search "plasma" and one of the previous threads has it.

Where are you seeing two? I see one (looped) straw coming out of the frame and the BTA is for nutrition

If you look at the Instagram pics from the link below you'll see two straws and also notice the frame storage near the bottom bracket is actually a hydration bottle.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJ9uq7hsFI/

Wouldn't surprise me if they offer different solutions for that area. If they don't, someone will eventually.

---

Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Oh cool. I dig it, actually. Aid station carb drink in one, water in the other, fix kit in the rear, and personal special sauce blend in the BTS bottle.

I wouldnt use their the BTA tthough. I think you could mount something cleaner/narrower if you wanted food there, though. Like a PD ATTK mounted at the same height, reversed, and backed up with the wide end against the monopost

That's so much for a frame :(

The Di2 price is more reasonable, but a waste when so many of the components aren't what I want

Hey, good spot on that!!! I was wondering why there seemed to be duplicates of that. Duh!

I was searching for something else and I saw it listed here

---

Instagram
Youtube Channel
Meta Endurance

Or here: https://www.radsportfrei.ch/...emium_Bike_XL58.html
for 17 kCHF (about 18.5 kUSD) in SRAM Red AXS and Zipp 808 !

---

https://besse.info/
https://www.strava.com/athletes/2012033

Well done, Scott! The sky is the limit!
I love seeing engineers really pushing the bar on how ugly triathlon bikes can truly be.
Why stop at the monstrosity that is the S-Works Shiv Disc?
Why limit oneself to the disaster that is a Cervelo PX?
Let's not forget the Ceepo Shadow-R!

If I'm gonna have to pay $12,000 for a ugly fuckin' eyesore, I'll just spend 3,000 more and get a Hope/Lotus Track bike for my local group/cafe rides.

I am not sure if this has been seen elsewhere but saw this one the other day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGBlwG_hQhE/

I believe the gap between the front wheel and tube follows the same logic surrounding the gap between the fork legs and the wheel. In fact the forks are also interacting with downtube so the spacing between the forks and down tube is equally relevant. You either want total air separation followed be re-attachment which requires as large a gap as is viable (think new LOTUS track bike) or want zero air separation which requires the gap be as small as possible (like the P5 or new Orbea Ordu).

Steve Hed did tunnel testing ages ago that showed in the tunnel you can begin to achieve one of the two ideal conditions above but the results were hugely sensitive to wheel and tire combos. Moving to the real world things appeared to get every murkier but I believe HED concluded thta on a Track bike bigger separation was better because the lack of a front brake and very narrow tires meant you could really blow out the dimensions. On a TT bike where you need a front brake and are running bigger tires the conclusion was go narrow. The caveat is most testing has assumed a UCI legal bike so you can't have a headtube junction like Scott has put on the Plasma.

LOL but the last price I saw on this thing was $18,000. You're just a little bit short. And the Shiv Disc and Ceepo are tied for the "Most Ugly Bike" award.