Next Generation of Superbikes - When & What to expect?

Triathlon Forum
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So, most of the big brands driving innovation, has been launching super, top-of-the-line bikes, some in 2020 a 2021, not that many in 2022.

What can we expect (or hope for) in the launches of the next generation triathlon bikes from Canyon, Trek, Felt, Cervelo, Giant, Cube, Factor, Argon 18, Specialized, Quintana Roo, BMC, Cadex, Ventum, etc (I probably forgot some)

**1. What **features and upgrades would you expect?
Geometry? Seems like most athletes are looking for more reach / Pad X, lots of custom 3rd party solutions are being put in place here. Integrated (not 3rd party) super-extensions (similar to Tririg, Aerocoach, ect) - so Laidlow wont have to waste all his dad´s electrical tape :slight_smile: Overall frame shape like the Cadex Blummenfelt prototype - dutch-style aero, god I hope this won´t happen… Super-forks like the one Blummenfelt is sporting on the Cadex prototype. Anything that will close that chest-gap, that Gustav, Blu & Magnus catered for, by chugging god-knows-what into the front of their aero-suits, known now as the reverse-FarisNew brake-system so we all need to upgrade away from disc-brakes? Skipper-style fake rear-fairing hydration systems?What else? 2. When do do expect above brands to launch their next big upgrade - some are indeed in more need than others, to keep up with the competition.

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Of the brands you mention, only Giant hasn’t released an updated Trinity. The others are all 3-5 years away from a new bike based on normal life cycle
Though the BMC Speedmachine has been launched but isn’t really available yet
Expect life cycles to stretch as tri bikes get relegated further down the list for a lot of brands as we go through a global recession

Most brands haven’t nailed normal extensions, rushing to do poorly executing arm fairings wouldn’t be a great idea.

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Of the brands you mention, only Giant hasn’t released an updated Trinity.

It’s curious as to why. Maybe the pandemic slowed development or production start up but its interesting for a bike design that is 10 years old now (and hugely popular in the UK) has now allowed itself to be caught so far behind. Even if they rely on the Cadex arm to do the heavy lifting for them, they’re still going to need a new TT bike for the worldtour pro’s.

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True, however I heard that Argon 18 will launch the next gen E119 in 2024. The Canyon Speedmax is dated back to 2021 with a small upgrade in 2022. Next year is feasible maybe :slight_smile:

Some of the bigger brands might want to buy up 3rd party cockpit makers and integrate into their offering. That has been seen before.
Argon 18 is already working with and shipping the E119 with 51 Speedshop bars.

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It would be nice to find any decent bike with a stack of 450mm (pad Y of less than 500) so smaller people can be fit properly.

I mean just raise the Bottom Bracket for fxck’s sake.

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True, however I heard that Argon 18 will launch the next gen E119 in 2024. The Canyon Speedmax is dated back to 2021 with a small upgrade in 2022. Next year is feasible maybe :slight_smile:

Some of the bigger brands might want to buy up 3rd party cockpit makers and integrate into their offering. That has been seen before.
Argon 18 is already working with and shipping the E119 with 51 Speedshop bars.

They improved the 119 by 1 watt after 5 years (16-21)

I wonder what a new model will bring. I would be very surprised they do something in 2024, but hey who knows.

One thing I would like to see is manufacturers put some smarts into their bike, as Argon has envisioned back in 2016. Who knows, maybe that’s what they will do.

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Do you think spesh will come out with another attempt at a tri bike in the future ? Or just lean on its TT rig?

And I’m suprised we haven’t seen a trinity disc yet

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Was it not a bit more than 1 watt ? They mention 10w here. Well, the base frame in the 2021 model is the same as the 2016 model (which I am still on), so not surprised.

Argon 18 has always (think E114 back in the day) been at the forefront of design innovation, but not much new has come to the table lately, not even their aero-roadbike SUM was really up-to-date with competition. I think they got burned hard by the whole Grand Tour team adventure maybe.

They improved the 119 by 1 watt after 5 years (16-21)

I wonder what a new model will bring. I would be very surprised they do something in 2024, but hey who knows.

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Was it not a bit more than 1 watt ? Well, the base frame in the 2021 model is the same as the 2016 model (which I am still on), so not surprised.

Argon 18 has always (think E114 back in the day) been at the forefront of design innovation, but not much new has come to the table lately, not even their aero-roadbike SUM was really up-to-date with competition. I think they got burned hard by the whole Grand Tour team adventure maybe.

They improved the 119 by 1 watt after 5 years (16-21)

I wonder what a new model will bring. I would be very surprised they do something in 2024, but hey who knows.

.002 in CDA (as per their whitepaper) , between the 2021 Rim and their latest and greatest disc version of the 119.

0.002 at say 40km/h is about 1.6watts.

At 36km/h, ie 5h IM bike split, it’s down to 1.18watts

BTW, the founder left 2019ish, so I suspect they are a different company today. Different owner, different managers, different R&D…

I have mixed feelings on the good and bad of the World Tour experience.

But back on topic, I wonder where tri bikes will go.

The market is not huge.
The big brands have to maintain UCI legal bikes for their WT teams.
A non UCI bike is not really faster or should i say a UCI legal bike can be made as fast.

At the end of the day,

if they put all their effort into optimizing UCI legal bikes,
instrumenting them to tune performance,
gave us innovative aero ways to deal with triathlon specifics,

We would be faster and by a lot

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if they put all their effort into optimizing UCI legal bikes,
instrumenting them to tune performance,
gave us innovative aero ways to deal with triathlon specifics,

We would be faster and by a lot

I’m not seeing much in the way of “all” effort, mostly incremental improvement. The last big wave of innovation seemed to be integrated, easily-adjustable mono-post style front end with forearm-cupping. But that wave is a few years old now.

The aero-stick wave that was imminent for a few years never really broke from a swell into a proper surfable wave. Still the domain of aerogeeks, mostly.

Specialized tried with the wide fork thing and big tub of liquid in the back, but that doesn’t appear to have taken the world by storm.

I’m still confused by Cannondale. The EF pros have been riding something slick-but-not-earth-shattering for a few years, but I sure can’t figure out how one can actually buy that frame.

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Anything that will close that chest-gap, that Gustav, Blu & Magnus catered for, by chugging god-knows-what into the front of their aero-suits, known now as the reverse-Faris

Couldn’t you mount a 2nd bottle between the arms to achieve a similar outcome?

Like this but higher and further back. You could even go wild and get one of those longer bottles that hold 1.5Lhttps://i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/0b/55/1d0b552948b90ea50a75e21dd3fd5235.jpg

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Just chug in a big fat milk gallon in there maybe? :slight_smile:

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I would like to see something where I put in the watts I would like to hold and the bike does the rest, kind of like ERG mode on the trainer. That might take some engineering, but that would be a game changer. Im sure its sci-fi for now, but maybe in the future? It would be some sort of different cassette technology and would be integrated to the power meter. Advantages would be huge. It would make the bike leg of longer races more efficient and be able to better predict perfect nutrition strategy and eliminate spikes which are less than ideal in long TT races. Of course at times you would want to turn it off or adjust it. Something maybe you could do with your bike computer. Just dreaming.

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I would like to see something where I put in the watts I would like to hold and the bike does the rest

You’re in luck, that’s the current state of affairs!

I think you mean something more like automated shifting to keep you in your preferred sweet spot of force application/cadence regardless of wind, slope, etc?

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exactly. it controls the gear shifting for you, and its more of a continuous shift sort of thing like a CVT on a UTV. tall order I know.

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unless the course was pan flat with no wind that’s a recipe for slow splits
.

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unless the course was pan flat with no wind that’s a recipe for slow splits

OK, then a dual clutch linear gearbox on an F1 car. :slight_smile:

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The aero-stick wave that was imminent for a few years never really broke from a swell into a proper surfable wave. Still the domain of aerogeeks, mostly.

I wasn’t referring to aerosticks specifically.

There are several things they could onboard that would give more improvement than what they can accomplish by tweeking the frame.

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I wasn’t referring to aerosticks specifically.

There are several things they could onboard that would give more improvement than what they can accomplish by tweeking the frame.

Yes, I picked up on that. I was just referring to the stillborn aerostick revolution of the past. Fully agree there’s room for other tech things.