First Look: 2011 Blue Triad SL
Kona isn’t often a place for debuts in the bike industry, with most reserved for events like the Giro d’Italia or Tour de France.
But that doesn’t mean it ain’t front and center for some brands: Blue Competition Cycles will make Kona the race debut of their new Triad SL. LAVA caught up with Blue marketing manager Chance Regina to get the details behind the new bike, which Andreas Raelert of Germany is expected to board as he looks to improve upon his third-place finish in Kona last year, and which Canadian 70.3 specialist Magali Tisseyre will pilot in 2011.
The most obvious change comes in the hinged front end. It seems enough positive feedback in the tunnel led Blue engineers to test the now growing steering design, and find aerodynamic favor. “We designed it to be competitive against a wide range of wind angles, and that new front end really helps us achieve it,” Regina said. “With the addition of the bayonet front, it’ll make a significant improvement from 10 to 15 degrees, which is within an average real-world conditions yaw. That was the emphasis behind putting the new front end on it; make it faster on the road, not just in the wind tunnel.”
As is the growing trend toward clean integration, the standard aerobar/fork steer interface goes away. Instead, resting atop that bayonet a Blue integrated aerobar, with adjustable s-bend extensions. We’ve only seen the images you see here, but it looks like a clean, integrated one-piece design, with cables porting out the back of the bar and into the frame at the front of the top tube. Quite uniquely, the integrated “stem” cinches to the bayonet top (which seemingly has an internal round steerer) at the back like a standard stem. That integrated stem will come in variable lengths from 90 to 120mm.
“It’s designed to mimic and meld with the shape of the stem and nosecone,” Regina said. “There truly is no gap there.” The bike will require a 5mm spacer to create the transition from bayonet steerer to aerobar. As for adjustability of the aerobar, he said armrest pads will have a range of lateral movement and will have a spacer kit available with heights to be determined, and that with a short bolt kit, pads can be mounted directly to the basebar.
Regina also said that those who want to run a standard aerobar and stem combo will have the option. “We realized that that’s where a lot of adjustment is for our consumers, that we can’t fit every range,” Regina said. “All3Sports was influential in our final decision on that as well—they said you have to have that capability for the consumer.”
Continuing back through the frame, Blue also changed the airfoil shape on the new frame, developing a truer shape to horizontal airflow, a design that was true trickle-down from the company’s aero road bike offering. “When we designed the AC1 (road bike), we went to Superflow tube technology, and testing it against the existing Triad, the AC1 frame alone measured within one percent of the Triad, even with a much smaller tube profile,” Regina said. The tube-cross-section is effectively optimized for true wind angle, instead of designing a teardrop that is simply then turned on angle as a downtube or seatstay. “The downtube and seatstay alone show a five to six percent gain over our existing Triad,” Regina said.
The geometry has been a point of discussion on Slowtwitch forums, but Regina said the “tall and shallow” design of the existing Triad has a legion of fans that’s not inconsequential. “The geometry has been very popular,” Regina said. “People have been looking for alternative to long and low, and we’re finding lots of people who find the bike fits them. All 3 Sports has been lighting it up with our bike, so really, we didn’t want to change geometry that much.”
And the change they did make will placate some of those long and low proponents; while it doesn’t go longer, it does go a touch lower than the bike’s previous iteration. “The headtube is a bit shorter, maybe a half centimeter, and that’s due to the integrated front end design,” Regina said.
The new SL maintains a massive, concave downtube cutout. “The front end, with the gap at the downtube, the bike is significantly faster than the Triad,” Regina said. “We had a few running changes that means we can’t quantify exactly the benefits, but we’re guessing it to be about eight percent faster in the end—which is significant.” Regina added that tunnel data will be made available to the press following a wind tunnel session in the next week.
The frame is finished with an integrated rear brake (which moves from a single-mount brake to a two-post side-pull brake designed by TRP, which Regina says is a marked functional improvement over last year’s brake design, and placement for a standard front brake.
The frame will be fully routed with carbon tubing throughout the interior, meaning no cable fishing, and decreased chance of brakeline compression. A two-tone gloss paintjob reveals the nude carbon under the blue candy coating, making for a striking look in the sunlight, Regina said. And the final detail: The cut-to-fit mast is gone, in lieu of a standard aero carbon seatpost. Resale values just went up for the Triad SL.
Specification for the complete bike will be top shelf; bikes receive brakes from TRP (which includes a standard TRP Mag front brake and the integrated rear brake) and a Zipp Firecrest 808 front/Zipp Firecrest 1080 wheelset. As for components, the high water mark will be the Shimano Di2 $11,500. A Triad SL dressed in SRAM Red will cost $9,800.
(And for those wondering about the late-flaring seatstays and chainstays working with the wide profile of the Firecrest wheels, rest assured that Blue engineers have accommodated for them. “We’ve actually gone in wider on our stays through the entire Triad series,” Regina said.
The frameset only, with the integrated aerobar, TRP front and rear integrated brake will retail at $3,999. Stay tuned as we follow up on the Triad SL as wind tunnel numbers come in.
