ax-lightness frame with 580gr?

[djconnel]

The green's easy enough to fix .

Aesthetically comparing the AX and Storck: no contest, IMHO. AX all the way.

And as to the price comparison with R5CA: the R5CA isn't really a serious commercial product, more of a boutique collector's item. So not a great comparison. The commercial R5 will be available soon enough, carrying with it the cachet of being raced in the Tour.

[Roobay]

i really like the green
best thing ive seen in a while
nice jobby
jr

[gumgardner]

lol...after second thought I'll take the green. Who's picking these colors! Maybe Axel is color blind

[PalleRaa]

About the colors. I was thinking the exact opposite. Why don't some of the more mainstream manufactures make color schemes like this. I wonder when people will grow tired of slight variations of red, white, black and blue. Boring.

[J-Nice]

I've never been a fan of chainstay bridges, which I see exclusively on titanium frames for the purposes of "added stiffness". Why not just make the chainstays stiffer...

So why in the world is this included on an all-carbon frame? Stiff as hell isn't stiff enough anymore?

[musket]

It allows stiffness, without the deep bb junction (which necessitates drilling the carbon, which most carbon experts will tell you is BAD).

Also, bridges do show more time taken in building / lay up, and an attempt to further tune the bike's characteristics.

Or, as you say, it's a noodle needing more support...

[djconnel]

FEA analysis here.

It does help stiffness slightly, but fails to significantly affect stress.

[pk0r]

Such a chart is hardly any analytic though without any units or taking the construction and design into account as the results may well be different for different constructions & layups.
That said this also is a design element as we wanted to keep / build on classic looks of a bike without going with an ultra beefy bottom bracket area. That way the desired rear end stiffness can be achieved by mostly keeping traditional looks. Then it also is about lateral vs. vertical stiffness (resp. compliance) of the stays. By featuring an embossed AX logo the bridge at last also catches up on a design element found on other of our components as well.

[djconnel]

I agree it looks really good, something which shouldn't be neglected. However, I'd suspect there is a small mass penalty for the more topologically complex bridge structure for a given stiffness target.

The FEA assumed homogeneous isotropic material, I assume, since it is from the era of metal frames. So you're right it wouldn't capture any subtleties of layup.

Anyway, I really like this frame, and look forward to all updates.

[Gold Knight]

Nils--it is a beautiful frame indeed! Are you close to releasing geometry specs?

Jason did preorder one for me already right??

[giant man]

The colour scheme is fantastic imo. That shade of green goes so well with the black and white. Lovely .....

[mythical]

Nice detail on the chain stay bridge, indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing an AX Alpha bike in the flesh, and perhaps lifting it with my pinkie!

[djconnel]

I'm surprised this review from BikeRadar on the Eurobike booth hasn't been referenced here yet.

Custom geometry, it appears.

1650 grams frame, fork, crankset (no rings), seatpost, and brakes, and I assume fork & headset (or else how to mount the brakes?)

In comparison, my Fuji SL/1 is 2092 for these things: 442 grams heavier. The difference widens by an extra 62 grams if you include the saddle (shown in photo but not mentioned in text). The stem is also shown in the photo.



Wow -- very impressive.

[prendrefeu]

Yes, very impressive indeed! Unfortunately I'm poor.
But I can dream.

Anyway, what's up with these CF dropouts?
Is the derailleur hanger replaceable? How does it attach onto the frame anyway? I don't see a mount.

[lonned]

Is there any indication when the Alpha might be available? I would really love to build up this frame for the 2011 season. I understand there will be a review of the Alpha in the German magazine Roadbike (available around September 15).