New Benchmark aero road bike: Simplon Pride 2

[Kaludrob]

the weight is not bad tbh

I don't know about that... 7.8kg for a 55cm with DA, a light saddle, and without pedals seems quite heavy

The old benchmark for heavy aero bikes was the SystemSix. Bikeradar's test unit was a 58cm DA that weighed 7.7kg despite the 500g cockpit.

The Simplon seems to be on the heavy end of heavy bikes.

Just look at all the tubes and the amount of material. You can get it to 7.5 kg with the arc1100 wheelset and 25mm tires.
Anyway, I'm not here to say that this is the best bike, but the difference in watts between the system six is pretty remarkable.

[otnemem]

Not that weight should even really matter for an aero bike designed around relaxed UCI rules. If you do hilly/mountainous racing, then pick something else that day. If you can only afford one US$13000 bike, then maybe choose a semi-aero model.

https://www.swissside.com/blogs/news/ae ... on-summary

[mgrl]

It's a nice analysis but it doesn't really reflect real race conditions

[TobinHatesYou]

It's a nice analysis but it doesn't really reflect real race conditions

In other words, there are only a couple possible key moments on a course like this. Either you blow apart the group near the top of the climb or you win a reduced bunch sprint at the end. Any other time it doesn't really matter because in the peloton you aren't going full gas and neither is anyone else.

WvA won that stage on an R5.

[mrlobber]

Isn't Simplon one of those mfgs just rebranding open-mould frames?

The Ribble one at least looks significantly different from any other bike out there. This one really doesn't so it's not clear where those watt gains come from, likely from a cherrypicked test scenario.

[RDY]

Isn't Simplon one of those mfgs just rebranding open-mould frames?

The Ribble one at least looks significantly different from any other bike out there. This one really doesn't so it's not clear where those watt gains come from, likely from a cherrypicked test scenario.

Possibly. Flybike, Fibertek etc offer the higher end stuff to Western companies selling for big scrilla some time before they begin showing up in their public catalogues and from half a dozen Chinese or Taiwanese brands.

Either way, I'm sure it's ODM.

I think you'll begin seeing the first new-UCI-code aero bikes and light aero bikes from our favourite Chinese brands in early 2022.

[gzon]

Isn't Simplon one of those mfgs just rebranding open-mould frames?

The Ribble one at least looks significantly different from any other bike out there. This one really doesn't so it's not clear where those watt gains come from, likely from a cherrypicked test scenario.

Did you look at the Simplon frame? It looks like a cross beteen Cervelo S5 and System Six if anything. Not at all like a bog standard areobike, i.e. Merida Reacto etc.

[Alexandrumarian]

Their frames look pretty specific to me, not sure how they differ from canyon or any other brand in the end. As for quality, I had one of their carbon frames and was very well made (and proportionally expensive)

[tomtom]

It looks good, has (very!) good Aero results but is not (yet?) on Simplon's own website. Bit strange.... Also funny the old Aeroad (they say 2018 but it's actually 2015 I think) still scores this good. But why is it in this list? That makes little sence and could also be any other old aerobike. And as stated before; without a reference set of wheels it's hard to really compare!

[check6]

Not that weight should even really matter for an aero bike designed around relaxed UCI rules. If you do hilly/mountainous racing, then pick something else that day. If you can only afford one US$13000 bike, then maybe choose a semi-aero model.

This for sure. I'm in pancake flat Florida and recently purchased the BMC SLR-01. On unlimited speed rides here it is noticeably harder to push along vs. my heavier Aeroad. Right tool for the the job.

[usr]

It looks good, has (very!) good Aero results but is not (yet?) on Simplon's own website. Bit strange.... Also funny the old Aeroad (they say 2018 but it's actually 2015 I think) still scores this good. But why is it in this list? That makes little sence and could also be any other old aerobike.

Because that's the bike that many of their readers already have. Gen 2 Aeroad have sold absurdly well I Germany (I'm one of those buyers), it's the closest thing to a Volkswagen performance road bike imaginable.

[tomtom]

It looks good, has (very!) good Aero results but is not (yet?) on Simplon's own website. Bit strange.... Also funny the old Aeroad (they say 2018 but it's actually 2015 I think) still scores this good. But why is it in this list? That makes little sence and could also be any other old aerobike.

Because that's the bike that many of their readers already have. Gen 2 Aeroad have sold absurdly well I Germany (I'm one of those buyers), it's the closest thing to a Volkswagen performance road bike imaginable.

I agree its a great bike (I owned a rimbrake and a discbrake version SLX version, which incl aerocockpit & fork is actually lighter(!) than my current CFR) but there are many other good "old" aerobikes? Maybe it's because Canyon could not enroll the Aeroad III?

[tomato]

If this bike sells well, knockoffs will pop up on Alibaba labelled as "Simpleton Pride"

[BigBoyND]

Well it's definitely better looking than the outgoing model. Though I feel like this may have been designed purely to win riderless, bottleless tests ... The old model had a partially shrouded downtube bottle mount. This does away with it, but is "more aero".

Also really weird that's already reviewed but Simplon don't even have a press release on their website about it.

I think Tour tests with two bottles. Let's see if they get similar results.

Where do you see pictures of the new downtube and that the old one was shrouded? The website only has pictures of the old bike which is not shrouded at all. Looks like a full airfoil. For the new one I can't find pictures at an angle that shows it.

[Andrew69]

GCN Tech have a bit of a look at the Pride 2 at Eurobike

Looks fantastic IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTwH1AkGZs8