Tech of the week: bike launches from BMC and others, a 600g frameset and aero bikes head-to-head

New bikes from BMC, Kinesis and Cannondale

This time of year is when brands start to roll out their new bikes for 2018. So we’ve reported on a few bike launches, starting with BMC’s new Teammachine. The Teammachine SLR will come in both rim and disc braked models and was developed using BMC’s supercomputer design method, which took the frame through 34,000 design iterations. BMC says that its disc brake frame is less than 50g heavier than the rim brake version.

If you prefer rim brakes, we've also had the news that Campagnolo has added a new brake track to its Bora Ultra carbon wheels, which it says dramatically improves braking in all conditions. And we've also had news from Pro of why Gianni Moscon's three spoke wheel collapsed in the Tirreno-Adriatico opening team time trial.

Meanwhile, Kinesis UK has announced the new Tripster AT frameset, with AT standing for All Terrain. It’s designed to take 700c tyres up to 45mm wide or 650b up to 52mm, for mixed surface riding, bikepacking or just longer road rides. Kinesis sells a build kit alongside the frameset or you can buy the frame and fork and build your own dream mixed terrain specification.

And Stateside, Cannondale has brought out a new SE version of its SuperX cyclocross frame kitted out for mixed terrain with chunkier tyres and a wide range SRAM Force 1 groupset.

The sub-500g frame, custom S-Works bikes and Madone range explained

We’ve also this week looked at just how light a carbon frame could go. By including graphene in the lay-up, British manufacturer Dassi reckons that it could make a sub-500g frame, although its initial model will be closer to 600g.

Meanwhile at the Giro d’Italia, Fernando Gaviria and Bob Jungels were given custom S-Works bikes by Specialized to celebrate their wins in the Points and Young Rider competitions respectively.

We’ve also tested five aero road bikes, including the S-Works Venge ViAS, Cervélo S5 and Canyon Aeroad at Derby Velodrome to see which is fastest. While if a Trek Madone takes your fancy, we’ve had a look at the range, all the way from the £4,800 9.2 up to the £11,500 Race Shop Ltd. And we've also run through Boardman's road bike range.

And don’t forget to check our deals pages, including Sunday Trading, if you’re looking for more cycling kit.