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“It’s not for everybody,” admitted bike design guru Gerard Vroomen at PressCamp in Deer Valley, Utah, as he unveiled his first aero road bike design for six years: the Strada.
The Dutchman has produced the bike for 3T of Italy. It dispenses with the front derailleur (for aero benefits) and the MTB-style 1x set-up – with a Strada-specific cassette – offers a wider range of gears than a double chainring and standard rear block, said Vroomen.
The Strada also has wider-than-usual tyres offering “Paris–Roubaix comfort”, said Vroomen. The bike can fit tyres up to 30mm in width.
Vroomen was the co-founder, in 1995, of aero specialist Cervélo and now designs for other companies, as well as his own brand, Open, a gravel bike specialist.
He told editors at PressCamp that he had “some unfinished road bike business in my head” and that he has been mulling Strada-style ideas for ten years.
The introduction of the Strada is billed by Vroomen as “reinventing cycling” – other road bike companies will produce similar bikes in the not-too-distant future, he believes.
The wider tyres on the Strada offer lower rolling resistance than skinny tyres, and said Vroomen, there’s only a minor aero penalty, something more than made up for with the additional comfort of more rubber on the road.
The Strada’s 3T 11-28 cassette has a 350+% gear range.
The disc-brake equipped bike will be introduced later this year.
