Reinventing Aero Road Bikes
Since 1961 3T has never been satisfied with the status quo. Always searching for ways to make cycling faster and more fun they have constantly reinvented their products and cycling itself. That started the day Mario Dedioniggi founded Tecno Tubo Torino to make the world's best & most beautiful handlebars. And it can be found in every 3T bar, stem, seatpost, saddle, fork, crank, wheel and frame since. Mario's spirit - to try what others dared not - continues today under the stewardship of a fourth generation.
The most recent reinvention from 3T was the EXPLORO the world's first aerodynamic adventure bike, an unlikely mash-up that is vintage 3T and an instant classic. Now 3T has done it again reinventing the aero road bike from scratch with the STRADA. But "aero road" doesn't do it justice as it's not just extremely aero but also very comfortable. How can one bike be both? The key elements are tyre size optimization and a paradigm shift for the drivetrain combined with a lightbulb moment designing new aero shapes.
Wide Tyre Optimisation
The biggest factor in road bike comfort are the tyres; they provide more compliance than any other part of the bike. Wider tyres are better at reducing shocks from cracks, curbs, cobbles and potholes - which is why they are the norm at Paris-Roubaix. Wider tyres also have lower rolling resistance because their shorter contact patch requires less bending by the casing.
In addition wider tyres offer an advantage on long and multi-day rides, reducing the steady drain on a rider's energy level caused by high-frequency road buzz. But aerodynamics are also important on such rides and wide tyres tend to test poorly in the windtunnel. However that is to be expected if you test them with frames and parts optimized for narrow tyres. The STRADA is the first aero road frame optimized for wider tyres, so finally you can be fast and comfortable, all the time, from the cobbles to the climbs. All day every day with one and the same bike.
Paradigm Shift: 1xAero
With all aero road bike developments of the past 20 years the drivetrain was never really tackled. So, under the practiced hand of Gerard Vroomen, 3T did. The worst area aerodynamically is around the BB with the frame, crank, chainrings, front derailleur, water bottles and rider's legs leaving little room for the air to pass through. A single ring drivetrain eliminates the front derailleur and one chainring, greatly reducing frontal area and creating space for unobstructed airflow whilst freeing up the design of the seattube to shield the rear wheel even better since no front derailleur mount is needed. And with modern cassettes (in particular the special 3T cassette coming soon) you still have all the gears you need.
30 years ago we had 12 gears (2x6) of which only 8 were unique (the rest overlapped). Now we're at 2x11 always assuming that more is better. But did the "improvement" from 2x10 to 2x11 really make that much of a difference? Sometimes more is not better it's just more; more weight, more drag, more gear overlap and more complexity. So instead of 2x11 with 14 effective gears, a front derailleur, a second ring and a second shift lever - 1x11 gives you the gears you need, the range you need, fewer components, less weight, less drag and less hassle.
Realfast Arcfoil
3T design for real world aerodynamics at realistic speeds. Sometimes that clashes with conventional wisdom even on something as fundamental as aero tube design. Aero tubes are designed based on a series of flat 2D cross sections that connect together into a tube shape. But in the real world the air flowing over a tube doesn't follow a flat path, it follows an arc. So 3T built their Arcfoil tubes as a series of curved - instead of flat - Sqaero cross sections. These exactly mimic the arc of the actual airflow at several points along the tubes and substantially lower the drag (the arc of the downtube logo pays hommage to exactly the airflow and cross section arc there).
The Sqaero airfoil sections of the seatube arc for a different reason, to perfectly cover the rear tyre and reduce the turbulence. Seatpost headtube even the seatpost clamp and dropouts are optimized aerodynamically in sometimes unexpected ways based on our real world analysis (for example you may wonder why the area behind the lower headset isn't faired; the answer is simple : because the air doesn't flow horizontally there but spins off the front wheel almost vertically, so a horizontal fairing shape is counterproductive as it blocks the upward airflow).
Fundi Aero Fork
The Fundi has an ultra short-stack crown which combines space for 28mm road tires with a lower crown height. This improves stiffness and moves the front wheel closer to the downtube creating a perfect transition for the airflow. This makes not only the Fundi itself very aero but also helps the front wheel and frame become more aero.
The crown smoothly transitions into the Sqaero profile of the legs combining aerodynamics with better stiffness properties. The Fundi supports flat mount disc brakes with the 140/160 mm disc adaptor completely integrated into the fork leg shape. The asymmetric, kinked left leg connects all the relevant points in the most direct way possible and is not only a visually striking design but also key to achieving a low weight and a minimal frontal area.
Mind the Gap: A smooth transition of the airflow from front wheel to downtube and from seattube to rear wheel is crucial to lowering drag. The STRADA minimizes these gaps while respecting the UCI rules.
Aeroflex: Bike frames are inherently stiff vertically and the right tyres offer much more comfort than a frame ever can. But 3T sqeeze out a few last percent with their extremely thin (=aero & comfortable) seatstays.
Disc Brake Only: 3T don't want to compromise weight, stiffness and aerodynamics by combining disc & rim brake versions in one frame platform so everything on the STRADA is fully optimised for flatmount disc brakes only.
Hide-Ration: The STRADA downtube is shaped to hide the water bottles from the airflow. The fastest set-up is one bottle low on the downtube - the "team-leader" configuration. Second-fastest set-up is with two bottles.