Tour Tech

It’s Tour time and tech editor Ronan McLaughlin has been on the ground capturing all the latest little tricks and tidbits. In this week’s Geek Warning, Dave Rome, and Ronan get together to talk through some of the bigger tech stories and finds coming from the biggest race.

Within you’ll hear about new bikes from Merida and Cervelo, some behind-the-scenes sponsorship movements, how front derailleurs are becoming less common, and why the UCI’s handlebar width ruling is likely set to change (again).

In Ask a Wrench, members of Escape Collective will hear pro race mechanic Brad Copeland and Dave Rome answer questions related to rust-proofing steel frames, solving for a drooping chain, and how to solve the dreaded disc brake turkey gobble. As an added bonus, you’ll hear Brad’s impression of a turkey.

Time stamps:

2:00 - Merida’s unreleased Reacto
5:50 - Cervelo’s new S5 and Ronan’s early impressions
14:20 - Cervelo has a new R5 coming, too
18:30 - Musical Saddles of Sponsorships
26:00 - Updates inbound for the UCI’s handlebar width change?
37:45 - 1x gearing is on the rise
47:00 - Ask a Wrench with Brad Copeland (members only)
48:30 - Rust-protecting a steel frame
52:30 - Chain droop when riding in smaller cassette cogs
1:03:00 - Fixing the SRAM brake turkey gobble