Images of a new Colnago Y1Rs race bike have emerged on the Weight Weenies forum. The images follow social media posts from the iconic Italian brand earlier this week teasing a new bike launch on December 9th. These new images are almost certainly the bike that will be officially unveiled next week, and from what we can see here, it appears Colnago has gone hard on chasing aero performance with at least one eye still on weight, presumably on request from Tadej Pogačar and Team UAE Emirates.
Colnago has told Escape Collective it will not comment on the leaked material, but there are a few obvious design choices we can see from the two images that have emerged.
Typically when breaking down leaked images of an unreleased new bike, we start at the front and work backwards, but perhaps the most striking visual element of the new bike is the offset seat tube, and so that seems the obvious place to start here.
The lower portion of the seat tube curves around the rear wheel from where it exits the bottom bracket up to the seat stay interface – so far so normal for an aero race bike.
But there things take a turn, literally. The seat stays effectively morph into a bridge to the top tube on the exact same trajectory, then meeting the top tube in a way reminiscent of the design feature adopted by Lapierre in many of its frames. It’s at this top tube interface that a second seat tube of sorts emerges again. This off-set, two-part seat tube positions this upper portion of the seat tube much farther forward than usual, and so the upper section adopts a much shallower angle in order to bring the saddle mounting position back in line with a more traditional inline seat post.
Almost, but not quite in line, that is. Overlaying the leaked image with a stencil of the existing Colnago V4Rs, it becomes clear how the two very different approaches end up in a similar, but not identical seat tube angle.
The leaked images are very low resolution so it’s difficult to tell for sure, but with the bottom bracket of both bikes the fixed point, it appears that the Y1Rs – though not as steep as it could have been – still adopts a slightly steeper effective seat tube angle than the V4Rs, which itself was now slacker.
A steeper seat tube angle will allow riders to adopt a more forward saddle position and as such it’s easy to imagine Pogačar requesting this geometry change given his own trend towards a more progressive saddle position. It’s a topic we’ve covered in greater depth in an episode of the Performance Process podcast earlier this year.
This design is only possible thanks to that much-touted 2020 relaxation in the UCI frame design regulations that now permits off-set seat posts. There’s no free lunch, though. While it’s not entirely clear from these images, it appears Colnago has stuck with a traditional telescopic seat post-into-seat tube design rather than adopting an integrated seat post that requires cutting to length or an external seat mast/collar a la Trek with its previous generation Emondas. Such a design will limit the saddle height adjustment range from any one seat post, so Colnago may have to offer various lengths in addition to various offsets to accommodate a range of saddle heights and setback positions.
Furthermore, there is a risk that the slacker angle Colnago has adopted could quite quickly offset any increase in effective seat tube angle with any increase in saddle height. This is because increasing saddle height from a greater starting angle will also move the saddle further behind the bottom bracket. That said, Colnago may have already designed seat posts that would neutralise this in the form of a positive set-forward saddle clamp.
As for why Colnago would choose this design and the potential benefits, it’s safe to assume Colnago has found both aero and compliance gains – good things for a Tadej Pogačar who is targeting Milan-San Remo, and possibly one day Paris-Roubaix.
That said, we are eagerly awaiting more details on this, especially the aero element, because on paper it looks like Colnago has taken the old single-element, drag-inducing seat post design and replaced it with a multi-structure, slacker-angled interface, and thus a greater frontal area overall. More frontal area usually means more drag, but let’s wait and see because we do know the seat tube is a complex problem to solve, accounting for a significant amount of drag, so perhaps Colnago has uncovered a solution that is not obvious to the naked eye. Only time will tell.
Sticking with the geometry and the V4Rs overlay, it doesn’t appear as though Colnago has increased the reach much, if at all. Both the current seat tube angle and reach are limiting to riders looking to adopt a more progressive saddle position, and while Colnago may have tackled the seat tube angle side of the equation, retaining the same or a similar reach could leave riders facing the same issue as before – Pogačar for one seems to like a shorter reach as he’s mostly retained the same stem length over the years, despite moving his saddle forward.
Interestingly, the new Y1Rs also appears to have a much shorter wheelbase, with both the front and rear centres slightly shorter in our overlay.
Granted, this is all speculation and the overlay is primarily a visual aid to illustrate the off-set seat post design. While we have made every attempt to use the same sized frame, scale correctly, and position the bikes identically, we will need to await official geometry details from Colnago before making any conclusions on the geometry.
Aero up front
Not as visually obvious from the side-on images leaked on Weight Weenies, but wild nonetheless, is the new front end. Colnago has adopted a drop stem, winged handlebar, and bayonet-style external steerer fork a la the Cervelo S5 and others. Throw in those deep aero-profiled forks, and it’s a dramatic shift from the norm for Colnago, but the same could be said of the entire bike.
From the side, it looks like Colnago has dropped the front end and then adopted a Cervelo S5-esque riser stem. But the darkened head-on image teased by Colnago on social media earlier this week clearly shows a different approach.
Where Cervelo uses a Y-shaped stem that attaches to a separate handlebar, Colnago’s approach sees the Y-shaped stem integrated into the handlebar to leave an even more striking profile from head on.
Here it does appear Colnago has found a way to reduce frontal area compared to the Cervelo approach, but again, there may be a price to pay: do the gains in ditching the middle section of the handlebar counterbalance the two arms and presumably greater-than traditional frontal area? And how are the gains affected by raising the bars to accommodate individual rider fits?
That integrated handlebar attaches to a bayonet, external steerer-style fork. First seen on track and time trial bikes, the design has crept into road designs, most notably, again, with the Cervelo S5. Once a workaround for the UCI’s old aero profile-limiting 3:1 aspect ratio, the now-relaxed regulations allow tubes to be eight times as deep as they are wide, and the bayonet approach can allow for incredibly deep front ends.
Interestingly, despite adopting this external steerer design, Colnago doesn’t appear to have maximised the depth as much as it could have with the head tube behind it. I can’t think of a reason to use the heavier bayonet system and not maximise the head tube, other than perhaps that the external steerer makes for a narrower frontal profile, but given some of the other design choices, it’s still one of the major questions emerging for me from these leaked photos. Could Colnago be aware of some forthcoming restriction on the 8:1 rule? If, for instance, the UCI is considering means of making the WorldTour peloton slower?
Moving from the front towards the rear, the down tube both hugs the front wheel and features a step, presumably to accommodate and hide the bottle while still maximising the aero profile behind the upper half of the front wheel and forks.
While it’s not entirely clear from the photos, it doesn’t appear as though the bottom bracket height has been maximised either. A taller bottom bracket is thought to provide relatively significant aero gains (and improved stiffness), but as it is hidden behind the crankset and chainrings on the leaked images, it doesn’t look like Colnago has chased either, perhaps opting for the weight savings of a shallower bottom bracket instead.
Wait and see
The Y1Rs arrives after an absolutely dominant season for Tadej Pogačar and Team UAE Emirates, and clearly this new bike is designed to be an aero weapon that will aid him in continuing that domination anywhere outside the high mountains. But this combination of seemingly under-maximised aero interventions with what presumably is an eye on saving weight is quite interesting.
On the one hand this is almost certainly a new dedicated aero bike from Colnago, one we expect to sit alongside the V4Rs. On the other, it still seems that Colnago has retained a key focus on weight, rather than aero at all costs. Enzo Ferrari, of that Ferrari, who Colnago have collaborated with on several occasions, once said “aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.” However, with Pogačar as the engine, perhaps Colnago aren’t as worried as others about every thousandth of a reduction in CdA.
Of course, we are just speculating from the leaked images and we “cannot see aerodynamics”; perhaps there’s more to the aero interventions that meets the eye. All told, the leaked images will come as a shock departure from the more traditional aesthetic Colnago has offered in recent times, and pose as many questions as answers.
Only two things are certain: the Y1Rs is a radical update of Colnago’s previous aero platform, and we don’t have to wait long for answers.
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