Triathlete gets a sneak peek at Normann's new frame
By Jay Prasuhn
Sept. 21, 2007 -- Man, is it a great time to be a triathlete. The sport is healthy as ever with races selling out, pros breaking bike course records, and engineers hard at work at computers and in wind tunnels, making go-fast gear that has those of us racing for our own piece of local glory dropping our jaws on the floor in desperate want of the newest, glossiest and proven fastest.
Which is what makes this coming week’s Interbike bike expo, held in Las Vegas from Monday, Sept 24 to Friday, Sept 28, one I eagerly anticipate. When I started with the magazine, triathlon was the ugly duckling, with tri offerings tucked way at the back of the booth, behind the cross country and road offerings. Now, the sport has turned the corner, big time. Tri bikes (not just “time trial” bikes but honest-to-goodness 78-degree seat angle tri bikes) are front and center. Awesome to see.
We’re thrilled to see the guys that hustle on CAD computers to bring to life truly fast products get props for their work. We’re talking about Phil White and Gerard Vroomen at Cervelo. Josh Poertner at Zipp. Mark Andrew at Trek. Mark Vandermolen at Profile Design. Hed’s Steve Hed. The illustrious John Cobb. Luc Callahan at Specialized. Oval Concepts’ Morgan Nicol. While the riders get the props, these guys should really get the accolades for putting out not only fast looking bikes and parts, but proven fast bikes and equipment. While chatting up the pro athletes is a thrill, I always look forward to seeing these guys in Vegas with equal anticipation.
Interbike is also a great place to catch up with the biggest power—and we mean power—players for the Oct. 13 Hawaii Ironman. Argon 18 and Ergomo, are bringing Danish thorobred Torbjorn Sindballe, While Zipp and Kuota are hosting your reigning two-time Hawaii Ironman World Champion, Normann Stadler. Triathlete magazine will be there, be doing interviews with those athletes to ask them about their Hawaii lead-up.
We’ve also gotten some inside track info that some top athletes (we can’t name names) may be the very first to prototype some equipment on the course in Hawaii. Still very preliminary, but… don’t be surprised if you see some top names on some stuff seen heretofore only at Eurobike and Interbike.
I have a feeling the Element 118 may be on of those to make a Kona debut. In fact, Sindballe will be headed to the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel for test during the show. If ever there was a place for Sindballe to prove the bike to himself (if he is to try to reclaim the top Hawaii Ironman bike split honors that Stadler took from him in Kona a year ago.
Another expected Hawaii debut will come with Kuota’s new Kueen K. Kuota National Sales Manager Paul Thomas visited the Triathlete offices to show us a fresh-out-of-the-box, still-smells-of-fresh-paint Kuota Kueen K. While the Eurobike prototype looked good, Normann’s race-ready frame looked wicked, much more impressive in person.
“It’s been like waiting for Christmas to come, but then Christmas was pushed back,” Thomas said of the close-to-Kona arrival. “Finally it came.”
The stats: It’s a full monocoque carbon fiber frame with a 78.5-degree seat tube angle, an aero mast (which will make it a cut-to fit frame complete with an alloy top cap for the saddle) and vertical alloy dropouts. The brake placement sees the brakes placed behind the front fork and under the bottom bracket shell. Cables are internally run with internal guides, making it an easy-to-build bike. Like the Kalibur, the Kueen K head tube has an 1 1/8-inch top cup, with a 1 1/4 bottom cup for a-frame stiffness out of saddle. The frame has an interesting diamond-shaped down tube which transitions smoothly past the bottom bracket to the chainstays, while the seatstays are run quite low.
Of note is how beefy the BB and head tube area is, which is a default benefit of having the brake placed under the bottom bracket shell. To keep the wind off it, Kuota ran the shell down to shield the brake caliper. “In triathlon, a really stiff bottom bracket isn’t as crucial as, say, a crit racer,” Thomas says, “but because Norman is so powerful, we beefed this up quite a bit.”
Thomas said the downtube’s smooth transition to the stays was by design. “When the tubes flow like that, the vibration transfers more evenly through the frame,” Thomas says. He also relayed that this bike is designed around one man: the reigning world champ. The first year he won in Hawaii, he rode a large with a 56 centimeter top tube. The next year he rode a medium. Last year he rode the large again. He felt the medium was too small, so this frame, a large with a 55 centimeter top tub is right between,” Thomas says. “So in a way, they built the sizing around Normann Stadler.”
The bike has not been in the tunnel yet, “but we’re excited to get it into the tunnel against the Kalibur as well as some of the compeitition,” Thomas said.
Get ready for more first looks as Triathlete brings you daily show coverage from Las Vegas this coming week. And check Triathlete’s podcast (see the tab to the left of your screen) for exclusive interviews from the show floor with the players in the game—both the athletes and the designers of all the stuff to come in ’08.