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RITA BORELLI: Welcome to SBCU.
Let's talk about the Alias.
The Alias is an all-new family for us, and it is a women's
performance road bike that is optimized for triathlon.
It's designed for riders who really want one bike that she
can train on, race on, and can participate in events, whether
it's a sprint or Olympic distance triathlon, even up to
half Ironman distance triathlon events.
You will see a lot of features on the Alias that really speak
to the aerodynamic properties of the bike.
If you look at the down tube, if you look at the fork, those
are tube shapes that are inspired by Venge, so we took
what we learned in the development process of the
Venge, and applied it in a way that makes
sense for this rider.
If you look at the seat stays, we've got cambered air foil
seat stays that taper up to a round cross-section at the
top, just before they meet the seat tube.
So that speaks to both the aero side, but also to the
ride quality.
That round cross-section provides a little bit more
vertical compliance.
That makes a smoother ride for the rider.
Additionally, you'll see a round seat tube and
a round seat post.
That's also a feature that we designed into the bike to
contribute additional compliance on the rear, and to
make sure that the rider really enjoys the experience.
If you look at the bike straight on, you'll see a very
slim head tube and fork.
We use a straight inch and 1/8 steerer tube on this bike.
Gives that slim front end, but it also contributes to
front-end compliance.
So during the development process of the bike, we looked
at the fit of riders on road bikes with clip-on aero bars.
We used our SBCU team here and Morgan Hill, and we set riders
up on road bikes with clip-on aero bars and analyzed the
adjustments that they needed to make that
aero position work.
So what we saw was that most of the riders needed to move
their saddle forward 3 1/2 to 4 centimeters, to get in a
position that was ideal for use in aero bars.
So we took that piece of information and built the
geometry around that aero position, so that the bike
handles well in the aero bars.
So what that led us to is a 77 1/2 degree seat tube angle on
the size 51, a steeper seat tube angle than you're going
to see on most road families.
And when you pair that steep seat tube angle with a zero
offset post, it puts the rider forward in that
more triathlon position.
Now we did want the Alias to be a very versatile bike that
can still be used as a road bike for training purposes.
So we developed a 35 millimeter offset seat post
that can be used to convert the Alias to a more
traditional road position for training miles, for going out
and doing group rides.
And for really setting the bike up more as a
traditional road bike.
Other parts of the geometry that you will notice are going
to be short chain stays.
That keeps that rear wheel tucked so that the bike
handles well when you are forward in
that aerodynamic position.
And then stack and reach numbers that are optimized
around the way riders have their bike set up.
So we did take a lot of data at the events
that we have visited.
And we built geometry that allows the riders to set their
bikes up the way that they're actually riding them.
So a little bit taller head tube, to get the appropriate
stack height.
So one of my favorite things about the Alias is the Remora.
The Remora is a nutrition storage device that bolts on
to recessed rivnuts on the top tube.
So this is a rubber material that is slotted at the top, so
you can easily access your gels and bars while
you're on the go.
And the Remora actually is placed directly behind the
stem in what we call a dirty air zone.
So it actually increases the overall aerodynamic properties
of the bike by reducing the drag.
The Remora is available after market, and it does come with
straps to use on other bikes that don't have the rivnuts on
the top tube.
So the Alias comes in two different configurations.
We have both tri models that come with a zero offset seat
post and the clip-on aero bars, as well as a rib cage.
So those are race-ready out of the box in that tri
configuration.
We also have models that are set up for road.
So those models come with a 35 millimeter offset post, and
without the clip-on aero bars.
It's easy to convert between the two models by changing out
the seat posts and either adding or removing the
clip-on aero bars.