Cleaning up the Speed Concept
images by Nick Salazar
Nov 9, 2011  hits 82,987

But from straight on, there's almost nothing sticking out into the wind.
But from straight on, there's almost nothing sticking out into the wind.
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It's no secret that we love the Trek Speed Concept. But we wanted to see a change in the aerobar clamping hardware. So instead of waiting for Trek to do something, we designed some ourselves. The clamps shown here make the aerobar hardware much sleeker, lighter, and easier to install and adjust. This is the way we think the bar ought to be.

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Tags » aerobars,  custom,  speedconcept,  trek
  • The stock clamping hardware consists of these eight pieces and ten bolts, plus four more not pictured. EVERYTHING you see here was taken off the bike.
  • These two minimal clamps are all that I'm using now on my Speed Concept. They work beautifully, and take of a lot of weight, clunk, and hassle out of the bar installation.
  • You can see from this angle that the clamps are actually quite robust, with thick 7075 aluminum grabbing the extensions.
  • But from straight on, there's almost nothing sticking out into the wind.
  • The nice thing about clamping directly into the four main bolts is that now there's nothing underneath the pads sticking out in the wind either.
  • The custom clamps mate seamlessly with the rest of the Speed Concept's hardware. I put the Felt Devox carbon arm cups on, and they contribute to the minimal appearance.
  • Just two bolts per side, and now they don't need the ridiculous 14Nm of force to stay put. Just a few Nm will do.
  • I achieved a much lower stack with this setup, but it would be easy to go up if necessary, and still maintain the clean look and functionality.
  • The pads can now be adjusted independently of the extensions, which is a nice feature not present in the original bar.
  • All mounted up, the bars now look slicker than ever.
  • The new hardware drops about 200g off the bar, putting it in ultra light territory. This is the same weight as Felt's highest-end Devox bar! (Note, I'm using Felt's carbon Devox cups here.)

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