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Glen Alden's Custom Carbon   Bookmark and Share
images by Nick Salazar   •   May 21, 2012   •   hits 31,028

Here's my Speed Concept with the fairing installed.
 
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Engineer and Speed Concept rider Glen Alden has been refining his rig as well, and showed us some of his work last year. Glen has spent the last year refining some of those custom parts, and is ready to release some of them to the public. I got an exclusive look at his custom stem cover (specific to the Speed Concept) and crank fairing (which can be used on most road cranks, but sadly won't fit over a Quarq).


This is the original rubber cover behind the Speed Concept stem. It works, but is often difficult to install, and prone to falling off.

I had modified my cover to expand the cable hole. Trek has actually made this a standard change on their rubber covers going forward.

This is Alden's replacement part. It's sleek, elegant, and there's nothing to bend or smash into place. It bolts onto the bike, and stays put.

Small foam tape acts like a preload buffer to protect your frame, and works well. This thing doesn't move at all.

A single M5 bolt goes right into the Speed Concept's existing bolt hole (but means you can't use that bolt for other aftermarket accessories).

Once installed, Alden's piece fits seamlessly with the bike, mating beautifully into the existing aerodynamic shape of the bike.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is a stock part - it's beautiful!

Here's my Speed Concept with the fairing installed.

Top view of Glen Alden's Speed Concept stem cover.

Even with the bars turned through their entire range of motion, the stem cover never contacts the stem itself, ensuring there will be no interference problems like you can get with the standard rubber piece.

This is about as clean as it gets, folks. No cables, no excess hardware.

This is Alden's custom crank fairing. It works on most standard cranks (not Quarqs), but it's a much harder install than the Speed Concept piece.

The fairing smooths the shape of the crank to promote better airflow.

If you are worried about installation, Alden will do it for you, for a fee.

The fairing holds on to the chainring via nine bolts. Your existing chainrings must be drilled and tapped to accept the small M3 screws. This is the tricky part of the installation.

Different sized holes are available for different types of cranks.

Glen Alden's custom crankset fairing.





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