Triathlon, Time Trial, Road Race Special

Handsling Bikes have created a special version of our A1R0 race bike for one customer.

The bike features Handsling's wide, aero wheels, in 86mm rear and a 56mm front configuration, a Rotor Flow chainset, and an Ultegra Di2 groupset, but what makes it special is that he can switch between normal drop bars and a full time trial bar in just 10-minutes...

Here is a shot of the bike during the final build in road race format, with the drop handlebar in place.

He regularly competes in both road races and time trials, so wanted something that would cope with both events equally well. This is a situation that many triathletes will also be familiar with, as the shorter sprint events allow drafting and require a normal drop handlebar but longer events still support time trial bars as drafting is not permitted.

The Toray T800 carbon A1R0 frame is ideal for both road racing and time trials, being both very laterally stiff and very aero, making it ideal for all forms of triathlon and duathlon as well.

We had to make a quick switch system to satisfy the client. After much experimentation we have come up with an easy to use system that requires just 10-minutes to switch out the bars from one to the other. The Di2 helps a great deal with making this possible.

The time trial bar features a 5 way junction box to cope with the multiple gear-shift button positions which are located with the brakes on the 'bull horn' sections and at the end of the 'tri-bar' extensions. The road bars, in this case we used a very special, very aero and very stiff integrated bar, has a standard 3 way junction box.

The front and rear brake cables are finished with glued ends as opposed to end caps and can easily be removed through the internal cabling of the frame. Each set of bars has it's own separate set of cables.

Simply loosening off the Allen key bolts on both brakes and on the stem, and removing a Di2 cable from the junction box under the stem, the whole bar system can be quickly lifted off.

10-minutes after deciding to change the bars, this is how the bike looks...

We hope that this bike will appeal to both time triallists who also road race and vice versa, but also to triathletes, competing at a variety of distances.

It should reduce the costs facing those multisports riders who might otherwise have to buy two expensive frames.