{"id":376191,"date":"2025-12-28T14:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376191\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T14:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:26:11","slug":"the-fastest-bike-in-the-world-plus-an-aero-condom-a-radical-new-pedal-system-the-latest-inflatable-helmet-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376191\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘fastest bike in the world’, plus an aero condom, a radical new pedal system, the latest inflatable helmet + more"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the brilliant to the bizarre, we’ve seen it all in the world of bike tech this year. Most of it ended up in Tech of the Week<\/a>, our home for\u00a0the hottest (and weirdest) stuff we spot each week. Now, closing out 2025 we’ve put together an end-of-year round-up to give you 10 minutes peace and quiet during the festive madness. <\/p>\n

It should become clear fairly quickly,\u00a0this\u00a0isn’t necessarily the best tech of the year (we’ll save that for our 2025 road.cc awards which are coming soon), but the stuff which turned heads and got you lot heading to the comments section in your hundreds. Let’s dive straight in.<\/p>\n

Factor declares its new One “the fastest UCI-legal road bike in the world”<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Factor One Dec 2025 (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

“What on earth is that?” was editor Jack’s reaction to an Israel-Premier Tech mechanic not-so-subtly pulling a blacked-out prototype\u00a0off the roof of the team car ahead of the opening stage of the\u00a0Dauphin\u00e9. Back in June, Jack and I had been tasked with heading to France to snap pictures of any new bikes that teams were testing at the Tour de France’s traditional warm-up race<\/a>, and boy did we find one…<\/p>\n

\"Dauphin\u00e9Dauphin\u00e9 2025 Jake Stewart Israel-Premier Tech new Factor (2).JPG (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Now, six months on it’s all official, no longer under wraps\u00a0and the target of annoying reporters’ cameras in unassuming car parks in rural France. It’s called the One and (in true bike launch style) Factor reckons it’s “the fastest UCI-legal road bike in the world”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With its huge bayonet fork, ‘chin’\u00a0fairing and V-shaped cockpit, Factor says it’s “22% faster than the Specialized Tarmac SL8”, with\u00a0prices starting at \u00a310,899 for a full bike. We reckon we’ll see plenty more new aero bikes in 2026…<\/p>\n

Pidcock uses an aero condom?!<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Pidcock Q36.5 Rain Shell Aero Jersey, ‘The Condom’ (credit: Q36.5)<\/p>\n

One of the more enjoyable headlines for someone as childish as me was when Q36.5 launched its ‘condom’ jacket, a new \u00a3250 double membrane waterproof jersey designed for racers who want some protection from the rain, but not at the loss of aero. Cue much sniggering in the road.cc office…<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Q36.5 puts Pidcock in an ‘aero condom’ and thinks the new waterproof jersey is the way to go on rainy days<\/a><\/p>\n

Shine bright like a Look Keo Vision pedal<\/p>\n

\"LookLook Keo Blade Ceramic Vision pedals motage Oct 2025 (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

I’m sure that’s how the Rihanna song goes, right? This autumn,\u00a0Look introduced the Keo Vision\u00a0road pedal<\/a>, which uses a light system, one per side, to show more of the rider to following traffic.\u00a0It\u00a0uses Biomotion principles to highlight movement too,\u00a0apparently this makes it\u00a05.5 times\u00a0more detectable than a steady light on a seat post, according to a 2020 study.<\/p>\n

The lights are\u00a0fully integrated, rechargeable and\u00a0easily removable, and available on the Keo Blade Carbon\u00a0Vision\u00a0for \u00a3229.99\u00a0and the\u00a0Keo 2 Max\u00a0Vision pedals for\u00a0\u00a3114.99. They can\u00a0also be retrospectively fitted\u00a0to 4th Gen Keo Blades and Keo Blade Power pedals when using the Keo Vision kit, which costs\u00a0\u00a354.99. It all got tech editor Mat thinking…<\/p>\n

>\u00a0When cycling safety tech collides with the law: Look’s new luminous pedals highlight that the Highway Code is still in dire need of an overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n

The future of cycling gear?<\/p>\n

\"PakBritePakBrite modular storage system (credit: PakBrite)<\/p>\n

2025 was also the year we were introduced to PakBrite’s modular carbon storage system<\/a>, something whose designer believes is “the future” of storing cycling gear and could replace “clunky saddlebags”. The \u00a3150 capsule features a 300-lumen brake-sensing rear light and uses a modular mounting system. We’ve got one in for review at the moment so expect more on this in the new year.<\/p>\n

“The lightest road bike on the market”<\/p>\n

\"CerveloCervelo R5 September 2025 (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

If Factor claimed its One is the\u00a0‘fastest bike’ of 2025,\u00a0Cerv\u00e9lo were the brand making the biggest claims about its being the lightest.\u00a0Sub-6kg and already ridden to Tour de France Femmes victory \u2014 Cerv\u00e9lo\u00a0was unsurprisingly very confident about its new climbing bike, the R5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 5.97kg, the Visma-Lease a Bike pros would need to add weight to get this above the UCI limit. It was a busy year for\u00a0Cerv\u00e9lo, the brand also releasing its S5, the aero bike Jack and I again channelled our inner grubby tabloid photographer<\/a> to get pics of at the\u00a0Dauphin\u00e9\u00a0(well, until the start of the race when everyone stopped caring about who’d seen what and photos became fair game).<\/p>\n

Campag brings back the thumb shifter and goes 13-speed<\/p>\n

\"CampagnoloCampagnolo Super Record 13-spd June 2025 (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Campagnolo\u00a0marked the early summer by\u00a0officially introducing\u00a0Super Record 13<\/a>,\u00a0the world’s first wireless 2×13-speed groupset for road cycling. As well as that extra sprocket, Campagnolo said\u00a0that Super Record 13 is the lightest 2x (double chainset) groupset available and the fastest-shifting on the market.<\/p>\n

The price was also lower than for\u00a012-speed Super Record Wireless,\u00a0although we’re still talking\u00a0a\u00a0suggested retail price\u00a0starting at \u00a33,900 for a\u00a0groupset without a power meter, and \u00a34,950 with a groupset that includes one.\u00a0Campagnolo Super Record Gravel also arrived\u00a0later in the year too.<\/p>\n

It’s not all about the bikes you’d need to sell a kidney to afford<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Canyon Endurance AllRoad (credit: Canyon)<\/p>\n

One of my favourite bike launch stories to write this year was Canyon’s\u00a0Endurace AllRoad<\/a>. Why? Because it’s great to still see a brand putting loads of work into offering cracking ‘entry level’ bikes. I say entry level with quote marks because we’re still talking about a\u00a0\u00a3949 price tag, but for the bike industry in 2025 that’s pretty good.<\/p>\n

Billed as the\u00a0“most versatile road bike possible at best possible price”,\u00a0Canyon told us it aimed\u00a0to shake up the endurance scene with “one road bike that can handle a bit of everything”, for less than a grand.<\/p>\n

The latest inflatable helmet… is it any good?<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Ventete aH-1 helmet and pump – worn side.jpg (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Back in April, on a particularly hot and sunny day for spring, I sweated my way over to Imperial College in London on a Santander Bike to hear from the team that has designed a new inflatable lid<\/a>, Ventete’s aH-1\u00a0The designers were impressive individuals and the testing set-up shown was interesting too, but was it any good?<\/p>\n

> REVIEW:\u00a0Ventete aH-1 helmet and pump<\/a><\/p>\n

As suspected, the weight and that \u00a3300 price tag are quite deflating, even if it’s hard not to be impressed by the brains who’ve brought it to market.<\/p>\n

A radical new pedal system<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Ekoi PW8 pedal system (credit: Ekoi)<\/p>\n

If you weren’t taken by Look’s bright new pedals, Ekoi\u00a0also brought out its radical road cycling pedal system in 2025<\/a>.\u00a0Ekoi claimed its\u00a0“revolutionary” PW8 shoe\/pedal system is “more efficient, lighter, more aerodynamic, easier to use” and can apparently save you up to eight watts… but does it have Look and Shimano scared?<\/p>\n

And finally… some good news for British bike building<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Mercian Ventura Allroad (credit: Mercian)<\/p>\n

There’s not really any way to dress it up, the past few years have been brutal for the bike industry, not least here in the UK. So it’s worth celebrating good news when we get a chance, such as Mercian releasing its first new model in two decades, having been saved from liquidation last year.<\/p>\n

And finally…<\/p>\n

The truth is our most-read stories of the year are rarely the ‘biggest’ per se. Here’s the list of random tech stories that got the most eyeballs in 2025.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0A 70g power meter with tool-free installation for \u00a3115? What’s the catch?<\/a><\/p>\n

> \u200bAldi unleashes latest batch of cycling bargains… but are they any good?<\/a><\/p>\n

>\u00a0Rim brakes, mechanical shifting and \u00a310 gear bags: check out the only bike to complete the full London\u2013Edinburgh\u2013London 2025 route<\/a><\/p>\n

>\u00a0Will these cut-price power meter pedals make pricier rivals obsolete? Magene launches P715 dual-sided pedals with +\/-1% claimed accuracy<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe Aldi will release a middle-aisle power meter next year and it’ll break the internet? What did you enjoy reading about in 2025 and what do you want to see more of in 2026? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the brilliant to the bizarre, we’ve seen it all in the world of bike tech this year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-376191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}