March's Tech of the Month: Pinarello, new Specialized shoes, DT Swiss wheels and Evoc's bike bag
Spring is in the air - well it was almost summer-like in February - so we have a packed Tech of the Month with great spring time products
It's the time of year that plenty of cyclists head out to sunnier climes to ride nicer, warmer and more cyclist-friendly roads to finish off that winter base ready for the summer season ahead.
By chance the Tech team has three products that fit the bill for your spring rider ,whether home or abroad.
DT Swiss Spline 23
These wheels will no doubt enhance your performance over stock wheels that came with your bike. Equally, if you wanted to give your carbon wheels a rest then something like these will be the ideal option as they'll be more robust without losing all of the performance side.
Many brands use DT Swiss for its hubs and spokes so quality is second-to-none and these 350 hubs use all the same tech inside its more expensive wheelsets, although they are a little less refined in terms of weight.
Tech Editor scored these a solid nine out of 10. See the full review here >>> DT Swiss Spline 1600 23
Specialized S-Works Exos
Brand new for 2019 are the Specialized S-Works Exos road shoes that are said to be the lightest production Boa dial road shoe on the market at 158g per shoe in a size 43.
Unlike the S-Works 7 shoes which uses only a small section of Dyneema material, the whole of the Exos upper is used with it. This is expensive but also is very durable and immensely lightweight. Impressively, Tech writer Ruper Radley claims these still feel stiff and are really comfortable.
The new Exos shoes certainly fall into the 'money-no-object' category and will set you back £450.
Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro
It is that time of year to travel with your beloved bike and for all us cyclists it is a worrying time to put our pride and joy in the hands of baggage handlers.
The Evoc Bike travel Bag Pro essentially is a hybrid between a hard box and a soft bag, giving you the best of both worlds in terms of easy travel and bike protection. This Evoc bag in particular has an aluminium frame insert that you can easily remove to take down/ build up your bike pre and post travel.
Two side wheel compartment also mean the wheels stay away from any precious paint schemes too.
Pinarello Prince
The Prince was once Pinarello's top end racing machine, Oscar Pereiro won the 2006 Tour de France on one. But now it's the Italian brands 'mid ranged' bike, however, at a glance it is hard to distinguish between the new Prince and the current Pinarello F10.
Yes, it'll use a lower grade carbon, although the frameset still comes under a 1kg, but you still get a number of features found on the £10,000 sibling.
At £3,300 it is the first time in a long time Pinarello has offer some performance at a much more reasonable price. But, as seen here, you do have to forfeit some of the spec. Mechanical Shimano Ultegra for example rather than Di2 and Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels are good but don't match up in terms of price.
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