Rose is direct-to-consumer European brand unfamiliar to most of us in the states. Their pitch is letting the consumer choose any compatible spec on any frame and order exactly the bike they want, and they seem to have a decent reputation for quality from what we’ve heard. I saw several of their bikes on display at Roc d’Azur last year and was impressed with the looks and finish, so I chatted ’em up a bit at Eurobike about the two new models.
The Xeon Disc road bike is, as the name suggests, spec’d with mechanical disc brakes. This one’s built with Ultegra Di2, other primary builds are standard Ultegra or SRAM Force. It’s sporting 160mm rotors front and rear and uses an carbon fork and triple butted alloy frame. Seatstays are flat to smooth things out a bit. Geometry is relaxed a bit from a race bike, made for riders that just want to get out and ride. Spec includes DT wheels and wider 25c Continental tires. Brake spec isn’t finalized, it could be Shimano, Avid or even Formula if they start selling their Di2/EPS hydraulic brake kits aftermarket. Available with DT Swiss’ RWS skewers.
These pre-production Shimano mechanical disc brakes were all over the Eurobike show floor. Expect them to be on a lot of bikes next year.
Xeon CW is a new carbon aero road bike that will start at about €3990 with Ultegra. The design is still being finalized and tested. It’s meant as a top end race bike, the opposite of the Xeon Disc.
