At the end of last year we saw Werking Cycles’ first custom carbon road bike – the Model A – which was built as a light and stiff racer. Now they have come back with a new bike that was in final development then, but is now available. The new Model S uses more shaped tubing profiles than their previous bike to build in more rider comfort. While the new frame adds only about 10g over the racier bike, the Model S is targeted at longer Gran Fondo-style riding and mixes a stiff drivetrain with a bit of seatstay flex for those long days in the saddle. Plus with the addition of a new replaceable dropout setup, Werking is said to be able to offer both rim brake or disc brake specific frames…
Like the Model A, the new Model S is completely built by hand in Werking’s Trentino, Italy workshop. Each bike is custom made to order, so full-custom geometry is a given for each buyer. Werking will either work from the data from a professional bike fit, or work individually with each rider to come up with sizing and geometry suited to the buyer.
The all-day road Model S claims a frame weight of less than 900g, with the size 54cm here said to weigh just 860g.
The Model S uses a modular cable routing system that puts housing inside the top & downtubes, then external along the stays, and can work with either mechanical or electronic groupsets. Of course being custom, you can also choose not to include any extra braze-ons or to build in more for future flexibility.
The Model S is made up of a new shaped T1000 tubing set, sized and bound together with a T1000 overwrap. Highlights of the tubing are boxy top & down tubes and tall squared-off chainstays for drivetrain stiffness, and thin flat seatstays for comfort.
The seattube tapers from full-width at the bottom bracket to Werking’s own superlight carbon seatpost clamp, with an inset front derailleur braze-on. It gets an oversized 44mm headtube, with a tapered steerer fork, and uses a standard threaded bottom bracket, although PressFit versions are also available.
Something new with Model S is the move to a new interchangeable bolt-on dropout solution. This lets Werking build the Model S for either quick releases or 12mm thru-axles, without otherwise altering the frame. That also means that if you get a QR frame now and want to upgrade to a thru-axle in the future, all you would need to do is swap out the dropouts. Spacing is said to be dealt with in the modular dropout, so the QR will be 130mm and the thru-axle 12x142mm.
With the addition of thru-axles, Werking also has decided to go forward with a disc brake version of the Model S. The disc version will be a completely unique frameset. It uses different seat and chainstays, and will be disc only. It’s still unclear if it will use post mount or flat mount disc standards, depending on the results of their last stage of testing.
Currently Werking are finalizing the last prototypes of the disc bike, with a few minor tweaks still remaining. They are taking orders now though, for customers interested in the disc brake version of the Model S. It will add 100€ premium to the base frameset and will also have an Enve fork upgrade option.
Base pricing for the Model S is 3500€ for a framekit. That includes the custom geometry Model S frame, Werking’s classic Dedacciai fork, a Chris King InSet headset, and their carbon seatpost clamp. Buyers can also upgrade to an Enve fork if desired.
Delivery time on a custom Model S depends a bit on how busy they are as a small frame shop. But it is currently about 4 months from the start of the process until delivery of the completed frame with their current queue. Each frame is fully custom, so if you want one it is time to commit to be riding at the start of 2017.
