Few bike makers can boast of being around for 125 years, so Italian Olympia Cycles says they have several new bikes to celebrate in 2018. The first is a rebirth of their Boost model, a carbon aero road bike reworked to roll on 28mm tires for faster performance in all conditions and with ever more integration.
Olympia Boost wide tire, integrated carbon aero road bike
Founded in 1893, the Padua-based company has been developing advanced bikes longer than almost anyone else in the industry. Their latest Boost project takes their staple road bike and reimagines it as a more integrated, more comfortable, and more aerodynamic bike for everything from gran fondos to stage racing.
Olympia worked closely with fellow Italian company Vittoria to develop the latest aero bike around the best tires on the market. Their testing confirmed what has become a significant trend lately, that 28mm tires outperformed the previous standard of 25mm (or even 23s) in almost every characteristic. The wider tires had lower rolling resistance, improved grip, and the ability to better adapt to varied road surfaces at lower pressures lending a less fatiguing ride. And with some simple accommodations in the wide carbon tube shaping and wheel cutouts, Olympia could match the same aerodynamic performance.
Aero details
The T1000 carbon monocoque Boost also gets plenty of other frame and component integration to minimize its aero drag. The bike’s cockpit features an aero seatpost with an internal wedge-style clamp, and an aero shaped stem with integrated headset spacers that still allows the use of standard 31.6 handlebars to offer a full range of fitting adjustability.
The bike also transitions the fork crown smoothly into the dramatically shaped downtube, which then gets cut out even further to house Olympia’s own integrated carbon bottle cage.
The Boost frame also moves to direct mount caliper brakes, tucking the rear brake behind the bottom bracket, as they offer greater tire clearance and generally improved brake performance. Of course the full carbon frame also gets full internal cable routing as well.
Olympia sees the Boost as the best that road bikes have to offer these days, pairing race level performance with everyday versatility. The Boost is available in a four size (S-XL) range and two paint jobs, both mixing gloss & matte finishes – white/red/black & black/silver/carbon.
Complete bike builds offer either the top of the line Shimano Dura-Ace r9100 group, or a more affordable Ultegra build.
