Java Bikes is a Singapore brand that has a wide range of standard and aero road bikes, various mountain bikes, and plenty of youth and folding bikes in their mostly generic catalog. So it was a pleasant surprise to find this forward-looking aero road bike in their booth. The frame has a single pivot, short travel design relying on a short, firm elastomer to take the edge off bumps and potholes…something we could see having a lot of potential in the gravel segment. Here, though, it’s strictly designed around the road.
A yoke connects the oversized, rectangular chainstays to the seatstays, which along with the oversized pivot bearings encircling the bottom bracket should keep the rear end stiff.
The elastomer felt very stiff, suggesting it won’t be overly active and suffer from pedal bob, but still be able to mitigate harder hits from square-edge impacts like potholes. Likely, it’ll also reduce vibrations a bit.
We’re guessing the Deca (Dega?) cranks are a house brand, but the Asian halls are full of crankset and chainring manufacturers showing similar items, including the one-piece double chainrings.
The other interesting part of this bike is the aero stem, which routes some of the cables under a cover plate and out the back to hide them from the wind.
We’re seeing more and more of these types of stem concepts pop up.
They had another iteration on this TT bike that worked with center pull aero brakes…
…by routing the cable around a pulley wheel and out the bottom of the stem.
