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Curve Belgie Ultra widens continent crossing, cobble crushing titanium all-road bike

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, complete
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Curve’s continent-crossing titanium Belgie all-road bike gets an even-lighter Ultra update for next year with bigger tires and updated geometry to break down any remaining barriers to your next ultra-endurance adventure. Now in its third all-road iteration, the Belgie Ultra promises premium road bike performance in a frameset that’s comfortable for all-day & multi-day riding, and not afraid to leave pavement behind…

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, sunset
c. Curve

Its first Belgie edition was ridden for the win at the 6900km 2015 Trans Am Bike Race, the second one as Belgie Spirit took on the 5545km Indian Pacific Wheel Race, then an 18,000km 72 day record from Norway to South Africa, plus a nice handful of Transcontinental finishes in between. Needless to say, Curve has created some amazingly capable endurance bikes in their ti all-road Belgie over the years.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, riding

Now for 2021 it goes Ultra, fitting even bigger tires than before to venture further off-road, and stretching out its wheelbase for more comfort & improved handling, loaded down or not.

What’s new in Australian designed all-road titanium?

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, rear end clearance

The most noticeable update is new clearance for up to 700c x 35mm tires (up from 32mm before.) It’s still an all-road bike, so some 35mm knobbies might end up with limited mud clearance on modern wide rims. But it probably means any 33mm cross tire will fit, as will most large volume slicks.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, complete angled

The other big changes are in updated geometry that works with the bigger tires and ultra-endurance  focus of the bike. The Curve Belgie Ultra still comes in a super wide eight size range (46-64cm), so getting the fit is important from small to tall endurance riders.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, geometry
update ultra-endurance geometry

Chainstays grow up to 7mm depending on frame size to around 428mm. Front centers grow even more to minimize toe-overlap with big tires & a few minor other geo tweaks – adding up to increases of around 10-20mm to overall wheelbase. And BB drop increases a bit to get similar weight balance with the taller tires.

All bikes get longer Reach for improved handling with shorter modern cockpits. And Stack heights get tweaked for better fit as well, with less stack for smaller riders & more for taller riders.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, frameset front

Less obvious are several minor upgrades to the new Belgie Ultra’s 3/2.5 ti frame itself. Slightly thinner 16mm diameter S-bend seatstays offer a bit more give out back, and a new tapered headtube lends a sleeker look up front.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, rear

The bike also replaces the welded-on front derailleur tab with a band clamp since many riders are going 1x, and more modular internal/external cable routing solutions that allow full mechanical or electronic groupset compatibility in a single setup (external mechanical shift wire guides are removable). It also adds toptube bento box bosses, and even more room in the main triangle with repositioned bottle bosses to fit more bag & bottle combos.

The end result is 180g weight savings, bringing a 56cm Belgie Ultra frame to 1630g.

All-road ti –  Tech details

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, on-road

The Belgie Ultra now uses an integrated headset for the full carbon, tapered steerer all-road fork, gets 12mm thru-axle and flat mount disc brakes front & rear. It includes a 31.8mm alloy seatpost clamp & front derailleur hanger, gets a T47 threaded bottom bracket, a 27.2mm seatpost, and Curve’s real Cocky headtube badge.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra – Pricing, options, ordering & availability

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, complete studio side

Buying a titanium Curve frameset doesn’t exactly come cheap at A$4000 (~$3025/2480€), But the ti Belgie Ultra does come with a lifetime warranty, making that outlay a bit easier to accept. If you order your Belgie Ultra frameset now, Curve says it will arrive in March.

2021 Curve Belgie Ultra titanium endurance all-road bike, Ryan Flinn Belgie Spirit
Curve’s co-owner Ryan Flinn on his 100,000km Belgie Spirit

If you want a complete bike, it’s going to take even longer. The complete build sells for A$10,000 (~$7560/6200€) decked out with a SRAM Force AXS eTap 2×12 groupset & carbon wheels, but the pandemic has really slowed Curve’s supply of components, much like many other small bike companies.

CurveCycling.com.au

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21 Comments
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nooner
nooner
3 years ago

Yes Please, more Titanium!

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago

they are really charging $4000 for a run of the mill rebranded Taiwanese titanium frame? i thought Ritte was bad

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago
Reply to  Cory Benson

you can get custom geometry, custom tubing diameter, custom mountings for under $1000 shipped from Walty. If you like the curve belgie just copy and paste the product page, they’ll make the exact bike for 1/3 the price, use the $2000 you saved on a nice di2 groupset

Steve
Steve
3 years ago

Ah Involuntary Soul, once again putting their ignorance on display.

Yeah go ahead and pay waltly to rip off this bike, but don’t be surprised when it arrives with an oval bb/head tube from poor heat management while welding and no qc. If you’re lucky that won’t happen, and you’ll get a few years out of it before it cracks, because again, without qc you got a frame welded with subpar shielding and inferior tube prep leaving enough contamination to fail after repeated stress. And then you go back to them and ask for warranty coverage, which they aren’t going to provide. Meanwhile you’re out a bike for a couple months best case, and worst case you’re dropping a few grand getting teeth put back in your head at the dentist.

You may have google at your fingertips, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.

But by all means, keep chiming in at every opportunity to badmouth companies for making their bikes in *checks notes* Taiwan, where the lion’s share of the world’s most highly regarded bikes are made, while charging prices that allow them to offer warranty support and feed their families.

satanas
satanas
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

FWIW, I ordered a custom frame from Waltly last year and was entirely happy with it. There were no problems with fit, finish or QC; it was exactly as per the final drawing (not always true of local builders), and everything went together easily. It rode very well, but was unfortunately stolen in the UK. I’d have no hesitation about ordering another frame from them, but you do need to be able to read and interpret drawings(!).

This is not to say there’s anything wrong with Curve; I’m sure their bikes are fine, but they wouldn’t fit me very well, true of most stock bikes.

Bashing companies based on perceptions due to their locations is IMHO annoying and pointless. Good, bad or morally bankrupt work or subcontracting can be done anywhere, depending on the business’s priorities or (lack of) ethics.

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Weld crack on a titanium frame is very common, even made in USA lynskey and lightspeed have their fair share of weld cracks. It is just a shit material for bike frame in general

Robin
Robin
3 years ago

” It is just a shit material for bike frame in general”

Well there’s a statement that has zero objective merit, let alone any scientific or engineering support.

Tim
Tim
3 years ago
Reply to  Robin

I won’t go as far as Involuntary Soul by saying that titanium is shit as a material for bike frames, but I will say that I think there is little reason to use it anymore. Ti frames typically for gravel use typically weigh 3.5 to 4 pounds and cost a couple thousand dollars.
A custom steel frame would cost around half of that, weigh the same, and have perhaps a bit worse ride quality than ti. A shot of Framesaver would keep rust at bay. An aluminum frame would weigh around a half pound less, cost a thousand dollars less, offer similar corrosion resistance, but have worse ride quality. A carbon frame would cost a lot less than ti, weigh a pound and a half less, offer great ride quality and freedom from corrosion, while sacrificing only catastrophic impact resistance.
Basically, ti is for status seekers, people nostalgic for the 1990s, and those who value ride quality and impact resistance so much they’ll pay thousands extra for those things.

Robin
Robin
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

What about people that appreciate the look of Ti? Or people that have had Ti bikes and loved the way they rode?

Sorry but steel, CF, and aluminum aren’t the only reasonable choices.

Tim
Tim
3 years ago
Reply to  Robin

I did think of the look of ti afterwards. If you’re willing to pay an extra thousand bucks for the color grey, OK.
As for ride quality, carbon can match or beat ti (because carbon’s more tunable) at a lower price and weight, while steel can match or nearly beat it at a lower price for the same weight.
I just don’t see the rationale for ti bikes for almost anyone anymore.

Robin
Robin
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim

No one’s forcing you to buy a Ti bike, but the suggestion you made for the reasons for buying a Ti bike are at best myopic.

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago
Reply to  Robin

it is specifically marketed toward the hipster wannabes, people who knows bike would not pay fully custom price on a stock frame. Curve’s OEM does not know who will be riding the frame, so they have to use the strong heavy tubings for those 300lb+ riders. If you are under that weight, the bike will be way overbuild and rides like hot garbage.

Tim Sexton
Tim Sexton
3 years ago

@ Involuntary- sources or it didn’t happen!

Robin
Robin
3 years ago

Yeah, I’m willing to bet you know absolutely nothing about frame design or the mechanical properties of frame materials.

blahnblahblah
blahnblahblah
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

its probably walty or xocd who make this frame anyway

Anonymous
Anonymous
3 years ago

Fun fact, Waltly is Curve’s OEM

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

nah, they use XACD , the chainstay on the Curve GRX is a dead giveaway.

https://www.ti-product.com/titanium-cyclocross-bicycle-frameflatmount.html

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
3 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

they actually use XACD, the chainsay on their GRX is a dead giveaway

Derek Brooke
Derek Brooke
3 years ago

What’s with the brake cable rubbing on the fork crown

Greg
Greg
3 years ago
Reply to  Derek Brooke

Possibly due to the Moto lever setup

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