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Updated: Alberto Contador & Ivan Basso pair up to tease A new road bike brand

A_bikes, a new carbon road bike of Basso and Contador, Gobik tease
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What bikes are retired road pro Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso riding these days? Based on each of their Instagram feeds, the A on the headtube of the masked bike they have been leaking, and the teasingly named new @Abikesofficial company account… the two look set to debut an all-new A _ _ _ _ Bikes brand next Tuesday with a new road bike…

UPDATE: The bikes now have a name – Aurum – and we have the full details here!

Contador & Basso’s new A _ _ _ _ Bikes road bike brand

Both ex-pros shared this carbon road bike teaser today, giving us a moody look at one black and one blue road bike, teasing an official reveal coming soon on September 29th – next Tuesday. A quick dive into both Basso’s & Contador’s Instagram profiles, and it looks like they’ve been riding the same road bike covered in various camouflaging stripes since January of this year. They look to be the same as what’s in this video teaser as far as we can tell.

So what do we know about A Bikes?

A_bikes, a new carbon road bike of Basso and Contador, blue camo
all photos courtesy of: @abikesofficial, @acontadoroficial & @ivanbasso

A few things have remained clear and constant over the last nine months’ time: traditional road shaping, disc brakes, smooth roads, crazy premium bike builds (they are ex-champions, after all), that A headbadge, and one more thing on the headtube…

A_bikes, a new carbon road bike of Basso and Contador, headtube

At first the bike looked to feature fully internal cable routing, but at the top of the headtube is a cable port unlike what we are used to seeing on recent road bikes. The cables appear to remain external, in front of the headset, but then go straight down into the frame. It’s unclear how much exposed cable this will really need to allow for regular bar rotation, but it certainly is a tidy-looking solution that seems to retain standard cockpit compatibility.

A_bikes, a new carbon road bike of Basso and Contador, 6.19kg

Oh, and no surprise… but the bike looks light. Contador hung his size 54cm bike with a Dura-Ace Di2 group, 4iiii power meter, Lightweight wheels/bar/stem/seatpost, Continental Competition tires, and carbon railed Bontrager saddle on a home travel scale for a complete weight of 6.19kg (13.6lb).

Yeah, that sub-UCI build is going to cost you!

Speaking of the UCI, the current list of UCI-approved frames does not include any new five-letter bike brand names starting with A that we’ve never heard of. So, it’s unclear if this new A _ _ _ _ Bikes frameset will be approved for racing, even if you build it up over 6.8kg.

A_bikes, a new carbon road bike of Basso and Contador, complete

As for the rest of the details, we’ll have to wait until Tuesday. That is unless Basso or  Contador reveal even more over social media in the meantime…

Update: Basso & Contador’s first all-new road bike, the Aurum Magma has now been revealed. And it is every bit as premium as we expected!

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Bob
Bob
4 years ago

Looks great. 2021 Emonda with a sleeker seatpost.

Adam Rice
Adam Rice
4 years ago

I do dig the dazzle-ship paint scheme.

The New Traditionalist
The New Traditionalist
4 years ago
Reply to  Adam Rice

TimE
TimE
4 years ago

AEPOH

Czechmate
Czechmate
4 years ago

It’s so refreshing to see a traditional double-diamond frame with an (almost) horizontal top tube and (what appears to be) a round seat post.
A true breath of fresh air amidst the unrelenting flood of dropped seat stays and proprietary kamm-tail D-shaped seat posts.
The dazzle-camo paint scheme is there to mask and disrupt the frame shape? Leave it on there, I’ll take one as it is… as a paint job it’s just as refreshing as the actual frame design.

El Pataron
El Pataron
4 years ago

No. No no no no no. Nope. No. Just no.

Oliver
Oliver
4 years ago

If they need some help with branding and model names, I’d like to offer some freebies.

A-Bikes Haemocrit
A-Bikes Transfusion
A-bikes Plasma
A-Bikes T-Level

Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
4 years ago
Reply to  Oliver

I’m guessing they won’t consult with you on this matter. Usually the things that are offered for free are free for a reason.

Julio
Julio
4 years ago

A-Pistolized
or
Arms-Trong

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
4 years ago

nothing to see here, just some $600 Chinese open mold that they will price to $4000

Jeff
Jeff
4 years ago

Just like specialized, trek, Santa Cruze and the like.

Sunn
Sunn
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

exactly

Alfus
Alfus
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

Spec, Trek or Santa Cruz are open molds? really..?

Robin
Robin
4 years ago

I look forward to seeing your proof. Obviously you have ironclad proof to make such a bold claim.

Jeff
Jeff
4 years ago
Reply to  Robin

It’s 2020, I don’t need proof. Hahaha.

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
4 years ago

I was wrong is actually priced to $4600, gotta love that profit margin $600 frameset + $4000 marketing

Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
4 years ago

None of the companies you listed are open mold.

Jeff
Jeff
4 years ago
Reply to  Eggs Benedict

Maybe not open mold but their frames are made in the same factories by the same companies as the open mold frames are.

Robin
Robin
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

That means nothing and says nothing about any of the frames. The devil is in the details, specifically CF layup, QC requirements, tolerances, and whatever other requirements are stipulated in the contracts.

Dinger
Dinger
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

Did designers and engineers make your car, or the guys who put on the windshield wipers and door handles?

tinkertowncycle
4 years ago

Bunch of old crotchety bike farts on here spieling their gospels of bike beliefs. I find it entertaining, please keep expressing your worthless opinions as true as they maybe.

Kindly,

Bike person #320949851

Stefan Kowalczyk
Stefan Kowalczyk
4 years ago

A touch of strange… Why not:

a) dropped seatstays?
b) Kamm-tail seatpost?
c) sloping geometry?

These features are supposed to be all the rage & super aero. Or are they?

Jason West
Jason West
4 years ago

@Robin. You always need proof for this for that. You make fun sports banter a total drag, ughhh..:-(

Steve Cohen
Steve Cohen
4 years ago

OMG it’s OMD

Steve h
Steve h
4 years ago
Reippuert
Reippuert
4 years ago

which openmold ?

Jim Rawson
Jim Rawson
4 years ago

No ne of thos 3 brands are made in the same factory. Trek = Giant, Specialized = Merida, and Santa Cruz claims their own Taiwan factory which we know is BS.

Alfus
Alfus
4 years ago
Reply to  Jim Rawson

Santa Cruz are made in the same factory as Mondraker, Cervelo and Focus.

M. K.
M. K.
4 years ago
Reply to  Alfus

“Trek has two manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin — one in Waterloo and one in Whitewater. Overseas, it builds in Germany, Holland and China. In 2011, CEO John Burke said Trek’s sales were more than $800 million.”

Source: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/jul/28/scott-walker/scott-walker-says-trek-makes-99-its-bicycles-overs/

Only a part of it is made in China, and I’m not even sure if it still happens at the Giant factory. I hear that they have their own factory now, but I can’t confirm if that part is true.

That said, the chairman of Giant Bicycles also says production is being moved away from China nowadays, which in my opinion is a great thing since we cannot keep accepting China terrorizing the world (such as their current holocaust against Uighurs, google it, it’s shocking and them ruining world health):

“According to Tu, increasingly companies are “moving production close to your market,” which in Giant’s case means building a factory in Gyongyos, Hungary for the European market as well as seeking a partner in Southeast Asia where Vietnam, for example, is a major bicycle exporter.”

Source: https://road.cc/content/news/262468-made-china-era-over-says-giant-worlds-biggest-bike-maker-and-blames-donald

That said, I don’t see anything new in this bike brand. It looks outdated and seems indeed to be some cheap off the shelve catalog frame from a random Chinese factory. In my opinion, if you don’t have anything new to add to the industry, don’t create a new bike brand. It’s absolutely useless and even if the owners are famous, doomed to fail at the moment it will be reviewed and tested against other bikes.

Involuntary Soul
Involuntary Soul
4 years ago
Reply to  M. K.

Trek carbon frames are currently made by Quest composites in Dongguan China, the same company also make Canyon bikes

Bryin
Bryin
4 years ago

Thank God! The world needed another made in China, carbon bike.

WorkOnSunday
WorkOnSunday
4 years ago

seems heavy with all these LW components…. like the paint job tho.

you see
4 years ago

Festka must feel honored. Or not?

Frank
Frank
4 years ago

Does somebody know … is there now a presentation of this bike or not ?

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