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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
