Dice has an all-new light-weight prototype Litening TE aero street bicycle in functions, being race-tested now by the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert professional staff. Mixing aerodynamic influences from their present-day aero road Litening, this new prototype bike gets considerably thinner from front to back in a lighter change we expect to wholly reshape Cube’s signature street race bike later this summer…
Dice Litening TE prototype lightweight aero street bicycle
By now raced by way of the steeper phases of the Giro d’Italia last thirty day period, I caught a further glimpse of the prototype bicycle this week at the Tour de Suisse. So I received a little bit of a closer appear at the new bike… tucked in hidden powering the present-day Litening, which I rode when it debuted back in 2019…
Prototype Development & Tests
c. Dice, Giro 2022 photograph by Biking Media Company
The very first issue we would maybe surmise is that Dice is maintaining the Litening name for this dramatically redesigned street race bicycle, many thanks to the Litening TE labels painted on the prototypes’ toptubes. But beyond the identify, fairly a ton of this prototype has been reshaped.
The bike nonetheless seems to be obviously optimized for aerodynamics, but its over-all profile is considerably thinner and lighter than the recent Litening.
Whilst it retains aero integration, it does nonetheless change again to a extra traditional, broader-searching headtube with only delicate hourglass shaping as a result of its mid-section.
c. Cube, Giro 2022 image by Biking Media Agency
The Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Crew looks to have had at the very least some of these prototypes even due to the fact late last time, and given that the commence of 2022 has started racing them consistently. At the sprint-significant start off of this year’s Giro d’Italia practically all of the workforce was nevertheless on the deep aero-formed existing Litening, suggesting the older bike might nevertheless be stiffer or a lot more aerodynamic.
But by the Giro’s second 7 days when racing obtained into the big mountains, almost every bike on the group auto was the very likely lighter Litening TE prototype.
What’s new?
There are two most obvious improvements in the new prototype Litening TE…
c. Cube, Giro 2022 image by Biking Media Agency
Very first, the elimination of the smaller webbed transition at the seat cluster suggests there might be extra aero gainz via a flatter toptube and simply just replying on the Kamm tail aero shape of the seattube. The seatpost seems to share the exact same deeper aero profile of the current bike, a modest rear wheel cutout, and still a 3-bolt setscrew clamp from the rear of the seattube.
But the seattube itself probably will get a steeper angle as all of the prototype Dice Litening TE group bikes have been equipped with setback seatposts, whilst quite a few of the existing model bikes use zero offset posts.
The other main variation is a noticeably thinner fork. From its legs to its crown, the Litening TE fork appears to be lighter. The new fork does not definitely transition its form into a wider downtube, as a substitute the new fork legs keep extensive-set until eventually a more rounded crown and the downtube pulled up higher absent from airflow coming off the front tire.
The new Cube Litening TE prototype also continue to gets fully internal cable routing at the headset. But now it options a much more common-wanting straight 1.5″ headset that sits higher than the toptube (in its place of remaining inset), continuing with wider, extra spherical steerer tube spacers. That indicates a improve in the real routing into the body – the place it just before entered at the rear of a 1 1/8″ headset bearing, now it appears to be like to go as a result of the 1 1/2″ upper bearing.
Cube Litening TE – When is it coming?
Overall, this prototype Cube Litening TE road bicycle appears to be like considerably less like a devoted aero street bicycle – in contrast to the Litening launched in 2019 – and additional like a modern all-rounder race bicycle, improved balancing aerodynamics AND gentle pounds. Out only authentic problem that remains is will it wholly switch the existing Litening C:68X SLT that Biniam Girmay rode to some spectacular effects at the Giro d’Italia this yr? Or regardless of whether the two bikes will be capable to co-exist – 1 as a flat stage aero sprinter’s bicycle and the other as a lightweight climber’s bicycle or even a functional all-rounder?
Ridden now from the northern Spring Classics to the summer Grand Excursions, the new prototype Litening TE appears to be like like a far more adaptable highway race bicycle than the present aero road era.
The genuine question now comes down to when we anticipate a appropriate start of the new bicycle?
The Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert crew manufactured some huge milestones previously this year, with Classics and Grand Tour phase wins for their Eritrean front male Biniam Girmay Hailu, among quite a few others as they’ve stepped up to the leading-tier UCI WorldTeam amount starting final calendar year. As soon as all over again, the Tour de France is the major demonstrate, and we wouldn’t be astonished to see German bike sponsor Cube use this as a large system to promote their hottest best-tier street racing bicycle.
After all, it is been practically a yr of racing below the square UCI Prototype label, and that is as long as the bike maker formally gets right before they have to offer you the new bicycle for sale to consumers underneath the UCI’s technological machines regulations. So, we’ll continue to keep out ears open up in the initially 7 days of July…