Self-inflating tyre know-how had a hiatus from the Paris-Roubaix and Classics peloton in the course of the 2024 season after its preliminary landmark first use in 2023, nonetheless, after the success of Marianne Vos utilizing the know-how en path to Gravel World Championships victory, are they set to return subsequent spring?
It is Vos’s commerce staff Visma-Lease a Bike who’ve been noticed utilizing the Dutch model Gravaa’s KAPS system throughout a current coaching session on the cobbled roads of Flanders, after they first trialled the adjustable tyre stress system in a race there at Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2023.
The system was authorised in April of 2022 by the UCI after Workforce DSM had additionally been engaged on an analogous on-the-go tyre stress administration system with the Scope Atmoz.
Key Classics leaders Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Dylan van Baarle and Tiesj Benoot, who additionally used the wheelset at Gravel Worlds, may all be seen on their Cervélo S5 street bikes sporting a bigger entrance hub that homes the know-how.
Contained in the wheel hubs lies a mini compressor and clutch which can be utilized to inflate the stress of the tyre on the fly whereas on stable terrain, earlier than decreasing stress to accommodate rougher terrain the place decrease stress may optimise rolling resistance.
Vos confirmed to Cyclingnews at Gravel Worlds that she had incessantly used the system in the course of the race to nice impact, “with greater stress on the end” the place she pipped Lotte Kopecky to victory in a two-up dash, “but additionally with decreasing the stress on rougher monitor” to get away within the lead group.
The Gravaa working system was housed in the fitting bar finish on Vos’s gravel setup for straightforward entry in the course of the race.
Whereas Van Aert was utilizing the Gravaa wheelset made with Visma’s wheel sponsor Reserve in coaching, he was one of many Visma riders who did not use the adjustable tyre stress set at Roubaix in 2023. He finally completed that race in third after a late puncture noticed his nice rival Mathieu van der Poel journey solo to the win.
Gravaa’s proprietor, Gertjan van Ginderen, defined on the Gravel World Championships that the system has been developed significantly since its preliminary launch in 2022 and first race makes use of in 2023.
“So we improved the electronics lots, I need to say,” he advised Cyclingnews. “So there is a PCB [printed circuit board] inside every hub, and that is very weak for moisture grime, so we have truly made a change contained in the know-how to have it fully potted.
“So it is fully potted the electronics within the epoxy. We have modified the antenna, we have modified the disc brakes, together with the interface of the disc brakes, additionally to be suitable with different spoke configurations.”
The system makes use of a kinetic pump, pushed by the rotation of the wheel which implies it would not must be charged and would not use an inner CO2 canister as seen on among the beforehand examined self-inflation programs. Meaning the tyre may be deflated and inflated as a rider requires.
“This principally is a really small compressor clutch mechanism and digital printed circuit board, and the hubs discuss with one another,” Van Ginderen defined. “So the entrance hub is the grasp, whereas the rear up is a slave. And to the entrance up, you may join both your smartphone or your bicycle laptop, so long as it’s Bluetooth suitable.”
Following the success of Vos in Leuven, may 2025 be the 12 months self-inflating tyres actually grow to be the brand new development in street racing? Visma’s males’s staff are actually getting used to the system early in case they do go for their leaders to make use of it come The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April.
With the updates and upgrades to the technical system and Gravaa’s broader enterprise improvement, Visma operating this method within the cobbled races would run true with Van Ginderen’s assured that the know-how would grow to be extra of a mainstay within the Dutch staff’s tools setup on the Classics.
