The new range of Trek Speed Concepts finally arrived in NZ last week, allowing two of my clients to finally get some sleep (as they both wished to race on the weekend just gone).

The XL model had to be special ordered so is the only one around, the small is a bit more widely available.

I was pleasantly surprised by how sharp the white-green-black paint scheme looks in person – very crisp. In fact the graphics are much refined overall – not nearly as many TREK labels as previous models.

As usual the S-Bend bars were swapped out immediately – for trusty Vision TT Clip-ons on the S and 3T Aura on the XL.

The bikes come fitted with KMC chains so I used the Ultrasonic bath to remove the sticky grease and relubed with a light oil that saves roughly 1w of power. Well, I did for the S – the owner of the XL turned up shortly after the bike box arrived and I worked on it till 11.15pm – Ultrasonic baths tend to fall by the wayside in that situation.

Both riders raced in their first few days of ownership with really good rides so both were well pleased with their freshly minted (pun intended) Speed Concepts.

And another client who bought a Speed Concept 7.5 after I advised that it would save 2-3mins over 20km had a personal best ride by 5mins over 42km in a Tri – nice to have proof that my analyses are accurate…