2009 was the beginning of our serious venture into the use of aluminium for bicycle frames. It does sound counter intuitive as it appears to be a backward progression from titanium to aluminium. However when considering that aluminium offers an affordable, light and stiff alternative, coupled with the fact that it also offered a more readily available high performance bicycle to more cyclists, it definitely made us look seriously into it.
The Faith is a true work horse for the competitive cyclist. There is literally nothing that this frame can't do. It took months of designing and testing. However we feel that it was all worth it. The design although appearing simple finally achieved the goal of a lightweight, stiff/ responsive and relatively inexpensive frame. Size S frame weights 1.25kg. The frame is anodised black for ease of maintenance and to keep the weight low. All welds are finished smooth for a more seamless aesthetic, although you should note that there is a slight colour difference between the welds and tubing as different materials have different resulting colours when anodised. It is also the first time we have ventured into the use of a new bottom bracket standard, the BB30, which should increase the stiffness of the frame even further.
During the design process, all tubes were inspected, and their validity questioned as we sought to keep the weight low as well as to increase the stiffness of the frame, something that was as we found out really hard to do with aluminium tubes. The Downtube flares to a massive cross section/ diameter at the BB for maximum stiffness. This is made possible by the use of a BB30 shell and also hydroforming the tubes. Front-end steering is also kept exceptionally controlled with the use of also a tapering top tube that increases in size as it reaches the head tube. We considered the use of a tapering head tube but felt that the increase in weight and stiffness wasn't warranted especially for aluminium.In fact the resultant stiffness may lead to a really harsh ride especially with aluminium.
Overall, this is a serious all around road racing frame which will make for a great pure racing and training bike.
- Material: 7005 T6 Triple Butted
- Headset Type: Internal (included)
- BB: BB30 (adapter included)
- Seatube: 27.2mm
- Fork: Full carbon monocoque SOUL fork 370-390g uncut
Price: S$850/USD600 (Frameset including frame, fork, headset and BB30 adapter)
Frames
Specification
