It took 3 years to subvert and innovate. The SEKA brand has once again unveiled a blockbuster model – the all-new SPEAR all-round race road bike. The all-new SPEAR has been comprehensively upgraded in terms of design concept, technological innovation and product performance, aiming to bring riders more excellent riding quality.
SEKA set up the launch of the new SPEAR road bike at the InterContinental Shanghai Dishui Lake Hotel, and invited many dealers and industry media to witness another masterpiece of the SEKA brand.
Liu Zhiquan, the founder of the SEKA brand, and the core team also attended the scene to share the brand's development history, future planning and the uniqueness of the new products. He also said that the SEKA brand will always be committed to creating high-quality, high-performance bicycle products.
Founder of SEKA brand - Liu Zhiquan
SEKA Product Manager - Zhou Heng
SEKA released the EXCEED series of road bikes three years ago, and I believe that many riders are very familiar with this car, and at the same time, they are very favored, so that there is also a phenomenon that it is difficult to find an EXCEED car in the market. At the time of EXCEED's launch, SEKA's R&D team was already working how to build a road bike that could beat EXCEED.
EXCEED RDC
After three years of continuous exploration and experimentation, SEKA has finally brought us the new SPEAR, which has achieved a new breakthrough in weight and performance.
Tube shape is the biggest factor affecting wind resistance, SEKA optimizes the tube design through CFD and wind tunnel, compresses the windward area to the extreme, and combines with the "eye of the wind" structure design to effectively control the turbulence and achieve smooth airflow. Compared with its own EXCEED products, the wind resistance has been reduced by 6W.
In addition to wind resistance, the tube shape also affects weight and rigidity. As a result, SEKA introduced the concept of "Block Tube Design" to the SPEAR frame, where the tube shape at each position of the frame has its main function.
The slender rear triangle area guarantees comfort at the rear end and also contributes to weight reduction.
The unique "eye of the storm" structure optimizes turbulence while improving the compliance of the frame, killing two birds with one stone.
The fork uses a NACA tube type, which effectively increases the distance between the front wheel and the fork, and can also increase the passability of the airflow and reduce the turbulence caused by the airflow collision.
The SPEAR frame uses a BSA threaded bottom bracket structure, which further compresses the bottom bracket volume while ensuring rigidity, making it effectively reduce weight.
In addition to the frame, SEKA has created a slimmer handlebar that reduces the frontal area by 17% and 2% compared to the EXCEED 1 and 2 generations.
SEKA also uses the most cutting-edge carbon fiber material on the market on the SPEAR frame, and through its self-developed stacking scheme and dozens of iterative updates, each piece of carbon cloth has its precise positioning and function. The addition of EeXtreme and asphalt-based ultra-high modulus carbon fiber is even more powerful.
It is reported that the SPEAR RDC shadow black bare carbon version weighs only 685g.
Thanks to the "eye of the wind" construction, the SPEAR has better vertical compliance than similar products to ensure a riding experience in rough road conditions. It can be said that the "eye of the storm" is the disruptive innovation made by SEKA for SPEAR!
It can be seen from the velocity streamline diagram that the "eye of the storm" has an intuitive inhibition effect on the turbulence caused by the collision between the low-pressure area of the riser and the rear wheel.
Through CFD simulation, the "eye of the storm" can save 2.66 w in the relative wind speed of 40 km/h* for the SPEAR frame set.
The two triangular shapes on the left and right of the "eye of the storm" can not only effectively alleviate the vertical downward impact force caused by the rider's violent bumps, but also weaken the subtle road vibrations, so that they have been diluted and filtered by the "eye of the storm" before reaching the seating post.
Thanks to the "eye of the wind" structure, the rear end of the Spear has a vertical compliance of 109 N/mm, which is 23 % higher than Exceed's, significantly improving riding comfort on bumpy roads.
SEKA is also working with the Aerocoach team to conduct wind tunnel testing at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub in the UK.
Aerocoach is a team of senior aerodynamics experts in the bicycle industry, with rich experience and data volume in aerodynamic research. Silverstone is one of the world's leading wind tunnels dedicated to bicycle aerodynamic testing and research.
In order to visualize the aerodynamic performance of SPEAR, SEK selected 3 representative reference subjects to participate in the test with SPEAR.
The rider's riding (dynamic) test results show that the pedaling-optimized tube shape by CFD simulation comes into play. At yaw angle of 0: The Spear RDC is slightly ahead of the Tarmac SL8, and the two are extremely close. At yaw angles of 5-10 degrees: the aerodynamic advantage of the Spear RDC gradually increases.
In reality, the rider and the bike are moving in sync, and the turbulence generated by the rider's pedaling process will come into contact with the rotating rear wheel after passing through the riser, creating further chaotic turbulence and increasing air resistance. Due to the intervention of the "eye of the storm", SPEAR finally surpassed in the performance of aerodynamic performance.
Stiffness and weight are two closely related attributes to a carbon frame, and to some extent, they contradict each other from an R&D perspective. The next challenge to overcome was how to reduce weight without sacrificing strength and rigidity.
Better rigidity and lighter weight than EXCEED, which is the performance orientation given to SPEAR. This means that the SPEAR has a better stiffness-to-weight ratio.
Compared with the frame weight of 775g in EXCEED RDC M size, the SPEAR RDC M size is reduced by 90g to 685g, and the carbon black coating is 725g, and the rigidity-to-weight ratio is increased by 14.5%.
SPEAR能达成研发设定的目标，拥有优秀的刚性-重量比，得益于6种主要碳纤维材料的应用 ：TeXtreme、 Mitsubishi 24T、30T、40T、沥青基 PITCH 65T 、PITCH 80T。
Known for reducing weight, increasing stiffness and strength, improving impact protection, and improving thin-layer damping, TeXtreme is the ultimate choice for manufacturing ultra-light composites with a grammage of up to 20 g/m². However, it is also very expensive, about 3 times more than the T800 material.
The addition of TeXtreme saves 10g of weight on the innermost layer of SPEAR, which gives SPEAR more room to adjust the outer stack for stiffness and strength.
Each SPEAR is made up of 350 sheets of carbon cloth of different sizes and shapes stacked on top of each other from six types of carbon fiber materials. Without the continuous exploration of the stacking solution by SEKA's engineering team, SPEAR would not have been able to achieve the goal of 685g.
SPEAR uses the latest all-in-one molding process, which produces different tubes from 3 or 2 molds compared to the traditional frame manufacturing process, and then glues the tubes together. One-piece molding technology uses a single mold to form a complete frame. By avoiding the gluing of parts, the overall stability of the frame is significantly improved.
The test for key parts is several times higher than the ISO standard. Take the stem fatigue test as an example: the ISO standard is 70mm behind the seatpost, 50,000 tests, and the tensile force is 120kg. The SPEAR test standard is 85mm behind the seatpost, 150,000 tests, and a pulling force of 144kg.
5+2 nonlinear geometry
Three years ago, based on SEKA's fitting research and data analysis of Chinese riders, SEKA developed a more Asian-like geometry for EXCEED, which has a more reasonable Reach and Stack distribution than most aerodynamic or even comprehensive models, with optional integrated handlebars and seatposts, which greatly improves riding comfort.
But we also found that there were too few sizes to choose from, and for the few riders in extremely competitive positions, EXCEED was still unable to achieve the competitive posture they needed.
SEKA also wanted the SPEAR's geometry to meet the needs of both competitive and comfortable riding. So, the SEKA team combined their years of experience in bike fitting to come up with a "nonlinear geometry" solution. Combine the geometry data for each size to intersperse two Racing sizes among the 5 regular sizes. That is, 5+2, a total of 7 sizes.
M Racing has been added in the middle of M and L sizes. It has a higher Reach value than the M, which is suitable for riders who need longer reach, but the Stack is lower than the M, which means that the rider can ride in a lower position on his stomach. The addition of the L Racing size between L and XL is the same philosophy as M Racing.
Through the 5+2 non-linear geometry concept and the rational arrangement of the correlation of each size data, it is guaranteed that for most height riders, at least 2-3 sizes can be selected to suit different riding styles.
SEKA has also independently developed a new integrated barbar and internal cable routing system for SPEAR, which it has named Rapier. Rapier can better meet the aesthetic integrity and performance needs of SPEAR. Compared to the EXCEED 2nd generation handlebar, the Rapier has a lighter weight on the basis of 5.2% higher rigidity, and the 400-100mm specification weighs only 310g, which is 20g lighter than the 2nd generation integrated handlebar.
Rapier offers 4 top widths from 360mm to 415mm (385mm to 440mm bottom) and 6 stem lengths from 80mm to 130mm, with a total of 19 sizes to help you achieve the best fit position.
The SPEAR is a comprehensive road frame set designed and developed entirely in-house by SEKA. A SPEAR frameset consists of a total of 66 large and small components. In the past 3 years, SEKA's product R&D team has independently designed and developed, combined with China's best industrial production resources to complete production.
From the frame, to the integrated bottle cage that goes with the frame, to the barrel shaft rod, to every rubber stopper and screw, the SEKA team strives for perfection.
In terms of liveries and pricing, the SPEAR RDC version is available in a total of five liveries, of which the "Spectrum" and "Feather Black" are the first limited editions, with only 200 units each, while the SPEAR Standard Edition is available in two livery colors, "Tin Blue" and "Plain Silver". In terms of price, the price of the SPEAR RDC version of the frame set is 16,990 yuan, and the standard version is 12,990 yuan, which includes the Rapier handlebar.
After the event, a number of industry dealer representatives and media representatives also expressed their high appreciation for the new SEKA brand, believing that the launch of SPEAR will further promote the development of the bicycle industry. SEKA is a good demonstration of the brand's strength and innovative spirit, and also brings more confidence and expectations to dealers and consumers. I believe that in the future, the SEKA brand will continue to uphold the concept of innovation and bring more excellent products to consumers.
Editor: Yao