Just last week, Israel Premier-Tech’s star climber Simon Clarke debuted a brand new, as-yet unreleased Factor Ostro aero bike at the Australian National Road Race Championships.
Thanks to a social media post from his local chain waxing provider of all people, we’ve already had a reasonably good look at the new model, which allowed us to make some assumptions about the new bike’s intentions, but there were a few questions left unanswered, such as seatpost clamping, headtube shape and more.
Luckily, those questions and more are about to be answered, because we’ve got a full detailed gallery of the new bike lined up.
With the WorldTour season about to kick off with the Tour Down Under, Cyclingnews has eyes on the ground in Adelaide, and while mechanics are dialling in the bikes and riders are fine tuning their legs, we got up close with the new Factor Ostro for a proper look.
Naturally, there are plenty of aero optimisations on offer, but like other bikes launched in recent months, most of those are focussed at the front, while the rear of the bike seems to be a little more focussed on keeping the weight down. That’s not all though; we’ve also spotted a hidden chamber, which we’ll explain when we get there.
Starting up front, and the obvious thing to note is that like most race bikes nowadays, there are no cables to be seen at the cockpit. The bar/stem itself appears unchanged from the VAM cockpit found on the outgoing Ostro, featuring tops that are deeper (and thus, more aero) than the similarly integrated version on the O2 VAM.
The other thing of note is the heavily sculpted hourglass shape of the head tube, which it’s safe to assume is slightly faster aerodynamically, given the reduction in frontal surface area.
Given the side-on profile of the bike shows how deep the head tube is, it’s clear that this is a bike chasing aero gains. That’s not exactly a surprise given the Ostro has long been Factor’s more aero machine while the O2 Vam chases weight savings, but Factor has no intentions of following the Specialized Tarmac/Venge approach of blending the two race bikes into one.
The Factor logo on the head tube has been replaced by a vertical ‘Factor’ wordmark. It’s unclear whether this will continue onto consumer-facing bikes, or whether it’s a pro paint job option only.
The frame isn’t the only thing that’s new. These wheels…
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