After Alessandro Petacchi won yesterday's Stage 1 of the Tour de France on his modified Wilier Cento1 Superleggera I thought I'd see if Wilier had announced any new models for 2011. And, indeed they have. The Wilier "GranTurismo" (GT) was announced on July 1st.
The GranTurismo is aimed at granfondo and "performance" riders, designed to combine the efficiency and stiffness of a road race bike with the comfort and handling required for long distance rides.
Wilier is using what they call the “Razor Edge” design. On the front triangle this can be seen as a system of sharp edges on the tube sections that give the tubes stiffness by virtue of their cross sections. The same philosophy can be seen on the fork which are semi-aero but have a pronounced ridge specifically positioned to add stiffness.
The main triangle uses the same technology as the range topping Cento 1; it is a 3 piece monocouque consisting of a one-piece front triangle assembly with 2 seat stay/chain stay sections at the back. The seat stays are asymmetric to take account of the different loads & dropouts are fully carbon, no stress raising joints with alloy dropouts. The seat stays are very slender to aid comfort and also add to the sleek and svelte look of the GT.
Cable routing is all internal but has been designed so it is easy to thread through replacement cables avoiding maintenance hassles. The rear brake cable exits very cleanly at the rear of the seat tube, ditto with the rear gear cable exit from the chainstay which is equally clean.
Photo: click to enlarge
Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.
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