Assembling Evelyn Stevens’ hour-record attempt bike

American Evelyn Stevens (Boels Dolmans) will be attempting to set a new world hour record Saturday, and pro mechanic Daimeon Shanks pulled out all the stops — and much of the grease — in assembling the two bikes she will have at the velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Instead of a pursuit-style track bike, the frameset is a Specialized S-Works Shiv TT that has been prepped for the track. The derailleur hangers and bottle-cage bosses were removed for aerodynamics, and spacers were added to the Zipp track disc’s hub to bridge the gap to the 130mm road frame spacing. Stevens also has a team-only custom stem to get her position low, with a 12cm drop from the top of her saddle to the top of the arm rest pads.

Every bearing in the bike is ceramic, arguably the fastest stock option out there. On Wednesday, though, Shanks overhauled every bearing, flushing out the factory grease and adding in only the slightest amount of special grease. Further, he removed a bearing seal on each bearing in the pursuit of those marginal gains.

Shanks flushed out the stock grease and installed a minimal amount of special grease

“Less grease means less resistance for the bearing, which means less friction and more speed,” Shanks said. “Granted, this is very small change, because the bearings are already super fast.”

Similarly, at the pedals, Shanks flushed out all the stock grease, took a seal off the cartridge bearing, and put in Tri-Flow lubricant in place of grease. 

“It’s fast, really light and it won’t last long,” Shanks said. “But it only needs to last an hour.”

Shanks replaced the grease inside the pedals with Tri-Flow lubricant

Stevens has been training on ceramic bearings with the stock grease and seals.

Two last-minute changes not shown in the images in the gallery above are the race chain, a UFO-coated SRAM 22 model, (which, like the Tri-Flow, won’t last long but offers almost zero drag) and a Garmin Edge computer that will be mounted underneath her saddle. UCI rules stipulate that the rider cannot have any visible data on board. Her coach Neal Henderson, however, will have access, thanks to a WASP unit that will be picking up the her real-time data.

Stevens’ A bike has a 53t front ring and a 14t cog. Her B bike has a 54t ring, and is otherwise identical.

Click through the gallery above for detailed imagery of her A bike and Shanks assembling it. And be sure to check out Cyclingnews this Saturday for coverage of her world hour record attempt. The current women’s hour record stands at 46.882km and is held by Australian Bridie O’Donnell. 

53×14 for an hour. How far would you go? (Note the silver spacers to convert the track disc to the road frame — and the absence of a derailleur hanger)