Joshua Colp of Culprit Bicycles gave us a sneak peek at his latest aero-project. The idea behind the ‘Covert Ops’ system is to clean up the all-important frontal area of your standard road bike for real gains in performance.
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The new cockpit’s main component is a CNC’d base designed to enable Di2 and cable routing through its internals and also house the Di2 or Campagnolo EPS control box (from the current Di2) and also be able to take Shimano’s new Di2 control unit, which fits into the bar end.
Claims from Culprit's tests and CFD work mean gains of 5 watts over a standard stem at 30mph, if you then factor in the addition of its own aero drop bar that gives a claimed aero efficiency of a massive 15 watt gain (or 46 seconds over 20 miles with the full aero set up).
For those who also favour tri-bars this modular system has a TT bar addition, which seamlessly slots over the top of the CNC’d base (and bolts to it) with the carbon aero cover sealing the system. The base of the TT bars also features a patented adjustment clamp that enables +/- 20 degrees of adjustment.
The set up shown to us is still in the prototype stage and final funding will be through Indigogo, but if the Covert Ops lives up to its claims it could be well worth the investment.
