In Prologo’s recent history, the big story has been their proprietary CPC (Connect Power Control) technology. Prologo claim that it offers grippier contact point surfaces, as well as added comfort and vibration reduction. At Eurobike 2013 the company announced that more saddles and gloves will feature CPC for 2014, with trickle-down pricing making the innovation available to more riders.
Some CPC saddles that were only available with carbon rails will now be offered with Tirox (light alloy steel) parts. This means, for example, that the popular Scratch Pro CPC will be available for £139.99 as well as £209.99 (US pricing TBA).
Prologo have also extended the technology to four new saddle designs. First up is the flat cross-country special, the X Zero, which is now available in Nack (185g) and Tirox rails (215g) and CPC. XC, Enduro and cyclocross are where we can see CPC tech making a great deal of sense – in fact tech ed Robin Wilmott here at BikeRadar already uses the CPC long-finger glove to race with.
XC riders who prefer a little more curve to their saddle shape are well served now with the X8 CPC (190g Nack, 214g Tirox). The wider-sized and semicurved-shaped X10 is well suited to XC marathon racers and comes in a Tirox-only railed version at 222g.
The time trial market was already well served by the fat-nosed Zero II TT CPC, but its joined this year by the more tri-focused Nago Evo Tri40 CPC. Again this is available in both Nack (185g) and Tirox (210g) versions.
The CPC glove range has also extended beyond the basic long- and short-finger versions, with them now being joined by a more substantial winter version of the long-finger glove. While not an out-and-out all weather glove, it features a more closed weave to the back fabric rather than the open mesh of the summer glove. The gloves are priced from £69.99 for the short-finger and from £74.99 for both long-finger versions.
A unique polymer material is shaped into thousands of hollow, volcano-shaped cylinders, lifting you away from the main component surface to help isolate you and reduce fatigue. Yet – and this is the clever bit – the tubes also have a vacuum effect, for the extra grip.
Prologo head honcho Salvatore Truglio told BikeRadar that his pro athletes are switching to to CPC systems rapidly. He hopes that plenty more will make the move, especially given new additions to the CPC range, announced at Eurobike 2013.
We’ve tested the CPC concept on both saddles and gloves and been left suitably impressed by the performance. The only major caveat we’ve had is the prohibitive pricing: CPC technology is not cheap to manufacture or integrate into saddle designs. That meant that, until now, the tech was only found on the range-topping carbon-railed Nack versions.
