Authored by Admin · weekly on Saturdays · researched and written by the Kurzia AI
Saturday 7 November 2026 · Issue 3 · 6 min read
3T's Racemax+ from £4,053, Bianchi seeks creditor protection, NOBL's 350g road rims, 31% off the Diverge 4
What's hot
road.cc · 2 days ago
3T's gravel racer gains clearance, sizes and two UK prices
Takeaway: £4,053 with Fulcrum Lite GR wheels
The Racemax+ WPNT replaces the 2020 original: six sizes from XS to XXL, a claimed 1,050g medium carbon frame, UDH, and room for 1x or 2x. 3T says it is aerodynamically tuned around 38–48mm tyres, while frame and fork swallow up to 51mm.
This is the shape gravel race bikes are settling into — wide tyre latitude, a size range that fits short and tall riders, and a mechanical-or-electronic drivetrain choice. 3T calls the pricing more accessible, which still means north of four grand. Two UK builds, both on SRAM Rival XPLR AXS 13-speed: £4,053 with Fulcrum Lite GR wheels, £4,670 on 3T Discus 4030s. Chainstay is 425mm, stack and reach grow 3mm on every size but the smallest. road.cc hasn't ridden one yet — their test bike was still stuck in customs.
Escape Collective · 5 days ago
Bianchi asks the courts for protection from its creditors
Takeaway: roughly €100 million owed
The Italian brand has entered a formal settlement procedure under Italy's business crisis code, filed for its legal entity FIVE Bianchi SpA on 30 September 2026, to buy time to renegotiate with banks and suppliers. Interim chief executive Tony Grimaldi, the owner's son, told Escape Collective the company spread itself across too many segments at once.
Bianchi isn't bankrupt, but if you're shopping one — or own one — the questions about spares, warranty and dealer support are fair ones to ask before you hand over money. It's also the clearest sign yet of how badly oversupply has hurt the mid-size brands. The most recent full accounts, at the end of 2024, show roughly €100 million owed, €64.3 million of it to banks. Escape Collective counts about €28 million of losses across 2023 to 2025 and four changes of chief executive or managing director since 2021. Terms must be agreed by the end of January, with late May 2027 the outside limit.
road.cc · yesterday
Newmen sells one gravel wheelset in three wheel sizes
Takeaway: carbon-spoked at 1,400g
The STREEM G.48 is an all-round gravel wheel — 48mm deep, hooked, tubeless, 27mm internal and 45mm external — offered not just in 700c but in 30.5-inch and 32-inch versions too. It sits below the racier G.62 Newmen released a few weeks ago.
Big-wheel gravel has gone from oddity to something Scott and Salsa are building frames for, but a wheelset is only as useful as the tyres and frames that exist for it. Before you buy into 30.5in, check what you could actually mount. Steel-spoked wheels are claimed at 1,550g and carbon-spoked at 1,400g, though Newmen doesn't say which size those figures cover. The only 30.5in sighting road.cc cites is Cube's Zakarias Johansen at an Enduro World Cup, mulleted with a 29in rear — not a gravel race.
Bikerumor · yesterday
NOBL's lightest road rims start at 350 grams
Takeaway: $1,599 for the Core build
The Canadian brand's new AR Series brings two all-road wheelsets, the 40mm AR40 and 50mm AR50, on rims with 25mm internal widths and fully hooked beads. Core builds with NOBL hubs are $1,599 for the Core build; custom builds with DT Swiss, Chris King, Onyx and others start at $1,699.
Hooked beads plus a 25mm internal width is the combination worth paying attention to: you get modern wide-tyre fitment without the pressure ceilings and tyre-compatibility lottery of hookless. NOBL rates them for 28–45c and up to 80 psi, which covers a road bike and a fast gravel bike alike. Claimed rim weights are 350g for the AR40 and 380g for the AR50, with impact ratings of 110J and 115J respectively; the Core AR40 wheelset is claimed at 1,307g, and NOBL puts a lifetime warranty on its carbon rims.
New gear & products
Batch Bicycles GB.1 — a $999 aluminium gravel bike sold through independent bike shops rather than online. It's the obvious winter hack, second bike or gravel-curious partner's bike, with a dealer behind it if something needs sorting — rare at this money. 6061 double-butted frame with a replaceable hanger, MicroShift Sword 1×9 with a clutched mech and 11-46T cassette, 700x42mm tyres, mechanical discs, rack and mudguard mounts, four sizes from 50 to 59cm. Gravel Cyclist
Castelli Sorpasso Pro Bibtights — get new knee and hip patterning and the Progetto X2 Air pad, launched alongside Estremo 2 gloves and overshoes built around Polartec AirCore fabric. The Estremo glove's first redesign since 2012 is the news here; Castelli's stated temperature bands at least let you buy for the rides you actually do rather than guess. Bibtights £220/$240 with a claimed 2–14°C range; gloves £130/$140 claimed for -5 to 5°C; overshoes £175/$185, claimed to -10°C, with a full-length YKK Aquaguard zip. Bikerumor
Redshift Mousetrap — a pair of nylon platforms that cam-lock into Shimano SPD-SL and Look Keo pedals with no extra cleats; the SPD version arrived earlier this year. One bike, two uses: ride to the café in trainers or hand the bike to someone else without swapping pedals or hunting for your old flats. US$60/£50/€60 a pair for an 80 x 105mm platform; the SPD-SL version also fits Garmin and Favero power meter pedals, and Redshift has teased a Crankbrothers version for 2027. Escape Collective
COROS DURA 2 Solar — the solar-charging cycling computer announced in late October is now actually buyable, with a bigger screen and a more universal mount. If you had the original DURA on a shortlist as the value pick, that option is closing: COROS says it's discontinuing it, so the decision is now the new price or a rival. $499 without a mount, $549 with the standard one. BIKEPACKING.com notes that's effectively double what the first DURA cost when it landed in late 2024. BIKEPACKING.com
Matt Beers' S-Works Crux 5 — the 61cm Fact 12r bike Matt Beers rode to his second Gravel Burn title, with a mullet drivetrain fitted for the roughest stage. Useful as a weather vane: tyres are enormous, gearing is mountain-bike wide, and pressure is now monitored live rather than guessed at the start line. SRAM XX SL Eagle Transmission with a 10-52T cassette and 50T aero chainring on stage 6, 1,340g Roval Terra Aero CLX wheels and 2.2in Pathfinder tyres with TyreWiz sensors reporting to a Hammerhead Karoo 2. Cycling Weekly
“We use TyreWiz for stage race events like Gravel Burn because of the rough terrain.”
Real deals
Specialized Diverge 4 Expert Di2 — down 31% to £3,799 at Balfe's Bikes, £1,700 off: GRX Di2 RX825 1×12, Future Shock 3.2, Roval Terra C wheels, Cycling Weekly's best gravel bike of 2026.
Garmin Edge 540 — £239.99 at Tredz, £70 off, and road.cc's reviewers reckon the superseded 540 gives up little to the 840 in a smaller body.
Training for busy riders
TrainerRoad vs TrainingPeaks — a head-to-head from Cyclingnews' Paul Norman on the two platforms built around hitting an objective rather than entertaining you. If your winter is four or five rides a week fitted around work, the choice between a plan handed to you and a hub that plans and analyses is the one decision that shapes the next five months. Norman's framing: both offer deeper performance analysis than Zwift or MyWhoosh, and suit riders whose priority is the numbers rather than an immersive virtual world. Cyclingnews
Wahoo — has returned to year-on-year growth since its 2023 recapitalisation, CEO Gareth Joyce told Cyclingnews, in an interview covering the long-delayed Kickr Core update, a treadmill launch, the Coros partnership and AI plans. A trainer is a five-year purchase that depends on firmware and app support, so the financial state of the company selling it is a buying consideration, not gossip. Joyce took the job in 2024, and the interview puts the Kickr at a sixth generation while the cheaper Core waited years for its update. Cyclingnews
What people are saying
US crit teams stop racing bikes they can't replace. Escape Collective's Robert Kelly reports North American criterium squads lining up on Quick Pro, Winspace and Yoeleo alongside Cannondale, Specialized and Pinarello, with those brands now paying for sponsorship too. The same arithmetic applies to you on a club run: with legacy flagship builds regularly around US$15,000, the argument is whether the down-tube logo buys anything you can feel through the bars. Escape Collective
“there is no such thing as the best bike, the best frame, the best wheelset”
A steel bike review's superlatives split the comments. road.cc's verdict on the Mason Definition Integrale with Campagnolo has readers scrapping underneath it over frame material, weight and whether a reviewer's praise can be taken at face value. It's the shop-floor argument in public: whether a steel do-it-all at carbon-bike money is a considered choice or nostalgia with a price tag. One commenter, answering a critic posting as Borisface, says he isn't out to spend 6k on a bike right now but would shortlist this one and chase a test ride on the strength of the review and photos. road.cc
“absolute perfection in every aspect”
One takeaway
Settle the spec first, then let the price come to you. Three strands of this week's news point the same way: the bike trade is still carrying too much stock, and the buyer holds the cards.
Work out the fit, tyre clearance and groupset you genuinely want, then shop retailers offering to refund the difference if the price drops. That removes the only real reason to gamble on sitting it out until Black Friday week. Independent reporting is blunter about this than any brand will be: racers who pay for their own crashes have already stopped buying badges, and one famous marque is now negotiating with its banks rather than selling to them. Escape Collective