Plus all the latest news and reviews from the week just gone

By Simon von Bromley

Published: Friday, 14 June 2024 at 06:00 AM


It’s the end of the week and time for another edition of our favourite bike tech round-up, First Look Friday.

As usual, we’ve got a selection of new and interesting kit to introduce you to, but before we get onto that, let’s quickly go over some highlights from the week.

Specialized stole the headlines on Wednesday with its announcement of a cheaper, aluminium Crux DSW gravel bike.

Based on its carbon S-Works Crux and created using its D’Aluisio Smartweld (DSW) tech, Specialized claims it’s the lightest alloy gravel bike frame available, weighing a little less than 1.4kg.

At the other end of the pricing spectrum, our review of Partington’s hyper-light (and hyper-expensive) R-Series MKII R39/44 wheelset was published this week.

Their performance and novel construction certainly makes these wheels stand out from the crowd, but with a price of £5,500 / $6,400 / €6,000, we don’t expect to see many sets making their way to your local club run any time soon.

Off the back of Shimano launching its new 12-speed GRX Di2 RX825 gravel groupset, our knobbly-tyre crew had their say on things we want to see from a new Shimano XTR Di2 groupset.

We’ve no idea when one might be coming, but hopefully there’s time for Shimano to implement all of our ideas and create a winning electronic mountain bike groupset.

At the start of the week, BikeRadar’s managing editor, Gary Walker, published the first entry of his Temple Adventure Disc 2 long-term review.

His first gravel bike, Gary has already described the ride quality as “revelatory”, though he naturally has a couple of upgrades and personalisations earmarked already.

Lastly, it’s not long now until La Grande Boucle. That’s right, the 2024 Tour de France is less than a month away, and if you want to know everything about this year’s race, it’s worth picking up our official Tour de France Guide.