Elves has teased images of a new Falath EXP aero road frameset, suggesting a radical-looking frame that appears to borrow a key feature from the Trek Madone.
A prominent hole sits in the seat tube above the rear wheel on Elves' new bike. Trek coined its design IsoFlow when the latest Madone was launched in 2022, saying the kite-shaped hole saved 300g in weight versus Trek's old IsoSpeed decoupler system.
IsoFlow was also claimed to improve the aerodynamic performance of the frame by “around 3 watts”.
What's Elves' take on the design? Well, the Falath EXP hasn't been officially launched, but here's what we know so far.
Elves Falath EXP: what we know so far
While Trek’s seat tube design features a cantilevered seatpost section, the seatstays of the Falath EXP join the seat tube via a deep, winged joint.
From the rear, the seatstays appear to taper gently from the axle, maintaining a wide stance.
Towards the front of the bike, the fork looks similarly chunky with little effort made to slim down the head tube.
However, the head tube certainly isn't as extreme in its depth as some of the latest aero bikes, including the new Ridley Noah. Aero head tubes have been getting seriously deep after the UCI changed to an 8:1 depth-to-width ratio, paving the way for one of 2025's most divisive tech trends.
Back to the seat tube, and this isn't the first out-there design we’ve seen in recent years. After something of a dry design spell, the Trek Madone referenced at the top of this piece popped up at the 2022 Criterium du Dauphine, sporting a funky design that may have inspired Elves.
Then at the end of last year, Colnago launched the Y1Rs, an aero race bike claimed to be 20 watts faster than Colnago’s V4RS at zero degrees yaw and 50kph, and with its own visually-divisive seat tube design.
When will the new Elves Falath EXP be available?
Elves’ new bike looks set for a launch at some point in March, but for now details are scarce.
The frameset price looks set to sit at around $1,220 – a relative steal compared to $4,599.99 for a Trek Madone SLR Gen 7 frameset – though final pricing will be made available in March.
Elves has been making something of a name for itself as a keenly-priced challenger brand in a busy market, and the Falath EXP appears to be the latest headline-grabber from the Chinese brand.
BikeRadar contacted Trek prior to publishing this article but the brand declined to comment.
