Wilier has revealed the Turbine SLR, a prototype lightweight time trial bike that combines the front end of its Turbine time trial bike with a road bike-like rear end. This new design is said to cut 300g from frame weight compared to the outgoing frame.
As a result of this weight saving, Wilier claims the bike is “much faster on roads with slopes and continuous changes of direction”, such as those found in the 2022 Giro d’Italia’s two time trials.
Wilier says “less weight means greater acceleration” and notes this is a characteristic its sponsored WorldTour team, Team Astana - Qazaqstan puts a lot of emphasis on.
Aero at the front, lightweight at the back
The front end of the Turbine SLR remains almost unchanged compared to the existing Turbine, with an aerodynamic hinged fork and a large, truncated aerofoil downtube.
The same impressively clean cockpit is also featured on the new bike, though the pictured rider, Vincenzo Nibali, makes use of what appear to be custom made carbon fibre time trial extensions.
These are almost certainly not something we can expect to see specced as a stock on consumer bikes.
The rear of the frame sees significant changes, however.
The seat tube, seat post, seat stays and chainstays have all been significantly slimmed down.
The small, truncated aerofoil tube shapes found on this end of the bike are similar to those on Wilier’s Filante SLR aero road bike.
Pictures also show the Wilier Turbine SLR shod with tubular versions of its Corima wheels. This runs contrary to the wider trend towards using tubeless tyres across the professional peloton, but is presumably a decision based on further minimising the overall weight of the bike.
Interestingly, the specification and pictures given by Wilier also show an aerodynamically optimised version of the CeramicSpeed OSPW system, with a carbon fairing covering the pulley wheels section of the rear derailleur cage.
