Futuristic Factor Bikes to enter pro peloton with ONE Pro Cycling team

British brand Factor Bikes has announced it is sponsoring British racing team ONE Pro Cycling in 2016, which has been promoted from Continental to Pro Continental status. Factor has revealed a new range of UCI-legal bikes for them to race. This confirms our rumour from last month.

Factor Bikes came to being when a group of automotive and F1 designers and engineers got together and started developing their own bike, with the Vis Vires the first production bike coming after a couple of early concept bikes, including the Factor001 which started it all off.

The company, you might remember, gained many column inches when it launched the £25,000 Aston Martin One-77 to coincided with the launch of Aston Martin’s One-77 supercar. While the bike was expensive, the car had a list price of £1,150,000.

- Review: Factor Vis Vires road bike

road.cc tested the Vis Vires and found it to offer outstanding performance with incredible speed. Its appearance divided opinion right down the line however but one thing was certain, it showed what could be achieved by ignoring some of the UCI rules.

Three new Factors

There is no ignoring the UCI rules with the new bikes, though. Factor has launched three models, the Factor One, Factor O2 and Factor One-S. Factor says it owns its own manufacturing facility to it can retain complete control of the whole process, and it also enlisted two ex-pros, Baden Cooke and David Millar to help develop the new bikes.

“We make great bikes – not good bikes,” explains Baden Cooke on Factor Bikes’ design philosophy, “We don’t compromise and don’t look to eke out more margin. We only put in the very best materials, using the best design and manufacturing expertise in our wholly-owned production facility together with exceptional fit, finishing and attention to detail.”

So the new bikes then. The new Factor One has obvious ties to the original Vis Vires (which is still available) with a split down tube which we presume the UCI is okay with, and integrated fork, stem and handlebar.

The Factor One  has been UCI approved - it's on the list of approved bikes under its working title, VV2. The other two new bikes have preliminary approval which should be fully confirmed shortly.

While that bike is really nothing more than a diluted Vis Vires, the new Factor O2 is an all-new bike and is looks much more conventional. The company says this will be the go-to bike for ONE Pro Cycling, and in race trim with an Infocrank power meter and Di2 groupset, weighs a claimed 6.9kg.

Lastly, there is the new Factor One-S. This is designed as an aero road bike and combines the split downtube of the Factor One with the regular fork of the O2, so it’ll take a regular handlebar and stem. We don't have any photos of this bike sadly.

These new models will be available to purchase directly, with an expected availability sometime in early 2016. No prices or models have been provided at this stage.

More at http://factorbikes.com/