Tour Tech 2017: Thomas Voeckler’s BH G7 Pro

The G7 Pro is a new aero road bike from BH that’s being ridden in the Tour de France by members of the Direct Energie team including Thomas Voeckler, the super-popular French veteran who retires at the end of the season.

The G7 Pro is unusual in that it’s a rim brake version of an existing disc brake bike. Things usually happen the other way around. The disc version of the BH G7 was first shown almost two years ago and there was no mention of a rim brake equivalent at the time. 

Since then we’ve had the introduction, suspension and subsequent re-introduction of the trial of disc brakes in the pro peloton, and various accusations of danger in a road race situation made against the technology. With the long-term position of disc brake bikes still uncertain, having a race bike available exclusively in a disc brake format doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, hence the BH G7 Pro.

The G7 Pro has yet to be announced officially by BH but it has been included on the UCI’s List of Approved Frames and forks for a while and there’s a blank holding page for it on the brand’s website. 

Putting the brakes and thru axles to one side, the G7 Pro looks pretty much identical to the G7 Disc with a deep section down tube and a seat tube that’s cutaway around the rear wheel. That seat tube is extended and an aero profiled seat tube slots in there.

The seatstays join the seat tube very low to reduce drag, something that we see on the vast majority of aero road bikes out there.

The G7 Pro uses direct mount brakes front and rear. Without the need to accommodate a central mount bolt, the fork crown can be made low for improved aerodynamic efficiency. As ever with aero road bikes, the fork blades are deep to reduce drag.

FSA provides the K-Force 53/39T chainset. It has had an logo sticker added to provide a little more prominence.

The pedals are Look Kéo Blade Carbon with a titanium axle.

The remaining groupset components are Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, although previous generation 9000 Series Dura-Ace as opposed to the current 9100 Series. Shimano told us that all Tour de France teams have the latest version and we’ve seen it on other Direct Energie riders’ bikes so we’re not entirely sure why Voeckler has the older kit on this bike. The ceramic jockey wheels look like ones from Cycling Ceramic rather than FSA’s.

The handlebar is FSA K-Force too, as is the OS-99 CSI stem, complete with extra FSA stickers. I call the satellite shifters on the handlebar ‘sprint shifters’ on the video. Slip of the tongue. No one sprints with their hands up there! These ones are for climbers to use when their hands are on the tops, obviously. 

The carbon wheels come from Vision, which is part of FSA, and the tubulars are Hutchinson Pro Tours.

The saddle is a Prologo Scratch Pro Nack. 

Check out 8 new aero road bikes that are being ridden in the Tour de France here. 

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