Dirk Bockel’s Modified 2012 Blue Triad SL

Published October 6, 2011 08:06PM

Shaved carbon, drilled holes and homemade solutions make Dirk Bockel’s bike one of a kind.

Dirk Bockel’s 2012 Blue Triad SL is covered with unique modifications. He is the only athlete racing the 2012 Triad SL, and this version is 200 grams lighter than the 2011 iteration. He rides Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 components but instead of mounting the battery and routing the wires on the outside of the frame, Bockel hides the extra lengths of wire almost entirely within the frame. The Traid SL doesn’t have integrated Di2 routing, so Bockel’s frame was modified for this purpose. The aerobar spacer has a small opening that leads to the open space inside the nose cone. The shifter wires pass through the aerobar into the nose cone and finally exit the frame on the side of the cone through the hole in the spacer. The extraneous wire is shielded within the nose cone. His battery is jammed up between his saddle rails and is completely shielded by the seatpost, his rear bottle cage and saddle. The wire goes directly from the battery into the rear of the modified seat tube. The standard Triad SL seatpost has two saddle mount positions, one forward and one rearward. Bockel uses the forward position, so Blue sawed the carbon that creates the rear mount off the seatpost and the wire from the battery passes into the post where the rear mount is usually located. The wire passes through the frame to both the front and rear derailleurs and up to the control box, positioned directly behind the stem.

Bockel has a TorHans Aero 30 bottle mounted between his aerobars. TorHans updated their cap design to reduce splashing and Bockel has this new bit mounted to his bottle. He has a Profile Design bottle cage zip tied underneath his saddle with roughly textured stickers covering the rim and spine of the cage to prevent the bottle from launching out the back. He also has a third bottle mounted to the seat tube.

Bockel rides with a SRM built into 175mm crank arms and a Power Control 7 computer. His head unit rests on homemade a Velcro bridge spanning between his aerobar extensions. There isn’t a single solid piece of plastic supporting the computer. The Power Control 7 is wrapped with soft-side Velcro to attach to the bridge. Instead of using standard bar tape, Bockel’s extensions are wrapped with what appears to be trainer’s tape, like the stuff used to tape ankles.

The Luxembourger is racing on a Shimano Dura-Ace C50/C75 tubular wheelset with Schwalbe Ultremo TT tubulars. He has Reynolds brake pads mounted to his Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 front brake caliper.

The paint scheme on Bockel’s Blue Triad SL honors his home country of Luxembourg. The red lion found on the country’s flag covers his head tube, aerobars, seat tube and even his aerohelmet, which is an unbranded Specialized TT2. The paint colors were changed to match the flag of Luxembourg and the frame is decorated with badges calling out his name, nickname, and website.