French direct-to-consumer brand Origine is launching in the UK today and, to coincide, it’s also launching a new aero road bike, the Fraxion X. 

Origine claims the Fraxion X is its most aero road bike to date, with a 15-watt drag reduction at 40km/h versus its Fraxion GTR predecessor. Origine says it has designed the bike for real-world conditions, not only to be fast in CFD simulations and the wind tunnel.

The Fraxion X is available in two carbon grades, with the higher-modulus frame having an 875g claimed weight, which Origine says represents a 5% reduction from the Fraxion GTR. It also claims significant stiffness increases at the head tube and bottom bracket. 

Tyre clearance is 32mm and the bike can be set up with either mechanical or electronic shifting, with the Di2 battery on Shimano electronic builds housed in the down tube, to enable the seatpost to be kept narrow and lower the bike’s centre of gravity.

The bike has Origine’s one-piece AeroFlow cockpit, which is available in no fewer than 45 width/length/rise combinations. A steering limiter and tab to protect the frame from a dropped chain lower the risk of frame damage.

Origine calls the two carbon grades available for the Fraxion X Core and Lite, offering a standard-modulus and a higher-modulus frameset, the latter stiffer and saving 150g. 

There’s also an RR option that, based on the Lite frame, adds ceramic bearings, titanium hardware and lighter axles and seatpost clamp. Built up with SRAM Red AXS and DT Swiss ARC 1100 wheels, Origine claims the bike can weigh as little as 6.6kg, which it says makes it among the lightest aero road bikes available.

Fraxion X example specs, weights and prices

The top-spec Lite frameset, built up with SRAM Red AXS and DT Swiss ARC 1100 55mm wheels, has a claimed 6.69kg weight and is priced at €9,980.

Other groupset choices include Shimano Dura-Ace, Ultegra, 105 Di2 and 105, while quoted SRAM specs extend to Force AXS as well as Red AXS.

A 105 Di2 spec on the Core frameset, with Origine’s own Prymahl Orion C40 wheelset has a 7.81kg claimed weight and is priced at €5,374. Switch to mechanical 105 and the price drops to €4,830. 

The Fraxion X is available in sizes XS to XL.

What is Origine?

Based since 2012 near Valenciennes in northern France, Origine’s development centre and factory is 8km from the famed five-star Troueé d’Arenberg secteur of Paris-Roubaix. It was previously the provider of neutral service bikes to Shimano, although more recently its bikes have been superseded by the 2016 Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, which we took a look at ahead of the 2026 Tour de France.

Origine sells the full range of bike categories: road, gravel, mountain and electric, all of which are hand-assembled in Valenciennes.

Its online fitting app helps you choose the right bike size and components and select from more than 17 million configuration options and hand-painted finishes. Its bikes are delivered ready to ride, so there’s no assembly needed.

It’s been selling its bikes in France, Switzerland and Benelux for years, but alongside the UK is now expanding into Germany, Italy and Spain.

Origine backs up its bikes with a lifetime guarantee on the frame, a 30-day return window, a network of 400 service centres Europe-wide and an adjustment guarantee. 

The new POC Sonal time trial helmet has an elongated design and comes in two widths to unlock as much speed as possible. 

POC was the first brand to bring out an oversize time trial helmet, the Tempor, back in 2012. The Tempor changed the consensus on how these specialised helmets should perform. 

Other brands have released huge helmets in recent years. But it wasn’t until EF Pro Cycling asked for a new time trial helmet for the 2026 Tour de France that POC began to work on one. Now the Swedish company has officially launched the new helmet.

“The Sonal takes a new view of rider aerodynamics by focusing on a rider’s whole body rather than the head in isolation and uniquely comes in two sizes matched to shoulder width rather than head size,” POC says. 

“It features an elongated front designed to deflect air flow at the high-pressure zone that typically forms at the front of a helmet, which adds drag, instead it guides the airflow smoothly around the helmet and over the rider’s body.” 

Two widths 

The Sonal comes in two shell widths to treat the head and body as a single aerodynamic unit.

Mangus Gustavsson, POC’s director of hard goods, says: “​​Our objective with the Sonal was to create the fastest, most aerodynamic helmet possible – and to make it work for more riders, because we know a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in time trial. 

“That’s what led us to develop two distinct helmet sizes based on body and shoulder width, since airflow over the whole body – not just the head – is what ultimately creates the right aerodynamic profile.”

POC says riders with shoulders narrower than 37cm in a time-trial position should opt for the narrow Sonal; riders with shoulders wider than 37cm should go with the regular size. 

It adds that the shells have the same internal size for heads spanning 51-59cm, which covers most small to medium-sized helmets. 

“This means riders get a shell matched to their shoulder width without needing to worry about head-size fit separately,” POC says.

So how fast is it? 

POC says aerodynamic performance always depends on the specific rider. But it claims testing shows the Sonal provided a “significant improvement” in aerodynamic performance in both widths. 

“Tested against the already very fast POC TT helmets and at speeds we typically see in modern TT and track events, 60 km/h, the Sonal delivers average savings of 15 to 20 watts,” POC says. 

Vision and comfort 

POC says another important aspect of the Sonal’s development was vision. 

The helmet is designed to offer a full range of forward and peripheral vision. “This has been achieved by designing the helmet’s forehead angle to match the rider’s line of sight without requiring head movement,” POC says.

The helmet comes with a clear lens and a tinted lens for use in different light and weather conditions. These are secured by magnets so you can “swap lenses quickly and securely in seconds”. 

Despite its size, the helmet is also said to be comfortable to wear for extended periods. This is thanks to its weight (440g and 490g for the small and regular widths, respectively), light padding, Boa adjustment and its balance on your head while in a TT position. 

The Sonal will be available from POC’s website in October, with full availability next spring. It costs £550 / $660 / €600 / AU$1,000. 

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Trek has teased a 32in XC prototype on social media, with the new bike appearing to feature an unreleased 32in RockShox SID Flight Attendant fork.

The brand says the new bike will be ridden by Trek Factory Racing for the first time at this weekend’s penultimate UCI World Cup in Soldier Hollow, Utah, with Evie Richards seen riding it in an Instagram post.

A new 32in cross-country bike had been expected from the brand, with Trek suggesting at the start of the season that its current 29in prototype raced by the team this year “may never hit store shelves”.

A variation of the bike was also spotted in the background in Trek’s 50th-anniversary documentary.

Alongside the bike is a new 32in RockShox SID fork with what appear to be extended dropouts to fit the new wheel size.

While we’ve seen Fox’s RAD 32in prototype fork already in action on Andreas Seewald’s World Cup winning KTM Scarp Evo 4 32 prototype, it’s the first time we’ve seen anything 32in from rival RockShox.

Big wheels

The new bike has a similar suspension layout to the prototype the team has been racing, sharing the a top-mounted rear-shock design with flexstays in the rear triangle.

This shape of frame is very common in cross-country, because packaging the rear suspension high in the frame leaves space for two water bottles in the front triangle – perfect for marathon races where feed stops can be few and far between.

Having Evie Richards ride the bike in the video, and race it this weekend, suggests Trek has worked out one of the more difficult issues with the 32in wheel size.

Worries have spread that the new wheel size will put smaller riders at a disadvantage, but at 164cm, Richards appears to be countering that argument.

While we don’t have a full list of frame sizes, it appears Trek may have solved the issue of making small frames with 32in wheels.

The wheels of the bike look to be laced together with PolyLight braided Dyneema polyethylene spokes, which we saw on Berd’s 32in Hawk32 Gold wheelset in Taiwan earlier this year.

It appears to be a different rim profile from those wheels, so we expect these to be Trek or Bontrager’s own prototype.

The tyres look to be Pirelli prototypes.

RockShox SID Ultimate Flight Attendant 32in

Out of all the brands, RockShox has seemed the most secretive with its ambitions for 32in, with this being the first fork we’ve seen from the brand with the new wheel size.

From the teaser, the new SID appears to inherent some of the design cues from the new ZEB and Lyrik forks, with a plastic portion featuring on the arch that likely covers mounts for a mudguard.

It also features Flight Attendant, which we assume will have been optimised for the new 32in wheel size.

32in tipping point

It has felt as though 32in wheels have been coming for a little while now, but the addition of Trek and RockShox to the bandwagon feels like another layer of credibility has been given to the wheel size.

It seems certain now that the future of XC racing is bound in 32in rubber, but the proof will be found between the tapes during the transition period.