Description
The Skylon Aktiv frameset is the aero road bike that makes you believe every road is smooth, no matter how cracked and potholed it is. The secret sauce is found in the Aktiv fork, which reduces low-frequency vibrations by 30%.
The fork is designed with a tuned mass damper inside. It’s a small weight on a flexible rod moving inside the fork. You won’t hear it moving as there are rubber bumpers to dampen any sound. It adds 200g to the bike. But what it takes away is vibration. Time found that 75% of the vibration experienced by the rider comes from the fork. When tuned mass dampers are used in cars, they help stabilize the front end. So not only are lots of vibrations never making it past the dampers, but stability has improved. This not only smoothes out the road, but increases confidence, decreases fatigue, for an overall performance improvement.
The bottom bracket standard is BB386, which, thanks to its oversized width and diameter, increases torsional rigidity 30% over Time’s ZXRs.
While this is an aero bike, and the stiffest in Time’s lineup, they made a conscious decision to keep a great degree of comfort in the frame. That’s why the shapes aren’t as large as you’ll see elsewhere. They also made liberal use of Vectran, a liquid crystal polymer that is woven into a fiber and damps vibration. Vectran is a hallmark of Time carbon-fiber, ever since they started employing it in their forks, making the forks the most-sought after carbon-fiber fork of its era.
Weight for the frame, fork, headset, seat mast, and clamp, is 1580g in the Small, including paint. The headset is Time’s own design, with a top cap that holds the fork in place without the pressure of a star nut in the steerer.
The frame is designed to run both brake and derailleur cables internally. Derailleur cables can be electronic or mechanical. A full set of plugs are included, and both Campagnolo and Shimano will work. Run the battery inside the seatpost for Shimano, seat tube for Campy. The front derailleur hanger is a new design that has more material to clamp the front derailleur. This should make overzealous mechanics rest easy as well as stiffen up front shifting. It’s also replaceable.
The seat mast has zero setback and comes with two clamps, one for metal rails, one for carbon. Max tire width is 25mm. Two top caps come with the frame, one is flat, one 1cm taller.
The Time Skylon Aktiv brings plush road comfort to aero road bikes.
TIME is unique because every model is built 100% by hand in France with unmatched quality.
Export definition – No in-country warranty.
Rough guide
M – 1.7m to 1.8m
XS – 1.65m to 1.7m
XXS – 1.6m to 1.65m
