A new Koga aero road bike with a massive head tube has been spotted.
The as-yet-unreleased Koga belongs to Matthijs Büchli. It appears to be based on the Koga Kinsei track bike, which the Dutchman rode to Olympic Gold in the team sprint in 2021.
Like the Kinsei, the unidentified Koga road bike has deep kammtail tubes and the oversized head tube is almost identical to the track bike’s.
In screen grabs from Beat Cycling’s YouTube channel, the Koga’s head tube appears to be around twice as wide as the fork.
Even without the black and white splatter paintjob, it’s a distinctive bike.
It’s understandable that Koga wants to harness the Kinsei’s watt-saving capabilities that have helped Büchli to Olympic and World Championship gold medals on the track.
Büchli joined Beat Cycling, a Dutch UCI Continental-level outfit, in 2022 and has been riding the Koga Kimera on the road.
Compared to the new bike, the Kimera has a far more traditional road bike look, with skinnier and rounder tubing.
On the unnamed aero road bike, clearance between the front FFWD Ryot front wheel looks very tight.
The deep-section wheels are wrapped in tan wall Vredestein Superpasso tyres, which have a 150 TPI carcass, according to the brand.
Büchli is running a Shimano Ultegra R8170 Di2 groupset on the mystery aero bike, as he did on the Koga Kimera.
We’re lacking clear images of the front end of the bike, but it does appear to have a two-piece bar and stem.
It may be a prototype, but under UCI rules it will eventually have to be commercially available if Büchli intends to race it.
We’ve contacted Koga for more details about the bike and when to expect its launch.
