The Two Wildest Time Trial Bikes at China Cycle Are Gunning for World Records and Colnago

Welcome to Velo’s China Cycle coverage, where we share our favorite things we’ve found at the 2026 show. Bikes, components, accessories, and more: if we think it’s cool, you’ll see it. See the rest of our China Cycle coverage.

There is nothing faster or more technologically advanced in the bike world than a time trial bike, and Chinese brands Incolor and Seka are using the China Cycle show to prove it with two incredible new prototypes.

On the Seka side, the design is driven by current hour record holder Vittoria Bussi and her insight into what makes a faster bike. Bussi has broken the record three times—her first title dating to 2018, and her latest pushing the distance to 50.267 km on October 13, 2023.

She isn’t just an athlete, though. Bussi holds a doctorate in pure mathematics from the University of Oxford and is applying her expertise to bike design. Seka took her suggestions and built a prototype designed to win her the next record.

Bussi theorized that reducing the length of the head tube and increasing the height of the fork reduces the frontal area of the bike. However, doing so creates a lot of empty space above the front tire and requires careful handling of the upper part of the down tube. To control that space, Seka reduced the width of the upper down tube and inserted small “fins” into the gap to manage how the air hits the slimmed-down tube. Ultimately, the design is all about making one of the fastest riders in the world even faster.

Incolor is doing the opposite. Instead of a design led by an athlete and focused on a particular event, the Incolor TTR has been created to help the rest of us set records at whatever level we are competing.

The Incolor design looks a lot like a revised version of the Hope HBT track bike that made waves when it landed. The two are certainly not the same, but there are echoes, starting with a somewhat similar front fork. Both designs use the same strategy—also shared by BMC with the Halo fork design—that inherently revolves around getting the bike frame as far away from the messy air of the wheel as possible.

The Incolor TTR takes it a step further though. It isn’t just a wide fork with a scalloped edge; the brand also split the seat stays and the seatpost to minimize frontal area while retaining enough strength. Then the frame also wraps the “seat tube” as tightly around the rear wheel as any bike ever has.

The result is a bike that Incolor thinks might actually be faster than legacy TT designs. When pushed for a comparison, a spokesperson at the booth suggested early testing indicates the design has a chance of being faster than the recently updated Colnago TT bike.

Proof of that will have to wait though. As with the Seka, this is still in the prototype stage. Incolor is hoping the final bike, expected in late summer, will keep the frame weight under 2,000 grams (with an 800-gram fork) with pricing around the $5,000 range.

For more information, visit the Seka website or the Incolor website.