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Quintana Roo’s New Halo Bike – Meet the V-PRi

Previewed late last year by Matt Hanson at the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice, Quintana Roo has launched its newest entry into the superbike market — the V-PRi.

To not bury the lede, this is indeed a top end of the market entry. That, of course, means a top end of the market price, with pricing starting at $13,699 and, as of this writing, can be optioned to north of $15,000 when you choose the (well worth it) Fit-Ready upgrade to your configuration.

Now, what you get for that price are some big changes to both the frame and component spec over a typical Quintana Roo build. Starting with the frame, there’s now both fully-integrated hydration and nutrition options built into what QR is calling FuelBay. The hydration module is reminiscent of the old Specialized hydration system, whereas the nutrition storage can fit up to six gels inside the top tube.

QR is also touting its first-ever fully integrated cockpit. That integrated cockpit features, unsurprisingly for Quintana Roo, a significant amount of adjustment, with stack rise options from 30mm to 120mm, available in 5 mm increments. The company claims a seamless transition from cockpit to frame at the head tube. The entire system is referred to as the Intelligent Integration Cockpit.

The rest of the frame features significantly deeper tubes than some of those found on the other PR series bikes. There’s a neatly integrated cowling on the fork that shields the front disc brake caliper. But there’s also some classic QR features here — the Shift offset downtube, intended to divert airflow to the cleaner, non-drive side of the bike, as well as the so-called Leading Edge Absent non-drive side chain stay.

According to Quintana Roo’s wind tunnel testing, across a full yaw sweep from -15 to 15 degrees, the V-PRi saves an average of 6.2 watts over the V-PR. And in the lightest build configuration (stealth paint, SRAM Red AXS 1X and Zipp wheels), it’s a shade over 19 pounds total.

Now, about the component spec. A top-shelf bike can only come with top-shelf components. That means you’re looking at a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 or a SRAM Red eTap AXS 1X build. Either way, pricing includes out of the gate a power meter. The Shimano build includes a Stages dual-sided powermeter. The SRAM build comes with the Quarq RED AXS powermeter. The standard wheel set is DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT in 62mm/80mm depth. The upgrade wheel set is Zipp’s Firecrest NSW 454/858.

Looking at fit, and the initial wave is only coming in three T-shirt sizes: small, medium, and large. Quintana Roo’s done something interesting in terms of their geometry chart, moving to show an actual frame stack / reach measurement, and then what they are calling “virtual” stack and reach. That’s because of that cockpit of theirs — it’s the true, effective stack, but by definition, stack is solely a frame measurement. By that case, you essentially have in typical QR sizing terms a 50, 52, and 56 on the market today. Reach is within a whisker of the corresponding sizes in the V-PRs; if anything, it is ever so slightly shorter in reach compared to those bikes.

Now, in fairness to QR on pricing — configuring a stealth colored V-PR with Dura-Ace, a powermeter, and equivalent wheels gets you to within $1,000 of the starting price of the V-PRi. If anything, QR now has an option available to almost every triathlete in the marketplace, ranging from the current closeout $2,999 PR series bikes through bikes five times that cost. No wonder they moved to the top three brands on the pier in Kona this year.

With the V-PRi, it’s clear they’re looking for more.

All Images Courtesy of Quintana Roo

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