The original Nitrogen Pro was the aero bike of Astana when the Canadian brand sponsored the Kazakh team back in 2017. It had TRP V-brake calipers that sheltered behind the fork legs and seatstays to cut drag. Radical though these were for the WorldTour at the time, eight years is a long time in aerodynamics and the new Nitrogen Pro, launched today, is light years ahead.
Argon 18 says it’s the fastest road bike it has ever made: “More than a comeback, it’s a glimpse into the future of Argon 18,” in the words of product director Alexandre Côté. The brand says its goal went further – to create the world’s fastest road bike. To do so, rather than designing a frame and pairing it with standard components, Argon 18 says the Nitrogen Pro was “built as a fully integrated aerodynamic system, honed using a CFD model featuring the bike and rider matched with specific component combinations for optimal performance… to ensure theoretical performances would be achieved in real world conditions – not just in a wind tunnel.”
The press release doesn’t include competitor data – some brands do it while others don’t, so there’s nothing to read into this – but Argon 18's development process does sound particularly impressive, especially the collaboration with Scope wheels, which is flagged as a standout feature of the Nitrogen Pro. The ATTEN x Scope Artech 6.A+ wheelset, it says, was "born from Scope’s world-renowned Artech 6.A model, and is a fully integrated component of Nitrogen Pro’s front-end aero system. Enhancements to the Artech 6.A were made, for maximum performance and speed across tarmac, pavé, chip seal, and beyond, thanks to a form specifically tailored for Nitrogen Pro, when ridden with a 700x30c tyre."
I asked for more detail on this, and was told by Argon 18’s Jean-François Leclair that the existing Scope Artech 6.A was optimised for the 30mm Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR tyre. He said: “That tyre measures 31.4mm installed, which was the top aero performance with the fork, wheel, tyre combination. It is a bespoke optimisation specifically for this bike. With that tyre and on our bike, it performs better than the standard Artech (on our bike). This is exactly what our ATTEN lab is for: designing solutions for our bikes if what is available on the market does not meet our needs for the product’s performance.” He explained that the optimisation included a slightly wider rim than on the standard 6.A.
Standard Scope Artech 6.A wheels, which have a rim depth of 65mm, an internal rim width (hooked) of 25mm and a weight of 1,319g, retail at £3,500 directly. With Scope's fish-scale texture, they have been independently tested to be very fast, so it’s possible that a custom version for a specific tyre and frameset will make the Nitrogen Pro as fast as Argon 18 claims. Scope's wheels are ridden by Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek and Picnic-PostNL in time trial stages instead of those teams' regular wheel sponsors.
The Nitrogen platform also features a new in-house ATTEN CHB-01 aero cockpit that Argon 18 says simultaneously optimises leading edge aerodynamics and rider positioning, and the bikes come with specially designed bottle cages that incorporate an airflow concept that the brand says is inspired by automotive design.
The Nitrogen has a stack height 15mm taller than that of the Argon 18 Sum Pro race bike across the sizes; it is UDH compatible, has a threaded T47 bottom bracket shell and a 1 1/8in round steerer for industry-standard compatibility.
There are two carbon-fibre layup options, three colourways and a total of six different builds, the flagship Nitrogen Pro coming with SRAM Red and retailing at £13,000/EUR 13,99/$13,500, while the entry-level Nitrogen sells for £5,200/EUR 5,995/$5,400 and is equipped with Shimano 105 Di2.
Visit Argon 18’s website for all the details, geometry and specs.
