The cycling industry does not stand still. Technological advances either. In recent years, innovations such as disc brakes or tubeless are a reality but from time to time, certain careers awaken the ingenuity of brands. we saw it in the Milan-San Remo 2022 with Matej Mohoric’s dropper post, an element totally linked to the mountain bike and who helped you complete a suicidal descent into the Poggio to, in the end, get the first monument of his record. But the case that concerns us now goes one or several steps further.
It’s about the revolutionary KAPS released by the Gravaa brand, a system that allows you to regulate the pressure of the bicycle tires… let’s go! It consists of a small air pump that is installed in the hub of the wheel and that connects to the tire valve through a small tube, so the rider can regulate the pressure at all times depending on the type of terrain. The applied value can be seen on the cycle computer, since it is allowed to synchronize the data through a mobile application. This supposes a great advantage for cobblestone races, since the cyclist can reduce the pressure on the cobblestone sections to gain traction, which translates into higher speed.
This is not the case, because reducing the pressure to favor this absorption of vibrations when passing over uneven terrain would mean a deficit when rolling on asphalt. However, the valve allows to recover the pressure again by taking advantage of the air flow generated by the rotation of the wheel. In short, depending on the terrain you can adapt the tire pressure to have an advantage. Time will tell if this advance is established massively in the international peloton, but recently we have seen great teams test it in top-level races, in the case of a Edoardo Affini, Jumbo-Visma racer, who installed the invention in Across Flanders. Will the Dutch team transfer this test bench to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix? It can be a factor that makes the difference…