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NAHBS 2013: Guru Unveils 670 Gram Photon HL Road Bike & More!

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Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Guru’s new Photon HL was built from an engineering standpoint first, then they looked at design, with a goal of creating the lightest, stiffest bike on the market.

To accomplish this, the bike uses squared off tubes to maximize the “tangential surfaces,” which basically means there’s more of each tube surface that’s in tension, which is where carbon fiber gets its strength. Then, the layup uses patches and strips of carbon in a zippered layup called Quantum Carbon Concept. The result is a frame that’s just 670g for a size 54.

Check out detail frame pics, complete bike weights and the Photon R & SL and more after the break…

*Updated with prices for the SL and R models.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Construction is tube to tube. Cable ports, shown further down on the Photon R, are ready for mech or electronic with no parts swapping or retrofitting.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

The bike uses a PFBB30 and straight headtube.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Compared to their previous bikes with a thinner dropout on the non-drive side, the new Photon models use symmetrically thick dropouts for equal strengths from side to side.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

The complete bike weighed in at just 11 pounds. Of course, the frame is only part of the story for a bike this light, so here’s a bit of the build:

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Extralite New Ultimate cockpit.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

THM Clavicula carbon cranks and KCNC spiderweb chainrings and brakes. Wheels are Reynolds RZR tubulars.

Available late April. The Photon HL will be custom only, no stock sizes. Frame is $8,500. Rider weight limit is 220lbs.

Guru Photon R Road Bike

The Photon R is the stiffest bike they’ve ever built, and they say it’s stiffer than any competitors’ bike they’ve measured, too. Unlike the HL and SL, it has a tapered headtube and thicker 31.6 seatpost (others use 27.2). It also switches to a PF86 BB.

Guru Photon HL 670g Hyperlight Road Bike

Layup is optimized more for stiffness, but it still comes in under 800g (54), giving it a very, very good stiffness to weight ratio. It gets their FFR racing geometry. The Photon R is $5,000 for stock frame and fork, or $6,000 for full custom.

Guru Photon SL Road Bike

The SL uses essentially the same tube shapes as the HL, but uses different carbon and layup. Frame weight is 750g for a 54. It gets their FFX (Fast Forward Flex) geometry, which falls between race and endurance set up. Price is $4,500 stock frame and fork, and $5,500 for full custom.

All bikes come with ENVE 1.0 or 2.0 forks depending on model.

Not shown, the titanium Praemio R is now available in stock sizing with framesets at $3,600 with ENVE tapered fork (compared to $4,500 and up for custom). This bike was introduced last summer as a high performance crit race bike with oversized tubes to give it the stiffness needed for that discipline.

Guru Meta XC 650B 27-5 hardtail mountain bike

The titanium Meta XC hardtail now available in 650B/27.5. This one is a shop’s bike that built it up around 22 pounds. The model has been slightly updated in the stays to better accommodate the current range of drivetrains.

Guru commuter bike

They also have a new singlespeed commuter bike with disc brakes.

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11 Comments
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g
g
11 years ago

Wait….What? $8500 for the frame? Gotta be a typo. Y’all really should consider proofreading.

Kristi Benedict
Admin
11 years ago
Reply to  g

g- it’s not a typo, the HL is only available as a custom bike and yes, it is $8500.

stratosrally
stratosrally
11 years ago

Not to mention the new wheel size that they are introducing – 660B????? 😉

Kristi Benedict
Admin
11 years ago
Reply to  stratosrally

Fixed, Thanks stratosrally and Rob!

Rob
Rob
11 years ago

I may be wrong but the Photon HL looks to be sporting a New Ultimate cockpit, not an Extralite one.

g
g
11 years ago

@kristibee- Well that is outlandish.

Matt
Matt
11 years ago

That is a really nice looking bike, but I have always liked frame shapes that put efficiency over trying to be stylish.

Rich W
Rich W
11 years ago

Would never buy another Guru after they refused to warranty a road bike with a buckled down tube. Never crashed. Not a scratch on the bike. Weighed 140 lbs. at the time. Awful.

a
a
11 years ago

“To accomplish this, the bike uses squared off tubes to maximize the “tangential surfaces,” which basically means there’s more of each tube surface that’s in tension, which is where carbon fiber gets its strength. Then, the layup uses patches and strips of carbon in a zippered layup called Quantum Carbon Concept.”

This is meaningless babble. If the patches of carbon are laid up in an interesting way then please describe it rather than assuming it can be divined from the word “zippered” (because it cant). There is also nothing “quantum” here, and “tangential surfaces” sounds like someone doesn’t know about second moments of area.

fayar
fayar
11 years ago

Re the HL: What is the legitimate point of this bike? It’s too light for pros and anyone who would be riding fast enough to see an incremental improvement in performance due to this is probably already sponsored. $8500 for bragging rights?

Jab
Jab
11 years ago

8500$ is a fair price for a custom frame that offers the best stiffness/weight ratio while beeing the lightest out there. I don’t assume I can afford cause it’s in a league of bike in which I don’t belong just like ferrari is for the car industry. Custom frame is tailor fit to your body requirements. It means that tooling for each bikes are as unique as the bike itself. That said, you can understand that some people wants the best and are willing to pay for it. Haters comment about this fact are just a proof of jealousy more than a real opinion on a great piece of art.

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