A Swedish helmet brand once proclaimed, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Speed is not". When Colnago launched their new Y1RS aero bike earlier this week, this phrase couldn't have been more fitting.

The Y1RS undoubtedly splits opinions with its distinct looks, but backs it up with impressive performance claims. In their search for seconds, Colnago has introduced a radically aerodynamic frontal area design which presents certain demands for the headset bearing setup.

Through our ongoing partnership with the storied Italian brand, we've put our expertise into creating the optimal headset bearing design for this innovative bike. Colnago's Head of R&D, Davide Fumagalli, on this unique frontal area design:

“You could reduce it even more but you don’t want to lose stiffness or you can’t sprint, you can’t handle the bike well. What we did was again use a completely different headset solution from anyone else to be able to squeeze onto the bike the smallest possible bearings you can find.

So the upper bearings are the smallest 45-degree bearings you can find on the market and the bottom are the smallest 1.8in bearings on the market. Both are SLT from CeramicSpeed because we want a maintenance-free headset".