As the manufacturer of pumps and tools that often look like they should be in a high-end home interiors showroom rather than the workshop at your local bike shop, Silca is known for its premium product offering.
Now, with the launch of the Silca Mensola computer mount, a new level of price inflation has been achieved.
Looking like it should be on sale a few streets over from Rapha’s Soho clubhouse, the Mensola stands to attention at the front of any bike thanks to every unit being ‘designed for your specific stem faceplate geometry, ensuring minimum weight, maximum strength and improved aerodynamics over previous computer mount solutions.’
However, for anyone still unsure about sinking £175 into a computer mount, Silca points out that the Mensola is ‘the world’s smartest computer mount’ and it is ‘designed by the wind and manufactured in 6Al/4V Titanium by lasers’. Lasers!
What’s more, ‘Mensola is for the discerning cyclist looking for the strongest and most beautiful mounting solution for their computer. Mensola improves aerodynamics at the front of the bike while also de-cluttering the handlebars.’
Method in the madness
According to Silca, ‘traditional manufacturing constraints have made it impractical to make all of the sizes necessary to sell a mount that will work with all of the various stem faceplate geometries, so we have still clamps.’
To solve this, the brand found a solution ‘in the form of 3D printing, which gives us the ability to manufacture practically any geometry without limitations of tooling or raw material stock sizes’.
Which, in fairness, sounds pretty cool and probably goes some way to explaining the price tag.
Lighter but stronger
Further, the brand says that the 3D printing approach gives unlimited design options and allowed its engineers to make ‘the strongest, most beautiful and functional mount ever seen’.
Expanding outside of the cycling industry, structural design elements were borrowed from architectural and aerospace engineering – so says Silca – resulting in a ‘stressed skin design with internal truss elements’.
As such, the mount a claimed 10-15% lighter than aluminum mounts manufactured by CNC techniques, while also being six to 12 times stronger than those same aluminum designs – according to the brand’s own calculations.
Each unit is printed in 6Al/4V titanium at the brand’s Indianapolis facility and then matched with 6Al/4V Titanium hardware for mounting to rider’s stem. The Mensola’s weight ranges from 27g to 36g depending on a stem’s bolt spacing or hard points of an integrated handlebar.
