Review: 2012 Quintana Roo Illicito

Below is an excerpt from a blog entryfrom Tom Demerly of TriSports on his review of the new QR Illicito.

The logic is simple: If you want to make a bike perform differently you have to design it differently.

The Quintana Roo Illicito is different. The frame has no left seat stay. While the missing seat stay and massive left chain stay are the most visually striking features the SHIFT technology, improved carbon fiber lay-up, redesigned rear brake and BB30 bottom bracket also exert a strong influence on the bike's performance.

The lesson of history is that if you want extraordinary performance you must adopt extraordinary design.

The Illicito has not gotten much media attention mostly due to different industry emphasis and greater effort on product than marketing by Quintana Roo. QR has focused on the steak and not the sizzle. The logic of tossing the UCI rule book and designing a bike specifically for best aerodynamics makes sense- to triathletes. Lotus, Zipp, Softride, Trek, Kestrel and Hotta have all done it. The Quintana Roo Illicito, as the name suggests, is illegal for UCI sanctioned races like the Tour de France. For triathletes: who cares? It's designed to be faster, rules be damned. For QR designing a bike specifically for the triathlete is where they started in 1987. It excludes them from events sanctioned by USA Cycling and professional bicycle racing time trials governed by the UCI. In both politics and technology Quintana Roo walks the walk with the Illicito. They are truly 'True to the Tri' with the Illicito design. And of course, for triathlons the Illicito is entirely legal. (READ MORE HERE).

Below is Tom at the Interbike 2010 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada with the "2011: QR Project Illicito".

Below is Triathlete Magazine's video with Brad DeVaney with Quintana Roo.