A Factor One Review, 40 Years in the Making
Regroup's Barry Anderson looks back on all of the great bikes he's loved and lost, as he takes the Factor ONE out for a test ride and review. Is it his next great love?
February 10, 2026
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GEAR DIVE
The Factor ONE SP: The ONE, Against the Clock
Factor puts a dedicated time trial front end on the ONE and calls the result the fastest road Factor ever, built to beat the clock. What the ONE SP is, what the ONE SP Bar gives you, where it sits in a range that now has three ways to race the clock, and how to start a ONE SP story of your own.
Factor has said since the day the ONE arrived that it was a platform rather than a bike, and this morning they made good on it. The ONE SP is the ONE frame, fitted with a time trial front end designed for it from the fork head up. The classification on Factor’s own spec sheet: the fastest road Factor ever, built to beat the clock.
It’s called the ONE SP, it’s a time trial and triathlon bike, and it doesn’t replace anything. The ONE stays exactly where it was. The HANZŌ and the SLiCK stay where they were. What the ONE SP adds is a time trial position on a frame that still steers, climbs and weighs like a road bike.
The ONE, and What Else It Could Be
The ONE’s front end, that wide-stance fork and the integrated cockpit with no stem, came out of a long development program in which Factor’s engineers iterated the fork, the head tube and the whole front-end architecture and studied how each version interacted with the rider and the air moving around the complete bike. In Factor’s words, it was developed not for visual distinction, but because it delivered the level of aerodynamic performance they wanted. Hundreds of CFD iterations were run before a prototype ever reached the wind tunnel.
Once that was proven on the road, the next question was what else the platform could do. The same aerodynamic potential that makes the ONE exceptionally fast in a bunch made it, as Factor put it, an obvious foundation for a dedicated TT front end. The development objective for the ONE SP is one sentence: unlock the full aerodynamic potential of the ONE platform and redefine what’s possible against the clock. Factor’s launch line is cheekier. Any faster, they say, and it would be illegal.
Two Factor Racing riders have been on it. Jens Emil: “The ONE SP just feels like an F1 racing car. We did some wind tunnel testing quite early on, which confirmed that Factor had made something that was unique and fast.” Alexandre Caille: “I feel great on the bike and have a really good connection with it; I think it’s very aerodynamic while also being comfortable. I like a light bike to climb fast, and I think ONE SP is exactly what I need.”
The ONE SP Bar, and What Adjustable Actually Means
The new part is the ONE SP Bar. It bolts directly to the fork head through a four-bolt interface, the same idea that gives the ONE its stemless road cockpit, so the time trial front end becomes part of the frame’s aero envelope rather than a cockpit clamped to a stem in front of it. It’s made in high-modulus carbon for the rigidity and precise handling race speed asks for.
Then there’s the adjustment, which on a time trial bike matters more than anywhere else. The system offers an optional 10 mm of stack at the bar attachment, and the extensions take up to 35 mm of additional stack in 5 mm increments, alongside what Factor call an extensive reach, width and rotation adjustment range for the pads and extensions. Cable routing is fully internal through the cockpit and the frame, with compatibility for electronic groupsets and hydraulic disc brakes. A dedicated Black Inc Computer Mount with support for Garmin and Wahoo completes the system, and a BTA accessory holder comes with the bike.
Adjustable isn’t the same as fitted. Forty-five millimeters of stack range and open reach, width and rotation is a wonderful thing to hand a fitter and a dangerous thing to hand a rider with an Allen key and a theory. The position is the aerodynamics on a bike like this. The ONE SP Bar gives you room to find the right one. It doesn’t find it for you.
The Frame Underneath: Why It Steers Like a Road Bike
Because the frame is the ONE, the geometry is the ONE’s. Chainstays hold at 405 mm across the range, with 408 mm on the 58. The head angle is 73.3 degrees on every size but the 47, which runs 72.5, and Factor keep the steering geometry identical across sizes with toe overlap eliminated on the small frames, so a 47 handles like a 56. Bottom bracket drop is 75 mm, 77 on the two smallest sizes. Stack runs from 503 to 587 mm and reach from 390 to 421 across five sizes, 47 to 58.
The seat angle is where the time trial position comes from. Nominally it runs from 76.5 degrees on the 47 to 75.5 on the 56 and 58, but the seatpost gives an effective range of 73.5 to 77 degrees, and Factor note that the effective fit matches the OSTRO VAM despite the steeper nominal number. In practice that means a road rider’s saddle position is available on the same bike as a proper forward triathlon position, and the difference is a seatpost adjustment rather than a different frame.
The rest carries over from the ONE. Frame and fork are optimised around tires up to 34 mm wide, so you can balance aerodynamic efficiency, rolling resistance and the demands of the course rather than being told what to run. It is 1x and 2x compatible with electronic groupsets from SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo, with an adjustable front derailleur mount for a broad range of gearing. The Di2 battery lives in the bottom bracket, the bottom bracket is T47A threaded, the fork is a bayonet design with a chin fairing, and the rear derailleur hangs off Factor’s low-profile Mini-UDH.
Four Colors, Four Builds
The ONE SP comes in Chrome, Onyx Black, Nimbus Grey and Silverstone, and Factor offer it four ways. The Premium Package is the frameset with the ONE SP Bar at $8,099. Add Black Inc wheels, BI62 or HYPER 62, and it is $10,999 or $12,099. The complete bikes are SRAM Force with a power meter from $12,799, or SRAM RED with a power meter from $14,699, each with the same choice of wheels. Those are Factor’s US prices. Every build is electronic.
A time trial bike is a personal object in a way even a custom road bike isn’t, and the Premium Package is where most of ours will start. Gearing for the course, the wheel choice between the BI62 and the HYPER 62, the tire, and above all the position, are decisions to make with someone rather than from a menu.
Who the ONE SP Is For
Factor describe the result as road bike handling, agility and low weight with the advantage of a super-aero time trial or triathlon position, and call it the best of both worlds for anyone looking to find their fastest speed. Their riders are more specific: fast and agile enough for short and uphill time trials, yet aerodynamic, adjustable and efficient enough for long-distance triathlon.
So: the road racer who also rides time trials and doesn’t want a second bike that handles like a plank. The rider whose time trials go uphill, where the ONE’s low weight and a bike you can steer count for more than the last watt of drag. The triathlete who wants a bike that’s a pleasure on a long training ride as well as on race day. And the ONE owner who has been looking at the fork head and wondering.
Factor’s own labels do the sorting. Pure Triathlon is the SLiCK. Pure Speed is the HANZŌ, the bike our own Regroup Racing Ironman athlete rides. The ONE SP is for the rider who wants time trial speed on a bike that still handles like a road bike. Which one is right for you is a conversation, and we’d rather have it before an order than after.
Where It Sits: ONE and ONE SP, Side by Side
Same frame, two front ends. The table is short because the differences are.
Swipe sideways to compare both bikes →
| ONE | ONE SP | |
|---|---|---|
| Factor calls it | The road bike built to win the sprint after a whole stage | Fastest Redefined. The fastest road Factor ever, built to beat the clock |
| Built for | Road racing: holding speed in a bunch | Time trials and triathlon, short and uphill to long-course |
| Front end | Integrated bar system, no traditional stem | ONE SP Bar, four-bolt mount direct to the fork head |
| Position | Road race, stem-equivalent sizes 1–5 | Time trial: 10 mm bar stack, up to 35 mm extension stack, reach, width and rotation adjustable |
| Tire clearance | 34 mm | 34 mm |
| Chainstays | 405 mm | 405 mm (408 on the 58) |
| Sizes | 47, 52, 54, 56, 58 | 47, 52, 54, 56, 58 |
| Drivetrain | Electronic, 1x or 2x | Electronic, 1x or 2x |
| Premium Package | — | $8,099 |
| Builds from | $11,999 | $12,799 (SRAM Force, power meter, Black Inc BI62) |
Starting Your ONE SP Story With Regroup
Tempe is a triathlon town. The Ironman comes through here every November, the Arizona time trial calendar runs most of the year, and a good share of the riders who walk into the shop are training for something with a clock on it. We’ve built every Factor in the range across the years, and a ONE SP starts the way every Factor does here: with a conversation about the racing you do, and then a fit.
The ONE SP Bar gives us a lot of adjustment to work with, in stack, reach, width and rotation, and that’s what a fitter is for. Settle the position first, on the bike, with the numbers in front of you. Then choose the build to suit it, from the gearing to the wheels to the tire. Getting that sequence backwards is the expensive mistake on a time trial bike. Regroup FIT exists to prevent it.
There’s one question we expect to be asked more than any other, and we’re putting it to Factor rather than guessing: whether the ONE SP Bar can be fitted to a ONE you already own. We’ll tell you what we know when we know it.
For what racing against the clock looks like from inside our own team, meet Regroup Racing’s Chelsea Wolfe. For the platform underneath the ONE SP, read our Factor ONE review and how the ONE is made.
The Verdict, Such As It Is
We haven’t ridden it. Almost nobody has, and we’ll wait until there’s one in the studio with a position dialed and proper miles on it before offering our two cents.
What we’ll say on launch day is that the logic is sound. No new frame means no new compromise. The ONE was already the fastest road bike they make, and the front end that made it fast was always going to be the right place to hang a time trial cockpit. Keeping the ONE’s handling, weight and 34 mm of tire while adding a proper aero position is rare in a category that usually makes you choose.
The one thing Factor don’t say is that a time trial bike is only ever as fast as the position on it. The ONE SP Bar’s adjustability is an invitation to get fitted properly, not a substitute for it. Whether the bike is yours depends on whether your racing has a clock in it. If it does, this is a serious way to beat it.
FEATURED
Factor ONE SP
The Factor ONE, built to beat the clock. The ONE SP Bar, 34 mm tires, four colors and road-bike handling in a true time trial position. Every one built to order in Tempe, starting with a fit.
