Queensland-based chain wax service (renh_chain_wax_service) appears to have inadvertently leaked a still-unreleased new Factor Ostro VAM this morning. The bike, owned by Simon Clark of Israel Premier Tech, appears to have been raced in the 2024 Australian National Road Racing Championship and was first spotted by Escape Collective. The machine will also (we assume) be featured in the upcoming Tour Down Under.

It is unclear whether Clark opted for the AU$20 Standard or the AU$50 Race chain optimization waxing service, but an Instagram post shows the new model with an undetermined release date.

January often sees the release of many new kits and equipment. You can find out what everyone is using this year in the Men's and Women's World Tour Technical Guides.

So what is new? Well, compared to the current model, this edition seems to follow the general industry trend of aero in the front and lightweight in the back. The fork legs are deeper, more organic, and molded into a deeper, more obviously rounded head tube. All current models have aggressive cam-tail cutoffs, but not this time around. Also, the steerer tube does not appear to be set in front of the headtube, indicating that the designers added material forward to make the headtube deeper, similar to the "speed sniffer" found on the latest Specialized Tarmac SL8.

The top tube tapers more drastically to a wafer-like area at the seat tube junction, and the down tube is also slightly deeper. Clark rides on a relatively small frame, and there appears to be very little sculpture on the underside of the downtube to accommodate the front wheel.

The seat tube does not appear to be much deeper, but there is a notch for the rear wheel. The geometry has also changed, with shorter chainstays, presumably for stiffness as well as aerodynamic benefits. The seatstays appear to have changed little.

The seat clamp wedge covers are new, so there may be a new arrangement.

There is no mistaking the wheel brands this season. The words "BLACK INC" are engraved in white on each rim, taking up one-third of the circumference. The white 48/58 notation on the valves indicates that this is a new wheelset from Factor's in-house component brand, which falls between Sixty and Forty Five.