Looks like a road bike, rides like a road bike, Rips through gravel. The Exploro RaceMax is the first gravel bike to challenge road bikes for speed, all with beyond.
The goal for the 3T RACEMAX
Our goal was quite simply to optimize the aerodynamics of a gravel bike to the same level as a road bike. I don’t like to use the phrase “the world’s fastest gravel bike” because “world’s fastest” is so overused and arbitrary (see the 20 bikes that call themselves the “world’s fastest aero road bike”).
But in gravel, nobody else seriously uses aerodynamics yet. So, for once I’ll say it: the world’s fastest gravel bike! Now back to business.
While the idea was simple, the execution was very challenging. To lower drag, you need to shield the tires. Which means you need to know exactly how big all these tires are. Hint: It’s not what’s on the label! Hundreds of measurements later, we came up with two new concepts:
WAM: Width As Measured
RAM: Radius As Measured
By now, we know so much about tires we wake up screaming in the middle of the night. With all these measurements, the engineering of the frame could begin. The result is a frame with:
- tight-fitting rear wheel cutout (with mud clearance of course)
- downtube optimized to re-direct the airflow coming off the front wheel and onto the
- water bottle narrow headtube with a big steerer inside (it’s pretty trick)
- dozens of small details to eke out every last Watt