GEAR DIVE
From the alpine-aggression of the Asola to the trail-tough Raso Gravel, the Sarto bikes range covers a lot of ground. Here's our guide to finding your perfect Sarto.
Ateliers, tailors, makers and machinists - there are as many names for the people and place of Sarto bikes, as there are words to describe the art of bespoke. As Italian as you can get when your HQ and factory is only a bidon's throw from Venice, Sarto is to custom bikes what a Ferrari is to automotive excellence. In short, it's a cut above. A brand that builds under one roof, that sources the finest materials in service of bikes that go beyond ordinary, a dream ride, made to your every measurement with hitherto unseen levels of quality and craft.
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As Sarto so grandly says, the Raso Gravel represents the ‘evolution of all-terrain’, which equates to the swiftness of a road bike, the agility of a trail bike and the elegance that can only come from a truly handmade product. Indeed, gravel bikes have never looked so good.
And Sarto is right to be confident – the Raso Gravel is exceptionally surefooted. Whatever you try to do, it’s right there, confident, precise and incredibly fast. The speed is a little shocking at first. It really goes. But never at the expense of control. Again, as Sarto confirms, “Think of Raso Gravel as a road bike for riding the toughest trails with big tires.” Yes, really big tires. Available in two versions, Raso Gravel in its normal guise accepts up to 48mm on a 700c wheel with either 2x or 1x compatibility. If you see yourself going bigger, the Raso Gravel WIDE version offers up to 55mm (2.2″) of clearance. And yes, you can still use a 52-tooth 1x ring.
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‘Climb like you mean it’ is the tag line, and the Sarto Asola doesn’t leave you wanting. This climber’s delight is an outlier in the Sarto range – a pure ascender that blends lightning-fast speed with the control, precision and comfort we have come to expect from Sarto. Classic looks, crisper tubes, it all adds up to a KOM-killer for those who just love to hit the summit.
The secret behind the speed here is Asola’s elegantly shaped 50mm tubes, in-house creations (as everything is at Sarto), sculpted with selective reinforcements and a maximum thickness of 0.7mm. Combined with the medium- and high-modulus fibers throughout the frame, Asola delivers a stiff, responsive ride that stays smooth even over rough roads.
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The Cima – meaning ‘Peak’ in Italian- is Sarto’s newest, and, at the time of writing, still kind of a secret new road bike. Erico and Giovanni from Sarto were kind enough to bring one over for the Regroup in the Desert show this year, so we could see and show it to the riders who attended.
Its name should give you a clue as to its ideal terrain. Cima is a very fast, very light pure road bike in the Italian tradition. Enrico, Sarto’s CEO, who created the bike, told us that he used a blend of incredibly expensive fibres – the sort no other bike brand would ever consider using – to develop the Cima’s feel. Accordingly, it’s superbly reactive (yes, we rode it!), almost leaping forward with each pedal turn. But it’s still a Sarto. It’s amazingly plush under the wheel, never jarring, letting you feel the road and what it’s doing without causing you discomfort.
The Cima is also very svelte, with diamond lines, shaped, Enrico says, to give the bike a free-feeling and very different aesthetic. Unlike so many bicycle design ideas that don’t translate to the road, the diamond idea is indeed a diamond idea – it really draws the eye to the subtlety of Enrico’s vision, how the tubes catch the light, meet the air.
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