REGROUP CUSTOM
PHOTOS
Daniel Koeth
WORDS
Peter Harrington
TYPE
Road
FRAME
Custom Sarto Raso
GROUPSET
SRAM RED AXS — 160mm cranks
WHEELS
Enve SES 2.2
SADDLE
Form
COCKPIT
Sarto Custom – one-piece 36cm handlebar/stem
TIRES
Vittoria Corsa Pro, 30mm
Some of our best client relationships begin the way all the best things do — unexpectedly. Our first conversation with the female rider behind this stunning white Sarto Raso wasn’t about bikes at all. It was about shoes.
Our client had called us about a pair of limited edition Nimbl shoes, and what followed was one of those conversations that gathers pace, meanders, and turns into a lot more than the reason for the first call. As someone who regularly visits the Phoenix area to see family, our client became a familiar and welcome presence at Regroup — the kind of customer who reminds you why you do this in the first place. And as often happens when you spend enough time in a bike shop worth its espresso, the talk eventually turned to bikes.
She’d been riding a Pinarello and had been quietly circling the idea of an upgrade for some time. She knew she wanted something custom, something Italian, and something built precisely for her. On that last point, we were very much in agreement.
For riders that fall outside of the industry’s average size, the custom route isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s often the only way to get things genuinely right. Stock geometry tends to be designed around an imagined ideal that doesn’t represent the full spectrum of riders who love cycling, and the compromises involved in fitting a smaller frame can quietly undo a lot of the quality that makes a premium bike worth the investment. A custom Sarto Raso, built to her exact measurements, fabricated to her profile, style and physique by Sarto’s artisans in Venice, with a 36cm handlebar, 160mm cranks, and a carbon layup that unlocks every ounce of speed, comfort, and performance, removed all of that from the equation.
To get those dimensions absolutely right, we brought her to meet Regroup FIT’s Barry Anderson for a full fit session before the build was ever specced out. During a Regroup Custom process, it’s the sequence that makes all the difference: fit first, build second. The saddle was decided the same way. After a saddle mapping session with Barry, they settled on a Form saddle, chosen for how it works with her body rather than how it looks in a catalogue.
The Sarto Raso is a natural fit for a build like this. Handmade from fiber to paint at Sarto’s HQ in Venice, it’s one of the most genuinely bespoke carbon road bikes available anywhere in the world — the brand makes everything in-house, including the tubes, fork and cockpit, and every frame is available with fully custom geometry and carbon layup. Sarto’s innovative carbon process and the sheer quality of its materials deliver a ride feel that sits in a rare sweet spot: extraordinarily stiff and responsive where you need it to be, yet deeply comfortable over the kind of long, varied terrain that a rider planning to take a bike between Colorado and Palm Springs will inevitably cover.
As you might expect, the component spec is clean and considered. Enve SES 2.2 wheels are the choice for a rider who wants to climb. Vittoria Corsa cotton tires in 30mm complete the wheel package with the suppleness and grip that only natural cotton casings can deliver. A Quarq power meter and SRAM RED AXS groupset round out a drivetrain built to blow past fast, with matching bottle cages and cockpit giving the finished bike the kind of cohesion that rewards a second look.
The finish is white, but somehow it goes deeper. Maybe it’s the turn of the curves, the way the light hits the tubes, or the color-pop chrome logos, but this is one white bike that draws deeper. The number of questions, sighs of delight and simple wows from visitors to the shop while we had it here post-build are a testament to what a beautiful bike it is.
If you’ve been thinking about a custom Italian road bike built around you, drop us a line. We’d love to start the conversation — even if it begins with shoes.
FEATURED
A bespoke speed machine straight out of Venice, Italy, built to unite race speed with sublime comfort, brought to the road with outsize quality, handmade craftsmanship and peerless attention to detail.
