Down the Rabbit Hole: Max's Green Tri-Composite Sarto Cima

When bikes are this good, why stop at one? Such is the way with Sarto. You have been warned. Max’s first Sarto wasn’t even planned — it was a gravel frame we had sitting around at the shop, the product of a mis-order, and he bought it on something like a whim. He’s been riding it, and loving it, ever since. That’s generally how it goes. The first Sarto is an exploration; the second is a commission. By then you’re fully down the rabbit hole.

The commission has been in the works for quite a while: a Cima, Sarto’s new road model. If you read our conversation with Enrico Sarto earlier this summer, you’ll know the brief he set himself — a successor to the much-loved Seta Plus that had to feel lighter, not just read lighter on a scale. Shorter chainstays, diamond-inspired tube shapes, and the tube-to-tube construction every Sarto gets, hand-wrapped lugs and all. Enrico’s own shorthand: more reactive when you push, when you climb.

Then there’s the finish, which is the headline here. This Cima wears Sarto’s Tri-Composite weave in green, through the frame and the fork. Tri-Composite isn’t a paint effect — it’s a layup, colored copper filaments woven through the carbon fiber itself, helping to quiet vibration across the frame while catching the light differently at every angle. When we spoke to Enrico, the Tri-Composite Cima was still a few months behind the unidirectional launch version, arriving with new colors and a new fabric pattern. Well: here it is. As far as we know, this is the first Cima in the United States with Tri-Composite in the frame and fork. We haven’t fact-checked that with Venice, and we’re happy to be corrected. But we wouldn’t bet against it.