The new Sarto Raso Gravel is designed as a gravel race bike with aerodynamics at its core, blended with lightweight and class-leading clearances to meet the demands of gravel racers.
You may not have heard of Sarto, but if you’ve ridden a high-end Italian bike over the last decade, the chances are you’ve ridden a frameset Sarto constructed at its Venice HQ.
More recently, Sarto has moved away from building for other brands and into making its own designs, concentrating on custom builds to meet the exacting needs of its customers.
The new Sarto Raso Gravel requires deep pockets, however. A frameset will set you back £8,210 / $8,250 / €7,750, while the bike we have in for testing has a price tag of £14,190 / $17,290 / €13,990.
The new Raso Gravel
The Raso Gravel's frame can be configured to take tyres from 48mm up to a huge 55mm (2.1 inches) on 700c wheels. The 48mm option can run 1x or 2x drivetrains, while the 55mm is 1x only. It can take up to a huge 52-tooth chainring size to meet the needs of the fastest gravel racers.
Sarto’s pro-gravel athlete Skyler Taylor had this to say about the wider option: "Tire size: the simple answer is bigger tires roll much faster on rough terrain and don’t puncture as easily.
"The reason 2.2 (inch) is so important is that all the tire performance tests show that the Continental Race King 2.2 performance has the best combination of rolling resistance, puncture protection, grip, and aerodynamics, and is the fastest tire on most dirt surfaces.
"There has been a huge amount of testing on these topics in the US. The results have been pretty clear. So you will see almost all the US pro gravel racers squeezing the biggest tires they can into their frames.
"Most frame manufacturers don’t understand this and still design around 45mm clearance. So there’s a competitive advantage to bikes like the Raso Gravel from a clearance perspective."
Raso Gravel frameset
The frame design is inspired by Sarto’s performance road bike, the Raso. It has an integrated front end and tube shapes with similar aerodynamically designed profiles to its road-going cousin.
The rear triangle has the same silhouette on the 48mm and 55mm versions. Only the width changes and the rear dropout is SRAM's Universal Derailleur Hanger, meaning the custom Raso gravel frame is set for the future.
At the front, a broad, torsionally stiff but slender fork has been created to aid vibration-damping control.
Sarto says the frame is a tri-composite. Each tube section is handmade by the Italian brand using a combination of carbon fibre sheets sourced in Italy and its proprietary lamination process.
The junctions on the frame are made from forged carbon, which is claimed to provide superior strength, accuracy and that stunning marble-like finish (on our unpainted test bike).
The Raso Gravel’s design mixes aerodynamics with a light weight, with features such as a dedicated aero seatpost, and a one-piece bar and stem.
Fully integrated brake hoses take care of the aero details.
The bike has an impressively low weight of 7.88kg (size 58cm), with two bottle cages and an out-front Garmin mount.
The build
Being built to order, the Raso Gravel can be had either as a frame kit or built as a complete bike to your specific budget.
It doesn’t come cheap, however, with the frameset kit (fork, headset, spacers, stem, handlebar, seatpost, two bottle cages, thru-axles and computer mount) costing £8,210 / $8,250 / €7,750 in stock geometries. Specifying custom geometry typically involves around a £1,000 / $1,200 / €1,100 upcharge.
The full bike we have in for testing features SRAM Red AXS XPLR, Campagnolo Shamal Dual Profile DB wheels, a Selle Italia SLR Boost 3D Carbon Kit saddle and Rene Herse Oracle Ridge TC 48mm tyres. It comes with a retail price of £14,190 / $17,290 / €13,990.
