3T Exploro Race Force AXS 2X 2021

The Exploro is designed to fit road, cross and even mountain bike tires following the GravelPlus standard. The road and cross tires are 700c, the mountain bike tires use the 650b size, ensuring that all of these have virtually the same overall wheel diameter and therefore the same predictable handling.

IT ALL STARTS WITH THE TIRES

To make the fastest possible gravel bike, you need to start with the tire. Tire choice determines comfort & grip. But it also determines how you can shape the frame to redirect the airflow.

To aerodynamically engineer the frame around the tires, you need to know what their REAL measurements are. Not what’s on the label, but how they really fit. That’s REALFAST aerodynamics. But it’s not easy, as the tire dimension depends on the rim you use, the pressure and of course how accurate the manufacturer’s claimed size is.

So we took hundreds of measurements to know the real tire widths (which we call WAM – Width As Measured) and tire radii (RAM – Radius As Measured) and use that to engineer the frame around.

SO WHAT TIRE DO YOU NEED? WAM_RAM The most important dimension is the WAM as that directly correlates to traction, puncture resistance, aerodynamics and rolling resistance. The WAM you need depends on three factors: Terrain (traction, puncture resistance) Rider skill (how much grip you need for control) Rider speed (the slower you go, the more you bump/sink into the terrain) The graph on the left indicates the WAM you need, and based on the rim width you use, you can find our favorite tires for each WAM here. REALFAST AERODYNAMICS REALFAST Starting from our favorite tires, we then engineered a perfectly fitting rear wheel cutout (with mud clearance of course) and a closely trailing downtube to catch the airflow coming off the front tire. We added a super-narrow headtube (yet with a big steerer inside it), a multi-shape fork and aero details from seatstay to seatpost and from the shielded water bottle to the direct-attachment brake mounts.

Most importantly, we engineered this for realistic riding speeds, wind speeds, tire widths, bottle positions and even for mud. Because we don’t care if it is theoretically fast in the windtunnel with a fantasy spec. We care if it is fast the way you ride it in real world conditions.