- 3 minutes ago
Looking to ride gravel as fast as possible? 3T might have the answer with the Racemax Italia. We take a close look at its aerodynamic design, integrated features, and incredible 'Project X' naked carbon finish.
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00:00Like many people I want to ride on gravel as fast as possible and if you are a person like
00:05me then
00:053T reckon they've got the bike for you. It's called the Race Max 2 Italia and unlike most of the
00:12bikes
00:12that we feature on this channel it's made right here in Europe in Italy to be precise. However
00:18it does look quite similar to the previous Race Max and that did look quite similar to the Exploro
00:25before that but there is some new features and I've been riding this bike for a good few weeks
00:29now so let me tell you what I think of it. Right so let me give you a quick overview
00:34of some of the
00:35features because well as you can see this is an aero gravel bike and whether you agree with that
00:40or not it does have plenty of aero features. So a super deep head tube, it's quite a skinny head
00:46tube and then it sort of flares out into this super deep down tube to sort of shroud the bottle
00:52and
00:52the idea is that your bottle then cause a load of turbulent air. And just like on the 3T Strada
01:00road bike you've also got this seat tube which sort of comes around the rear wheel and then you've got
01:06space for in this setup I've got the 2x Shimano GRX Di2 and in this setup it's got space for
01:1448mm tyres.
01:15If you run one bike then apparently it will fit 51mm tyres so more on that in a minute.
01:23Probably my favourite thing about this bike is so 3T use a filament winding method for their carbon fibre
01:31layer and it looks phenomenal. So this is called the Project X colourway and well to call it a colourway
01:40is
01:40probably a bit much but it's it's naked carbon and you can see all the carbon weave and it looks
01:47absolutely phenomenal and taking this around to a few gravel events and it's certainly been getting
01:53some looks. People absolutely love to have a little nosey see what that's all about. At the front end
02:00we've got a semi-integrated cockpit so the the hoses are routed through the bars and then they're under the
02:08stem here. The stem I think it will split opinion some people will not mind it some people are not
02:14going to like the look of that it doesn't really have a top cap. It's also got SLT ceramic speed
02:20headset bearings I wouldn't necessarily recommend you go out and buy them because they're super expensive
02:25but on a gravel bike they should last for ages well forever they claim and all the cables of course
02:33go
02:33through them so it's nice to not have to worry about replacing headset bearings so a nice touch from
02:393T there. Down tube storage underneath all this mud hiding I've sort of overfilled it if I'm honest
02:46I've got some tubes in there I do rate down tube storage on a gravel bike it allows you to
02:53well free up
02:55to your pockets for more nutrition and I don't know on gravel rides you probably go into more remote areas
03:01there's less shops about and so I like to pack my pockets full of as much stuff as possible
03:09it's a sizable opening as well although the Fidlock system does sometimes fill up with mud
03:16plenty of mounting points we've got double mounting points here for the bottle cage so you can run it
03:21lower if you're just running one bottle obviously another one here there's mounts underneath the down
03:27tube and then there's some on the top tube as well and then just here is an integrated rear light
03:35so
03:36that offers 25 lumens of output I'm not going to pretend it's like the best light in the world but
03:43it's perfectly usable and it has meant that when I was when I popped out of some woods the other
03:48day
03:48and it was absolutely chucking it down and I hadn't thought to take a rear light with me I did
03:54have one
03:54and I was a little bit more visible to traffic that charges on this sort of got an integrated cable
04:01there so you can just twist it off plug it into your laptop or a plug and charge it up
04:08um I did quickly mention the Shimano GRX groupset so yeah this is two by and I've got some thoughts
04:15about that um it's been a while since I've used a two by gravel bike and more and more are
04:20coming with
04:20one by you can buy this one with one by in fact there's a pretty healthy range you can buy
04:27it with
04:27a lot of different group sets and the other thing that I should mention is these wheels so these are
04:313Ts in-house wheels and some of you who have followed the channel for a little time know that
04:38I run 3T wheels on my lauf gravel bike on my own bike and so I am a fan of
04:45these these are the 45 40
04:46wheelset so they're 45 mil deep and then 40 mil wide which is pretty ludicrous that is super wide
04:53I find that it works really well with wider gravel tires this is a 45 mil tire on it you
05:01can't use
05:02skinnier than a 40 mil tire on these rims because they've got 29 mil internals I know that's a lot
05:09of
05:10numbers they're just really nice and wide they support they support a wide gravel tire really nicely
05:15and because they've got this super sort of blunted edge they're kind of a super u shape
05:23um I find that they're much more stable as well um this bike's come fitted with a set of Schwalbe
05:29g1 rs
05:30pro tires uh they are really rather slick so luckily I've been riding this one in fairly dry conditions
05:38um and this wheel set comes with the scope r series hubs I'm not sure I've seen them on another
05:44set of
05:44wheels that aren't scoped before so that's your overview now I need to take a seat and uh tell you
05:51all about it I guess I should start by saying that this is not going to be a bike for
05:56everyone gravel
05:56race bikes aren't for everyone and if you want something with more mounts or you want to go
06:01exploring or longer or something with slightly less aggressive geometry then well 3t make a load more bikes
06:08that would be better suited than this and so do lots of other brands however it is a bike that
06:14I've been very excited by I was excited to swing a leg over it when I saw it in the
06:19lockup I do like
06:20gravel race bikes I think the gravel race bikes are great I don't fully agree that you should be aero
06:25at
06:25all costs on gravel I think that lots of other things come into it comfort rolling resistance
06:31um just how the bike the confidence on the bike I know it's absolutely cliche to say a bike can
06:38be
06:39confidence inspiring or not but on a gravel bike you need a bike that you can be confident on because
06:44otherwise you're going to lose any time that you gain being aerodynamic you're going to lose it all on
06:50a technical descent has it lived up to expectations I'd say yes and no um it's not a bike that
06:58I would go and
06:59buy it wouldn't be my first choice I think it's got a lot of positives but for me I certainly
07:06wouldn't
07:06buy in this spec so it's been a while since I've used 2x on gravel and to be honest it
07:12hasn't done
07:12much to win me over um is that the bike's fault no not really they they do lots of 1x
07:18options fairplay
07:193t for offering it like this but I think it's an interesting bit to talk about um so the chain
07:26rings on the front are a 48 31 and then you've got an 11 34 tooth cassette at the back
07:32um what that
07:33means is at the front you've got a 17 tooth jump in between your big ring and your little ring
07:39whereas on the road I often use a 50 like the pros I'm not a pro but the pro level
07:45group set from
07:46Shimano is a 54 tooth big ring and a 40 tooth little ring so a 14 tooth jump what I've
07:53been finding
07:53is with a 17 tooth jump you lose all your momentum and yes you can set it up so that
08:00it will drop a
08:00gear at the back or two gears at the back when you change into little ring but I've been finding
08:05as you
08:06do on gravel you get a lot of dippers and you sort of carry a lot of speed into a
08:11into a sharp climb and
08:12then it's uh it's really loose and you lose traction and you want to maintain as much momentum as possible
08:19I find that gravel cycling is all about momentum and you get halfway up this climb you run out of
08:25gears on the back because it's only got that 11 34 and then you go to little ring it's only
08:31momentary
08:32but you lose that momentum and someone else pisses past you and then you're sort of well you've got to
08:39try and regain that momentum on a really loose surface which I haven't been getting on as well with that
08:46as I have with some one by group sets personally for gravel I would go for if it was my
08:53own money
08:53probably SRAM Force maybe SRAM Rival one by I think that's the best the best balance at the moment
09:03you may have also noticed that I've got a new set of pedals they're the look one-sided gravel pedals
09:11also mixed feelings about them I know this is meant to be a bike review but I think they're quite
09:15interesting um they've got a much wider platform and you have more surface area so it's more like a
09:22road pedal loads of the pros are using road pedals because of that wider platform it allows you well
09:30it's better power transfer supposedly um went out on a little road ride just to set up this bike
09:35check I had the measurements all right um and absolutely loved them um you really can feel that
09:43wider platform I then went off road I was there like try and find the try find my cleat try
09:51to find
09:51the pedal to clip in and just couldn't and it was up the other way which obviously that makes sense
09:58and
09:58it's something you would get used to I've changed my mind on them having been absolutely all for them
10:04to begin with I was like yes this is so much better than a normal mountain bike pedal that we
10:10all normally use uh sort of changed my mind because I think if you're using a if you want to
10:17pedal on
10:17gravel and you're not unclipping a lot then just use a road pedal and if you want the benefits of
10:24a
10:24dual sided easy to clip into you're hopping on and off the bike then just get a mountain bike pedal
10:31anyway got a bit distracted there um what else 3t aren't afraid to do things differently um I think
10:39the stem is a really good example of that 3t are often really quite forward thinking um they went to
10:46wide gravel wheels way before anyone else um they were thinking about wide tire clearances on gravel bikes
10:52before a lot of other brands with this bike I don't think it's ahead of the curve as much as
11:00other 3ts have been in the past so like I said in this two by setup 48 mil of tire
11:07clearance
11:08but let's take the 51 mil figure that's what it will take when you're running a one by group set
11:14that's still less than a lot of the latest gravel bikes if you look at some of the bikes that
11:19released
11:19or were spotted at the tracker they can all take mountain bike tires they can all take at least two
11:25inch probably a 2.2 inch and for me I just don't think this is enough it would put me
11:33off buying it
11:33I would buy a Vileo Rave over this bike purely because of the tire clearance 51 on this 53 on
11:41the Vileo Rave
11:43I realize it's only two mil difference but for me it means that I can comfortably
11:49fit that set of 2.1 inch tires and I think it's a shame because to ride this has been
11:56an absolutely great bike
11:58it's not the lightest it's not the comfiest it's not the slackest and neither is it the most aggressive
12:06in fact it's actually got a really quite tall head tube it does have a really aggressive seat tube angle
12:12so that's 74 degrees and then you've got a 71 degree it's quite slack at the front end a head
12:17tube
12:17angle I don't think it's any better than the competition so to compare this I've been riding
12:23a specialised Crux which is a fairly unapologetic race gravel bike a Lausseigler which is a bit the
12:31other way and I think what it lacks in aerodynamics and in speed it makes up for in comfort and
12:38smoothness
12:38and I think you get a lot of that speed back and then the Vileo Rave which I think is
12:43a really good
12:44balance between the two and I thought that this might be the same but I don't think it quite finds
12:51that balance as quite as well as the Vileo Rave so fair play Vileo oh and there is one other
12:57thing
12:59this size large bike comes with 172.5mm cranks I think that that is a bit yesteryear and it also
13:07comes with 42cm handlebars on gravel yes I use a wider handlebar than I do on the road but it's
13:15already flared so I would much rather that it was either a 38 or a 40 at the top and
13:21I'm really sorry
13:22but if you're running a 42cm handlebar on a gravel bike then you really don't need to worry about how
13:29thick your head tube is or how the airflow is around your water bottle and so I think that's a
13:36bit of an
13:36oversight from 3T there like many brands they still seem set on shipping it with really wide bars and
13:44then saying it's more aero as for pricing in this build £8,763 that's a hell of a lot of
13:52money I do
13:53think that you unlike with some brands you get a proper premium set of tyres and the wheels are ones
13:58that I'd actually want rather than just the ones that come with the bike so I wouldn't be looking to
14:04upgrade the wheel set like I would on so many other bikes the one downside of 3T wheels these super
14:11wide
14:11wheels was always that they're a bit heavy but this latest version with the scope hubs actually
14:17a 1430 grams which is really quite competitive at that £8,763 it's sort of comparable to your
14:26Trek to Specialized it's a little bit more than the Canyon Grail in a similar spec it's a little bit
14:35more than that Villa Rave as well I do think it justifies its price better than other bikes it's
14:42made in Italy that's always going to come with a little bit of a premium and I really do like
14:47the
14:47finish I think it looks like a premium bike I think it looks like a lot of money and it
14:53does ride like a
14:54lot of money as well for those of you watching in the US you can get this bike for $11
14:58,000
14:59so would I buy it no this isn't the gravel bike for me but it does have a lot of
15:07positives and I
15:08think for some people this would be bang up their streak it looks beautiful it rides very well but
15:16for me the tire clearance just isn't enough let me know whether it's enough for you down in the
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