Sarto launches new carbon gravel bike… with a kink

Gravel bikes originated in the US but  their influence is spreading far and wide, with Italian frame builder Sarto unveiling a new Gravel TA Soft over the weekend.

- Buyer’s guide to gravel and adventure bikes

The company already offers a gravel frame in its range, but this new model brings some distinctive new features aimed at improving comfort, namely the kinked seatstays. 

Carbon manipulation is something we’ve seen a lot of over the years by manufacturers seeking to provide a smoother ride. The most famous example is Specialized’s Zertz inserts, where specially shaped fork legs and seat stays are combined with a special insert to dampen vibrations. It’s largely the shape of the carbon, not the insert, that provides the added compliance. 

Sarto has developed the most dramatically shaped seatstays I think we’ve ever seen on a road bike. The idea is clearly to provide as smooth a ride as possible.  The rest of the frame looks fairly conventional. There's an aero shaped seatpost with the clamp hidden in the top tube. 

The TA in the name stands for thru-axle, and the bike swaps conventional quick releases for thru-axles at both ends. It’s a disc-specific bike as well, and all cables and Di2 wiring is routed internally. 

Tyre clearance looks very generous as well. Sarto hasn’t released any detailed specifications for the bike yet, but we have contacted Sarto for more information - we’ll update this story as soon as we get more. The current gravel bike in the Sarto range takes up to 42mm tyres so this bike will be at least the same as that.42mm tyres so this bike will be at least the same as that.

More soon...