3T Exploro Racemax Review
If you’re looking for one bike to do it all, the the RaceMax could be that kryptonite. Remarkably swift both on and off road, the aero design rewards hard riding with oodles of speed wrapped up in a compliant package. The finishing kit is suitably premium, carbon bars and integrated routing make for a very tidy looking bike. The 13 speed Campagnolo groupset is unfortunately the weakest part of the build; braking performance is stellar but the shifting needs some attention.
The Lowdown
Aero Gravel bike with profiled downtube and skinny headtube
Road bike speed both on and off road
13 Speed Ekar Groupset
Can fit a huge range of tyre widths
3t Finishing kit with carbon bars
Highs:
Huge fun on all terrain
Head turning looks
Blisteringly quick both on and off road
Compliant but engaging ride
Lows:
Wheels could be higher spec
Ekar shifting a big let down
Fiddly cable routing
Gets overwhelmed on really rough terrain
Some bikes are like surgical scalpels, incredibly honed and have a single purpose. Whether that be to deliver its rider to the top of a mountain via endless switchbacks with every watt contributing to forwards motion, or to plummet back down the mountain over rocks, roots and all manner of other bumpy terrain. These bikes are great when there is a sole aim in mind, such as winning the Tour de France or a round of the World Cup XC series but what happens when the road bike gets a whiff of the trails or the mountain bike likes the look of the smooth asphalt?
This is where the Exploro RaceMax from 3T enters the frame. On first inspection, it’s a whacky hybrid of an aero road bike and an XC mountain bike. The huge, meticulously profiled downtube gives way to skinny but knobbly tyres that look far too narrow for the frame. The narrow head tube and rear wheel cut-out offer even more clues as to the RaceMax’s intentions. Having spent some time looking over the RaceMax, the question begins to dawn…is this an aero gravel bike?
Yes, yes it is.
The father of the very first aero road bike, Gerrard Vroomen, has applied his philosophy to the rough stuff and has teamed up with Italian manufacturer 3T to bring aero gains to gravel bikes. The Exploro range from 3T encompasses the entire gravelly spectrum, from the really rough stuff to mildly rough stuff and then going fast on mildly rough stuff. The RaceMax, as the name might imply, is designed to get you from A to B as quickly as possible across a variety of terrain. The RaceMax uses narrower tyres than its burlier cousin the UltraMax and the frame is optimised for the narrower tyres but aside from this, the models are quite similar.
An interesting piece of design is the use of RAM and WAM. No, these aren’t forgotten bands from the 80’s, it’s how 3T optimised the frame design around tyres. RAM refers to the radius as measured and WAM is width as measured. Both of these are important when designing an aero bike as the tyre and frame interface is critical in maintaining a sleek aero profile.
The RaceMax is optimised for 32-42mm WAM tyres but wider one can be fitted at a small aero penalty if the terrain demands it.
3T say the Racemax is for those who crave road bike speed both on and off road which is a mighty statement considering how many niches and sub niches there are under the ‘road bike’ umbrella.
Our model came equipped with the new gravel specific 13 speed Ekar groupset from Campagnolo and the Italian theme continued throughout the rest of the components; Fulcrum Rapid Red 900 wheels shod with Pirelli rubber. 3T dealt with the bars and stem courtesy of their Superergo LTD carbon bars and an allow stem to round out the cockpit. All round it’s a beautiful looking bike and the pearlescent red and white paintjob looked stunning in the sun and caught a few admiring eyes outside the café.
One lesson we did learn is not to take apart the seat clamps of bikes that we’ve just unboxed. We tried to adjust the position of the saddle and managed to lose bits of the clamp under the mower. Having spent 30 minutes retrieving sed parts of seat clamp, we then spent another 30 minutes trying to put it back together. Fortunately, our freindly local bike shop managed to do their magic and got it all back together in 20 seconds flat.
With the majority of the bike being carbon, aside from the stem and wheels the RaceMax was no heavyweight which was ideal given we spent a couple of weeks thrashing it around the Chiltern Hills which as the name suggests, is hilly.
We’ve never ridden a bike that seems to dare you to dart off the tarmac and down tiny tracks that shoot off into the woods and the vertically compliant frame coupled with rock steady handling meant that we could ditch the tarmac in favour of the dirt. Smooth fire roads and well-trodden tracks are the perfect environment for the RaceMax, allowing you to get the power down and really zip along in comfort. We often find when riding an XC mountain bike on fireroads that there comes a point when you could pedal harder but not gain much more speed. The same can be said for the RaceMax, but that speed is considerably higher which makes bombing along bridleways a pleasure rather than a drag thanks to the aero design touches.
When the terrain gets more mountain bike suitable, the RaceMax can get overwhelmed especially on roots and off camber sections but that more down to having skinnier tyres than anything else. Fine tuning the tyre pressures would have made a big difference but our bike was using inner tubes rather than the ubiquitous tubeless setup so we were more inclined to run higher pressures to avoid pinch flats which sacrificed all out grip.
The handling is composed the majority of the time allowing us to build confidence to push harder both on and off road but we encountered a few loose rocky descents which pushed the RaceMax far beyond it’s comfort zone. These kinds of descents are best left to wider tyres relatives.
The frame is stiff without being jarring to ride over a long distance, we took the RaceMax on a couple of 50km plus jaunts and didn’t find ourselves crippled at the end; the vertical compliance especially at the rear helped to stave off the feeling of being beaten up by our own bike like some we’ve ridden. The flat topped aero handlebars offered a comfortable place to rest our hands on longer climbs and while smashing over really rough stuff at speed. Out of the saddle efforts are rewarded as the bike surges forward with what fells like very little flex from the bottom bracket area.
SRAM and Shimano have had a stranglehold on the gravel sector with their gravel specific groupsets but not to be outdone, the Italians have brought their own to the party. Ekar is Campagnolo’s first foray into gravel and we think it’s a great start but there’s a lot more development that needs to happen before they’re on the same level as the big players.
Let’s start with the positives; it looks great. The polished carbon cranks and alloy levers give it a really premium feel and the levers feel great in the hands, offering a comfortable and natural place to put your hands and the shape of the blade is excellent, both in the drops and hoods and provides security that your fingers wont bounce off on bumpy descents. The tips of the levers are textured to provide more grip in wet conditions. Ekar also holds the crown of being the lightest gravel specific groupset on the market as well as being 13 speed which is frankly an engineering marvel; we remember when nine speed was at the cutting edge of tech.
The rear mech has a clutch to reduce chain slap which can be locked to make switching wheels easier although it did take us a few attempts to work out how to lock and unlock it.
Braking feel is also excellent, offering heaps of modulation and power but we never felt close to locking a wheel. In another design quirk, the front brake calliper bolts through the fork from the front rather than from the rear. This didn’t seem to have any impact on its adjustability or performance but presumably is another aero nod.
The key functions of a groupset is to take care of braking, which Ekar does very well and changing gear, which unfortunately it doesn’t manage with quite the same precision.
The feel at the shifter is heaving and laboured when moving up the gears and it took some encouragement to get it to actually drop into a gear. The culprit of this could just be a sticky cable that needs replacement, but talking to our local bike shop, they had experienced similar symptoms as a result of the cable routing on the RaceMax which forces the derailleur cable over the bottom bracket shell which could be the cause. The inclusion of an inline barrel adjuster around the cockpit would at least have allowed us to tweak the shifting on the move. If the shifting issues could be resolved, then Ekar would get a thumbs up from us. The RaceMax is available with a host of other builds from SRAM or Shimano if you’d rather not fiddle about with gears every ride.
We also weren’t a fan of the thumb shifter that is sued to change up a gear, it felt very reminiscent of Shimano Sora from around 2010 which is probably not the parallel Campagnolo wanted to be drawing with its premium group set.
The frameset is optimised for a 1x groupset but there is a mount for a front mech however due to cabling routing issues, it is only compatible with electronic groupsets which is something to bear in mind if you’re planning on building a bike up from scratch.
The RaceMax is a hugely versatile bike, throw on a pair of deep section carbon wheels and it’d be just at home bombing along on the open roads as it would be weaving through trees on fireroads; the OEM wheels are one of the spec let downs in our opinion. They’re not lightweight by any means and do seem to slightly dampen the ride quality of the RaceMax, taking some of the zip out of accelerations.
We’ve never ridden a bike that has the same spirit as the RaceMax, it’s a bike that ignited our sense of adventure and gave us a taste of the gravel. Sure, for longer bike packing expeditions you’d probably want something a bit more comfort orientated, but if blasting around at full tilt for a couple of hours is more your thing, then the RaceMax is a worthy contender.