Argonaut’s first two attempts at a gravel bike looked awfully similar to their road bikes, just with creeping tire clearance and subtle tweaks to the geometry.
Now, it seems they’ve gone full gravel to create a bike with aggressive dirt-road geometry and some interesting features to create a fast-looking bike with big tire clearance and full custom layups…
Argonaut sticks to their in-house geometries, so as a boutique U.S. framebuilder, they’re unique in that they focus more on custom layups over custom geo (check the chart at bottom of this post).
Meaning, they’ll chat you up about your size, weight, riding style, terrain, preferences, and more, and then create a custom carbon layup to deliver a fine-tuned ride quality specifically for you.
Up front, the Argonaut GR3 gets full internal cable routing, with the ability to run it inside from shifter lever to brake and derailleur with the right cockpit selection. Not only does it look good, they say it makes it easier to mount handlebar, top-tube, and frame bags without working around cables and wires.
The head angle is a slack 68.5º, which (along with some other numbers below) they say makes the bike somewhere between an enduro bike and road bike. In other words, a really aggressive, race-ready, downhill-loving gravel bike.
The frame is a bit more shapely and angular at points than what we’re used to from Argonaut, which is a refreshing new look for the brand.
The GR3 has a claimed 700×50 tire clearance, letting you put the biggest gravel tires you can find on it.
An offset seat tube doesn’t mean slack angles. The GR3 ranges from 74º on the smaller frames to 73º on the larger sizes. Instead, it creates more tire clearance while allowing an ultra-short chainstay length of just 415mm (16.34″), so the bike jumps at any pedal input.
Those are aided by a75mm BB drop, putting the rider’s center of gravity a bit lower for tighter handling and corner carving.
Interestingly, the rear derailleur mount sits on the outside of the frame, threading on to a co-molded metal insert that also serves as the rear axle’s attachment point.
The frame uses standard modulus carbon fibers rather than hi-mod to make it tougher. They say it’ll hold up to rock strikes and hard riding for many years in all conditions.
The top and bottom of the downtube, plus the seat tube, all get three-bolt cage mounts, giving you more options for attaching gear or re-positioning your bottles around other stuff or for easier reach.
Frameset pricing starts at $6,500 and they have an approximately four-month lead time.
