Still the high-end carbon brainchild of Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso, Aurum heads into uncharted territory with their all-new Manto gravel bike. Designed for racing without limits, the Aurum Manto is meant to be “the highest performance bike on the market” – a no-hold-barred lightweight gravel racer developed to “go as fast as possible on gravel roads“.
Aurum Manto race-ready carbon gravel bike
Unveiled today in Mallorca, but officially set for a racing debut at Unbound Gravel in just over a month, this new premium gravel bike is Aurum’s first deviation from smooth tarmac. Still designed with lower-speed aerodynamics and lightweight in mind, the new Manto begins to prioritize extra durability and rider comfort in a bid to build a super-fast gravel race bike.
Aerodynamics itself are inspired by Aurum’s versatile Magma road bike – selectively adapting similar tear-drop aero NACA Airfoil tube shapes, just wider & truncated to match bigger gravel bike tire profiles and overall lower off-road speeds.
After all the experience designing and developing the MAGMA, we decided to take on a gravel bike, a discipline that allows you to ride everywhere, get away from traffic if you like, explore countryside paths, with the same spirit – the highest performance. We have spent countless hours riding it, fine-tuning it and thinking about how to make it better, to be worth of sitting next to the MAGMA in our bike catalog.
– Alberto Contador
Race-ready Gravel Geometry
The gravel race bike comes in five sizes with quick geometry that is gently tweaked for the two smaller sizes to prevent toe overlap even with big tires. Frame tubing dimensions are also proportionally size-specific so all riders get aero benefits, but not at the expense of overly stiff or flexy frames for riders at either extreme.
The Aurum Manto was designed to go fast around 40-45mm gravel bike tires (max 700c x 45mm tire clearance), what many consider the sweet spot for traction, speed, and comfort over varying racecourse surfaces.
Tech details
Aurum calls their lightweight carbon construction Experience Carbon Technology (ECT) as it is more of a balance of light weight, overall structural strength, and rider comfort – more complex than in their ultralight carbon road bikes.
The Manto frame also sticks with conventional seatstay arrangement to benefit from longer span, thin straight stays to allow them to flex in the middle for rider comfort and better overall rear wheel traction.
The NACA airfoil-shaped ECT carbon Aurum Manto frame & fork are built around an integrated 1.5″ headset for full internal cable routing, with a wedge-style clamp for the conventional 27.2mm round seatpost (with a rubber gasket for a clean setup), and an 86mm wide aluminum threaded T47 bottom bracket.
The frameset features “semi-dropped asymmetric chainstays” that balance chainring & tire clearance without compromising on weight stiffness or overall frame strength.
The 1x or 2x electronic or mechanical Manto gets a removable front derailleur/chain guide mount, UDH standard derailleur mounting, flat mount disc brakes custom low-profile 12mm thru-axles, integrated thick rubberized downtube/BB/chainstay protectors, plus bolt-on mounts for 2 bottles in the main triangle with a 2-position downtube bottle, toptube bag mount, and cage mounts under the BB.
Aurum Manto – Pricing, Options & Availability
Aurum’s first gravel bike is first offered as framesets now in three standard colors – Castilla yellow, Astur green, and Mediterráneo orange. The Aurum Manto sells for 3500€ as a frameset or 4000€ as a framekit including carbon cockpit, alloy stem (for internal routing) & carbon seatpost – available now in 5 proportional sizes (48, 51, 54, 56 & 58cm). Online sales also include an Aurum water bottle & cage.
Complete bikes are also possible through Aurum dealers, and come spec’d with CeramicSpeed bottom brackets for efficiency and durability.
