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NAHBS 2016 – Argonaut Cycles wins 2016 Best Layup, debuts new dropouts, paint, and T47 in action

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nahbs-2016_argonaut_disc-road

There was a lot to be excited about with Argonaut Cycles when we visited them at NAHBS. Aside from winning Best Layup of the show and being able to boast primary collaborator credits for the new T47 bottom bracket standard (in case you were wondering whom to blame), Argonaut has added in-house painting facilities allowing them to add another level of customization to their frame sets. And, lastly but not leastly, Argonaut debuted some new, attractive dropout system solutions for their road bikes in caliper and flat mount disc formats. See what the men from Bend (Oregon) have been cooking after the jump…

nahbs-2016_argonaut_Seat-cluster

Despite new paint facilities, founder Ben Farver (whom we interviewed in our Road to NAHBS pre-show coverage) says that paint jobs are unlikely to get too crazy. The bikes shown at the show were each painted with simple blocking accents on the inside of stays and fork blades, that allowed the carbon to shine.

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The flat mount disc model was mostly naked to give us a peek at that award-winning carbon layup.

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The new dropout system was particularly impressive. Needing a new system that would serve both disc and rim brakes, Argonaut rethought the system so that it could extend its flexibility to both thru axles and quick releases as well. The result is a clever, cleaner, and more compact dropout solution.

nahbs-2016_argonaut_dropouts_new

The new setup features a mostly molded carbon, but also machined body (as opposed to the previous iteration which featured a greater metallic component) with minimal aluminum inserts allowing for either thru-axle or quick release variations based on the individual bike. The minimal inserts also add durability to the hub interfaces, giving the dropouts more protection than a carbon-only interface.

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Also included in the new system are integrated routing ports for Di2, to help keep your wires completely protected.
nahbs-2016_argonaut_seat-stay_road-disc nahbs-2016_argonaut_road_bridge
In the redesign, Argonaut managed to keep tooling for chain stay and seat stay tooling the same across road rim and road disc configurations, which helps to keep costs down a bit for the consumer (so you can splurge with less hesitation on a custom paint job.)

nahbs-2016_argonaut_road-caliper

ArgonautCycles.com

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Jason
Jason
8 years ago

Does Argonaut make their own forks? I ask because I don’t think Enve makes a road fork with a flat mount caliper or thru axle. Are there any 3rd party carbon thru axle road forks?

This frame is awesome but I don’t think anyone should be spending $6500 on a frameset with out a matching fork.

ApeEscape
ApeEscape
8 years ago

The fork pictured is neither thru axle nor is it flat mount

1Pro
1Pro
8 years ago

nice bikes but the chainstay is carbon, the seatstay is carbon and now the dropout. so why the metal seatstay plug and bolt? go back to the board and draw a dropout that blugs directly into the seat stay like the other guys in this arena.

AgroNot
AgroNot
7 years ago

1Pro, I think Argonaut may do that to help on costs as it’s easier to have a ‘hinge’ or pivot point there as the angle can vary greatly from one custom frame to another (also due to chain stay length) – otherwise would need several drop out molds with varying angles. You do bring up a good point though – does this method compromise the stiffness of the entire rear triangle? That is not a good thing with disc brakes as in addition to any creaking, the flex will cause rotor rub, especially out of the saddle. Another thoughts here Ben Farver?

AgroNot
AgroNot
7 years ago

Also Jason, I would never use disc brakes on a fork w/o thru axles – QR is has no business on disc brake bikes; road, gravel or MTB. I think Parlee now offers a carbon thru axle fork they’ll sell to anyone. Enve should soon (finally) have a road T/A fork as a follow up to their gravel fork, which hopefully will have flat mount! They just now got caught up on the road disc wheels (wider, deeper and tubeless options).

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