Cielo only rolls out a new model every blue moon, but they’re not immune to trends. And, as you’ll see, neither is parent company Chris King. Hence, the new Base Racer gravel road bike.
The name comes from the gravel base material used under the pavement when they’re building roads. And that’s what it’s designed for, with geometry tweaked from their road bikes and capped off with thru axles. It also gets a few new tube bits to both modernize it and improve the classic aesthetic that steel bikes are known for…
The latest update to their bikes, starting with the Base Racers, is this new externally tapered 1-1/4″ head tube that can also handle a 1.5″ tapered steerer fork.
It’s from Standard, and it’s the first time they’ve used a tapered rather than a straight 44mm tube. It’s not particularly lighter, but it definitely looks sleeker. The pics above show the difference between the new one (blue) and the straight 44mm headtube that debuted to frame builders a couple years ago.
Out back, there’s clearance for up to 38mm tires.
The bikes use the new T47 bottom bracket, which Chris King, White Industries and several frame builders all collaborated on to ensure compatibility across a lot of brands.
It’s a sub-4b frame, and the framesets will come with a painted-to-match ENVE GRD gravel fork, with options to add on any of the Chris King bits and pieces to build it up yourself.
In addition to the 40th Anniversary Olive Crate brushed green limited edition parts that’ll start selling soon, they showed off a few other recent introductions:
Like the T47 bottom brackets, which come in frame and spindle specific versions so you don’t need adapters.
And Boost hubs, which debuted at Eurobike last year alongside their Center Lock brake hubs.
