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Nordest Super Albarda CrMo builds slack adventure gravel bike in affordable steel

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, complete
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A month and a half ago Nordest debuted their new mountain bike-inspired Super Albarda “super gravel” bike in shiny but expensive titanium. Now for close to 1/3 of the price of ti, the Super Albarda CrMo delivers the same slack geometry and adventure-ready ride in steel, leaving you plenty more cash in your pocket to splurge on the rest of your bikepacking trip or even a custom bike build…

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, angled rear
c. Nordest

Much like there is an argument to be made for a ti gravel bike, there’s probably even more to be said for a good steel gravel bike that won’t break the bank before the adventure even starts. Pretty much everything great about the Super Albarda Ti is back here again in the Nordest Super Albarda CrMo, just a little bit heavier.

New Super Albarda super gravel geometry

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, NDS

Just like with the Super Albarda Ti’s debut, Nordest sees the steel version as a capable & durable adventure bike mixing gravel & rigid mountain bike characteristics – with a familiar off-road feel for mountain bikers looking to crossover to gravel riding & bikepacking adventures.

The steel Super Albarda CrMo shares the identical super gravel geometry of the titanium bike, longer & more slack than the original Albarda, for more confident off-road handling and a shorter reach cockpit. Think… a slack 68° headtube, a steep 74° seattube, and less BB drop.

Super gravel – Tech details

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, frame

Tire clearance is still big for 27.5 x 2.1″ XC mountain bike tires or wide 700c x 50mm gravel tires with 420mm long chainstays. The new steel frame is no-nonsense, welded from double-butted 4130 chromoly steel, with a standard BSA threaded BB has made a change to a PressFit BB86 bottom bracket, 44mm headtube, and 12x142mm bolt-on rear thru-axle in modular drop-outs.

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, BB chainstay detail

It keeps a 27.2mm seatpost but does not add internal dropper routing like the ti bike. Routing stays fully external, it gets flat mount brakes, and can be built up either 1x (max 46T chainring) or 2x (max 50/34T). It also gets plenty of bosses: two 3-pack sets on the downtube, a seattube bottle mount, toptube bag mounts, and rear rack & fender mounts.

Two forks are offered – a straight steerer unicrown steel fork with 3-pack, lowrider rack & fender mounts with a 12mm thru axle & flat mount brake. Or there’s a full carbon, tapered steerer fork with 3-pack & fender mounts,  12mm axle & flat mount.

What’s the weight difference between a Super Albarda Ti & CrMo?

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, weight
Nordest Super Albarda, ti vs. steel

Nordest’s frame weight claim for the Super Albarda Ti is 1845g (M) and for the CrMo frame is 2590g (M). That’s a difference of just 745g, or about the same weight as one large bottle filled with water – not counting a bottle cage. Three-quarters of a kilogram sounds like a lot when comparing lightweight road bikes (it would be 100g more than carrying an extra Canyon Ultimate CFR or even Factor O2 VAM road frame as a spare). But when talking adventure gravel & bikepacking bikes that are going to get loaded with gear and bombed downhill over any terrain, it’s probably in consequential. And when you save up to 900€ buying just the frame, it’s probably an easy decision to make.

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo – Steel bike pricing & availability

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, frame-only
2020 Nordest Super Albarda CrMo frame-only

Much like the ti bike, Nordest offers the steel Super Albarda in several options – in gloss blue or matte black/gray, although you’ll have to build up a complete bike on your own. You can get the 4130 Super Albarda as a frame-only, a frame kit with a steel or carbon fork. The trick is, if you act quickly (most-likely through the end of the month) you can pre-order the new bike for cheaper than the original steel Albarda. The steel Super Albarda frame only is on sale now for 499€ (before going up to 574€ next month), fifty bucks less than when the original Albarda went on sale last summer.

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, steel fork
2020 Nordest Super Albarda CrMo frame kit with steel fork

The steel Super Albarda kit with a steel fork, Cane Creek 40 headset & Nordest’s own 50mm alloy stem pre-sells now for 699€ (down from ultimate price of 799€).

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, carbon fork
2020 Nordest Super Albarda CrMo frame kit with carbon fork

And the steel Super Albarda kit with the carbon fork, headset & stem is pre-selling now for 849€ (down from its final price of 949€).

Nordest Super Albarda CrMo 4130 steel adventure gravel bike, angled

No complete bike builds are expected with the new steel Super Albarda, but frames and frame kits are expected to be shipped out by the end of October 2020, with free delivery in the EU.

NordestCycles.com

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11 Comments
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Jason West
Jason West
3 years ago

They didn’t go full Enduro like Evil did. Very pretty bike!

tolek
tolek
3 years ago

It’s BB86 press fit not a BSA

dieter
dieter
3 years ago

68° head tube angle…?
a gravelbike for downhill?

ledoc
ledoc
3 years ago
Reply to  dieter

For your feet, if you dislike when your feet run on your front wheel, this bike is made for you!

Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
3 years ago
Reply to  ledoc

Toe overlap.

Rob
Rob
3 years ago
Reply to  dieter

yes, exactly

Sean
3 years ago

love seeing more bikes like this

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
3 years ago

Why is shipping to the US so much, on top of also including VAT? That seems to me to basically mean they dint want US sales, as those two things combine to add about 40% to the cost of the bike, depending on which version.

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
3 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

Don’t

Oops

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
3 years ago
Reply to  Thesteve4761

Nevermind. I’m wrong on the VAT. Sorry.

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