Nordest’s steel Albarda gravel bike gets a gen 2 update, with affordable improvements all around. The versatile Albarda gravel bike offered solid value and plenty of adventure-ready options since our first tease two years ago. And now that original chromoly frame gets lighter, dropping 12% of its original weight while also dropping the cost of frame-only or framesets with either steel or carbon forks if you act fast!
Nordest Albarda 2, affordable steel adventure gravel bike
Nordest recently added a slacker Super Albarda sibling to their popular gravel bike – in both affordable steel or premium titanium – taking modern MTB inspiration for adventure riding over the most technical terrain. But for those looking for a lighter, quicker ride that can still handle just about anything, it’ll be hard to beat the updated steel Albarda 2.
What’s new in gravel version 2.0?
Generally, most of the tech details and even geometry are unchanged from the original Albarda. But a big change is the lighter chromoly frame. Nordest completely reworked the double-butted 4130 frame with new tubing, redesigned dropouts, and the removal of headtube gussets that drops a whopping 350g off the original. Now down to 2490g (size M), the Albarda 2 steel is an even better platform for building up an affordable adventure gravel bike.
Adventure Gravel – Tech details
Key out of the new Albarda’s details is the carry-over clearance for up to 650b x 2.1″ or 700c x 50mm tires, letting you take on any terrain.
Plus, there are tons of mounting points – 3-pack anything cage mounts above & below the downtube, a standard set of seattube bottle bosses, a toptube bento bag mount, and braze-ons for a rear rack & fenders. The optional steel fork adds fender, rack, low-rider rack & anything cage mounts too.. the carbon fork gets just fender & anything cage mounts.
The steel Albarda frame features external cable routing for continuous housing on the downtube, a BSA threaded BB, 27.2mm seatpost, replaceable 12x142mm rear dropout, flat mount brakes, and 1x (max 46T) or 2x (max 50/34T) compatibility.
The Albarda 2 gets a straight 44mm headtube, designed for a 400mm long, 52mm offset tapered steerer fork or a 10mm longer straight fork with an inset headset.
Adventure Gravel – Geometry
The Nordest Albarda 2 is available in four stock sizes (S-L), with gently sloping toptubes and kinked seattubes to balance bag & bottle space in the front triangle and big tire clearance out back. Each size features a 70° head angle, 420mm long chainstays & 85mm of BB drop.
Nordest Albarda 2 gravel bike – Options & limited time pricing
The new steel Nordest Albarda 2 gravel bike is available now for pre-order with more affordable than ever discounted pricing for a limited time. After that, retail pricing will increase a bit over the previous generation.
Available in Green Pastel or Black Gloss, the Albarda 2 frame-only will sell for 600€ including free EU shipping, but is on pre-order sale through the end of this month for 524€.
Add in the 990g painted-to-match thru-axle Albarda Steel fork, a Cane Creek 40 headset, and the Steel frame kit sells for 829€, marked down to 700€.
Pick the 456g Albarda Carbon Taper fork (max 700x47c front tire), Cane Creek 40 headset, and the Carbon frame kit sells for 1000€, marked down now to 850€ until the end of 2020.
No complete steel gravel bikes are being offered now, so Nordest expects you to build up your own gravel/anything bike to face your own personal adventures in 2021. Frames & framesets are expected to be delivered from the start of January.
