We seen a number of neatly crafted bikes from Italian frame shop T°Red recently, like their ti Cx CrossBeast and crazy hybrid carbon e-fixie the BestiaNera. But when it comes to road bikes, it seems they are pushing the envelope even further. Beyond the already high standard carbon, ti, steel & alloy bikes in their Arcanide road line, they have added a new ultra-light premium steel sibling. That newest member of the family is the A02A OOL, a bike that starts with a steel frame with modern performance and trimmed down weight and builds it up into a complete bike lighter than most premium carbon bikes. While it isn’t exactly low-priced, with the options afforded by working in steel and with the more personalized production scale of a builder like TRed, you can choose to build it up with options like rim or disc brakes, and pretty much any build kit that your wallet will allow…
Aracnide A02 Acciaio OOL
A02A OOL. The Aracnide family’s second generation (the A & 02) is the new Acciaio (the next A meaning steel in Italian). This particular bike is the OOL frameset for “Oltre Ogni Limite” or “Beyond all limits”, that gives it a satin finish and the ability to pick whatever detail color you want for the paint. A slightly less pricy stealth Black Edition is also available.
The Aracnide Acciaio OOL was developed to be light, but also to offer the precise handling, efficient power transfer, and smooth ride that modern Columbus niobium steel tubesets allow. Its tapered headtube gets paired here with a full carbon, quick release axle Toot fork and Anima center mount front brake. Not a lot of internal routing is needed with a wireless group, but TRed can do whatever you need, and routes the rear brake here through the downtube.
To get the frame weight down to a claimed 1440g for a size 51, those ultralight drawn & butted tubes get a mix of welding and brazing to craft this modern Italian-crafted steel road bike.
A bike can’t only be summed up by its weight, but with a SRAM Red eTap drivetrain tricked out with even more premium kit, it’s hard to ignore the 5.9kg/13lb weight of this complete bike (minus pedals.) That’s surely helped by the premium Italian carbon of the WR Compositi Alfa bar & stem, the Spada Tivan 38mm/50mm carbon tubulars wrapped in Veloflex rubber, and San Marco Superleggera saddle atop the Toot S1 carbon post. But there is also more unique kit like these intensely machined OMC V-Strong ONE cranks with a one piece CNC’ed spiderless double chainring with compact 50/34T gearing.
Like all of TRed’s custom bikes, this one starts out with their parametric design software that helps them both design and visualize the real fit of the bike before tubing gets cut.
The Aracnide Acciaio is available in either rim brake versions like this one with a EECycles direct mount brake behind the bottom bracket, or a disc brake version with thru-axles. This rim brake OOL Edition frameset sells for 2940€, while the Black Edition is a bit cheaper at 2540€. If you want disc brakes, both finish editions are available and add 200€ over the rim brake versions. TRed tells us that they put together complete bikes of the Aracnide Acciaio starting at 4140€, but if you are trying to get under 6kg like this one, you’l likely add a few thousand more to that.
Manaia Pista
Unlike the more custom nature of the Arcanides, TRed also produces some more stock bikes like this Manaia Pista alloy track racer. This bike is all about rigidity and uses oversized alloy tubing throughout.
A horizontal toptube design was used, paired with an integrated seatpost clamp to minimize aero drag. The overall compactness of the frame layout also lends incredible rigidity rivaling what can even be achieved with modern carbon, with the benefit of greater durability on the rough and tumble race scene.
At its heart is a scandium and zirconium-enriched aluminum/magnesium alloy track frame design for racing on the velodrome or in the recent rise of fixed criterium racing, and gets paired to a Toot full carbon fork. The alloy frame itself is said to weigh 1240g for a 51cm.
Tred calls it “a sharp knife for cutting through velodrome parquet”.
Available as either a frameset or complete bike in a couple of color combinations and 4 stock sizes, the framesets go for 1990€, while complete bikes start at 2900€ and go up in either Pursuit or Criterium configurations. This bike gets its own track version of OMC’s machined V-Strong ONE crankset with a one-piece aero chainring, and pairs with a Corima carbon tubular disc in the rear.
TRed calls the Manaia Pista “perfect for pistards“. A bike equally adept for points race and group racing on the track or for racing asphalt criterium circuits. So also perfect for “lunatics looking for a 60 km/h fixed-gear ride on the road with no brakes“.
