NEW ERA OF SPEED IN GRAVEL”
They may not have made the first gravel bike, but they definitely made the fastest gravel bike. In 2019, Áspero took the world by storm, heralding a “new era of speed in gravel.” It was gravel, Cervelo-style. Since then, gravel bikes have grown, fragmented, and started to look a lot like the road and mountain bikes that spawned them, with suspension forks, bolt-ons for…everything, and ever-increasing tire widths.
TRUE TO THE EARLY DAYS
The new Áspero remains true to those early, simpler days of gravel, but with some improvements. A threaded BB shell, neater cable routing, and a UDH-compatible derailleur hanger for those who want to use SRAM's Transmission drivetrains. It's faster, of course. Three watts worth of drag were shaved off in the redesign process, the seat stays were dropped to give a bit more compliance out back, and the front-end stiffness was slightly reduced to make the last hours of a long race less painful.
Aspero will clear a
45mm tire by ISO standards.
ISO
mandates a minimum of 4mm of
clearance between tire and frame in
all dimensions, but they found that sometimes you need
a bit more than 4mm in muddy
conditions. The Aspero is designed
around 42mm tires with an additional
3mm of clearance on top of what
ISO requires, but if you're feeling
lucky (or your rides are typically
dry), feel free to push that to 45mm.
It's a lot of seemingly small
improvements, but they add
up to a lot. The result is a bike
that feels a lot like the original
Aspero, but is faster, more
comfortable, and more versatile.
T47 BOTTOM BRACKET
Áspero uses the asymmetrical T47a threaded bottom bracket we pioneered on R5-CX. It's a simple, rider-serviceable interface that allows us to deliver the benefits of BBRight in a more user-friendly form.
EASILY ADJUSTABLE FRONT END
Áspero shares the same bearing dimensions as R5, Soloist, R5-CX, and Caledonia, which means you can use any combination of bearing caps and stems. Want a super-racy, fully-internal look? Grab the ST31 and HB13 from R5.
UNIVERSAL DERAILLEUR HANGER
SRAM made everyone want to step on their derailleurs when they introduced the Transmission mountain bike drivetrains in 2023. It seems unnecessary, no matter who made your derailleur, but Áspero uses the Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH) standard in case you want to try.
