New Guru Praemio R Oversized Titanium Road Bike Makes Ti Racier
The new Guru Praemio R is a race-level full titanium bike.
“We wanted to build a ti bike that could go toe to toe with any crit bike out there,” said Josh Novis, Guru’s sales rep. “The Praemio R frame features make it stiff enough to crank on but with the compliant ride that ti is known for.”
The Praemio R has the tapered 44mm headtube, a PressFit BB30 bottom bracket and “the industry’s only 1″ ti chainstays. Combined with the massive 44.5mm diameter downtube, the bike has a very stiff bottom half for proper power transfer.
Up top, the thinner top tube and 12mm seatstays provide a more compliant ride, something the titanium exaggerates in a good way.
The massive chainstays provide some tire clearance challenges. They had to mount them wide on the BB, which required welding as far put as they could without distorting the BB shell.
They also had to get a new roller die tool to pinch the tubes at the front to clear both the tire and chainrings. Another new tool was needed to cold work a bend into the back of the tube. The result is clearance for a 700×25 tire and a fatter chainstay than you’ll find on any other ti bike.
Dropouts are machined aluminum and are mainly done to differentiate it visually. The added flair doubles as a replaceable dropout.
Starts at $4,500 in full custom geometry with an ENVE 2.0 tapered fork. Frame weight is around 1300g for a 54.
Guru is primarily a custom builder, with lead times only around 4-6 weeks. However, they’ve expanded their Fast Forward program to offer more stock choices and help some rider get a new bike for less than full custom if a stock bike will fit.
New Photon, Evolo R and Praemio andthe CR901 and CR701 triathlon/TT bikes are now available through their Fast Forward geometry program. That offers several stock geometries and paint schemes that can speed up delivery to as little as one to two days.
Comments
Hasn’t Kent Eriksen (Steamboat, CO) been building bikes with 1″ Ti chainstays for a while now?
Pretty sick looking bike nonetheless.
Kovas, that is absolutely true. So does Spectrum and, if memory serves correctly, a couple other builders.
Aluminium dropouts seem silly on a Ti bike to me…6/4 dropouts on my Merlin’s have been bombproof so far…
Great looking bike, however……………BB30 is no good. Tolerances between the BB shell and bearing are never going to be close enough and you will get a creaking or cracking noise. It also does not add stiffness to a Ti bike, not sure where people get that from?
My only other knock on the frame is I would prefer a chainstay bridge.
All that being said, it’s still a great looking frame and I am sure it’s a blast to ride.
I have a Litespeed Archon and love it!
They should have built this wit SRAM RED and used the real BB30 crank instead of an adapeter-ized Shimano. Much more heel clearance, lighter, and more kickass.
Looks real nice though. Sweet!
Nice looking bike,,,but its still a Guru. Based on all the Guru’s that keep coming back into our shop for warranty. I’ll pass.
Those are not aluminum dropouts… You obviously cant weld aluminum to Ti but it’s just an insert trim piece doubling as a replacable dropout. I work for Guru and I’ve never seen 1 titanium frame come back.. The only reason carbon frames come back is because they push the envelope of technology, stiffness, weight to points never explored by other companies and they take that chance. Whether or not the frames come back, they handle each warranty return with priority, respect and care. Trust me. You cannot go wrong with any Guru purchase. Also, this frame is available with any Sram, Campy or Shimano gruppo. The quality that goes into each of those frames is crazy. The frames will not advance in any steps of fabrication unless