NAHBS 2013: Caletti Debuts Steel Adventure Road Bike, Road Race Special
Caletti gave us a heads up he’d be bringing his new Adventure Road bike, a blend between road and cyclocross bikes, and now we’ve got the details.
Builder John Caletti, who works out of Santa Cruz, CA, says they ride a lot of stretches where there are significant gravel or rough stretches. This provides the performance of a road bike but is more comfortable for long rides than a ‘cross bike.
It’s built with Columbus Life and OX Platinum steel tubing. Click through for detail shots of this and his new, lightweight Road Race Special, which may just burn your eyes…
It’s got “Liquid Color” paints from Spectrum Powderworks, which let the weld detail show thru and better match the anodized components.
Seatstays have a slight S-bend and accommodate a 35c tire safely. Chainstays stay thick almost all the way back for improved stiffness, then taper down so he doesn’t need a huge dropout.
The new Road Race Special is a bike that’s made stiffer and lighter by using a True Temper biovalized downtube and shaped top tube. It can be made with caliper (more common) or disc brakes (shown), and it’s full custom. Oversized Life chainstays and a custom titanium seatpost round out the package.
The blinding fire orange paint scheme gives Festka’s day-glow pink road bike a run for its money as brightest bike of the show.
Caletti also builds with titanium, shown here in 29er form. Both this and the Road Race Special had Kettle Cycles’ SiCCC carbon brake rotors spec’d.
Comments
I am not a roadie, so I am guessing that stem cluster is there to switch from cable to hydraulic brakes? seems like a major Over complication to me….
Yes, that’s a mechanical to hydraulic converter…which will likely be a relic within 12 months.
Is Campy bringing out a hydraulic brake lever within 12 months then?
Kidding aside…I saw these bikes at the show and while John may not have had the most ‘over-the-top’ thing there, what he had in my eye was a set of beautifully crafted bikes that were meant to be ridden. Which is a very very good thing. Excellent work and very knowledgeable from my discussions with him.
carbon fork on steel bike…UGH
Just beautiful works of art. I’d be afraid of riding them. You know scratches dirt etc. Fantastic though. Someday hopefully I can get one.
Campy Fan – I’ve seen some interesting prototypes of things I wasn’t supposed to see.