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Argon 18’s Gallium Pro is as estimable road
racer, having seen action in WorldTour races like the classics and the Tour
de France. By adding disc brakes, the new Gallium Pro Disc is an even more
versatile bike than it’s originator.
The Gallium Pro is a classic balanced ride.
By that, it manages to be stiff, comfortable, and easy to pilot, regardless
of speed, effort, and road conditions. In moving to the disc, the geometry
is largely unchanged, but for one thing. Tire clearance has been increased,
such that 30mm tires can easily fit (28mm tires come installed on complete
bikes). This results in providing you the flexibility to ride on just about
any road condition, from pristine asphalt to rough gravel.
Building a bike for disc brakes means more
than just putting mounts on the stays and widening the rear triangle. There
are many things that should be done to maximize the potential of the new
brake means. Argon 18 reworked the lay-up on the fork legs and chainstays
to better manage the stresses that rotor calipers put on the bike. They
chose flat mounts to keep weight down and improve aerodynamics. The
mounting points are designed for 140-160mm rotors, and complete bikes come
with 160mm front and 140mm rear. For light weight, lateral stiffness, and
mounting security, they replaced quick releases with12mm thru-axles.
With the idea of increasing versatility,
Argon 18 includes a re-worked round 27.2mm diameter seatpost. It’s carbon,
which they chose because they could, and did, tune compliance. The post has
25mm of setback.
While the post isn’t quite integration, the
cable routing and bottom bracket are. The routing is internal, good for
aerodynamics and cleanliness, and designed to work for both mechanical and
electronic shifting. For brakes, both hydraulic and mechanical. The bottom
bracket utilizes the BB86 standard, which allows Argon 18 to build the
bottom bracket shell wider, for both greater stiffness and weight savings.
Thinking of durability, there’s an inlaid chainsuck protector to virtually
eliminate the chance of wrecking your bike with a dropped chain.
Argon 18 does something different for sizing
the front end of the Gallium bikes. They have their 3D head tube. This is a
proprietary means of adjusting the head tube height without the flex of
stack spacers. The bike comes with 15mm and 25mm stack extenders. The upper
headset race sits inside the extension, which is wider and stiffer than
spacers. So if you’re going to have more than 10mm of stack from the top of
the head tube, you might as well install one of the extensions.
When you’re looking for a bike that handles
like a classic racer, but offers you the flexibility to ride 30mm tires,
the Argon 18 Gallium Pro Disc is at the ready.
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Bottom Bracket Type BB86
Required
Frame Material 7050 HM
Carbon, 12x142mm thru-axle
Fork Argon 18 Carbon Disc,
12x100mm thru-axle
Headset FSA 37 + 3D - 1
1/2"
Seatpost Argon 18 ASP-6600
Front Derailleur Type
Braze-On
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