3T rounds out their made-in-Italy bike line-up with an all-new Strada Italia road bike that refines aero performance for, once again, wider tires. The Strada has always been a unique aero road race bike, embracing wider-than-normal tires. And now it can fit up to 35mm slicks. Because ultimately, that wider rubber offers lower rolling resistance, better grip, improved control, and even extra comfort. 3T only had to figure out how to reshape the bike to make it more aerodynamic, too.
3T Strada Italia wide tire aero carbon road bike, made-in-Italy
This is pretty much everything that made the Strada special, just with even bigger tires and better aerodynamics. Now, on top of that, it hits a new level of lightweight performance and responsive ride, thanks to its unique robo-fiber-wound, resin-transfer-molded carbon construction, fabricated entirely in 3T’s HQ in northern Italy.
The 3T Strada has been pushing the road bike envelope since its wide-tire 1x-only debut all-the-way back in 2017. It snuck 1x drivetrains into the pro peloton already that year. And we tested and dug that 1x setup. But the world wasn’t quite ready. So 3T added a 2x option by 2018. In fact, the cycling world still isn’t quite ready at the top of road riding & racing. So this latest high-end road bike can be run as a 1x or 2x, too. Some new tech that the cycling industry has embraced though is fully hidden integrated cable routing, which the Strada Integrale added a little over one year ago.
Now all of that evolves one step further with this latest made-in-Italy Strada Italia edition.
What’s new?
The least obvious but most important upgrade for the new 3T Strada Italia road bike is 35mm WAM (real Width As Measured) tire clearance. Designed for any tire in the real 30-35mm width range. That’s the heart of the faster rolling, improved grip, and extra comfort claims that 3T makes for their new road bike.
Just to be clear, 3R specs this bike with 700x32c Conti GP5000S tires, which measure out to around 34mm on their own Discus wheels. These days it’s harder to be sure exactly how wide a tire will sit on various wide rims, so it’s nice that 3T speaks clearly about their WAM tire clearance.
Now to make sure that wider tire doesn’t just slow you down with more wind resistance, 3T completely redeveloped the aero character of this new Strada Italia.
The bike was aero-optimized in CFD, first in 2D tubing profiles, then in 3D to make all these airflow improvements over the Strada Integrale which is made-in Asia. 3T doesn’t really dwell on the numbers (we asked), but they do assure that the new bike is faster that the old version, even with the wider frontal area of these fat tires. 3T explained that 0° Yaw drag reduction was a first focus.
Improved Aerodynamic Frontal Reshaping
The frame sticks with the same 46mm across narrow headtube as before, just slightly bulged out at the top and bottom to fit their unique MiniMax bearings that allow for the full 1.5″ to 1.125″ tapered carbon steerer in the space that regular bearings for a 1.25″ tapered setup would fit. Those bearings measure just 42 & 47mm outside, with the carbon frame bulged only to 48 & 53mm to fit them.
The fork crown and legs are a shade wider to fit the bigger tire up front. But the big change for wind hitting the front of the bike, is the now massively wide and pointed lower downtube section. Measuring a whopping 73mm across, it’s as big as on 3T’s latest Italia edition gravel bikes. A bit of that seems to be the result of the wide tires here not being all that different than fast gravel tires.
Yet the real reason is to make the frame wider than your water bottle. Every road cyclist rides with a water bottle, so 3T designed their new downtubes to completely shield your regular bottle. It effectively creates an airfoil shape with the frame being the leading edge and the bottle being the trailing edge. 3T says this alone dramatically reduced drag on the bike with a bottle in the cage (vs. the previous Strada that widened to about 2/3 of the bottle width), completely making up for the wider tire frontal area.
Deeper Aero Shapes in Profile
Further back on the bike, the bent seattube now grows to 29mm wide to smooth air onto the rear wheel. And the seatstays and their dropped top all get smoother aero shaping.
But it’s that massive downtube that will apparently make the new 3T Strada Italia faster into the wind.
From the side, the overall silhouette of the new 3T Strada Italia looks quite familiar. But most tubes are deeper, now that the UCI threw the 3:1 rule out the window. My test bike’s headtube is now 130mm deep. The seattube is 56mm deep. And the new proprietary truncated aero seatpost is 50mm deep. Even the newly teardrop seatstays are 25mm deep. Only the curved lower seattube isn’t deeper, because it effectively gets its depth combined with the tire and rim.
First Rides: Stiffer, More Reactive Frame
While fat tire and aerodynamic benefits are great. It’s important not to ignore the benefits of 3T’s made-in-Italy filament-wound resin transfer molding carbon construction that give the new bike its Strada Italia name. This semi-automated manufacturing process uses programmed robots to wind continuous dry carbon fibers (not conventional cut pieces of pre-preg) around mandrels that are then combined and placed into molds by hand.
The result is more accurate fiber placement, longer continuous fibers, and only the exact amount of resin is injected into the mold at the last step. You get lighter and stiffer frames, that ultimately have a ride character that feels like it better damps vibrations. It’s a hard characteristic to quantify.
But every 3T Italia frame that I have ridden (RaceMax, Extrema, and now Strada), feels tangibly stiffer and somehow more responsive than their conventionally made versions. Yet at the end of the ride, I don’t feel like that extra stiffness resulted in a harsher ride. 3T describes the Italia bikes’ ride as more reactive. The discussion of reactivity and stiffness-to-compliance is vague. But there’s an improvement here in ride quality that you can really feel.
On paper, 3T says the differences in stiffness and comfort are small. Both the regular Strada Integral made in Asia and this Strada Italia made in Italy are designed for the same performance characteristics. This one is apparently incrementally stiffer, but it’s not officially more comfortable as a frame. But with bigger tires at lower pressures, there’s a lot more comfort gained.
And Lighter, too
Weight loss is tangible though. This new 3T Strada Italia officially claims a 950g frame weight (54cm unpainted) and 350g fork (also unpainted). That’s 55g lighter than they say for the same size Strada Due Integrale. It’s reasonably light for an aero bike, but not that light compared to many of the latest performance road bikes. Complete bike weight isn’t ultralight either, but you have to remember how wide these wheels & tires really are.
My complete 54cm 3T Strada Italia Project X with Force 2x weighs 7.9kg. Or a full 8.21kg ready to ride with 280g pedals, a single bottle cage, and tires set up tubeless. It’s no superlight, but sure feels fast out on the road.
Updated Geometry
The new Strada Italia also features slightly updated geometry, and only 4 sizes 51-58cm (for now.) But handling doesn’t really change with the same proven head & seat tube angles. It’s mostly about slightly lowering the BB height to offset the larger diameter tires. Then, adjusting headtube lengths, overall Stack heights, and slightly longer Reach to give more consistent sizing steps and aggressive positions on the bike that are achievable by most riders.
Of note (and importance to me who worries about these things), there’s not a ton of saddle height adjustability within that short straight section of seattube. But each bike comes with a size-specific seatpost length to hit ideal seating heights that 3T communicated clearly. And 3T dealer shops will cut your proprietary seatpost to the correct length, then you still have around 2-3cm of adjustment. And ultimately there are longer posts available if you need a less conventional fit.
Tech details
- Fully-internal cable routing via proprietary 3T MiniMax Integrale bearings and the D-shaped steerer
- Electronic shifting only
- 1x (min 36T, max 62T) or 2x (min 45/29, max 54/40 or more with XL hanger) compatibility
- BB386EVO press-fit bottom bracket shell with threaded-together Token Ninja BB
- 160mm flat mount disc brakes
- Syntace X-12 12mm thru-axles
- UDH universal derailleur hanger
- proprietary Strada Italia seatpost with Ritchey 1-bolt head for all rails
2024 3T Strada Italia – Pricing, options & availability
The newly made-in-Italy 3T Strada Italia wide tire aero road bike comes in several complete bike builds, and frameset options. Framesets in Verde green, Bianco white, or Rosso red paint showing off the carbon weave in the 3T logo start at $660 / 6000€ including the seatpost, 3T More Integrale Stem & 3T Aeroflux LTD handlebar. Ready to Paint framesets without a topcoat sell for $7000 / 6300€, and the shiny raw carbon Project X finished framesets sell for $7200 / 6500€.
Complete bikes start at $8700 / 7900€ in standard colors with a Rival AXS 2×12 build and Zipp 303S wheels.
Or $10,200 / 9200€ in standard colors with Ultegra Di2 2×12 and 3T Discus 45I32 LTD wheels.
Then, $10,600 / 9200€ for Force AXS 2×12 and the 3T Discus 45I32 LTD wheels.
The top-tier 3T Strada Italia Project X frame built up with Force AXS 2×12 and Discus 45I32 LTD wheels like I am testing sells for $11,600 / 10,500€.
Get yours today. I’ll be riding this one more throughout spring and into summer to see how it handles road and all-road riding.
For those who realize those prices are super high… The previous, Asian-made Strada 2x Integrale will carry over for more affordable complete road bike builds too.
