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Sarto Bikes, the Italian custom carbon specialists, has launched the Raso TC (Tri-Composite), a special edition of its latest endurance model.
Built upon decades of composite development and in-house tube and frame manufacturing at Sarto HQ in Italy, the Raso TC is a special edition of the all-road aero endurance Raso, built from tri-composite tubing.
The tri-composite carbon fibre, reinforced with metallic filaments, delivers improved comfort and strength by minimising vibrations and localised mechanical stresses throughout the frame.
Tri-composite is a carbon fibre with a third element, copper wires, added to the resin-impregnated fibre.
Enrico Sarto, of Sarto Bikes, said: “This special carbon fibre is also widely used in the automotive sector to create cockpits or helmets that are particularly resistant.
“The characteristics of this material are essentially threefold: excellent impact resistance, high vibration damping capacity, and unique aesthetics.
“That’s why we spent several years on research and development to make it functional for the quality and performance of our top-of-the-range frames.”
The metal filament, and thus the colour of the fibre, is available in five different tones: blue, red, green, silver, and copper.
A streamlined one-piece cockpit and custom-formed tubes optimise aerodynamics on the Raso TC, with space for up to 35mm tyres adding comfort and performance.
Sarto has designed the Raso TC’s flared handlebars to align with the natural flow of the shoulders and arms for a “reassuringly comfortable connection over long distances and descents”.
Like every Sarto product, the Raso TC is available in custom sizing or in off-the-shelf stock sizes.
The Sarto brand can be traced back more than 60 years. Antonio Sarto, together with his brothers Mario and Giovanni, began working in the bicycle sector after World War II and in 1960 they founded the Cicli Mariella, with which they reached a production of over 200 bicycles a day.
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In 1983 Antonio separated from his brothers and founded Sarto Antonio, specialized in the construction of racing frames for the most famous brands in the sector.
His son Enrico joined him in 1992, giving an impulse to the growth of the Sarto brand and focusing his work on “custom made”.
Continuous research and the interest in new technologies led Antonio and Enrico to the creation of the brand’s first carbon frame, in 2003.
