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.
Specifications:
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
