ARGONAUT RM3
$15,500 // 15.5 LB (53CM)
Bikes do not need to be expensive. Bikes do not need to be expensive to ride well. I want this to be unequivocally clear before I say that this $15,500 Argonaut RM3 is one of the best-riding road bikes I’ve ridden in my more than 25 years of working for Bicycling, because I can’t pretend that this Argonaut is anything other than a masterpiece.
The typical ride of a mass-produced, high-end carbon bike is damped and smooth, but there’s an ever-present sense of fragility, that unmistakable brittle quality that signals you’re on a very light frameset. The RM3 certainly glides over road surfaces, but does not have that archetypal carbon feel. It’s light and darty in the best way because it’s communicative and predictable in its quickness. It’s smooth and also feels substantial, like it’s digging into the asphalt while simultaneously floating above it. I know this sounds like I’m trying to wax poetic with meaningless phrases, but the RM3 feels at once heavy and light in a way I can’t recall ever previously experiencing.
This story is from the Issue 03, 2022 edition of Bicycling.
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This story is from the Issue 03, 2022 edition of Bicycling.
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