Gervais Rioux was a successful professional cyclist in Canada in the 1980s. He has 150 professional victories in his palmares, represented his home country Canada in the road race at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and once won the Tour of Luxembourg. After his career ended in 1990, Rioux bought a bike shop in Montreal and, like many other racing cyclists, founded his own racing bike brand - but not under his own name. The Canadian chose Argon 18 as his company name, after the noble gas argon, the 18th element in the periodic table of elements.
In the early days of the young bike brand, the Canadian concentrated on building purist steel racing bikes from Columbus tubes, with Rioux initially focussing on design. Welding and painting were carried out by selected craftsmen. In addition to aluminium frames, Rioux has also been designing carbon frames and forks since 2001, mainly for the North American triathlon scene.
The "Gallium Pro" road racer currently marks the highest stage of development in the brand's portfolio. The most striking feature of the frame set in white, black and red paintwork is the extremely ovalised top tube, which runs around the seat tube on both sides and merges seamlessly into the split, backward-curved seat stays. A smart idea on the "Gallium Pro" is the so-called "3D-Headtube". This is a head tube with an aluminium thread integrated in the upper section. Using an aluminium screw-in sleeve with a thread length of 30 millimetres, the head tube can be screwed upwards by 10 or 20 millimetres using spacers. Depending on your preference, you can leave the cockpit at the low standard level and thus achieve a sporty riding position; in the comfort position, on the other hand, you sit in a more relaxed position as the handlebars are raised overall. This idea of the flexible head tube makes piled-up spacers largely superfluous, and because the headset bearing moves upwards with the extension, the bearing spacing on the steerer tube increases, which means that any bending forces that occur are better supported.
Rioux has also gone its own way with the seatpost of the "Gallium Pro". The seat clamp allows the angle and length position to be adjusted independently of each other - a technically good solution, but one that still lacks the finishing touches. On the other hand, the idea of handlebar and stem manufacturer Oval to integrate the stem threads for handlebar attachment into the front clamping plate is impractical. This makes assembly and adjustment unnecessarily cumbersome. You can still reach the bolts with an offset hexagon socket, but not with a standard socket on a torque spanner.
Shimano's top "Dura-Ace" groupset is fitted for shifting and braking, while an "SLK-Pro" crank from FSA works in the bottom bracket, mounted in a "Mega Exo" bottom bracket. Behind the abbreviation "F2R-130" is a carbon wheelset of Dutch origin from Fast Foward: It consists of an extremely low rim profile, delicate "190 Ceramic" hubs, held together by a few delicate "Aerolite" knife spokes, both from DT-Swiss. The tyres: Vittoria's "Corsa Evo CX" in a width of 21 millimetres. First impression on the test lap on Lake Garda: It's simply fun to ride a light bike uphill. The racer with its racing look weighs just 6.4 kilos and willingly follows every pedal stroke, almost shooting upwards under the rider when pedalling. However, the extremely lightweight construction of the wheels is noticeable due to the brake pads rubbing alternately on the rear wheel rim. Expressed in figures: the rear wheel achieves a lateral stiffness of just 29 newtons per millimetre, while the front wheel achieves 42, which is not enough for heavyweight athletes who pedal hard.
Low stiffness values also characterise the racer in other areas. On fast, winding descents, there is always a somewhat indirect feel to the otherwise very agile steering behaviour, sometimes overlaid by brake stuttering. On the test bench, the frame, which is not exceptionally light at 1,100 grams, only achieves 67 Newton metres per degree. This is low overall (frames with 80 Nm/degree and more can generally be considered wobble-proof) and, compared to other carbon frames, which achieve a safe 80 to 90 Newton metres per degree with 200 grams less weight, well below standard. Even the laterally stiff fork was not strong enough to improve the ride feel. The brake stuttering is caused by the brake track on the front wheel of the Fast Forward, which is not exactly parallel: its width varies by three tenths of a millimetre around the circumference. The easy adjustment of the seat position is a good thing. The threaded sleeve and spacers can be fitted and removed quickly and safely using the special spanner supplied, and the idea of the "3D head tube" works.
The "Gallium Pro" pleases with well thought-out and beautiful details, especially for quick and easy adjustment of the seating position. However, the steering head stiffness of the carbon canoe is neither contemporary nor appropriate for the material. At a price of 2,100 euros, the market offers much lighter and more stable framesets. Due to the imprecisely manufactured wheels, the racer has to put up with additional criticism. Tip: A stiff high-profile wheelset with aluminium brake track significantly improves the riding characteristics of the "Gallium Pro".
Price frame set/complete bike2,100/6,350 Euro
Reference/InfoAdvanced Bicycle Group, phone: 08381/80723-23; www.argon18bike.com
Frame sizes*: XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL
Seat/steering angle: 73,5/73°
Seat/top tube/head tube520/555/186 mm
Wheelbase/caster: 985/59 mm
TOUR frame height/STR**: 600 mm/1.53
EQUIPMENT:
Fork: Argon 18 GA 31; Steering bearingFSA 1-1/4; BrakesShimano Dura-Ace; CircuitShimano Dura-Ace; Bottom bracketFSA SL-K Pro/Mega Exo; Wheels/tyresFFWD F2R/Vittoria Corsa Evo CX, 21 mm; Handlebar/stemOval R900/R900; Saddle/postFizik Pavé Sport CX/Argon 18 ASP 6500
MEASURED VALUES & INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Weight of complete wheel6.4 kilos (without pedals)
Frame/fork/steering bearing weight: 1.097/388/85 g
Standardised weight frame set***: 1.602 g - 2,7 Steering head stiffness67 Nm/° - 4.0
Lateral stiffness fork45 N/mm - 2.3
Bottom bracket stiffness45 N/mm - 3.7
Comfort frame253 N/mm - 2.0
Comfort fork86 N/mm - 3.7
Manufacturer's specifications, test bike frame size greased; **projected measurement from centre of bottom bracket to top of head tube/STR (stack to reach) - explanation in the supplement "Radtest Spezial" in this issue; values between 1.45 and 1.55 indicate a sporty riding position, values below that are race-like, above that comfortable; ***adjusted weight for frame size 57 and fork steerer length 225 mm; ****The grade includes further individual grades that we cannot print for reasons of space. In the case of complete bikes, 60 per cent of the final score is given to the componentry.
