In building bicycles, frame manufacturers must first establish some guiding principles - a frame building philosophy, if you will.  In the past few years, this has often been expressed in advertising in an oversimplified, if not simplistic, way. In some instances, it’s fairly easy to guess which characteristic the maker has emphasized simply by looking at the shapes found in the frame, which in more extreme cases, borders on caricature.

Nevertheless, the work of developing high performance bikes demands finesse and a heightened sense of nuance.  If a bike’s weight needs to be as minimal as possible, the way it rides depends largely on its rigidity. However, who would want a bike that was light and rigid, yet not at all comfortable?  Lightness, rigidity, and comfort are at the heart of any bike’s conception; to favour one of these variables over any of the others can quickly lead manufacturers into sacrificing the other two.

At Argon 18, they always strive to incorporate all three variables in the most suitable proportions for the desired end result, because in their view, all three are indiscernible and necessary. In this sense, they at Argon 18 don’t choose between weight, comfort and rigidity, instead, they strive for a well-considered blend of all three, by carefully adjusting their methods and materials to obtain the desired result.

Argon 18 bikes’ classic lines illustrate the balance of the three variables that they confer to them.