T-lab All-terrain X3
Premium titanium can take you new places and change up your regular rides
On the the T-lab All-terrain X3, I found the perfect surface for a 650b gravel bike. My friend has a cottage in the Muskoka region, north of Toronto. For years, I’ve taken road bikes on the gravel in the area. Tires as wide as 25c or 28c were mostly fine. There’s one logging road that can be sandy and loose some years, which is a slog on regular road setups. It wasn’t the logging road, however, that was a riding revelation to me. (It was super fun on this bike. There was one particular descent I don’t think I’ve ever ripped so quickly.) I went somewhere new earlier this year: deep in the woods on the trails of the area’s snowmobile network. The wet, rocky, rutted routes were a blast. I technically could have done it on a 700c wheel and tire, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. I would have had to walk in spots. I can recall one climb where I weaved a bit off line, which would have been it for me on regular hoops. The 650b Boyd Jocassee wheels with 1.90" (or 48c) Panaracer Gravelking SK treads were quite forgiving. The only time I had to get of the bike was to jump over a stream.
T-lab is Montreal-based company that’s been building bikes for a little more than two years. Many of its staff gained their bike-building chops at the now-defunct Guru Cycles. Unlike the carbon-fibre frames made at Guru, the bikes at T-lab are made of Grade 9 titanium. The company’s builders do some pretty novel things with the tube shapes. On the X3, the seat tube has a bit of sway at the front derailleur. The top tube is slightly flattened. Around the office, such design features weren’t for everyone. While I do appreciate the creativity, I
don’t want it to be at the expense of performance. The X3, cool tubes and all, has excellent rigidity and power transfer. The frame and 650b tires do feel ever-so-slightly different than a 700c machine. My colleague said it best when he noticed that in the corners he had to steer more with his hands at the bars than he could with his hips, compared with a standard road bike. T-lab has stock frames and builds, but can do custom geometry, too. The spec of my test bike deviated slightly from the listed Dura-ace build. The bike should come with a Ritchey wcs Carbon Evocurve, which I would have li ked better than the wcs Venturemax. The Venturemax answers the following question: can a drop bar have too much flare? Yes. Definitely yes. Twenty-four degrees of outward flare for the drops didn’t work for me. On the hoods, my wrists were cocked inwards. Also, this bike has a gearing more suited to road riding than mixed surface. I managed with the 52/36 rings and 11–28 tooth cassette, but easier gears would have been better for the steep stuff in the woods.
The drivetrain, however, did let me hoon it on the asphalt. I was surprised how much more fun the bike made city riding. With the machine’s agility and the tires’ squish, potholes were nothing. I could hop up on curbs easily. The urban space became a bit more of a playground (albeit, a playground I shared with cars and pedestrians, safely). Still, the ti bike is a bit too premium for getting your Premiumrush on. But wherever you ride it, it’s sure to be a thrill.