A30 – THE CAPTAIN RIM

Fast road bike and capable enough

The thinking behind this bike was simple – fast AND capable enough.

Since the evolution of disc brakes on road bikes the capabilities of drop bar road bikes have increased infinitely. Removing the restrictions inherent with the reach and clearance of traditional rim brakes now means we can build bikes with larger clearances and better off-road capabilities. Our design brief was to take advantage of disc brakes to keep a fast road bike geometry with just enough capability off-road.

So what is capable enough ?

When we designed our first Serk Adventure bike in 2015 it was based around 35C tyres. Back then there wasn’t much else wider available in 700C and 35 was considered wide. We rode that bike in some really rough terrain and were blown away by the types of adventures that were possible with even 35C tyres.

If we could add 35C capability to our regular road bike without compromising its speed and handling extensively then this was our sweet spot for capability.

Keeping it fast.

To have this capability and keep it fast we developed our own proprietary fork with just enough clearance but still retaining a relatively short (compared to most large tyre adventure bikes) axle to crown measurement. This keeps the front end low and tight and results in a fast handling bike. Out the back we lengthened the chain stays just enough to accommodate bigger tyres but not too much that the bike started to feel slow.

T47 Bottom Bracket

We’ve adopted T47 across the Serk Titanium line. The standard is here to stay and allows you to fit almost all the standard sized cranks on the market creak free. T47 is threaded which virtually eliminates bottom bracket creaking. It also allows for much easier service and installation.

Semi Integrated Cabling

We love the clean aesthetic of internal cabling. We hate complicated systems and heavy cast parts that add unnecessary weight to our bikes. We have a simple lightweight internal gear cabling system which can neatly accommodate di2 wiring by switching out the included di2 ports. The hydraulic hose is semi integrated – creating a clean look with simple port construction to minimize weight.

Titanium Rear Hanger

Our titanium rear hanger is cast from a solid piece of titanium block. Being removable means its possible to develop a new version in the future if a newer and better thru axle system is released in the years to come.