Contender Ten Best of 2021: A Ferrari Red 3T Strada RTP

Day five of the Contender Ten Best Bikes of 2021 goes to this Ferrari Red 3T Strada Ready to Paint. Featuring a 1x SRAM Force AXS drivetrain, Reynolds carbon wheels, and a smattering of parts from Zipp and 3T, this custom road bike doubles down on the Strada’s groundbreaking formula.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room with the 3T Strada: it's 1x drivetrain. Modern road bike drivetrains use two chainrings up front with a front derailleur to push the chain in either direction. That’s how it has always been outside of two periods: pre-1940, when riders had to remove their rear wheel to shift gears for uphill and downhill rides, and a ten-year period of the late 90s to the early 00s, when three gears up front gained popularity. The Strada, however, was a blip in technology, ahead of even the 1x drivetrains we have today. While the Strada Due allows for a front derailleur if you wish, the original Strada gained much of its notoriety for being the only 1x-equipped road bike to be raced at the pro level. Despite some success at the pro level, pro riders disliked the limited gearing, which simply wasn’t wide enough to compete with 2x drivetrain range.

Less obvious is the concept of the ‘aero road bike with wide tires.’ The concept wasn’t entirely foreign before, but the Strada was the only bike at the time to be aero-optimized for wider road bike tires. You see it in the curved seattube, the ultra-slim fork crown, and scalloped downtube that made way for the bigger tires. These wide tire clearances were foreign to aero bikes, but doubly so for bikes with race geometry. The Strada has both.

There are a few choice picks with this bike, however. While a SRAM Eagle 12-speed cassette wouldn’t be everyone’s ideal pick, it affords supreme range on the long, steep climbs here in Utah. The Reynolds AR41 wheels are similarly well-chosen, with a 41mm depth that offers good aerodynamics, good stability against crosswinds, and is still plenty light for climbing. 

But the choicest pick here has to be the custom paint. The world could use more paint fades, and if we were to start the petition, this Strada (or our day three Klein Attitude) should be put on a pedestal. Fortunately, our in-house paint program can make just about any scheme a reality, such as this one here. 

Why does this 3T Strada RTP make the Contender Ten Best of 2021? Aerodynamics and wide tires are the two road-centric buzzwords du jour, but emphasizing the ability to have both was foreign until the Strada. It solidified the idea that you could have the best of both worlds: aero efficiency and the comfort and grip that only a wider tire affords. This bike is an excellent example of what that means for the everyday rider looking to go fast. While some bikes today match this formula, none have the curves of this Strada.

See the rest of the build sheet and more photos below.

See the Contender Ten Best Bikes of 2021