The 3T Extrema Italia, as its name says, sits at the extreme end of the ever-growing 3T Exploro family (although 3T has moved away from using the Exploro moniker for its gravel bikes). That means massive 57mm tyre clearance on 700c wheels, while still allowing the use of 2x groupsets and offering claimed aero benefits. The Italia bit signifies that the bike is made in Italy, which allows 3T to configure it for a wide range of groupsets.
That sets the 3T Extrema up for excursions into MTB terrain. It’s great on this – if you need it. But we found the 10kg weight an effort to get back uphill after a descent and the bike ponderous on tarmac, making it something of a niche product.
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3T Extrema Italia background
I can remember having my mind blown when erstwhile colleague Peter Stuart (who now works for a small but competent cycling website as editor), interviewed a top aerodynamicist for Cyclist and returned to the office with news that a classic glass Coke bottle is more aerodynamic thrown bottom first than pointy end first.
‘But how?!’ I raged as I smashed down my coffee cup and clawed at my eyes with spokes. The answer, of course, was a mixture of witchcraft and laminar airflow, and it’s this principal (along with the huge tyres) that makes the 3T Extrema Italia what it is: a megabike.
The down tube is 60mm wide where it meets the head tube, and 75mm wide at the bottom bracket end, totally un-aero sizes surely, because narrow is fast, right?
It can be, but there are certain parts of a bike that can’t be narrow, such as water bottles (unless you drink out of Frubes) and gravel tyres. 3T’s logic is there’s no point in making a skinny-tubed frame in the presence of such wide components, so instead it has made an as-wide-or-wider-tubed frame that pushes air out and around the elements behind it, a bit like our Coke bottle’s blunt nose. That 75mm lower section of the Extrema’s down tube pushes air out and around the water bottle; the upper 60mm section ‘picks up’ the air rushing off the front tyre by being slightly wider.
That’s the theory. The reality is there is no data to prove this – none that I have been able to ascertain at any rate – but 3T did claim its first foray into gravel, the Exploro, saved seven watts at 32kmh and 24 watts at 48kmh over an equivalent round-tubed frame, and the Extrema is based upon that blueprint. That brings us on to where the Extrema sits in 3T’s lineup, and why you might want one.
3T Extrema Italia geometry
3T’s gravel stable is like a Galapagos Island of Darwinism, with the Extrema evolving out of the original Exploro (now called the Primo), along with the RaceMax and Ultra. For the record, all are technically called Exploro something, but the Exploro part tends to get dropped; while the suffix ‘Italia’ refers to the Extrema being made in Italy, with the express intention that a frame can be built to order either for mechanical, electronic or wireless-only gravel groupsets, and as a 1x or 2x (or both) drivetrain. But all of this is sort of academic, as the main reason the Extrema exists is tyre clearance.
To put it in perspective, the 3T Primo can fit 700c x 40mm, the RaceMax 46mm, the Ultra 51mm and the Extrema 700c x 57mm tyres. It’s an achievement, especially considering the Extrema is 2x compatible (2x chainsets inhibit clearance as they are wider), and its chainstays are a pretty short 437mm (for context, the Ultra has 419mm stays, and usually stays get elongated to fit wider tyres). As such, this is the widest-clearance 700c gravel bike I’ve yet seen.
The effect is a monster-truck roller with the sensations of a road bike. Compared to the Primo, which could be considered 3T’s raciest gravel bike, the Extrema’s geometry is more relaxed – longer wheelbase, longer trail and front centre, 15mm higher stack at 590mm, 14mm shorter reach at 374mm – but these aren’t slouchy numbers, and neither is the spec.
3T Extrema Italia specifications
As discussed, the frameset is designed to be low drag, so it’s no surprise this off-the-peg build comes with Zipp’s ‘entry level’ (ie, they only cost £849) 45mm deep 303 S wheels and 3T’s thin, deep Aeroghiaia bars and cable-hiding More Integrale stem (which rather usefully is hollow underneath, meaning a stem can be swapped without cutting hoses and the Extrema’s front end can be easily disassembled for travel).
Given the geometry, I found myself sitting fairly ‘deep’ in the bike as opposed to atop it, which is the feeling I get with some big-wheeled gravel bikes, and this combined with the aero build made for a blisteringly fast bike on my local mountain bike trails. The wide tyres offered superb grip and their own micro-suspension, and the frame felt stiff and efficient thanks to those huge tubes.
The overall weight and handling when pushing hard over mountain bike terrain felt light and deft. Nearly 10kg might not seem all that light, but for a bike that can cope with real mountain bike territory, it suddenly seems feathery.
Yet, for all this, the inverse must be true, which is what makes the Extrema a harder sell (to me at least). Smashing down a rocky descent, it’s rapid, but turn tail and ride up a draggy, bumpy incline and the feeling and effort is akin to climbing on a mountain bike. Then take it to the road and suddenly the whole thing just feels overbuilt. Still, it’s comfy and very smooth.
All three 3T Extrema Italia off-the-peg builds include a mullet drivetrain with a 10-52t cassette and the latest SRAM Eagle T-Type rear mech, so there's plenty of scope to winch yourself up and over whatever gets in your way.
3T Extrema Italia gravel bike review verdict
In all, the 3T Extrema’s great strength is also its great weakness. It serves its niche so well that it struggles elsewhere.
That niche is well into mountain bike country, and as such it’s really quite far away from where gravel bikes began – riding alongside a road bike on an unsealed surface. Of course, you may have access to this niche, you may need this niche itched in your life, but I don’t.
My gravel expectations and accessibilities are different – I need to ride a decent amount of tarmac to get there, and when I do, it’s not all that extreme unless I seek out those MTB trails. And I don’t have the room or the wallet for my bikes to get so specific.
Perhaps most tellingly of all, I was riding the Extrema with 50mm tyres – I could have gone to that huge 57mm promise, but at no point did it feel like I’d benefit much from doing so.
And don’t get me started on the dropper post. I’m sorry, I just don’t get droppers on gravel bikes – not in the UK anyway – and even then the wireless RockShox Reverb was quickly rendered redundant as I opted to remove to battery so I could fit my seatpack, which I deemed way more useful (a revised version with the battery in a different position is coming, I’m told).
But for all this I can’t stress enough what an incredible bike the Extrema is, both as a tool for a job and as a piece of engineering and design. It’s not for me (not until I get a bigger shed and fatter wallet anyway), but it could be the very bike you’ve been craving. It just depends where you live and what you want to ride.
3T Extrema Italia specs
- Model: 3T Extrema Italia Rival GX AXS Dropper Post
- Price: £4,573.20 frameset; £7,592.40 as tested
- Weight: 9.87kg (56cm)
- Groupset: SRAM Rival 1x/SRAM GX Eagle AXS mullet
- Gearing: 40t/10-52t
- Wheels: Zipp 303 S
- Tyres: Continental Race King 50mm tyres
- Stem: 3T More Integrale
- Handlebar: 3T Aeroghiaia
- Seatpost: RockShox Reverb AXS XPLR dropper post
- Saddle: San Marco Shortfit
- Buy it now from 3T
