The Huracan Sterrato is an odd duck indeed: a fancy Italian supercar fettled up for light dirt-squirting. But bicycle company 3T sees the Sterrato as the perfect metaphor for its high-end gravel bikes, so it's gone ahead and tarted one up to match.
We can see where 3T’s coming from; the gravel bike itself was a weird idea when it rolled onto the mainstream cycling scene around a decade ago. Much like the Lambo, it takes a lightweight, high-performance body and ergonomics designed primarily for speed on the street, and gives it chunkier wheels and tires, more ground clearance, and maybe lower gearing, so it can go and play off-road now and then.
Gravel bikes are the lightest of the light off-roaders, really best suited to unpaved roads rather than anything too serious. With rigid suspension, you certainly don't want to find yourself on a downhill trail or a jump. But their light weight, ergonomics and aerodynamics make it easy to make good progress when you get back onto the tarmac, and as such they make terrific long-range soft-road tourers.
3T's Exploro Racemax is a nice example, if a pretty pricey one ranging from US$5,499 all the way to US$11,999. That was before a Lamborghini sticker was applied, mind you. And a Fizik Antares Adaptive seat, 3D-printed in an impossible-looking hexagonal weave that rhymes with Lamborghini's signature hexagonal designs. And a paint job in the same strangely compelling olive color as the Huracan Sterrato.
These additions – and these are the only things separating the Exploro Racemax X Huracan Sterrato from the otherwise top-of-the-line Exploro Racemax Italia Red AXS as far as we can tell – boost the asking price up to a magnificently silly UK£13,000 (US$15,940).
Whatever, Lamborghini owners want you to know they've spent more on their car than you did on your house, and it's Lamborghini owners this bike is targeted at. And it certainly is a pretty bike, and likely a capable one too, with carbon-titanium wheel hubs, a special filament-wound frame, Sram Red AXS drivetrain and braking goodies and Pirelli Cintauro gravel tires. Sure, you've probably got better things to do with your sixteen grand, but this is the world we live in.
Source: 3T