Argonaut RM3 review

The Argonaut RM3 is a full custom bike imbued with incredible ride characteristics thanks to a highly detailed build process that involves custom geometry and changing layup for rider weight and power. It’s up there with one of the most expensive bikes you can, but if it’s possible to ignore price for a second, this is probably the best road bike you’ll ever ride.

A fair amount has changed since I rode the original Argonaut back in 2019, although as Argonaut founder Ben Farver explains, the RM3 is more evolution than redesign.

Argonaut RM3 frameset

‘We increased the diameter of the chainstays and went from independent stays to more of a yoke style, which resulted in a torsionally stiffer frame but with pretty much the same vertical stiffness. The top tube is more ovalised to increase horizontal stiffness, and we added some carbon top and bottom to retain vertical bending.’

The seat clamp is now just a single integrated bolt and all routing is internal, but otherwise the RM3 is quite similar to its predecessors, which is a bold statement. Few brands change so little across generations – just look at the new Trek Madone and Specialized Diverge – but if it ain’t broke, just refine it.

And here, what made the original bike so good has been retained, updated and somehow refined even further. That quality is the intangible: ride feel. I have simply not found a better-riding bike.

It would seem counterintuitive for a bike whose tubes aren’t much wider than oversize steel, but the RM3 is stiff, from punching off the mark to big-gear, low-cadence efforts, to climbing hard out of the saddle. However, its ultimate trick is the way it handles despite the stiffness.

It is responsive in the extreme, in part thanks to relatively short 408mm chainstays that create a snappy feel to the bike, but also due to that stiffness of spine, running from head tube to down tube to BB to chainstays. Yet every time I threw the bike into a corner I became aware of something else that is paramount to handling: flex.

The bike’s wheels felt like they were able to adjust independently under me in the diagonal plane of a lean, thereby keeping the tyres pushed onto the road surface as if the bike had micro-suspension, all while helping it trace precise arcs.

Wide, low-pressure tyres always help, but when I pumped the Schwalbes right up it became clear the frame was doing a huge amount of work. This isn’t a case of build an ultra-stiff frame then reinstate flex with tyres.

Argonaut RM3 performance

However, you can – and I did – ride the bike with low tyre pressures, and that combined with the RM3’s flex made for a smoothed-out ride over broken tarmac and some cobbles. The wheels here are Princeton’s Grit 4550s, which are described as all-road and which, given the RM3 has clearance for 35mm tyres, presents a bike with some gravel riding versatility.

So that’s the Argonaut RM3 in a nutshell. It punches, it climbs, it carves, it cruises, it could go all day most places. I could stop there, but the question would still be left hanging: ‘How?’

Key to the RM3’s abilities, says Farver, is its carbon layup. Argonaut uses four case studies of layups designed for ‘strong riders who weigh 52kg, 70kg, 84kg and 98kg’ as benchmarks for stiffness-flex characteristics.

So if a rider comes along at 59kg but has a similar power to a 70kg rider, Argonaut will match the 70kg layup torsional stiffness but ‘decrease vertical bending stiffness by 10%, so the bike will still be comfortable’.

Big brands do similar things, but their tuning is frame size-dependent, not rider weight and power-dependent. Furthermore, where its custom frames are concerned (12 stock sizes are also available), Argonaut CNCs its own tooling to create unique pieces if needed. Again, not something a big brand will do.

On that note, each Argonaut is made from bonded together moulded pieces – described as ‘multi-monocoque’ – as opposed to tube-to-tube. For example, the head tube plus little stubs of down and top tube are one piece; the chainstays are one piece. This is what big brands do as it allows better control of flex and stiffness in crucial areas while maintaining weight (RM3 frames start from around 750g).

Other notable details include titanium inserts for headset cups and bottom bracket sleeve, with the BB being the T47 standard Farver developed with Chris King, which has proven so successful that many mainstream brands now use it. And although here the bike is fitted with an Enve bar/stem, Argonaut has developed its own stem to augment the bike in terms of fit and stiffness.

Argonaut RM3 verdict

All this, though, comes at a cost. This is sell-your-kid’s-kidney expensive. Yet the level of detail – tailoring – Argonaut goes to is much better justification than many brands can offer. That detail takes time and keeps output low; so too doing it all in-house in Bend, Oregon. Small batch and high labour costs adds up.

How that sits with you I don’t know, but removing price for a second, there can be no argument – from me at least – against the fact that the Argonaut RM3 has just replaced its predecessor as the best road bike I’ve yet ridden.

Argonaut RM3 specs

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Argonaut RM3 alternatives

Parlee Z-Zero

The Parlee Z-Zero set the standard for custom carbon way back when, and boasts similar rider-tuned layup abilities as the Argonaut to create a superbly balanced, responsive ride.

• Find out more about the Parlee Z-Zero

FiftyOne

FiftyOne has been building bikes in Ireland for a number of years now and does so in the more traditional tube-to-tube method. Its bikes are rider-tuned too, and are known for their highly elaborate paintwork.

• Find out more about Fifty One Bikes

Pick of the kit

Assos Equipe RS Johdah S9 Targa jacket, £610, assos.com

Just when you thought Assos’s Johdah jacket couldn’t get any more expensive, it’s back, in line with inflation and packed with features.

The array of proprietary fabrics include Sphere, Osmo and ZiggyZaggy, which combine to make a warm garment that is remarkably breathable – the internal zip up mini-gilet helps with the former; the ‘exhaust valves’ at the shoulders with the latter.

Sections of the jacket are waterpoof or windproof as needed, and so far my rides suggest the Johdah is really rather good.