Posted on September 23, 2022 by Cory Benson
Factor has been teasing a fat-tire Ostro Gravel iteration of their premium Ostro aero road racing bike since it started popping up on the professional gravel racing circuit earlier this year. But now it is finally here – a premium race-ready aerodynamic carbon gravel bike inspired by elite World Tour road racing – and dropping into a bike shop near you within the next week…
The aero road Factor Ostro VAM has already cemented a place for itself in the pro road peloton. And the Factor LS gravel bike already delivered a solid performer in the lightweight gravel bike sphere. So, once their Israel-Premier Tech team riders started bleeding over into the gravel racing scene a race-ready gravel bike was sure to follow. Now Factor’s aerodynamic experience in road & time trial bikes makes the jump to gravel roads too, with this new Factor Ostro Gravel aero gravel race bike.
The result unsurprisingly looks a lot like the road-going Ostro VAM, just beefed up for bigger tire clearances, essentially making the LS more aerodynamic to take on a mix of surfaces from asphalt & hardpack to fast racing gravel roads, too!
The key shift from the road-going Ostro is of course the 45mm tire clearance (even more than the LS!) and enhanced durability, while still hitting a frame weight of just 900g (54cm, painted). But Factor also assures that its aerodynamic tube shaping has been optimized specifically for the lower speeds of gravel racing relative to the Tour de France stage-winning Ostro VAM.
Geometry is also gravel race-specific, but leaning towards a faster perspective to deliver the goods not only with wide gravel tires, but also large volume all-road tire setups. Factor specifically developed the bike’s fork Trail “on the slightly faster handling side for gravel use, given the bike’s racing focus, while prioritizing head tube angle when selecting fork rake. This leads to a fast-handling gravel bike on 43mm tires and an equally satisfying and precise all-road machine on 32s, with no low-speed wheel flop.”
The Factor Ostro Gravel is built around the aero carbon gravel frame with a mix of extra resilient TeXtreme fibers mixed in with premium Toray carbon & Nippon Graphite pitch-based fibers, and paired to a new Ostro ‘Wide Stance’ gravel fork giving both frame & fork up to 700 x 45mm tire clearance.
The new frameset features a 1.5″ CeramicSpeed SLT headset with all cables routed inside, and a T47A threaded CeramicSpeed bottom bracket, reduced with Wheels Manufacturing 24mm spacers to get BBRight compatibility.
The disc brake gravel bike gets 12mm thru-axles, flat mount disc brakes, and under downtube & toptube cage mounts, plus a Limited Lifetime Warranty.
Finishing out the integrated 1-piece aero carbon cockpit, Factor tips their house brand Black Inc for the gravel-specific Aero Barstem combo with a “gently-flared” compact 80mm reach, 120mm drop. Plus a set of 1498g Black Inc 34 hookless gravel wheels
The new Factor Ostro Gravel is available in two stock paint jobs – Naked Grunge or White Grunge – or you can get it from Factor with a custom paint finish option. You can also get it either as one of two different frameset options – $5500 / 5450€ set with frame, fork, seatpost, barstem, CeramicSpeed BB & headset OR $7500 / 7430€ in a kit that also includes a set of Black Inc Thirty-Four wheels – or a few complete bike builds.
The top bike is offered as a complete premium spec build with a SRAM Red AXS Xplr 1x groupset with 44T x 10-44 gearing and a power meter for $9800 / 9710€. And “entry-level” Force AXS build starts at $8600 / 8520€ complete.
The new Factor gravel bike is effectively available to buy now, although the first bikes will start showing up in Factor dealer bike shops from the end of this most – September 2022 – or by the end of next week.
Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.
Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry gave some these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components and worked as a bike shop mechanic.
Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.
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