EXPLORO RACEMAX BOOST FORCE AXS 1X12 DB 700C BLACK/GREY

The Hidden Boost

The standard Exploro Racemax is the fastest, most aero gravel frame available. Turns out, you can fit a battery & motor without changing the shapes!

Custom 3T/Mahle system is light years ahead combining lightweight & smoothness.

THE HIDDEN BOOST

Review after review and award after award raves about the light, responsive & fun ride of the Exploro Racemax. So when it came time to make an e-bike version, we didn’t want to change anything: same geometry, same aero tube shapes, same agile steering.

But thanks to the e-bike system that hides inside, you have some extra power at your fingertips. Take that detour, climb that mountain or simply have a "no-sweat commute" to work and a great workout on the way home.

WHY GET A BOOST?

We love riding our Racemax into the unknown. Every mountain peak conquered is the result of your own effort. Still, we sometimes wonder what lies beyond that last peak and the extra Boost helps us find out.

Others may love to ride with a group of friends but don’t want them to wait up at the top of the climbs. A little extra Boost lets you arrive all together.

Or maybe you love to commute to work but want to arrive fresh. The Boost lets you get to the office without a sweat and enjoy an adventurous workout on the way home (after all that’s a lot more time-efficient than driving and having to hit the gym afterwards).

SUPER LEGS EVERY DAY!

We customized the Mahle ebikemotion system to create a very smooth power ramp-up for the most natural pedalling feel. This is an e-bike for true cyclists. You may even forget you are riding an e-bike and think "Wow, I have amazing legs today!". The three power levels are tuned to make the most of every situation:

ECO - A quick ramp-up and a small Boost across the speed range, perfect to keep up with the group when your legs need a bit of support.

MEDIO - More support at climbing speeds, making challenging trails easier to navigate and helping you stay with the group on paved & unpaved climbs.

TURBO - Maximum Boost for the most challenging terrain with a super smooth ramp-up and continuing through the speed range.

RACEMAX PHILOSOPHY: IT ALL STARTS WITH THE TIRES

To make the fastest possible gravel bike, you need to start with the tire. Tire choice determines comfort & grip. But it also determines how you can shape the frame to redirect the airflow.

To aerodynamically engineer the frame around the tires, you need to know what their REAL measurements are. Not what’s on the label, but how they really fit. That’s REALFAST aerodynamics. But it’s not easy, as the tire dimension depends on the rim you use, the pressure and of course how accurate the manufacturer’s claimed size is.

So we took hundreds of measurements to know the real tire widths (which we call WAM - Width As Measured) and tire radii (RAM - Radius As Measured) and use that to engineer the frame around.

REALFAST AERODYNAMICS

Starting from our favourite tires, we then engineered a perfectly fitting rear wheel cutout (with mud clearance of course) and a closely trailing downtube to catch the airflow coming off the front tire. We added a super-narrow headtube (yet with a big steerer inside it), a multi-shape fork and aero details from seatstay to seatpost and from the shielded water bottle to the direct-attachment brake mounts.

Most importantly, we engineered this for realistic riding speeds, wind speeds, tire widths, bottle positions and even for mud. We don’t care if it is theoretically fast in the wind tunnel with a fantasy spec. We care if it is fast the way you ride it in real-world conditions.

DESIGN IS IN THE DETAILS

PERFECT AERO CUTOUT: Close-fitting cutout to shield the rear wheel and achieve the most speed.

MIND THE GAP: No oversized gaps between the front tire & downtube for better airflow transition and less turbulence.

HUGE CLEARANCE: The original Exploro set today’s standard for up to 54mm tire clearance. The RaceMax has up to 61mm!

75MM DOWNTUBE BASE: Lower downtube aero profile is 75mm wide to fully shield the water bottle.

46MM DOWNTUBE NECK: Upper downtube necks down to 46mm to pick up the airflow coming off the front tire.

SIZE-SPECIFIC DOWNTUBE: Reduced depth on smaller sizes to keep frame compliant and keep space for bottles.

NARROW HEADTUBE: Headtube is sized like a road bike for a small 1 1/4” steerer for optimal aerodynamics.

BIG STEERER: Inside that narrow headtube is a big 1 1/2” steerer for best strength and stiffness.

MINMAX HEADSET: To fit this big steerer inside the narrow headtube, we use the custom MinMax headset.

MINIMALIST CROWN: Fork crown shapes haven’t changed much since the brakes were attached there. Now that we have disc brakes, we don’t need that bulk of the material and can reshape the crown for better strength, stiffness and weight. Plus better aerodynamics.

PURE-ROAD FORK LENGTH: With the shorter crown, we can make our forks 25mm (1 inch) shorter than other gravel bikes. Exactly the same as a road fork. This offers better stiffness, lower weight, easier steering geometry and better aerodynamics.

DOUBLE-DROP CHAINSTAYS: Dropping the drive-side chainstay improves tire & crank clearance. Dropping the other side as well creates a much more efficient structure behind the BB for higher stiffness & strength as well as lower weight.

THREADED BB: Our bikes come with threaded BBs for the best alignment and to avoid any issues. yet we do so without threads in the frame as they cause other issues. Read more about our solution here.

DIRECT-MOUNT REAR BRAKE: Standard frames require an adaptor to use a 160mm brake rotor. We have integrated that into the frame, meaning you don’t need any extra pieces to attach the brake.

DIRECT-MOUNT FRONT BRAKE: Standard forks require a flip-flop adaptor to set the correct brake rotor size. Our direct-mount pre-sets the calliper for 160mm rotors without any extra pieces.

SELF-ALIGNING WEDGE CLAMP: Self-adjusting bolt angle for higher clamping forces with lower torque.

RITCHEY RAIL CLAMP: The new standard for gravel bikes, available for round and oval rails.