Today, Minnisota’s Otso Cycles releases the new Warakin, a steel all-road bike designed for multi-surface rides, overnighters, gravel races, commuting, or whatever you feel like throwing at it.
The Steel Warakin
The steel Warakin shares the same frame geometry as its siblings, the Warakin Stainless, and Warakin Ti – now, it’s just available in 4130 chromoly as well. Frame features include adjustable geometry, a ton o’ mounts for cargo and fenders, the ability to run gears or as a single speed, plus clearance for 50mm tires. The geometry is also suspension-corrected, so you could run a suspension fork if that floats your boat.
The carbon, painted to match fork sports an axle-to-crown of 420mm. All of the above contributes to a progressive geometry that will comfortably and confidently carry the rider along the road ahead, no matter the terrain.
Coming in sizes 52, 54, 56, 58, and 60cm, the steel Warakin follows the same size-specific geo as the Warakin Stainless and Ti versions. The 49cm frame has been newly designed for shorter riders. It was developed with 650b wheels in mind. This reduces toe overlap, while still offering frame tire clearance of 50mm, the same number of cargo mounts, rear rack, and fenders.
The Otso Warakin is made from custom-butted 4130 chromoly tubing. The classic tubing and progressive geo provide a stable and smooth ride, making it ideal for light touring. The fork that comes stock on the Warakin is the Lithic Hiili carbon fork.
Tire Clearance and Tuning Chip
If a drop bar bike is truly designed to ride on any road in any condition, it’s going to need ample tire clearance. The Warakin has a big tire clearance of 700c x 50mm.
Like many other bikes in the Otso family, the Warakin runs a Tuning chip rear dropout system. This allows the rider to lengthen or shorten the wheelbase by up to 20mm. This can raise and lower the bottom bracket by 4mm as well as change the headtube angle by +/- 5 degrees. All of this can be done at a home workshop with a few tools.
Warakin Frame & Fork Features
Even beyond the geometry, you’ll find the Warakin is versatile.
- Bottle bosses on the seat tube, and triple mounts on the top and underside of the downtube
- Bottle bosses/mounts on each fork leg
- Rear rack compatible
- Fits front and rear fenders
- Made for externally routed cables and housing
- Cable/housing outed under the downtube, and chainstays make room for bags and ease of service
Retail and Colorways
You can get the Warakin built to order via the Otso Custom Bike Builder. This allows customers to choose everything from drivetrain, wheel size, tires, handlebar width, stem length, and more.
Retail: $1400 (frame, fork, Tuning Chip hardware, axles, seatpost clamp, and bottle cage bolts)
Pricing for a complete bike built with Shimano GRX 11-speed starts at $2,500 or Shimano GRX 12-speed at $2,800.
Colors: Tangerine, Navy Gold, and Racing Green
The new Warakin is available now at the link below, or at any bike shop that stocks Otso.