Has the cult German brand Standert just made its race-ready gravel bike, the Kettensäge, even better?
The Kettensäge alloy gravel bike receives new and stylish color options added to its racing DNA
![Standert Kettensäge](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rnk8SDgPv48KErYEftvbFG-320-80.jpg)
Standert of Berlin launched its race-ready Kettensäge gravel bike last year with three models. The cult German brand, specializing in steel and aluminum framed bikes, has now updated the Kettensäge with two new colorways – a beautiful Cherry Kiss red and an equally nice beige Team Edition.
Standert also recently celebrated its tenth anniversary and in those ten years, it has grown from its humble beginnings as a café and bike shop in Berlin to a global cycling bike brand. Standert founder and CEO, Max von Senger, says the brand is redefining modern cycling, and its best gravel bike to date, the race-ready Kettensäge reflects the classic Standert style with framesets meticulously handcrafted in Europe, matched with stunning paintjobs and then finished with componentry.
The Kettensäge borrows the racing DNA of its popular Kreissäge (Circular Saw) RS road bike and translated it into a gravel racer. Kettensäge was recently put to a real-world test in the toughest conditions – the Standert-supported 'Road to Desolation' gravel race in South Africa’s Karoo desert, which featured 179km of unforgiving terrain and nearly 3,000m of elevation.
Built with premium 7000-series Dedacciai Aegis alloy made in Italy. Standert reckons that modern race bikes don’t all have to be made only out of carbon, and its collaboration with Dedacciai combines state-of-the-art light tubing, designed for racing and high-performance aluminum bicycles matched to the Standert-proven racing performance taken from the road. The frames are welded by hand and hand-painted with a claimed weight of 1,590g, the carbon fork at 400g, and the complete bike depending on spec chosen around 9.4kg on a 54cm model.
The gravel bike geometry on the Kettensäge is similar to their more adventurous Erdgeschoss (Ground Floor – sorry, no saw reference) gravel bike but gets more of a race-ready fast gravel geometry with a longer reach of 390mm on a 54cm model and a 71.5-degree head tube angle to give an aggressive riding position on the bike. Standert also includes its 'Project Compact' seven stock size range from 48 to 60cm, designed to fit gravel racers tall and small.
As a race-ready gravel bike, the Kettensäge doesn’t go for full bikepacking mounts. It has two standard bottle cage bosses plus direct bolt-on top tube bag mounts and the fork has fender mounts, so could also be a capable multi-day gravel adventure bike, but Standert has the choice with their more adventure-themed stainless steel Erdgeschoss gravel bike.
The best gravel tire of choice for most fast-gravel racing riders is a 40mm tire, and that's what comes on complete Kettensäge bike builds in the form of Challenge tires. It can also accommodate up to 700x45c.
Other features of the Kettensäge include fully integrated cable routing, with a straight 1.5-inch headtube, routing all the cables through the headset into the frame. Inside the headset, integrated cups have CeramicSpeed SLT bearings/
The Kettensäge also gets a wider MTB-width 73mm threaded T47 bottom bracket optimized for gravel bike drivetrains and is also compatible with mechanical or electronic 2x setups. Flat mount disc brakes, 12mm thru-axles with light SRAM Maxles, and the future-proof UDH (Universal Derailleur Hanger) mounting for the rear mech complete the standard Standert, with customization choices available on wheels, groupset and finishing kit.
Pricing and availabilty
The two new colorways are available now along with the existing choices of the Team Edition dark green with pink graphics, 'Give ’em Hell Caramel' tan and 'Yolo Barolo' red with orange logos. The Kettensäge frameset in any color, with the bottom bracket standard of your choice starts at €2,199
A complete Standert Kettensäge starts at €5,399 with alloy wheels and Shimano GRX 2×11 build. The SRAM Rival/Force XPLR AXS wireless 1x starts from €5,000 with alloy wheels. There are also plenty of possible upgrades to choose including DT Swiss carbon wheelsets, and the choice of 3D-printed Fizik saddles priced up to €7,599.
The bikes are available to order at standert.de and ship anywhere in most color and size combinations, delivery times are between one to two months depending on the choices of components.
Paul Brett joined BikePerfect as a staff writer in 2022. He has been an avid cyclist for as long as he can remember, initially catching the mountain biking bug in the 1990s, and he raced mountain bikes for over a decade before injury cut short a glittering career. An award-winning photographer, when not riding a bike, he can be found at the side of a cyclocross track or a downhill mountain bike world championship shooting the action. Paul was the founder, editor and writer of Proper Cycling magazine, and he's traveled the world interviewing some of the biggest names in mountain biking and writing about some of the biggest cycling brands.
Current rides: Canyon Inflite, Specialized Diverge, Marin Alpine Trail 2