On display in all its beautiful red glory at Sea Otter last week was Otso’s new Waheela C — a versatile carbon frame that can be built up for either gravel or road. Set it up with 29 x 2.1” to ride dirt singletrack, 650b x 53 to grind sketchy gravel, 700c x 28 slicks for your weekly group road ride, or anything in between.
This versatility is made possible by the Wolf Tooth Tuning Chip dropout system, which provides 20mm of chainstay length and 4mm of bottom bracket height adjustment, allowing you to adapt the bike to different tire sizes and riding styles. Set the chainstay length at 420mm for road riding or between 430mm and 440mm for a more stable ride on gravel.
The Waheela C frame geometry is optimized for stability over rough terrain. As a rider you are centered over the wheels, which places less weight on the front wheel compared to most other gravel bikes.
The Waheela C frame will be available in four sizes – small, medium, large, and extra large with an effective top tube length running from 546mm to 605mm. There’s maximum clearance at frame and fork to run 29 x 2.1″ tires.
For the bikepacking set, you’ll find three bottle mounts (with extra mounting points on the down tube), as well as fender mounts, rack mounts, and mounting points on the top tube for adding a fuel tank bag because snacks are important.
Chatting with Wolf Tooth Co-owner Dan Dittmer at the show, he said they wanted to make sure the Waheela C could be built up in a number of different ways depending on your preference and cash reserves. The frame is 1x and 2x compatible for mechanical and electronic drivetrains. It’s also fully compatible with both Shimano Di2 and SRAM eTap AXS.
You’ll find internal brake and shifter routing with sleeves, a carbon access door under the bottom bracket for easier routing, front and rear thru-axles, and a threaded bottom bracket for reliable, easy service. The Waheela C is even compatible with internal routing dropper seat posts.
The Waheela C frameset starts at $2,049 and is available in three colors (red, white, and black). The base build comes in at $3,499 and includes the Shimano 105 groupset, DT Swiss C 1800 SPLINE wheels, and Terrene Elwood 700×49 Light tires. All in, the base build weighs only 20.6 pounds (in tubeless setup). Pretty awesome for a gravel bike.