These Are The Best Gravel Bikes Money Can Buy This Year | Cycling Weekly
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00:00 We recently unveiled our selection for Race Bike of the Year, but the time has now come
00:05 to take this show off road. Welcome to Cycling Weekly's 2023 Gravel Bike of the Year Awards.
00:12 We've chosen to focus on the middle section of the gravel spectrum for this group test,
00:22 as these bikes are, on the whole, the most versatile rigs which keep your gravel horizons
00:28 at their broadest. Also, this part of the spectrum also includes gravel race bikes,
00:33 which is where a huge amount of industry development has been going on over the last
00:38 few years. And as a result, these are responsible for the most interesting recent releases.
00:44 As usual, we'll be awarding our Best Gravel Bike award to the Money No Object Best Performer on
00:50 Test. We'll also have our Best Value category, which simply factors price into that equation,
00:56 in a nod to gravel's broad spectrum though. We'll also be running two sub-category awards,
01:02 Best for Expeditions and Best for Speed, to recognise those models which have a particular
01:08 bias towards either end of the gravel sphere. Finally, we've included a Best of British
01:14 category. With gravel varying so greatly from country to country, the bikes that work well
01:19 on the wide open dirt roads of the Costa Brava or Arkansas generally aren't so good for the
01:25 bridleways around Berkshire or Bolton. So, we've called out the best models made by Brits,
01:32 for Brits. So, without further ado, let's get into our winners.
01:36 The Best Value category arguably requires the most nuance out of all that we're testing for.
01:46 One basic approach would be to simply see which brand offers the cheapest entry-level model,
01:51 and then go with that. But, out of the nine bikes that we had on test, that would be the Canyon
01:57 Grail. Although great in many respects, it's not a model that we could hold up as the single
02:03 best one to buy for the cash-conscious. The next cheapest entry-level models are the Cannondale
02:09 Topstone and the Ribble Gravel SL. Both are around £2,700 and specced with Shimano GRX 11-speed
02:18 groupsets. Each is a solid platform, and GRX is a dependable workhorse. If your budget is already
02:25 strained, both bikes are good options. But, is cheapest really synonymous with best value?
02:33 I don't think so. SRAM Rival AXS is a watershed groupset. It's the least expensive electronic
02:40 12-speed groupset on the market, yet provides you with the same huge range and the tight jumps
02:46 between the gears as SRAM's priciest offerings. You also get the option of running satellite
02:52 shifters, plus all of the other advantages of an electronic groupset. The entry-level Scott Addict
02:58 Gravel comes equipped with this groupset, and at £3,199, it's close enough to the Cannondale and
03:06 the Ribble that it would be well worth saving up a little longer to grab yourself that massive step
03:12 up in performance. Unusually for Scott, the £3,199 Addict Gravel is actually the joint cheapest model
03:20 with SRAM Rival AXS out of all of those on test. The title is shared with the Ribble Gravel SL,
03:27 which would be a better option if you're after fork leg mounts. But, overall,
03:33 the Addict Gravel is the higher performance option, and the best value on test.
03:39 [Music]
03:44 Acknowledging that any slice of the gravel spectrum contains its own
03:47 smaller spectrum, our Best for Speed category recognises the bike on test which poses the
03:52 greatest challenge to a stable of road and gravel bikes. Which model does it all? Both trails and
04:00 tarmac. A year ago, that might have been the Specialized Crux. Its frame is incredibly
04:05 lightweight, lighter than many road bikes, and its handling stood out amongst its peers
04:11 as being pretty peppy and nimble. But the BMC Kias has taken things up another notch. Sure,
04:18 the frame is a little heavier, but the riding position, and the ride itself, is even closer
04:25 to that of a road bike. It makes you wonder whether all road bikes really have a place anymore.
04:30 The Kias is at least an equal on tarmac, but still more capable off-road.
04:36 The place of endurance road bikes like the Giant Defy and the Trek Domane even start to become a
04:42 little bit questionable. Both of those brands are quite fortunate that the Kias isn't compatible
04:48 with mudguards. Otherwise, those questions really would start to be asked in earnest.
04:53 If you don't care about mudguards though, a Kias with 35mm slick tyres, the same as which can be
05:00 fitted to a Defy or Domane, would be a weapon on the road, but would still leave your gravel riding
05:06 options wide open. Although we've confined this group test to bikes which sit within the middle
05:17 of the gravel spectrum, any slice of that spectrum contains its own smaller spectrum. So, our Best
05:24 Expedition Bike category recognises the model on test which is best equipped for the demands
05:30 of ultra-distant gravel. Coming equipped with carrying capacity, comfort, tyre clearance,
05:36 and geometry best suited to taking on the task. On these terms, the Trek Checkpoint stands head
05:43 and shoulders above the competition. As mentioned, it comes equipped with more mounts and storage
05:48 locations than any other bike on test. Although, the IsoSpeed decoupler is not quite as forgiving
05:54 as the Canyon Grail seatpost, but the space for 2.1" tyres on 650b wheels more than make up for
06:01 that. The geometry of the Checkpoint is notably more controlled than the others on test. It boasts
06:08 the longest wheelbase by far, and the fork trail, which provides an indication as to how stable the
06:14 steering is, is also amongst the highest. But, although the Checkpoint provides a more composed
06:20 ride compared to other gravel race bikes, it's still much faster and more lively than any out
06:26 and out gravel expedition bike at the more extreme end of the spectrum. If you're up for bikepacking
06:32 and longer distance rides, but you still want to go fast on shorter loops, then the Checkpoint
06:38 is an ideal match. This award does exactly what it says on the tin. It's for the best British
06:50 gravel bike on test, designed with British riding in mind. Understandably, there is a convergence
06:57 between the Ribble Gravel SL and the Pearson On and On, in terms of what each bike is actually
07:03 optimised for. Both are lightweight, with a dash of aero features, but both are also fully equipped
07:10 for bikepacking epics and multi-day trips. The greatest distinction between them is apparent
07:17 in their riding position and prices. Regarding the former, the Ribble Gravel SL pairs its long
07:23 and stable wheelbase with a notably low and aggressive rider position, tipping its purpose
07:29 a little more towards the racing end of the spectrum. The Pearson, for its part, combines
07:35 a similar chassis but with a higher stack height, making it a little better suited to endurance
07:40 riding rather than threshold. On the question of price, Ribble sweeps the board. Its range-topping
07:48 model with Shimano GRX Di2 comes in at over £1,400 cheaper than an equivalently specced On
07:56 and On. Plus, Ribble's range starts at £2,699 compared to £3,550. This, combined with Ribble's
08:06 well-established Bike Builder function, which allows you to tweak most elements of the spec,
08:10 pushes the Gravel SL out front as our Best of British Gravel Bike on Test.
08:21 Whereas so many gravel bikes cater for one niche or another, the Giant Revolt manages to straddle
08:28 a much wider section of the spectrum than most. Still, it's not a jack of all trades and master
08:34 of none. It goes toe-to-toe with the best on either end, even offering some unique features
08:40 which really make it stand out from the crowd. Let's take a run-through of those spec details,
08:46 which make the Revolt quite so distinctive. After that, I'll share how it all played together
08:51 in the ride. As I mentioned previously, the Giant Revolt manages to both have its cake
08:56 and eat it regarding the seatpost setup. The stock D-Fuse seatpost is said to provide 12mm of flex,
09:04 and you can really feel that compliance. But rather than simply being stuck with a proprietary
09:10 post, the Revolt is also compatible with a 30.9mm round seatpost. This opens up the compatibility
09:18 with a greater range of dropper seatposts than the traditional roadie 27.2mm tube. But skinnier
09:25 seatposts can still be fitted with the use of a shim, which similarly keeps your options open
09:31 for the majority of suspension seatposts currently on the market. None of the other bikes on test
09:37 offer such versatility. The next neat feature is the adjustable rear dropouts, previously also a
09:44 feature on the Trek Checkpoint, but dropped from the latest iteration. Disappointingly,
09:49 for the single-speed community, Giant's design is binary, with only two fixed positions and
09:55 therefore not much use for tensioning a chain. For everyone else though, the functionality is
10:01 excellent. Set in the short position, the Giant Revolt is up there with the most aggressive of
10:07 racing gravel bikes. Not quite in the echelons of the Specialized Crux or the BMC Kias, but slotting
10:13 in ahead of the Scott Addict Gravel. But when set in the long position, the wheelbase extends
10:19 further than the Ribble Gravel SL and the On and On. It's only the Checkpoint that has a more stable
10:25 chassis. Now, a secondary benefit of that flip-chip dropout is that it opens up the tyre
10:30 clearance to a whopping 53mm, or 2.1 inches, on a 700c rim, larger than any other model on test.
10:40 The Revolt is also very well equipped on mounts, with bosses on the down tube and the top tube,
10:46 as well as a pair on each fork leg. Now, that's not the triple mounts that we normally see up front
10:53 on the fork, so some cargo cages will be incompatible, but it does still open up the
10:59 carrying capacity to some extent. Coming onto the ride, the first thing to mention is the compliance,
11:05 which is utterly exceptional. The frame did an astonishing job of soaking up the impacts.
11:12 Sure, there were a few more vibrations transferred up the seatpost than on the Canyon Grail,
11:17 but then the Grail has a leaf-sprung suspension seatpost, with separate parts that move,
11:23 rather than just relying on the seatpost simply flexing as it is on the Giant.
11:28 But the Canyon seatpost didn't provide any help at all at the bars, which contrasts to the front
11:34 end of the Revolt. At the bars, we felt a similar amount of vertical compliance to the seatpost,
11:41 but still with a high level of lateral stiffness. We didn't feel any flexing away from the line
11:47 when loading it up in the corners. For our Gravel Bike of the Year award,
11:51 we make our decision based on performance alone, determining which is the best bike,
11:57 with money being no object. Still, it is worth giving a mention to the price of the Revolt,
12:02 because it does actually stack up pretty well here too.
12:06 The top-end spec is the second cheapest on test, with Shimano's GRX Di2 2x11 groupset and
12:14 Giant's excellent CXR 1-carbon disc wheels coming in at £5,499, and the wider range
12:23 starts at under £3,000. One criticism we would make though is the height of the headtube,
12:30 with a stack of 586mm, it's by far and away the highest on test. It would be better if Giant
12:37 shrunk down the headtube and then gave people more choice to set their own stack heights.
12:42 Still, the Revolt is an excellent bike in so many aspects, and the way that it not only straddles,
12:48 but excels in two separate sections of the gravel spectrum is highly unusual,
12:54 but very much appreciated. So there we have it, those are our winners of the Cycling Weekly
13:01 Gravel Bike of the Year 2023 awards. Let us know what you think of the winners down in the comments
13:07 below. If you enjoyed the video then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more
13:11 content, and I will see you again very soon.
13:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]