Chipps With Everything: The Current State of Grit, Gravel and Bikepacking

It’s definitely a good time to be into gravel, ‘cross or drop-bar off road bike riding. Nearly all of the manufacturers, big and small were showing drop-bar bikes intended for the wide-ranging needs of gravel riders – from dropper-posted, suspension-forked gravgnar bikes, to sleek, aero bikes for Unbound and for those fast rides down the canal to the ice cream parlour…

Here are a few highlights that stood out to me among the many, many lovely bikes on show at this year’s Eurobike. It’s obviously a great time to gravel, as it’s the new boom sector of the bicycle world and is therefore getting the full attention of the bike and component designers. And thankfully, most of the axle, wheel size and gear ‘standards’ seem reasonably established already… until of course we get SuperMegaGravelBoost coming along.

Nicolai Argon GX

You know things have got serious when Nicolai shows a couple of different gravel builds. Interestingly, the Nicolai Argon GX has ‘reasonably’ moderate geometry, with 71°/73.5° angles. However, the Medium size features a 56cm top tube, so expect things to be on the lengthy side. There’s the usual lovely/hideous welds, depending on your aesthetics – and I did like the jaunty eighties theme on the painted one.

Cotic e-Escapade Concept

I’m not sure if this should be here in grit.cx or in Singletrack Charged. But it has drop bars, so it’s going here. Cotic teased an electric gravel bike concept on the Reynolds booth. It seemed to be less about e-Cotics and more about Reynolds’ ability to 3D print dropouts for such a project. As Cy Turner said: “

Reynolds are launching a dedicated ebike dropout set which allows the fitment of the Mahle X-20 hub drive electric motor to a steel bike. The hub is a punchy, mid-power system with 55Nm of torque, and a lovely smooth delivery. It also has one of the lightest system weights of any ebike system at 3.2kg.

The Reynolds kit consists of either CNC, or in this case 3D printed dropouts to fit the Mahle hub, torque sensor and power plug, and we have integrated them into an Escapade style frame using a full Reynolds tubeset. 853 main tubes, and their new 631 rear end which we helped them design to work with the new dropouts and this application.

The 350Wh battery sits inside the custom Restrap frame bag, which still has plenty of luggage space to spare.

Added to that, I designed a bespoke 3D printed housing for the power/mode switch, and special size hose guides to add the 7mm power and 3mm sensor wires to the usual brake and gear cable routing.”

Back to analogue – White Industries Triton Gravel Bike

White Industries has always been the go-to brand for riders who want something a little different. The Californian brand, based in Petaluma, the town that gave us Salsa Cycles, Soulcraft, Chub and Mesa Boogie Amplifiers, arguably makes the best singlespeed freewheel in the world, brought us the UNO hub and the two speed, singlespeed double chainring/freewheel system, was showing this Triton titanium bike with a ‘just enough bling’ treatment with purple hits and nothing excess added. One of the sweetest bikes of the show.

It’s not all file treads

Given that gravel treads are usually pretty, well, ‘file-tready’ there are a number of different themes on that idea. Especially given that there are so many different understandings of ‘gravel’.

For example, Challenge Tires has produced a slightly tougher version of its Unbound ‘Getaway’ tread, for riders in terrain where sidewall protection is a thing. If you’re riding on the endless plains of Kansas (or Suffolk) you’re not likely to need it, but for riders who take on 1990s mountain bike challenges, it’s just the ticket.

Schwalbe, as well as relaunching itself and adopting a much greener outlook, actively encouraging dealers to recycle tyres, has launched the X-One R and X-One RS tyres that have a very familiar cyclocross pattern to them both. They are also available in a UCI-friendly 33mm width.

Ortlieb Quick Rack

Those pioneers of waterproof luggage, Ortlieb, showed off a limited edition brown colourscheme for its bikepacking bags, but for those of you/us who prefer a more traditional rack systems (say, perhaps your competition gravel racing bike has to also get your shopping with you during the week…) then there’s the new Quick Rack system. It features an alloy rack that attaches to bolted on lugs on your existing rack mounts, as well as a quick release mount around the seatpost. The whole rack mounts and dismounts in 20 seconds and the full system even includes a mudguard.

Camelbak – not on your back

Camelbak chose Eurobike to launch a bunch of new bags for spring 2024. There’s a seat sausage (with ‘baguette bungees’ – my term…), a half frame bag that will also take a 2L Quickstow bladder (made like those stowable water bottles), a bottle or feed bar bag and a proper bar bag. All looks very well thought out and made.

Aeroe Racks

Coming at you from Australia is Aeroe, a new rack brand (to us at least, more of that in a minute) that does away for the need for pesky rackmounts. It uses a clever strap system that wraps tightly around your seatstays to provide a stable platform for its racks and compatible drybags. If that sounds rather like the Thule system from a couple of years, then you’re looking at the people who licensed it to Thule in the first place. The rack attaches via silicon-backed straps that tighten with a simple 5mm allen key. We hear that they’ll soon have distribution in the UK, so expect to hear more soon.

Cush Core Gravel

Oh yes. Don’t think you can avoid the tyre insert debate if you’re a gravel or cyclocross rider. Cush Core, one of the pioneering brands for tyre inserts is definitely keen for everyone to hear the benefits of tyre inserts. It claims that the advantages are way more than mere pinch flat protection. That’s almost a byproduct. The main benefit to this semi-rigid insert is in overall tyre stability at lower pressures – it holds the tyre in place for less squirming – and it also allows a decent lowering in pressures without the tyre rolling or burping. And we know a certain Three Peaks legend who was running a rear one last year – with no punctures and a low, low 35psi pressure… Convinced yet? We’re going to give them a try to find out.

Mavic is back

lt was good to see Mavic having a big presence at the Eurobike show. After some corporate ups and downs, after which it had to do dull things, like build a new office and hire an HR department and build an IT system, Mavic has been able to focus again on the things it does well. Like wheels. (And shoes, and clothes too…)

Mavic showed a couple of new Allroad wheels – the Allroad SL and the Allroad SL Carbon. Both us the same size spokes, left and right, as well as incorporating a brand new hub. Look for a review here soon.

The 25mm internal width, alloy, All Road SL will be 1655g and cost around €889 a pair. The carbon Allroad SL Carbon drops the weight to 1489g with a cost of £1489.

Lovely bikes

As I mentioned, just about every brand had a nice looking gravel bike on show, but there were some bikes that just looked right. And here I include the new Merida Scultura Endurance GR 8000. Awful name, but a lovely looking bike. Apparently the designers wondered if they could put knobblies on a fast road frame to make a speedy gravel machine and, yes, you can. So it has all the aero and speed, but can do wicked drifts too.

As for the new Orbea Terra. Just yes. And we’ll take one of those Rocky Mountains too please…

Evoc and BOA

EVOC managed to complete the BOA circle with its BOA powered bikepacking bags. No more Velcro straps for you. Now you can just twist ‘n’ go!

As I said at the start, now is a great time for gravel bikes. The whole industry is focussing on the sector – perhaps because, at its most basic, gravel bikes are often the road bikes that most of us need for our regular, potholed, ‘let’s take the towpath’ road riding that we do.

Add in to that, the hugely increased reliability of tubeless tyres, more solid, lighter disc wheels that won’t suddenly give up a worn rim braking surface and the incredible advances of gearing, and we’re looking great. SRAM launched its new Apex just before the show – offering gravel shifter ergonomics, but with mountain bike 1×12 ratios. We’ve also seen glimpses of Shimano’s successor to its original GRX groupset, teased (rather successfully) at the recent Unbound race.

Yep, it’s a fine time to be a gravelleur…

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