3T's Exploro, Gerard Vroomen's aero-road-plus machine that builds on the success of his ground breaking Open U.P. - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We've reported on A-Pro's full-suss gravel machine elswhere, we thinking hiding under that garish finish is the possibility of a decent machine - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
For traditionalists Niner also offer a gravel machine constructed with Reynolds steel - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The finishing and small details on the Niner are impressive - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Niner's RLT9 RDO, is a carbon superbike take on the gravel category and up there with the likes of 3T's Exploro for exclusivity - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Flat mounts, thru' axles and provison for guards on the Niner - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The muscular sculpted shapes of the RLT's tubes certainly show Niner's MTB heritage - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Axman is another manufacturer that isn't well-known as a standalone brand outside of Asia, but its 700c Gravel looks good, it’s a little more road-biased than some designs, and that should make it a very good all rounder - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Axman has equipped their 700c Gravel with fittings for a rack and guards, making the 700c Gravel a great choice for day-today commuters cum weekend warriors - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Axman fork has provision for full mudguards - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
CarbonAge is more manufacturer than brand, and we wouldn't be surprised to see its Gravel Plus machine badged up under a different name soon. It looks impressive with its 50c tyre clearance (on 700c wheels) 1100g frame weight, dropper post routing, and you can even choose which BB type you'd prefer (BSA, PF30, BB30... etc) - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
SpeedOne's take on the gravel bike the RT30D uses a highly polished Reyolds 853 steel frame at its heart - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The RT30's cnc'd dropouts have provision for racks and guards alongside the 12mm thru-axle - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The RT30's finish is pretty tidy, with neat regular welds - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Rondo Rutt carbon is available in two models, this Sram Rival equipped CF2 model and a higher end CF1 model with Force 1, Easton EC90 parts and a titanium-railed Fabric saddle - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The flippable dropout to alter the geometry on the RUTT series - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Like the Open UP and 3T Exploro, the RUTT has a dropped chainstay design. With a max tyre size of 40c in 700c and a massive 57c in 650b you'll have plenty of choice on tyre and wheel combos - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Rondo it seems are serious about the RUTT - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Rondo RUTT carbon offers the same switchable geometry, though the frame is much more radical looking. Its kinked top tube flows into skinny flattened seat stays for a bit more back end compliance - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Rondo have partnered with Tange on their RUUT ST, the RUUT series bikes feature variable geometry thanks to the Rondo Twin-Tip carbon fork. By rotating the thru axle inserts in the fork you can switch between an endurance position and a race position. This means 71.5 head angle in endurance combined with a 73 seat, and in race that steepens up to 72 head and a 73.5 seat. Its also alters the fork offset from 45 to 55mm, and the stack changes from 606mm to 601mm (on the XL). The trail reduces by 13mm when switching from race to endurance and the BB lowers by 4mm - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We were impressed with Litespeeds Gravel when we tested it, and in 700c guise it’s a great all-rounder… - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
…in 650b trim however it looks like it belongs in the dirt and dust - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Yeah we know the awesome Santa Cruz stigmata isn't strictly a 'gravel' bike (it's more a cyclocross bike) we know plenty of people who use their Stigmata's more for adventurous riding than competitive cross - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Focus' brilliant Paralane is more 'gravel light' than all-out dirt machine, though the Factory spec model with its Force 1 drivetrain and Schwalbe G-One tyres looks far more dirt focussed - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Japan's Kuwahara are legendary in BMX racing, and we also liked this drop-bar build of their 4130 steel BOOST frame where they've added a few more braze-ons and adapted the geometry to suit more bike packing than mountain biking - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The twin bolts on the rear monostay are so you can split the frame for belt-drive builds - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
At the more budget end of things is Overlord's Krossroad - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Not every gravel design gets it right, this one from Edge running massive 2.1inch 650b tyres is trying to ape the aero-styling of 3T's exploro it just hasn't come off with the same panache, the Edge looks like a big bike running on small wheels whereas the Exploro looks like it was made for fat tyres - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Edge does however have masses of room even when running 2.1 inch tyres - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Blue's ProSecco EX-Gravel at $4399 comes with Ultegra Di2 (combined with a 46/36t chainset), 785 hydraulic brakes, Vision Metron 40 disc wheels and hutchinson 38c tyres and tips the scales at an impressive 8.6kg - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The MPF drive system is fully sealed from booth water and particles, and the internals are oil lubricated and cooled, MPF tell us that this means high-levels of reliabilty from the high grade steel internals and life-time lubricated design means much less servicing and class leading reliability - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The MPF system samples speed 1000 times a second using 3 separate sensors - a designed patented to them, so power assist adjustments are far quicker and more seamless than its rivals - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more dropper posts on gravel bikes soon - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We someone had to combine the two biggest trends, and so Joker have done it with their Gravel e-bike, the motor system we hadn't seen before but we spoke to Wilhelm Breitenhuber CEO of Austrian MPF drive and took a MPF equipped bike out for a spin. The MPF system is one of the quietest we've tried and the even linear delivery of power reminded us very much of Shimano's system. On this joker however its a power 460w unit with 90nm of torque thats limited to 45kph, though Wilhelm tells us if you ran the system 'open' it would be capable of much, much faster... - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Joker have this interesting take on the gravel bike, as they've teamed up with KS (Kind Shock) and built a frame around KS's gravel suspension fork and a KS dropper post. If they quitened down the graphics this'd look a lot more appealing - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Joker's fork is very much like a classic cannondale headshock - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
3T now also have a Road Plus wheelset in the form of the 3T Discus Plus, the aerodynamic rim shape is matched to a massively wide tyre bed - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We can't think of many frames outside of Open and 3T that'll squeeze these in, but they do look mighty impressive - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Now this is more like it, Italy's Gios with their steel gravel machine the Nature is just classically restrained design, clean simple and classy - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Infinite's Gravel Road Bike Adventure looks like it uses a competent yet affordable aluminium frameset, we just wish brands wouldn't insist on covering bikes in shouty graphics which makes the whole affair look cheap - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
By far the biggest trend at Taipei, when you discount e-assisted everything that is, is gravel/adventure/all-road, whatever you want to call it. Whilst no one seems to be able to agree on what to name the category the fat-tyred, disc-equipped drop bar bike is everywhere. We assembled a gallery of new bikes that span the extremes from road based to monster tired and everything inbetween.
Warren is our senior technical editor for road and gravel. With 27 years of experience, he’s been testing bikes since before BikeRadar and the internet existed!
With an encyclopedic knowledge of bikes and what some would consider an excessive bike collection, Warren has been the mastermind behind our road Bike of the Year tests for over a decade. He has penned more than 2,750 bike tests.
His words have been published in Cycling Plus, Bikeradar, Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cycling News, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, T3 and a whole host of other publications. You’ll also find Warren as a regular on the BikeRadar Podcast and our YouTube channel.
He’s covered all the 21st-century innovations in cycling and ridden in Europe, Asia, Australasia, America and Africa. He’s been a judge for the Eurobike awards and judged handmade bikes at Bespoked.
Height: 6’2”/188cm
Bike size:58cm/L/XL
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