Last weekend, Allied Cycle Works lifted the veil on its brand new ABLE gravel bike, and then Colin Strickland and Amity Rockwell went on to win the Dirty Kanza 200 aboard the new frame.
According to Allied, the ABLE is an evolution of the brand’s acclaimed ALLROAD, and the new bike is designed to tackle steeper, rockier and more rugged terrain— clearly, it's pretty good over long distances in the Flint Hills too.
The first thing likely to catch your eye about the ABLE is the dramatically raised driveside chainstay, similar to what you would see on the Trek Stache or Salsa Woodsmoke 29+ mountain bikes.
This departure from the dropped chainstay, which has become something of a standard feature on gravel grinders to allow for wider tyres, means the ABLE can take up to a 700c x 43mm / 650b x 47m tyre at the back while also maintaining a compact rear end, with chainstays measuring 420mm — tire clearance at the front is 700c x 47mm / 650b x 55mm.
With the ABLE’s intended purpose pegged at tackling rowdy terrain with drop bars, the head angle is two degrees slacker than the ALLROAD (71-degrees) to slow down the handling a touch, while the seat angle gains half a degree a size medium.
The stack jumps up to 575mm (from 539 in the ALLROAD), and the reach settles at 387mm (from 388) in the same size.
The frame is 1x only and features bosses for four bottles — two in the frame, one under the down tube and one on the top tube — and gets fender mounts too, though this slightly reduces tyre clearance.
All the cables are internally routed, although an interesting caveat is a lack of routing for a dropper post, especially given the stated purpose of the ABLE.
The bike is available as a frameset for $3,999 and complete bikes start at $5,299 with a SRAM Force 1 group and then jump into the Mullet builds which come with an AXS group and 10-50t cassette at the back which cost $7,499 for Force AXS and $9,499 for Red AXS. International pricing is TBC.
