State 6061 All-Road Black Label review

State Bicycle has earned a good reputation with its simple, affordable, steel urban bikes, singlespeeds and budget road bikes.

More recently, the brand has expanded its range to include all-road and gravel bikes and increased its frame material choices to include aluminium and carbon.

The 6061 All-Road Black Label impresses with a smartly finished package that offers good performance on the road and smoother gravel tracks.

However, its overly stiff frameset and fiddly brakes make it less fun when the trails get rough.

State 6061 All-Road Black Label frame

The State 6061, as the name suggests, is built around a 6061 aluminium frame, replete with a carbon gravel fork.

The frame is well finished with clean welds, sharp graphics and a colour palette that's on trend for gravel bikes in 2024 – lots of muted earth tones alongside some sharp metallic finishes for the more extrovert riders out there.

The State is available in four sizes: XS (48cm), small (51cm), medium (54cm) and large (58cm).

The geometry is at the all-road end of the spectrum, compared to the more progressive geometry of bikes such as the Marin Gestalt X10 and Merida Silex.

The head tube angle, for example, is a slightly relaxed 72 degrees, while the seat tube angle sits at 72.5 degrees. Stack and reach are also fairly sporty, at 608mm and 383mm respectively.

The result is a ride position that doesn’t feel much different from a classic endurance bike, with the only notable difference being the longer, 1,037mm wheelbase, which adds both tyre clearance and stability.

On that topic, tyre clearance is an ample 45mm with 700c wheels or 50mm with 650b wheels. State offers options with both wheel sizes (you can even order the bike with a set of each for an extra $349.99).

A whole suite of upgrades are available when ordering, including wheels (DT Swiss and Zipp upgrades), groupsets (you can opt for SRAM’s excellent Apex AXS XPLR, but it will add £999.99 to the price), forks, suspension, or the carbon Monster fork (which features a full set of mounts to meet bikepackers' needs).

The frame’s fixtures, like the geometry, are more befitting of an endurance bike rather than a gravel bike.

Up front, the fork legs have a single boss for either a rack or gravel mudguards, while the frame has provision for two bottle cages and mudguard bosses.

The semi-internal cable routing enters at the top tube and exits at the bottom bracket; the frame will also take a 2x drivetrain should you want to change up from 1x.

State 6061 All-Road Black Label specifications

This base model comes with an eclectic mix of parts, many of which may be unfamiliar. First up is the State-branded groupset. It’s rare to see a bike step away from the Shimano/SRAM duopoly when it comes to gravel bike groupsets.

Despite the State branding, though, the groupset is made by Chinese bike component manufacturer Sensah.

In this case, it’s Sensah’s 1x 11 Empire drivetrain, consisting of a long-cage rear derailleur with a clutch.

This isn’t quite the switchable clutch found on Shimano’s GRX or SRAM’s 1x groupsets, instead it’s an internal adjustable spring tensioner, which means the ‘clutch’ is effectively always on.

It doesn’t have quite the chain-slap stopping power of GRX or SRAM either, but it's streets ahead of a rear derailleur with no clutch.

The rear derailleur also uses the same 1:1 cable-pull ratio as SRAM’s mechanical groupsets, meaning you can mix and match these when upgrading down the line.

The 11-speed gearing features a wide 11-42 cassette matched to a single 42-tooth chainring. It’s a lower range than most of its close rivals and lacks a little at the fast end of things (especially on the road), but the 1:1 lightest gear is welcome on stiff off-road climbs.

The 11 cogs also offer a better gear spread than many 9- and 10-speed budget rivals.

The shifting is actuated by a single lever and mimics SRAM’s mechanical double-tap system: push the lever to the first click for downshifts, through to the second for upshifts. Unlike SRAM, it’s the whole brake lever that swings to shift rather than a secondary lever, though.

The brakes are also State-branded and are quite different from your average mechanical disc brake. They are a cable-actuated flat-mount caliper with a single piston. The piston, however, is a sealed hydraulic unit.

The caliper is rather chunky, but it includes independent adjustment for both the inboard and outboard pads, along with integrated barrel adjusters for the cable and bellows-type cable seals at the actuator.

The brakes are matched to large, 160mm six-bolt rotors. The State-branded alloy rims measure 24mm deep and 24mm wide externally, with a 19mm internal width.

The rims are tubeless-compatible and laced via 28 spokes per wheel to State-branded cartridge-bearing disc brake hubs.

The wheels are wrapped with classy Vittoria Terreno Zero 38c tubeless-ready tyres. Vittoria’s Terreno range offers tread options for all conditions, though for testing in the depths of winter, the Terreno Zero (with its lowest tread pattern for hard-packed dry conditions) isn’t the optimum option.

Up front, it’s a State-branded 6061 alloy all-road bar, which, at 42cm on my size-large test bike, is a little narrower than your average gravel handlebar.

The subtle flare gives a wider spread on the drops, though. The 3D-forged 6061 stem is finished neatly, though the 110mm length on the large test bike owes more to road than gravel.

That said, it helps to extend the short frame reach to make for a sportier road-riding position.

Out back, a rather old-school 31.6-diameter alloy seatpost is topped by State’s own Black Label saddle, which – with its long and narrow shape – is a good facsimile for the classic Fizik Arione.

State 6061 All-Road Black Label ride impressions

The State Black Label is a solid performer with no handling surprises, but requires some care on setup for the quirky brakes.

The State rides quickly and carries its 11kg overall weight well on the road. Perhaps unsurprisingly, its endurance bike ride position and relatively slender (for a gravel bike) 38mm tyres, with semi-slick tread, make the Black Label a swift companion on the hard black stuff.

The low gear range for a road-going bike means pedalling at a higher cadence than I typically prefer, but it’s something I got used to quickly.

When the road starts to rise, it becomes less of an issue because the 11-speed spread offers a good progression of gears right down to the 1:1 42/42, which will see you spinning up the steepest double-digit gradients.

The State-branded drivetrain works well. The good-looking boxy crankset, which is paired with a direct-mount chainring and has clean laser-etched graphics, has ample stiffness and the chainring shows little sign of flex under hard efforts.

The rear derailleur shifts quickly, and the increased spring tension of the clutch/damper keeps chatter to a minimum over rougher surfaces.

After the first couple of mixed-terrain rides, I needed to adjust the cable tension as things settled in. Since then, the shifting has proved stable and smooth. It's easily a match for similarly priced alternatives such as Shimano Sora, GRX RX400, or Microshift Advent.

The brakes left me unimpressed after the first ride, with a binary, on-off feel that required a lot of effort at the lever. A bit of time spent adjusting and fettling to balance them back in my workshop worked wonders, though.

These brakes have both a cable barrel adjuster and pad-spacing adjustment, which also moves the plunger of the hydraulic piston in or out.

The piston adjustment moves the inner pad and the cable alters the length of the cam to actuate it.

These required quite a lot of adjusting, then test riding until I got the balance right. The outer pad has a few millimetres of adjustment too.

I also found the pads a little hard and waxy out of the box, but a couple of wet gritty rides with lots of braking to bed them in improved feel – and with the brakes properly set up, they didn’t feel as stiff at the lever.

Get the State off-road and onto gravel roads and byways, and it’s still a good performer. It’s only when you get into more rutted and rugged terrain that the limitations of the frameset arise.

The carbon fork is good at reducing vibrations and the tyre volume helps, but the narrow handlebar, which is wrapped with rather thin bar tape, doesn’t do much to reduce wearing chatter and shocks from bigger hits.

At the back end, it’s even more pronounced. The old-school oversized 31.6mm seatpost is very stiff and, combined with a long, flat saddle it doesn’t do anything to mute the vibrations that wear down your resolve on extended rough rides.

The tyres that are so impressive on the road and hardened gravel byways struggle hugely in anything approaching mud.

The narrow width cuts through sloppy mud, but the moment you have to rely on tread grip they’re found wanting.

State 6061 All-Road Black Label bottom line

As an all-road bike for poor roads and tamer gravel tracks, the State 6061 All-Road Black Label does a good job. It’s well-priced and has a competent, if unusual, specification.

The drivetrain in particular surprised me with its competency, and at the budget end it’s a true rival to more established brands.

The brakes are quirky and didn’t feel great out of the box, which could be an issue if you buy direct, but persevere with the setup and they can be improved.

On tougher, more technical gravel, the State is outclassed by rivals such as the Marin Gestalt X10, Merida Silex 200, and Saracen Levarg, though it felt like one of the best on smoother surfaces.

If you’re looking for a good-value, mixed surface all-road bike, the State is a good option.

At $1,399 (just under £1,100 in the UK), it’s great value on paper, but shipping and taxes (around $750, as things stand) add just shy of £600 to the price tag.

A price of £1,700 delivered to your door isn’t the same value proposition and there are better options available. If State were to ship the Black Label to any of its (few) UK dealers, the prices in store should be much keener, though.

In terms of alternatives, State offers similar geometry in a sturdy 4130 chromoly steel frame for only $899.99 (plus shipping), or the same build with State’s new T800 Carbon frame for a cent under $2,000.