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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Rachel Sokal

Sonder Camino Ti review: versatile, durable and fun, it's our Gravel Bike of the Year

Sonder SRAM Camino (Facility) Goodyear

First released in 2016 Sonder Camino Ti has been around for as long as Sonder itself. From then until now it remains one of the most popular bikes in the range and one that is frequently recommended on many a “what gravel bike…?” thread.

It’s well thought of at Cycling Weekly too, back in 2020 we crowned it with our Editor’s Choice Award. There have been a few changes to the Camino’s design since then so it feels like a good time to see how it performs in this year’s Gravel Bike of the Year testing.

The construction

For this year we had the titanium-framed version of the Camino which looks beautiful, there’s just something straight tubes with a raw finish that’s hard to beat (and that’s not just because they’re really easy to clean). There’s also the advantage of the finish being much more durable to wear and tear than a painted or carbon frame, a real bonus if you’re looking to add luggage. The alloy version is also available if your budget is more modest (frame only Ti £1,999, alloy £599).

Whatever the terrain, the Camino is always a good laugh to ride (Image credit: Future)

To keep the clean look the cabling runs internally through the down tube. To make servicing quicker and easier there’s an access hatch under the bottom bracket shell so you can re-cable without the need for specialist tools. There are additional cable ports to run various shifter/mech combinations as well as a dropper post and an array of mounts. The positioning of the seat tube mounts on the small frame means you can’t fit a 600ml bottle if you’re running a standard frame bag under the top tube.

The Camino is unashamedly a bike that’s designed for technical gravel as much as long-distance adventures. This is reflected in the geometry, the wheelbase (small frame, 1050mm) and chainstays (434mm) are longer than most of the other bikes in our test and the head angle slacker too (69^o). The stack is relatively high to allow a more upright and comfortable position for longer days in the saddle (reach 380mm, stack 564mm). You can also fit up to 50mm 700cc tyres or 650b wheels with 2.2” tyres if you want to push the Camino’s technical abilities.

These are flared bars from Sonder, but you can spec a wide variety of alternatives (Image credit: Future)

There’s a huge choice of build options for the Camino, in the titanium model alone there are 11 (plus frame only) listed on the website and each can be tailored to the exact specification you wish. That much choice will either excite or terrify you, either way, it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

The key difference between the models is the drive train with pretty much every level of SRAM XPLR, SRAM Road, Shimano GRX and Shimano Road available to choose including 1x, 2x, mechanical and electronic. Campagnolo Ekar is also an option.

Our bike was equipped as standard with the 12-speed Rival AXS drivetrain (Image credit: Future)

Once you’ve chosen your drive chain model that suits your brand, gearing and budget you can pretty much choose all the remaining components or stick with the standard build. Some of the changes are like for like so don’t incur additional charges, others are upgrades. This affordable customisation is also a feature of the Cotic Cascade. For the Camino, you can even ask Sonder to build the bike with your own sourced components, with the price reduced accordingly.

For our review we chose the standard build of the Ti Rival 1 AXS XPLR as at £3,199 it fell comfortably within our budget. In addition to the 12-speed Rival AXS drivetrain and brakes the build comes with a monocoque carbon fork and Sonder Alpha alloy wheels (built in Sonder’s Nottingham HQ) with Goodyear Connector 45mm tyres. The finishing kit is all Sonder including the flared alloy bar and saddle which has a very close resemblance to the popular Fabric Scoop.

The ride

The moment you throw your leg over the Camino you can feel like you’re going to have a good time. This is not a bike that dictates what and how you ride, it’s a bike that asks what you fancy doing and instantly being up for the adventure. In fact, my first couple of days on the Camino proved its adaptability and capability to do it all.

First ride out I strapped on many, very full bags of bike luggage to venture off for my son’s first bikepacking trip. The load was heavy and the pace slow but the Camino made it a pleasure. Even with the entire load the Camino remains agile and responsive to both steering and pedalling inputs.

With your weight in the centre of the bike the Camino feels incredibly stable (Image credit: Future)

Once evening came I unloaded the bags, tweaked the tyre pressure and headed out onto the technical trails I’d usually ride on my mountain bike. It’s no secret that the geometry of the Camino has been influenced by MTB geometry and it shows. With your weight in the middle of the bike, it’s incredibly stable and easy to manoeuvre on twisty and rocky trails, limited only by the size of the tyres.

The next morning I was out solo once again, this time for a tempo session on the road. The Camino is never going to be as quick as a more race-biased gravel bike but it does a perfectly good job. It’s responsive to pedalling efforts whether you’re spinning along or out the saddle. If I was planning a lot of tarmac on a ride I’d consider swapping the tyres for something narrower for a little less drag.

There are plenty of mounts for bikepacking bags (Image credit: Future)

And onto my final ride of that weekend, I was loaded up and ready for part two of the family ride where we headed the long gravelly way back. By now I was carrying a lot of fatigue as well as luggage, so I really appreciated the comfort of the wide tyres and titanium frame. There’s another pleasing benefit of the titanium frame if you’re considering bike luggage and that’s the knowledge that you’ve got no paint or carbon layers to wear away with your bags. This saves a lot of time and frustration adding tape to numerous parts of your bike to protect it from the straps.

Many riders love them but personally I never really got on with the flared Bomber bars as I missed the width on the top of the bar for both riding and fitting in a large bar bag. If you feel similarly, Sonder’s build selector provides a standard drop bar option in a couple of widths for no additional cost.

Value

For a titanium-framed bike with a full Rival AXS drivetrain, £3,199 is already an excellent price. If you consider the enjoyment factor and the range of gravel riding you get to do, then its value exponentially increases.