People often look at gravel bikes and ask why… Why aren’t you using a road bike? Why aren’t you using a mountain bike? Why are you riding a hardtail with drop bars?
To be frank, I used to ponder the same kind of queries. Do we really need gravel bikes? With the Giant Revolt X, the plot thickens. Not only does the Taiwanese marque’s latest gravel offering come with 52mm tyre clearance but you’ll also find a remotely operated dropper post, a flip-chip to tweak geometry settings and 40mm front travel courtesy of a Rockshox Rudy Ultimate fork.
What’s the point? Well, we’ll get to that…
The Frame
The headline here is probably the flip-chip technology – which comes more or less as standard on modern mountain bikes. Located in the rear drop-out, the chip allows instant geometry, wheelbase 1,02 and tyre clearance tweaks, essentially making two bikes out of one. Longer wheelbases are conducive to more technical riding, offering more comfort on rock-strewn trails and a more pliable sense of control on uneven descents.
The frame comprises high-performance grade raw carbon, with the front triangle a continuous mould via a proprietary manufacturing process known as Modified Monocoque Construction.
After some 500 miles of sitting in the Revolt X’s hot seat, I’ve had zero issues with it – and bear in mind that this is a bike that’s traversed a mountain range, been raced, and, most recently, been ridden to within an inch of its life on the South Downs Way. It behaves well on most terrain and can be ridden at a reasonable speed on the road.
Asymmetric chainstays have been specced to add stiffness on the driveside for improved power transfer, and stability on the non-driveside for negotiating technical sections of trail or downhills.
Available in two colours, Gloss Cordovan or Copper Coin, the frame is – as expected for a gravel bike – peppered with bottle cage and luggage bosses. The thought process here being that this is the genre of steed most likely to be taken on bikepacking outings. I’m not entirely sure why gravel bikes have become emblematic of bikepacking trips… again, we’ll come to that in due course.
The Build
The Revolt X Advanced Pro gets a liberal helping of SRAM punctuated with in-house items. As expected for this Advanced model, eTap Rival AXS has been specced for transitions and offers seamless electronic shifts running up and down its 10x52t cassette. The range is not dissimilar to that of a mountain bike, with the 52t bailout cog specced for winching up steep climbs, and with its 1x chainset it’s easy to spin out the 10t when there’s a slight decline on concrete surfaces.
The Rockshox Rudy assigned to the front end offers 40mm travel, which is more than adequate for most gravel surfaces, and the Postmodern dropper post doesn’t so much as hint but bellows this bike’s intentions - namely, hard, technical and fast off-road riding.
Carbon hoops (700s) are in-house items, as is the finishing kit, from tyres to stem.
Riding the Revolt X Pro
I’ve ridden this bike in a gravel racing scenario on the Salisbury Plains, taken it on a long-distance schlep over Snowdonia and ridden myriad routes in Hampshire and Surrey which have comprised smooth tarmac, muddy bridleways and technical descents. The gearing for these outings has been pretty much perfect. I was left wanting on a few tarmac sections when a higher gear would have seen me move quicker between the rough stuff, and ditto when Snowdonia’s precipitous peaks became ever more strewn with slate and rocks, a lower gear would have countered a few hike-a-bike sections. But riding in extreme terrain will never be a smooth pedal and being forced to ‘recover’ on the blacktop is ad-lib preparation for when the race starts heating up on bucolic byways.
One of the best gravel bikes I have ridden...
Speaking of smooth riding, the 40mm of front travel offered by the Rockshox Rudy fork gave this bike an edge. On initial perusal of the spec sheet, I’ll admit, that I was quick to naysay – this would surely add weight for very little gain. On the contrary, this is a game-changer – and I think I’ve found a new weapon of choice for my favourite off-road ride, the South Downs Way. Combining the forgiving ride the front suspension offers, along with the comparatively aggressive geometry, is a performance-boosting coupling. For me, however, the dropper post proved superfluous, and the remote switch hampered my grip in the drops while winding up speed on tarmac sections.
The verdict
At a coin shy of £6.5k/$7.5k this isn’t the sort of money you're going to find down the back of the sofa, but to me it seems like a very fair price. You get a hell of a lot of bike for your buck. From the frame down to the finishing kit and all the bells and whistles in between, few stones have been left unturned to make this one of the most accomplished gravel bikes I’ve ever ridden. It perhaps lacks the speed and racing credentials of lighter items – the Santa Cruz Stigmata springs to mind – but for comfort and the ability to traverse swathes of terrain where no curly-barred bike has been before, this gets an emphatic yes, from me.
The spec
- Frame: Advanced-grade composite, 12x142mm thru-axle, flip-chip dropout
- Fork: Rockshox Rudy Ultimate, 40mm
- Handlebar: Giant Contact
- Stem: Giant Contact
- Seatpost: Post Moderne Dropper, 30.9mm with 30mm suspension
- Saddle: Giant Approach
- Shifters: SRAM Rival eTap
- Rear mech: SRAM GX Eagle AXS
- Brakes: SRAM Rival eTap
- Wheels: Giant CXR Carbon Disc
- Weight (as tested): 9.9kg
