Unbound Gravel is just around the corner, with the racing kicking off tomorrow. Rain is threatening, and there are already videos surfacing online of riders’ bikes covered with the infamous Unbound mud.
The latest fresh gravel tech of the year has appeared today in the shape of a prototype Giant gravel bike, which has been teased on the brand’s Instagram page.
This new tech follows on from Scott’s 32″ prototype RC gravel bike, which will be ridden in the 200 event by Cameron Jones and Robin Gemperle.
The brand teased a collection of images and mentioned ‘prototypes we’ve been working on’ in its post, and Cyclingnews went to the expo to get a closer look.
For gravel race bikes, the direction of travel currently is faster and more aerodynamic, with a focus on boosted tyre clearance to lower rolling resistance. It doesn’t look like Giant has gone crazy here, but the machines shown certainly look more racy, and a little more purposeful.
The tease – what are we looking at?
Giant currently offers a single gravel-specific model, which is the Revolt; it sits adjacent to the TCX cyclocross bike in the brand’s off-road drop-bar range.
Similarities in the bikes’ frames and online speculation point to this being an updated version of the Revolt.
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A handy comparison can be found by looking at Brendan Johnston’s Instagram post below from last month. Johnston rode an existing Revolt frame, and it makes for an easy way to look at potential changes, based on the assumption that this mystery machine is some kind of new Revolt model.
The changes to the frame itself look relatively small, though when official news does come from Giant, it may be the case that a lot of tube shapes themselves are different.
The head tube of the bike looks slightly deeper and shorter; this is where comparing the same riders’ bikes is handy.
The top tube and seat tube junction is clearly different, with a more standard shape being used; a different scalloped seatpost has been fitted, likely to boost comfort.
At the back end, it also seems the frame has received a UDH compatibility update, a must-have these days for any up-to-date gravel machine.
Giant’s adjustable ‘flip chip’, which gives riders the ability to lengthen the bike’s wheelbase (and increase tyre clearance), also appears to have been removed. This is something of a rare feature amongst gravel machines.
Tyre clearance for the current Revolt is 53mm in the long flip chip setting and 45mm in the short. It’s probably fair to assume the new machine can handle at least a 50mm tyre.
That’s the bike’s frame, but Giant threw us another bone when it mentioned ‘prototypes’, which tells us there is more that’s new.
The mystery bike’s wheels and handlebar could be new components as well. It’s difficult to be sure, but the wheels fitted to the bike could be a new gravel-specific model.
While they look similar to the Cadex Ultra wheels and share similar-looking bladed carbon spokes and a 16-spoke front wheel spoke count, Cadex officially only has a single, less racy-looking AR 35 wheelset that is gravel-specific.
A closer look at the bikes
After seeing the posts, we headed for a look at prototype Giant and Liv gravel race bikes ahead of the racing starting.
Riders who will be on the prototype frames include Brendan Johnston, Cole Paton, and Matteo Fontana on the men’s side and Peta Mullens, Tessa Neefjes and Melisa Rollins on the women’s.
Staff from either brand would not answer any specific questions about them. But we took shots of the bikes below which provide a good insight into what they are about – speed.
