Unbound Gravel was a hotspot for unreleased new bike tech this yr. We noticed SRAM’s unreleased 13-speed Pink XPLR AXS groupset, a COROS bike pc with 90+ hours of battery life, new area of interest race package and new wheels.
We additionally obtained glimpses of latest bikes, together with a prototype Large, which we’re fairly positive is a brand new top-end Revolt.
This bike was raced by Australian Brendan Johnston, a.ok.a Trekky, of the Large Manufacturing facility Staff within the males’s elite 200-mile occasion. Johnston completed in fifteenth place after a formidable efficiency in a “merciless” race that noticed him endure three flat tyres.
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
Large stays mum on the main points of the brand new bike, however this is what we all know:
Large launched the Revolt gravel bike a decade in the past, and several other iterations have since been launched, addressing the necessity for ever-more succesful and sooner off-terrain steeds.
The vary’s flagship mannequin, the Revolt Superior Professional, has pushed the boundaries of weight whereas hanging a stability of compliance and capabilities with pace and race geometries.
Improvements over the previous few iterations embody:
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, critiques and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
– A flip chip rear dropout to permit riders to regulate the wheelbase to fine-tune the dealing with for various kinds of terrain.
– The reducing of seatstay junctions with thinner-diameter tubes to enhance rear-end compliance.
– The model’s proprietary D-Fuse seatpost aimed toward decreasing shocks and vibrations from the tough floor.
Many of those applied sciences look like current on this prototype as properly.
At first look, the most important change is the addition of downtube storage—an rising development in gravel bikes and one thing that riders, reasonably than racers, have been asking for, Large revealed.
Incorporating storage into the downtube entails greater than merely reducing a gap within the carbon. There are complicated design components to contemplate, together with devising an entry door or cowl, hinges and latches, guaranteeing that the compartment and the contents do not intervene with the interior cable routing, and, after all, the structural integrity of the downtube. To compensate for the cutout, producers should add additional materials, which means that this new prototype will not be any lighter and even as mild as its predecessors.
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
New is also the interior body routing. Inner routing is not the best for house mechanics to work on, but it surely does create clear—maybe much more aerodynamic—strains and permits riders to connect equipment with out the interference of cables.
The D-Fuse seatpost and flip-chip are current on this prototype as properly, however notably lacking is the addition of a UDH interface. Launched by SRAM in 2019, the Common Derailleur Hanger (UDH) standardizes the derailleur mounting interface throughout completely different bike frames, aimed toward bettering shifting efficiency and rising the system’s robustness.
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
A UDH interface is required to run the brand new 13-speed SRAM Pink XPLR AXS derailleur we noticed, which Trekky, whereas being an SRAM-sponsored athlete, couldn’t make use of. Whereas he did use the brand new SRAM crimson brake-shift levers, carried over from the newly launched SRAM Pink street groupset, Trekky has to make do with a SRAM mullet construct consisting of a 1x chaining within the entrance and a 12-speed mountain bike transmission derailleur and Eagle cassette within the rear. Whether or not this bike, as soon as commercially accessible, will characteristic a UDH interface is as of but unknown.
The brand new SRAM Pink brake-shift levers
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
The cockpit on Trekky’s bike seems to be CADEX’s Aero Built-in Handlebar, a $699 improve that we’re guessing is not going to be commonplace difficulty on the commercially accessible bikes or maybe on the very top-end fashions solely.
For his course recon rides, Trekky was working CADEX AR 35 Disc Tubeless gravel wheels with carbon spokes and wrapped in 50mm Pirelli Cinturato tyres with ample clearance left.
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
As with the present mannequin, the prototype sports activities accent mounts on the toptube and downtube.
Once more, Large wouldn’t reveal something about this aside from what our personal eyes might see however we’re sure it will likely be launched later this season. Keep tuned.
(Picture credit score: Anne-Marije Rook)
