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After about 19 years, I've finally decided to spoil myself with a new bicycle.
But why a gravel bike?
- Fat tyres. I've toyed with the idea of buying a road bike with wider tyres for a long time. Wider tyres mean lower pressures and greater comfort. Also, it means you can roll over metal gratings with wild abandon, without having to steer at a 45-degree angle to avoid dropping your wheels into the gaps. And the occasional excursion over rough terrain can be undertaken without the slightest hesitation.
- Drop bars. More hand positions on long rides is always a good thing. Straight bars begin to hurt after a while and need bar ends. But then you can't go aero with straight bars without clamping on a pair of TT bars. And that just looks like a mess. Not to mention the weight.
- Lots of mounts. Bosses for 3 water bottle cages! Mount points for mudguards and racks. Unfortunately, this iteration does not have bosses for anything cages.
- One bike to rule them all. I can only buy and maintain one bicycle. Singapore is not exactly overrun by singletrack, although there is some. I dream of bikepacking someday.
So why the Giant Revolt?
Well, because I ruled out the following bikes:
- BMC URS 01 Two. The URS 01 One is way out of my budget. Even this one at USD6499. It is configured with a single chainring and I wanted a two ring setup for versatility and closer ratios.
- Cannondale Topstone Carbon. Nice. But expensive and heavy because of the rear suspension. For long term reliability, I thought it best to keep it simple.
- Canyon Grail. Finally great value for money. Decent weight. But just can't get over that double-decker hoverbar...
- Specialized Diverge. Really nice and really expensive. Threaded bottom is a really good idea. But the thought of maintaining a shock in the headset and the additional weight that brings is not so appealing.
I had been thinking of turning my 19 year old Principia MAC SL into a gravel bike with some drop bars. But the STI levers from Gevenalle needed for this conversion aren't exactly cheap. Normal STI levers wouldn't work because MTB v-brakes have different pull ratios. However, after conducting extensive thought experiments, I decided to get a gravel bike instead. I definitely wanted a bike with drop bars and fatter-than-normal tyres so I wouldn't have to scrutinize the road ahead with laser focus and so that the fillings wouldn't get rattle out of my teeth. Plus the idea of going bikepacking some day really appealed to me. After looking around for a bit and eliminating the options on a very short shortlist, the Giant Revolt Advanced 0 came up as the eventual winner. A Giant TCR would have been at least a kilogram lighter at the same price point, but not quite as fun or as versatile.
Seeing that it wasn't a cheap bicycle, I thought it would be wise to test one out at an LBS instead of ordering one sight unseen. It probably was a good idea since, according to the sizing charts, I could go for a size M or M/L. The M/L would be taller at the front, but quite a bit more stretched out, especially with the 100mm stem instead of the 90mm on the M. The only way to know for sure was to ride both M and M/L sizes. So I headed to the LBS (Tay Junction) to check out the sizing. It turned out that M was a much better fit. Size M/L was definitely too stretched out. And the lower frontend was easily made up for by flipping the stem. There was just one problem -- they didn't have the Advanced 0, only the Advanced 2 and the Advanced Pro 1. Since I wanted a double chainring set up, I had to upgrade. So that's my excuse for ending up with a higher end model. And it would have been poor form to test ride at the LBS but purchase the bicycle from another retailer.
First impressions
After a couple of rides I was thinking: this is nice! Smooth, plush ride, yet eager to accelerate. Responsive, yet stable. Seemingly opposing qualities in one and the same bicycle. The price to pay is weight. About 8.5kg stock with MKS style generic pedals. What does one get by moving up to the Advanced Pro 1? Shimano Di2 GRX, fully composite seatpost with micro-adjust tilt, composite handlebars and Praxis Zayante 48/32 carbon cranks instead of GRX 48/31. You do lose a little range on the low-end, but the Praxis is lighter and still shifts well. Basically more carbon bits and electronic shifting. And the frame comes in a different colour - a sort of copperish, purplish metallic chameleon look depending on the ambient lighting. Not really my thing, but friends and family seem to like it.
A little more depth
Frame and fork
I remember thinking how weird a Giant compact road frame looked when they first released it way back. It seemed to lack the elegance of a classic road frame with a horizontal top tube. The look has somehow grown on me over the years and it is now widely copied by many other companies. The Revolt takes the compact frame design to the extreme with an almost XC mountain bike slope to the top tube and dropped seat stays. About the limit of what I would still consider to be a fairly good looking design. Looks aside, it does allow for more clearance when you dismount from the bike. The downside is having less space in the triangle for a backpacking frame bag. No problem fitting two water bottles in the frame.
The downtube has a rectangularish cross section. Tapering from a width of 60mm at the bottom bracket to 50mm at the headtube and about 50mm deep throughout -- although the shaping of the tubes, how the curves and flat surfaces are placed, gives the impression that it is more rectangular. Not quite as wide as the 2021 TCR. There's a third set of water bottle bosses on the underside of the downtube. The lower third of the underside is also covered with a glued on black rubber shield to protect against rock strikes.
The downtube and toptube flare into the headtube creating a really beefy junction. I wonder if this was motivated by aesthetics or structural considerations? The crown of the fork is sculpted to match the headtube when steering straight ahead. The fork is colour matched on the inside surfaces that face the wheel and a black on the outside. There are two threaded holes in the fork. One next to the thru axle and the other midway up the fork. I am guessing one or both are for mudguards and/or some sort of low-rider rack.
Seatpost
Several components of the build helped convince me to decide on the Advanced Pro 1 over the Advanced 0 (other than the fact that the latter was only available through a parallel importer). The seatpost on the Advanced Pro 1 is the Contact SLR D-fuse. This is a full carbon construction that weighs in at 185g. The Advanced 0 is furnished with the Contact D-fuse composite that has a carbon tube but an alloy seatclamp. And from what I have read somewhere, is not only heavier, but does not offer continuously adjustable saddle angle adjustment. I could be wrong on the second point. The SLR seatpost is also compatible with oval rails. You may want to keep this in mind if you intend to upgrade your saddle to one with composite rails.
Shifting
Oh that annoying creak...
On the fourth or fifth ride, the Revolt starting to make faint clicking or creaking noises occasionally when putting down torque on the pedals. It would disappear when coasting and did seem to be less detectable when peddling off the seat. Brought it back to the shop. At first I thought it might be me not torquing down the seatpost clamp bolt sufficiently after fitting the new saddle. The shop guy fixed that, but the clicks/creaks were still there. And I was really hoping it wasn't the bottom bracket. They seemed quite confident that it wasn't. So the pedals got tightened and finally the through-axles. It turned out to be the rear through axle that was the culprit. Who would have thought? Hopefully, I will continue to ride in blissful silence from this point on.
Tubeless tyres!
Upgrade
Gave in and replaced the stock Giant Approach saddle weighing 310g with a 130g Selle Italia SLR Carbonio Flow S2 saddle. The Selle Italia has far less padding but a narrower shape that fits better. It has actually been quite comfortable. Plus, they were on sale at Wiggle for SGD118. Amazing deal. The bonus is that Shadowfax is now 8.3kg with generic pedals. Or about 8.0kg sans pedals. Quite a good weight if you compare with offerings from Canyon and Specialized.
At some point, I should probably give clipless pedals a go. Maybe a pair of Xpedo SPD's to go with Shimano cycling sandals. No it's not the greatest look, but I like sandals. But for now, I'm happy with old school pedals.
If you look carefully at the photo on the right, you'll notice that installing the saddle requires a 10mm wrench and a 5mm hex key. You can still make do without the 10mm wrench if you first loosen the hex bolt and then you can rotate the other bolt with your bare fingers before re-tightening the hex bolt. But that takes a little more guess work to adjust your saddle. But at least it is still possible. You may encounter an issue where you do not have sufficient clearance to use a 10mm spanner and have to resort to this method. The advantage though, it that the saddle clamps clamp from top and bottom so that it is compatible with oval carbon rails which tend to be ovalised vertically (i.e. the rails are narrower but taller).
The Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 1.
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