Best Racing Gravel Bike 2025

[grwoolf]

@Jolyzara

I think people underestimate the free watts of a nice looking bike. Look good, feel good, race good.

There is certainly a huge mental component to cycling. In my head, the dirty and weird ugly duckling running a rival groupset is always faster than the high end “pretty” frame running red. Whatever lights your personal fire is always the right answer. I’m personally pretty negative about the emphasis on style and conformity in the cycling community, so anything that flies in the face of that is motivational to me.

@Eddy_Twerckx

But a handful of watts for an ugly bike. Easiest decision ever, I’ll take the good looking bike.

@CaptainThunderpants

Me, who sold my Tarmac SL8 almost solely because I thought it was ugly, “yea who would do that?”

All good, cool to have different priorities. I’d ride the bicycle equivalent of a Pontiac aztec with the aero tent option if I gave me 5 extra watts. But for me, a race bike is a plastic tool, not art. I like custom ti and old steel frames for the workmanship and artistic style, but I honestly don’t see the visual appeal of modern carbon bikes. They are all honda accords as far as I’m concerned. There are modern bikes I love from a capabilities/engineering standpoint, but none of them light a fire for me visually.

[mjw0]

My Diverge vs Checkpoint decision was 100% decided by the colorways of the two bikes.

[Eddy_Twerckx]

@grwoolf

There is certainly a huge mental component to cycling. In my head, the dirty and weird ugly duckling running a rival groupset is always faster than the high end “pretty” frame running red. Whatever lights your personal fire is always the right answer. I’m personally pretty negative about the emphasis on style and conformity in the cycling community, so anything that flies in the face of that is motivational to me.

Yea man, whatever motivates you. I totally get that everybody is going to have different goals, different motivators, different priorities. To your point about the ugly duckling, there is no better motivation to me than somebody passing me on an “outdated” or “slow” bike. There is no way in hell I’m going to let the guy on a rim brake round tube steel bike beat me. So in a way, racing the nice bike gives me more motivation to make sure I’m “earning it.” Ride on!

[grwoolf]

@Eddy_Twerckx

To your point about the ugly duckling, there is no better motivation to me than somebody passing me on an “outdated” or “slow” bike. There is no way in hell I’m going to let the guy on a rim brake round tube steel bike beat me.

Absolutely. And my mindset of bikes probably carries over from my personal appearance. When folks look at my bike with fred-style aero bars and my physical appearance (old skinny-fat dude who looks nothing like an athlete), I’m not exactly intimidating my competition at the starting line. Quite to opposite, I’ve gotten some hilarious comments when I line up near the front. And then the crushing of souls begins…

[Arierep]

Anyone else noticed the bike that Justinas Leveika used to win the Accursed Bike Race ? I only saw some very limited pics of it, but it seemed to be some sort of full suspension gravel bike from Trek. My first guess was that it was an XL Supercaliber, but the seatstays are different and have a bridge

[Upcountry]

I mentioned it over in the “2025 Crux” thread. It’s certainly not going to be what most would consider a “gravel race bike”… But you’re correct in that it’s a short travel full suspension gravel bike with clearance for +2.0" tires. It’s a bit different than the Supercaliber, in kinda surprising ways, in that it has a small upper linkage, versus the inline style that the Supercaliber/EpicWC use. I also noticed the seat stay bridge, which again, is an odd choice when everyone wants as much clearance as possible these days. I’m sure it’s needed to stiffen the rear end, but its placement is odd. I’m nearly 100% convinced that full suspension on gravel is warranted for many areas(as I back up with my bike stable), but I can’t help but feel that it will take some time to figure out what works best to accomplish that. Geometry is largely unsettled, for both suspension and non-suspended gravel bikes, so there is some room there. But, At this point my Epic WC is sub 21lbs with 100mm front and 75mm rear travel. So I’m not sure what benefit there is in limiting tire clearance, shortening travel, and almost certainly gaining some weight.

[Trix8806]

Looks like Sofia might be on a new bike, or just have a new head unit. Stem looks to be a diverge. I believe others mentioned a new specialized in this pic, hadn’t seen any photos yet.

[DMC]

Ventum finally dropping the new GS1, but not until May 28.

[wik04]

I’m guessing we’re going to see a few new bikes being unveiled next week. Unbound is the time to do it.

[tiptoppenguin]

100p the new diverge

[Barefootdan]

Finally have been able to take the Felt out for a few rides and have a couple hundred miles on it. It has just the right amount of compliance I was looking for in the rear. Comfortable while still feeling snappy. Tons of room for bottles and bags in and on the main frame. I did eventually put on 50c G One RS Pros to fill up the frame and it has been a wonderful ride.

[RMB]

Massive thanks for your thoughtful, objective, best we humans can do without a team of engineer underlings, review - Seriously.

Personally, I split bike evaluations into "forward looking” (what is the range and quality of ride experiences it enables and if your buddy wants to ride super rowdy you just take your full sus) or "backwards looking” (I am doing Race XYZ, and want the perfect tool). The latter category is me. I pick a big race (i.e. scary) and train based on fear and excitement (mostly fear) for the preceding 9 months. In 2023 it was Badlands, and 24 Basajuan, both ultra gravel races taking me 4-5 days.

I did both on my Open Up, 650b with 50 mm Schwalbe G-One Bites. For Badlands it was fine, for Basajuan I died the death of a 1000 paper cuts. Despite never having hand problems (i.e. >35 years), the combination of super rowdy course, steep and sustained descents, never using/needing gloves, more or less only descending in the hoods, I ended up completely blowing up my ulnar nerves. Though I wasn’t alone, there were a few of us, even including MTB folks, eating like penguins with our utensils held in our fists. Recovery was slow, ten months out I’m 90% healed up. I’ve definitely polished up my grips, bar tape, glove situation, and I can manage long road rides fine.

Back to your post - Now knowing that I have a fine line to manage, bigger tire upgrade is obvious, and I’ve also been wondering about Lauf fork or Redshift stem to reduce some additional vibrations. I’ve also wondered if the Lauf fork might actually do a better job than a high-end suspension fork for the high frequency gravel “buzz” since the activation force is presumably lower (?) and big hits aren’t the concern.

So my list includes the Siegla (my partner in Basajuan had one), Sour Purple Haze, Argon Dark Matter 2.0 (sure others I’m forgetting). Not sure if I should care about some having MTB BB spacing. The Lauf design philosophy prioritizing strength and durability (e.g. no high mod carbon or in-frame storage) also resonates.

Given my drama, why not a full sus? I’ve definitely considered a SuperCaliber and EpicWC but ultimately I’d like to spend the 100 hours of riding in my road/drop bar position, although I wouldn’t rule out that my next ultra might teach me the hard lesson that I picked wrongly Any additional insight, or why I’ve got it all wrong, warmly welcomed

[BCM]

@RMB

Given my drama, why not a full sus? I’ve definitely considered a SuperCaliber and EpicWC but ultimately I’d like to spend the 100 hours of riding in my road/drop bar position, although I wouldn’t rule out that my next ultra might teach me the hard lesson that I picked wrongly Any additional insight, or why I’ve got it all wrong, warmly welcomed

Hmmmmm…

Drop Bar MTB Geo

Has anyone done this? How do you figure out your reach? Thinking the addition of the drop bar would mean you would need to size down your frame size? Considering slapping some drop bars on a Chisel or something similar. Wonder how something like that with Race King 2.2s front and rear would compare to something like a Revolt X with 45-50c tires.

But in reality - with some of the newer frames supporting 2.2’s, even 2.4 range if it’s dry, there are some great gravel bikes to choose from.

[grwoolf]

@RMB

Given my drama, why not a full sus? I’ve definitely considered a SuperCaliber and EpicWC but ultimately I’d like to spend the 100 hours of riding in my road/drop bar position

I don’t know much about ultra stuff, but I think a supercaliber or EpicWC might be the best tool for the job on a lot of “gravel” terrain. I’d lean drop bar rather than flat bar for aerodynamics and hand positions, but real suspension can help in a lot of places. As much as I enjoyed racing the Seigla at Rule of 3, there were definitely spots where my Epic 120/120 was more fun and faster when I raced it at Big Sugar last year. With Flight Attendant, it’s a rigid bike when you want it to be and opens up as needed. Maybe 120/120 is overkill for a “gravel” bike, but the 100/70 (or whatever the pseudo-hard tails have these days) is probably pretty close to ideal for gravel if you can lock it. Some weight and aero penalty as they are currently built, but I bet a purpose built gravel-oriented bike could be made lighter and incorporate some aero. The biggest reason I didn’t go with my Epic 120/120 for gravel is the 38 chainring limitation, which would be an easy fix if they designed the bike for a bigger ring. And a 38 is actually fine in the vast majority of situations, I just prioritize some races where it could be a challenge.

[A_Menace]

Love to see the Lauf love in here. It’s been pretty interesting IMO watching the launch of the new Allied Able and all the praise it’s getting. But when you compare it to the Seigla, it’s pretty dang similar! Even the aggressive 70.5 read tube angle, and it’s 3yrs old.

The engineering in the bottom bracket and chain stays themselves is also pretty cool when you read into them.

Here’s my the latest iteration of mine. Added the XPLR wheels recently which are absolutely hilarious fun.

[jn92]

Really good looking bike! The tanwalls really suit the color. The Seigla is/was a really forward thinking bike. Bummer I can’t cope with that slack seat tube angle, otherwise this bike would be high on the want-to-have list

[grwoolf]

@jn92

The Seigla is/was a really forward thinking bike. Bummer I can’t cope with that slack seat tube angle, otherwise this bike would be high on the want-to-have list

On the seat tube angle, just keep in mind that the stated angle is only correct at a given seat height. Since published seat tube angle is measured from the center of the BB and the Seigla seat tube joins forward of center, it’s slacker than advertised with a bunch of seat post showing and steeper than advertised without a bunch of seat post. Very similar to how seat tube angles can be misleading on MTB’s. For me, it wasn’t an issue since I am right between frame sizes and I like sizing up with my off road bikes. So, minimal seat tube showing and plenty steep enough (for a gravel bike). And it also has low stack for a gravel bike, so no worries being too high up front even with a larger frame. Anyways, just something to consider if you were taking the published STA at face value.

And agree on the “forward thinking” aspect of the Seigla. We have short memories and the bike makes a lot of sense for the current gravel trends of today, but they probably locked in the Seigla design ~4 years ago long before the masses were pushing for huge tires. I guess the Salsa Cutthroat (and probably some others?) were way before that with big tire clearance, but Seigla was designed/marketed as a gravel race bike rather than a bike to conquer the Tour Divide. There is a decent video with the Lauf CEO talking about how they made compromises on the True Grit to fit into more conventional industry trends, but basically built the Seigla without those limitations. They knew things like 1x only and SRAM-only groupset/BB standards would eliminate some buyers, but willing to take the risk as a more established company (vs. when they launched the True Grit).

[alexfthenakis]

@grwoolf

published seat tube angle is measured from the center of the BB and the Seigla seat tube joins forward of center,

Would the accurate way to quantify this be “Xdegrees (+Ymm forward offset)”? Not much different than the way we look at geo based on clamp offsets with seatposts really, just that seatposts are usually setback and this is setforward, right?

Do we know what that offset number would be on any/all sizes? Should be the distance between the BB’s centre in the X axis and the point where the seat tube would cross the BB’s centre in the Y axis if it were uninterrupted, correct?

From there you can effectively re-draw the triangle using your specific saddle height and work out what the effective ST angle would be for you…

[A_Menace]

Great point by @grwoolf on the seat tube height and that angle. For fit yah it does make it a little tricky which is why I needed the longer stem.
That angle also contributes to more weight over the rear tire which feels a little weird at first on the road compared to a race road bike. But gosh do you ever appreciate that once you’re on anything over category 2 gravel. That’s when this bike’s geo and handling really comes into play while paired up with grippy race kings. You can carry XC MTB speed in sections that most gravel bikes suffer through.

[jn92]

@A_Menace

For fit yah it does make it a little tricky which is why I needed the longer stem.

This seems a bit counterintuitive to me? Did you mean shorter stem?

I have long legs and a relatively short torso for my height. Because of my long legs I need a steep seattube angle to shift the center of gravity more towards the middle of the bike.

Slack seattube angles don’t work for me. 74 to 75 degrees is where I‘d be ideally. The Allied able in a medium would work perfectly I assume but it’s a lot more expensive than the seigla.

I‘ll wait for the store bike brands to catch up