Another great looking new bike. I guess I haven’t been following gravel bike pricing that closely, but I’m floored by the price of some of these bikes. $8700 for a force build and $5200 for a frame? That force build is over $3k more than a Lauf with similar specs. I can understand some premium for the LBS/dealer sales channel, but a 50% premium just seems nuts. Such a broken industry, I can see why X-lab is going after this market.
That Sarana must have a really cushy rear triangle with the amount of seat stay drop. Will be interesting to hear some ride reviews. The marketing spin on that bike is surprising with the focus on Ultra events. I know that’s a growing discipline, but still a pretty small slice of the overall gravel market. All these companies seem to be struggling to define clean “boxes” to put their different gravel bikes into. Several of the recent bike releases have the combination of wide tires and race bike features. Great to see IMO, but that doesn’t fit the whole “race vs. adventure” thing that some of the brands have gone to.
I don’t know if this bike was previously mentioned, but here is a review of the new BMC Kaius by Ben Delany. Not quite the tire clearance as some of these other new bikes, but decent at 52mm. And only $9k for a force build…
No, but also by now we’ve learned how little weight matters other than using it as a marketing point. I’d rather get a slightly heavier and way more capable bike. But I’m weird that way. If Felt’s major selling point is low weight it’s going to do as well as the previous version. The Factor shows you can get massive tire clearance without sacrificing geometry and likely handling. Can’t speak to how the Breed rides but the road version was said to ride terribly.
Glad I’m not the only one. Lots of reasons for sure. I walk around after an event and mentally track the cost of some of these bikes and I’m blown away how far the sport has come.
Yea, It’s becoming a very confusing sector. Especially for a random consumer who’s not frequenting forums like this. I think Bardet was on the new Ostro, which fits way more with the racing bikes that have been released. Kind of surprised they didn’t officially release it but it will definitely be their dedicated gravel race bike with aero features like the others. Then they have the Aluto which is more of an allroad bike.
I think I’m more surprised that with more brands consolidating models, Factor has 4 road bikes and 3 gravel bikes.
Weight is pretty dependent on the terrain. My normal 65 mile gravel ride near my house has about 8500’ of elevation gain. 3-4 lbs does make a difference. In fact, when you’re on terrain where you average 12 mph at 3 watts/kg, you might argue that weight could make nearly as big of a difference as aero, if not more. Much of my ride is climbing at 5-6 mph at nearly 4 watts/kg, or coasting/descending at 30-40 mph where I’m limited purely by the terrain. I’m not saying aero isn’t important (my races aren’t ‘quite’ as hilly, but close), but weight does matter in some routes.
I’m not sure what groundbreaking items the Factor has over the Felt. The Felt appears more aero, and it also comfortably fits Thunder Burts, so it’s not like it’s lacking clearance. I find their attachment bosses to allow 3 bottles inside the triangle to be a particularly useful selling point as someone who often rides with 3+ bottles. Not having to stop and pull one off the bottom of the downtube, or fiddle with swapping one from the jersey on rugged fast terrain is a pretty big help.
There’s definitely a sweet spot with weight and capability. I’d add weight for more durable equipment. But I am also not a fan of putting things like “boat anchor” electronic drive trains like the SRAM S1000 & GX just to drive up the price. I’d rather see lower end models still come with the lighter Eagle mechanical and leave the transmission for the expensive bikes. (But then I guess it makes the expensive stuff look bad on the weight chart?)
You keep coming back to how heavy electronic is, but I’ve never seen numbers that back it up. The crank, cassette, and chain are shared between mechanical and electronic and that’s where the vast majority of the weight savings are as you go from the lower groups to the higher end stuff. If you just look at the electronic bits (RD and shifter), I believe the weight difference is under 50g when comparing mechanical and electronic from what I recall.
If you want to compare old mechanical eagle to new mechanical transmission, there is certainly a big weight difference because SRAM doesn’t sell high end mechanical transmission groups (because there is basically no market for high end mechanical).
Yup that was my point. Mechanical does the job, lighter and cheaper.
That said, I love love and prefer electronic shifting on the gravel and road bikes. But on MTB… it’s not needed.
I highly doubt it’s anywhere near that much heavier. Maybe 200-300g for the frame. The difference between all these new gravel bikes is so small that it’s highly insignificant. I’m not saying weight in general is trivial, but you said 3-4 pounds. My Ti gravel bike isn’t even that much heavier. At least be reasonable
Geometry. Have you see the Felt geo table? Super short reach. Long chainstays. Slacker seat tube angle. Not great.
Plus frame storage and custom frame bags. Dropper compatibility. Suspension fork options. A normal BB that can fit more groupsets and bigger chainrings. But sure, save 200g.
Not saying weight doesn’t make a difference, but even at events like Leadville which is slower and more climbing than almost all gravel events, it’s less than most people would expect. Especially in Gravel - Aero and Rolling resistance will be way more important.
Its pretty easy to use AI to get some nice tables of climb times for weight vs power vs grade. Frame weight is completely meaningless and if you want to climb faster stop carrying 5lbs of water.
The Felt is 15.48 lbs. Calling the Factor possibly an 18-19lb bike is not that unreasonable. I have no idea what it is, I just couldn’t find the weight on the website.
I’m not saying it’s a huge difference, but it can still be several minutes over a 5-6 hr race with a lot of climbing (depends on a multitude of factors).
Regarding aero, when you’re climbing at 5 mph and then doing descents where your speed is limited by terrain (i.e. coasting with brakes), I would argue that aero isn’t going to make a significant difference. Obviously you don’t want to be a parachute..
I’d be curious what would be a bigger benefit for Leadville, being 4 lbs lighter on a 150lb rider, or using aero socks vs non aero socks..
If I recall - the difference at Leadville for 5 pounds is 5-10 minutes over ~9 hours and 12,000’ of climbing. Or thereabouts. (I think one analysis showed closer to 10, but then some others lower)
Now I’m not saying aero socks will be all that measurable, I think you’re talking seconds, but bigger aero stuff does (Position, tight fitting kit, staying in the draft adding up to real numbers) Some of the flat sections are brutal in the afternoon with the wind and I’ve literally had a group put minutes on me on the pavement section between Pipeline and Powerline when I didn’t catch the group in time.
Ironically my MTB is my only bike with electronic gears (for now ). Having to re-index/fiddle with gears every few muddy winter rides was a PITA, fitting old GX Eagle AXS has basically been a fit & forget experience for me. I don’t race but life means I’m time-poor so anything that maximises riding over fixing time is a win for me!
Sounds like very dry and fast conditions. They broke 10hrs for the first time.
). Having to re-index/fiddle with gears every few muddy winter rides was a PITA, fitting old GX Eagle AXS has basically been a fit & forget experience for me. I don’t race but life means I’m time-poor so anything that maximises riding over fixing time is a win for me!
