Dear Evil,
Sammy Hagar is The Red Rocker. The bike should be red, not black.
EPIC FAIL, BRAH!
Well, we’ve yet to see any other bikes on that same setup. I fully expect others to be as bad as that. That is a hell of a test for a gravel bike on 40c tires.
I propose it’s rather unlikely for most people to take any of these bikes on that type of terrain often enough to be an issue. If they do. The 50c tires, a Salsa Cutrhroat or a real MTB are more practical.
Its interesting to see them push the limits of the bikes, but that is probably 10% or less of what these bikes will see on a regular basis.
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Janes Huang’s review seems to align with my perception of the bike…great on technical trails / steep stuff.
It simply isn’t the right type of gravel bike for me…gravel around here (Chicago) consists of dirt roads and packed trails. And realistically, anything over that and I am gonna reach for a MTB.
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Yeah, and the design pretty much eliminates the likely addition of a suspension stem since it’s a shorty. And a fork is kinda out, since they designed it that way too. It might be possible to get some XC lite fork to work, but no idea how that might toss out the geo without comparing AC lengths with stock travel, or maybe reducing it. Maybe the Fox AX would fit fine, but the fact that Evil didn’t acknowledge any existing options seems like an issue.
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Horses for courses.
In the mid 2000s I entered an xc race on my steel cx bike. Cantis, 32mm tires, tubes… It was an old school up the ski hill, down the ski hill loop at Eldora Mt outside Boulder, all singletrack.
I was in 2nd behind a guy on a Yeti FS until I boosted a rock drop and crashed on my face smashing my helmet in two and putting a large dent in my head.
After I finished the medics said they reported me to the organizer and I wasn’t to be entering anymore races without the proper “equipment”. 
Just bought a second hand 2018 TCX as a gravel race rig and it has 37s on it. I’m less interested in how capable it is bombing Eldora and more how much faster I can be with those tires smoothing out 100+ mile races on gravel roads.
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His are always so good. Impartial to a point and keeps to the stuff that matters for the application. His experience was a little off to me, because I think he should have been on a Medium. I mentioned that in his video comments. Evil sized him for Large with respect to dropper sizing. Big mistake in my eyes, since the dropper is secondary to overall fit to me, especially in a case like this. A medium would not have cured all the issues, but I think it would have come closer to what JOM likes and expect from a gravel bike, with enough of the Evil goals to get slightly better marks on climbs and slow stuff.
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Yeah I watched both of them and about what I expected from the reviews. The stiffness of the bike I wasn’t thinking about but that is a HUGE difference maker for gravel and not just on rocky single track. The last few weeks the gravel roads around me have been choppy as we get out of winter. My titanium bike with a 27.2 seatpost really smooths out the chatter. I can’t imagine how bad it would be on a really stiff frame with a 31.6 dropper post no matter the tire size.
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If it ever makes it to market, the RedShift Sports ShockDrop seatpost could be an interesting option for the CH and other stiff bikes with droppers.
Yeah, I have a Lauf, but sometimes our gravel looks like heavy machinery tracks when the rain is right, and it’s like riding on a jackhammer. I would die on the CH.
PNW. components already has one on the market…
Personally, I’m amazed that more people don’t use a suspension seatpost on their gravel bikes. I have used one for years on my CX bikes and then gravel bikes. It is such a no-brainer, but I have never seen anyone else with one.
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Sweet! Thanks for the info and link. Cool to see an option already available.
I agree that some suspension for gravel is a great idea. The IsoSpeed on my Boone is great and there’s some other nice frames with some absorbing features too. But the posts are a next level option for sure.
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600g!! Wow.