A-GRADE

While GT Bicycles’ has its roots in dirt, from racing BMXs to innovative mountain bike designs, it has also dabbled in the road market. For the 1996 Olympics, GT provided the US national team with a bike that pioneered some radical ideas on aerodynamics; the brand also sponsored long-running US road teams Saturn and Jelly Belly. And who could forget the shiny glory that was Lotto’s titanium Edge team bike back in the 1990s? Although GT hasn’t produced a high-end road bike for a while now, it’s maintained a great range of entry-level machines. The advent of gravel seemed like the perfect opportunity for GT to make a move once more in top-of-the-range drop-bar bikes.

The original Grade launched back in 2014 (although it was called the 2015 model). It was a ground-breaking machine that took three years of development from conception to prototype. The team at GT had identified a trend away from traditional