● Just what is a gravel bike in 2023? It’s a hugely broad genre full of various categories, from all-road gravel/road bike hybrids to aero racers for fire roads and the wide American tracks where the genre was born; and what’s close to being a mountain bike with drop bars for the really rough stuff. Not forgetting those targeted at all-day or multi-night bikepacking excursions. We’ll probably need another gravel bike category or two for 2024!
The bikes here represent that broad spectrum, with Ridley’s Kanzo Adventure and Giant’s Revolt X just two options for taking on the gnarliest of mountain bike trails. The Pivot Vault, meanwhile, offers all-day comfort and smooth cycling, before the top-end Ostro Gravel and BMC Kaius ONE pivot towards racing and aero gravel gains. Which, then, is the bike for you?
Monster gravel rig
First up, the Ridley Kanzo Adventure is a singletrack-slaying gravel bike for exploring technical off-road trails. At its heart is a progressive geometry with huge tyre clearances, and the frameset is notable for its very low-slung back end, with seatstays that splay out and taper to allow plenty of comfort-improving flex.
The Kanzo is certainly prepared for thirsty work, with multiple bosses on the seat-tube and the top and underside of the down-tube. The frame also features mudguard mounts and bento-box mounts on the top-tube. Meanwhile the fork has triple bosses on each leg (to carry up to 3kg luggage per side) and internal brake hose routing, plus capacity for a dynamo cable on the other leg.
With all this carrying provision, I expected the Kanzo to be quite a hefty beast, but the overall weight of 9.09kg for my unladen complete test
