Speed Isn’t Everything： Why the Fastest Gravel Bike Fell Short ｜ 2026 Gravel Bike Field Test Ep 3

Welcome back to the Velo Gravel Field Test. We're here in Maine testing seven of the top gravel bikes, and we're trying to figure out which one is our favorite. There are a number of differences between each of these gravel bikes. Each of them have their own strengths and their own weaknesses. So to let the bikes shine, We've gone ahead and tried to control as many variables as possible. We've gotten control wheels from Easton, the EC90 ALX carbon gravel wheels, as well as Schwalbe G1R Pro tires. They're all 45 millimeters, and we've been running them all at the same tire pressure. The field test was also supported by Leatt, who provided helmets and shoes, Jordana, who provided kit, and Feedback, who provided tools. I'm joined by Hannah and Alvin, who have been doing all the gravel testing. As a recap, in episode one, we did our first impressions loop. Then in episode two we did a climbing challenge and a descending challenge, two things that you're going to be doing a lot on a gravel bike I'd say. Today in episode three things are going to get a bit techy. Yeah quite literally first things first is going to be something called the aero test. It's based on the Chung method which is real world aero testing. We're looking for efficiencies between these bikes to see which one gets you the farthest with the least amount of effort on your all-day ride. Cool that sounds like actual science Alvin. Yeah, we're going to be doing some algebra too, so maybe a little bit less bro science, hopefully. Well, speaking of technical, Hannah, we also have the technical loop, or I might also call the underbiking loop. Can you tell us about that? You are correct, Will. This is the underbiking loop. We're going to be combining all the aspects of our climbing test and descending test into one closed circuit. Very excited to see how the bikes perform in more variable terrain all together like that. Cool, so it sounds like we're kind of just pushing it to what maybe the edge of gravel biking is, something that might be better suited for a mountain bike. Yeah maybe, depends Will. Okay we'll see. That one sounds fun. I think we're gonna kick it back over to Alvin and start with the nerd test. The aero test. I said what I said. See you out there. Getting ready for lap one. Specialized Diverge. Okay pretty noticeably right from the start there is such a difference in the front end compliance of this bike. Good gravy. But if it allows you to pedal through stuff and confidently, I think that's a plus ultimately. Final lap into here. I love it. Sick. All right, loop time. Good morning. Canyon Grizzle, or as we have started to affectionately call it, Canyon Miss Grizzle. Yeah, we've gendered the Canyon. So what? We're understanding what's going on here. And it's telling us it's Miss Grizzle. It's taking us all over the place on its magic gravel bike, something like that. Okay, Cannondale Topstone. This is a bike that I've actually quite liked so far for a myriad reasons. Despite the rear end, which is supposed to be purposefully smoothed out with that kingpin suspension, this feels pretty darn responsive. You can turn it in pretty quick as well. Yeah, a lot of fun to be had with this bike. Okay, so immediately, front end feels just a little bit more harsh. I can feel more of the small bump stuff. I'm curious. How much of this is an alloy handlebar? How much of this is something I should pay attention to here? Okay, lap three done. Let's go back. All right, everyone, test done. Let's go back to the house and crunch the numbers. All right so I've got results here from the aero test. I do want to do a quick breakdown of what's going on here. Basically what we did is we took five bikes. We did roughly three to four laps on each of them through a testing protocol called the Chung method which we are using to solve for an aero. CdA is the coefficient of aerodynamics but it's also just as much I think an efficiency to a degree over this short period of gravel. The thing that you need to see here, and accounting for errors, because there could be errors, despite the errors and the differences between here, that is almost a 10 watt difference between first place, the Giant Revolt, and the Canyon Grizzle. Why is that the case? It can be any myriad of things. It can be kind of like the front end shaping of the Canyon or the Giant. is is simply more aerodynamic it could be that the bike just does better in the pavement or the terrain that we are riding it over it could be that the Canyon just isn't very responsive and i couldn't get the bars low enough it could be any number of those things but we did try and get the bars as close as possible between all the bikes to try and standardize everything and solve for one variable if possible other things to note here that i think are really interesting 15 miles an hour, class one gravel, 15 miles an hour, class two. These are kind of the speeds I think the average gravel rider is riding. You can see that Second through fourth place right here is pretty similar but these two bikes, the Specialized Diversion, Cannondale Topstone, are the only two bikes here with some sort of dedicated suspension outside of like frame flex or something like that. The interesting part is that if you were to extrapolate all this time to complete 30 flat miles at 250 watts if you're a 165 pound rider, that puts it at about a three and a half minute disadvantage over the Giant Revolt. Do I think that's going to be the case in the real world? I don't think so. And that is because I think the suspension and the gains that come from the suspension will result in a rider that is probably a little bit more refreshed and able to put down the power just a little bit better later on. Nonetheless, I do think that these differences in efficiency here are things worth noting and ultimately things that you can use. to decide which bike is better if you're trying to decide should i buy the Giant Revolt or Canyon Grizzle like if you care about efficiency and just outright pace the Revolt is is the winner this looks uh is this a route for today yeah i mean i thought so i guess not i don't know i mean it looks pretty wild oh nope That is not it. We need to be that way. All right guys, we're here at the technical loop. You know what to do? Let's get out there. Because riding gravel can mean exploring a lot of different terrain in the course of one ride, Alvin and Hannah are using this technical loop to explore the upper limit of terrain you would want to ride on a gravel bike. It'll give them a sense of how each bike fares when the going gets tough. All right, Alvin, you just did your Pinarello gravel lap. How was it? You know, I was really hoping I had a dropper post. You can't actually run one on this bike. None of these bikes have dropper posts. I really wish this did. I don't know. Not much to complain about. I'm curious to take out the other bikes. You just did your first lap on the Cannondale Topstone. How'd it go? It went so well. I felt like I could do a very, like, chundery line, which was really fun. Of course, I wish I had a dropper, but, like, I wasn't quite as concerned with this bike. I felt like I was really moving. Giant Revolt. On the climb, boy, this has a two-by drivetrain, and I'm already feeling like I'm gonna be annoyed by it. Oh, some looseness right there already. Giant Revolt, how'd it go? First thing that stood out to this bike, it's got a two-by drivetrain. I think that there's a place for a two-by drivetrain, but considering all the ups and downs of something like this, there's a reason why one-by is kinda just dominant gravel. Hannah, diverge lap, how'd it go? It went so well. Well, this bike feels like it loves descending, and I wish I could go out on another lap. It was so much fun. I felt like I was able to descend with a lot more confidence. I know we've said a lot about future shock this, future shock that. It works. It works out there very, very well. And I was able to take more advanced lines, I would say. Okay, cool. Straight on through. We are donezo. We just got back on the canyon, walk me through it, how'd it go? Yeah, I would say this is probably the most point-and-shoot bike that I've noticed here. It doesn't seem to get messed up. If I kind of take a downhill line, and you hit a rock, and the front wheel kind of moves around, but the rear wheel doesn't, and you end up just going where you are hoping to go. The upshot of that is that when it gets really tight, I feel like I have to... use a little bit more body language. Yeah, totally. Front end of the bike, stiffest of the bunch outside of maybe the Pinarello. Not a ton of compliance here when you're standing out of the saddle. Slow down. All right, Hannah, Alvin, you guys have done a ton of laps today on our technical loop. We've gone through all five bikes we have remaining in the test. Now we need to figure out which ones you like more and which ones you like less. Alvin, favorites. Okay, so I first want to shout out the Cannondale Topstone. The rear end of that bike kind of felt like it had more tire to it than the rest of the bike. Yeah, you're mentioning that. Yeah, I'm not really sure what that was. Probably the kingpin suspension too. Really more planted in the back end you think? Just, I was hooking up in places that I didn't think I would. I also want to shout out the SRAM Rival E1 levers, the latest generation. Super easy to get into that power, super low control, and I can kind of put one finger on it. I think that was the same for you too, right? It was, yeah. I totally agree. Okay, cool. Well, any other bikes you want to shout out today? I mean, they're all pretty darn good, pretty fun, I think. Like this, for example. Kind of like a point-and-shoot bike, kind of almost sleddy of the rest of these. You can kind of, the front wheel can kind of move around, and it'll still go where you are looking. Okay, well, we've been kind of under-biking all day. At the end of this episode, we can only have four bikes remaining. We currently have five bikes. Will! Yeah, big question. Big question. And then there were four? And then there were four. I'm excited to see what you decide at the end of this episode. Me too, Will. Yeah, same here. Okay, well, get out there, keep riding, and we'll see you back at the house. All right, later. All right, we have five bikes left. We got to get down to four because we're trying to figure out our favorite gravel bike from this gravel test. So Alvin let's kick it off with the aero test. Yeah so quick recap on that Giant Revolt. If you were to extrapolate a whole bunch, which is what we're doing here, the Giant was the fastest bike saving about four minutes over the course of 30 miles compared to the least fast or the slowest bike here. And while I'm not super confident that there is a real four minute gap, I think if you were to account for errors and drivetrain losses and everything else, I do think that there is a difference between that and the slowest bike here, which is the Canyon Grizl. Interesting, okay. Well, Hannah. Knowing that now, we've got some actual numbers behind it. Does that impact your testing at all? Impact which bikes you like? Not really. No offense. I think your testing is very valuable. I think it's important for people that are buying these bikes. But in all honesty, I'm not looking at gravel bikes and going, which one's the most aero? That's going to be the most fun. What it feels like to ride it. Do I feel fast? Does it feel like it's meant for an all-day adventure? And splitting hairs over minutes or seconds, it's not me. Yeah, so if you don't spend your time at the pointy end of the race, you're not really interested as much in which one is the outright fastest. If I start winning gravel races, Will, I'm going to go back to your testing, Alvin. Yeah, well, I guess I'll wait for you at the finish line. There we go. That's fine. Okay. Okay, well, we also did our technical loop, of course. Alvin, any surprises for you there? Yeah, I think first things first, not to call out one specific thing, but the future shock. I was expecting it to do a little bit more out there because I was so impressed by it on everything else we did. I did. Maybe this is the point of it, but it kind of felt like every other bike. You know, like I didn't feel like it was doing much. I did feel it bottom out once or twice. That's a good, you were riding hard. I was riding hard. You were going for it, but that seems very interesting to me that it didn't feel like it was very impactful for you. To me it's like a direct impact in ride quality. Okay, and you noticed the difference out there? Oh for sure. The hardest descent that I did was on the Diverge. Yeah, well is that your favorite bike in the Tech Loop then? I would say my favorite bike's the Canyon Grizzle. I like that it felt durable and burly, and I could go hard up and I could go very hard down. No, it was not quite as like, it wasn't as much of a comfort feel experience as that Diverge, but I was okay. Like, no hard feelings. Yeah, I would say out of the bikes, it felt kind of the most sleddy. You know, you can kind of point and shoot and it'll go down and you may not be the most comfortable on it, but it'll go. It definitely felt like you were buzzing the most, like you were the most amped up. I was pretty amped, yeah. Okay, well Alvin, you didn't like the Future Shock so much, what did you like? You know, if I had to choose one bike to do the tech loop, On over and over again, it'd probably be an XC bike, but if I had to choose from these probably be the Topstone Mostly because the rear end felt like I had a slightly wider tire than all the other bikes. Yeah, you're mentioning that. Yeah, just like good grip like climbing and just it felt like impacts are just a touch softer going down, too Okay, well flip side bikes that maybe didn't do as well for you on that test. Yeah, so the 2x drivetrain on the Giant Revolt Frankly, it kind of pissed me off out there, but if I had to choose one bike, it'd probably be the Greville. If I had to choose one bike that didn't impress me as much. It was a lot of fun, but if I wasn't sitting in the saddle, it felt like the stiffest out of all of them. I felt the most in my hands and my forearms out of that bike. So it kind of felt like a really front and beat you up a little bit on not a super long loop either. So like over the course of a longer, harder... Yeah, that's kind of my concern. Obviously, I could adjust tire pressures and that type of thing, but then that would kind of defeat the point. Yeah, I mean, all these bikes are standardized to begin with, so it is relative to all these other bikes with the same tire pressure. Okay, Hannah? I feel the very same way. The Greville was fun, but was it as fun as the other bikes in the lineup, right? That's kind of what we're going after is which bike is kind of Alvin and I's favorite. I'm not surprised at what your remarks were, and I felt very similar. With that, we have a decision to make. We got five bikes left, we gotta get down to four. One bike has to leave our test. It's probably the gravel, splitting hairs, you know? I mean, I'm leaning towards it. Like, again, like you said, when you're standing up out of the saddle and all that you feel is this very stiff bike underneath you. That's not, half our ride is going to be descending, you know, tomorrow. So I just, I don't think that's the one right now. Yeah, it's very much splitting hairs, but I think I would rather ride on a long ride than the other bikes. Okay, well, are you in agreement with the gravel? Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah. Well, with that, the Pinarello gravel is leaving our test, leaving us with four bikes. We're still going to test the gravel a bunch, ride it a bunch this week and give it a full review, but it's no longer in contention to be our favorite gravel bike of 2026. Well that does it for episode three. Stay tuned for the final episode where we're taking these last four bikes on a big ride through Maine to figure out which is our favorite. We'll see you there.