A NEW BREED OF GRAVEL

Disparaging voices have called gravel bikes just 1990s mountain bikes with drop bars' for years. But do these latest MTB-inspired rides offer something unique?

- Words Warren Rossiter

This month we've tested two of the latest gravel bikes from brands steeped in mountain bike design, both of which have created machines to take on this discipline from a mountain biker's perspective. Mondraker use a lengthy reach and slack head angle to push the front wheel forward on their Arid. This creates a long, stable front-centre measurement, which makes the bike more controllable in the most testing terrain. Fit is compensated for by a short stem. Compared to more traditional gravel bikes, such as Specialized's Crux or Canyon's Grail, the Mondraker looks quite radical. Pivot, meanwhile, are now on the fifth iteration of their Vault gravel platform. Previous models have been influenced by road and cyclocross, but this latest generation embraces far more of the US brand's mountain bike heritage. Here, that means huge tyre clearances, relaxed frame angles and a clever pseudosuspension softtail back end.

In the frame

With Mondraker's Arid, named after terrain that's dry, rocky and loose, the designers set out to create a bike that can handle the discomfort of this sort of surface, easily hold a line, and find traction where grip can be close to non-existent. The carbon fibre frame is made using Mondraker's Stealth Air fabrication process. Each tube of the radicallooking layout is optimised to deliver certain characteristics. At the rear, that's to give maximum compliance, via those unique triangulated joints at the top of the seatstays where they join the seat tube. In the bottom bracket area, it's all about stiffness for efficient power transfer, while the head tube is beefed-up to ensure the handling can cope with the most challenging terrain.