The 2026 Gravel Field Test： 7 Bikes Enter. Only 6 Survive.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Velo's gravel field test. If I was too good at this, nobody would watch. Have fun. We spent the last two weeks in coastal Maine testing seven of the latest and greatest gravel bikes costing $6,000 or less. We found a porcupine. How does this work? Let fate decide. Let's put it on the board. I just don't really feel like we're compatible. State! Pretty nice, honestly. This is so good. I'm just going to turn around and name the bikes, and then at that point, we can just roll over it. Behind me, I have seven bikes. Thanks. The Canyon Grizl, the Pinarello Grevel, the State Titanium Allroad, the Giant Revolt, the Specialized Diverge, the Cannondale Topstone, and the Orbea Terra. While there are a number of great gravel bikes at the $6,000 price point, we've chosen these bikes based on interest from you, our viewers and listeners, wide availability, and because they've been released within the last year. So to keep things as constant as possible, we've brought on some control wheels from Easton, the EC90 ALX carbon gravel wheels. Looks good. As well as Schwalbe G-One R Pro tires. Hey they're all 45 millimeters and we've been running them all at the same tire pressure. New tires! For the last two weeks we've put these bikes through a series of tests to find which one is our favorite. We're going to see if this goes in spot number five. Or here, or here, or here. Climbing, descending, an aero efficiency test, and a technical loop where we push to the limits of where you'd want to take a gravel bike. In between all that we've been riding as much as we can on a number of routes in mid-coast Maine. Fully flipped over, it's on camera, got it on camera. Oh my god. The field test was also supported by Leatt who provided helmets and shoes, Jordana who provided kits, and Feedback who provided tools. Now let's go back to day one where we took all seven of the bikes to get our first impressions. Testing the bikes for us are Velo's very own senior tech editor, Alvin Holbrook, and social media master, Hannah Gross. My name's Will Tracy, the managing editor here at Velo, and, well, I'm just here for safety supervising and to eat some snacks, so without further ado, let's get into it. Hannah, Alvin, welcome to the Velo gravel field test. There's so much to know about each of these bikes. There's so much to go through, so many features, so many bullet points. So for our decisions today of which bikes you're going to choose for your first impressions rides, it's going to come down to what is the best marketing hype. Cool. I'm hyped, Will. Contestant number one. It's a smooth operator meets gravel grinder. We'll keep going. That's a no from Alvin. We'll keep going. Yeah. Redefines resilience and performance. It's what I'm here to do, Will. One bike, all adventures. Say less. Alvin's not impressed. Keep going. Keep going. It's the ultimate getaway vehicle. You misspelled ultimate, by the way. Ultimate. Give me a break, I'm tired. Each pedal stroke takes you deeper into a labyrinth of possibilities. I like that. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's piqued interest. Yeah, tickling my like copywriting heart. GRAVEL CRUSHER. That's in all caps. Yeah. And contestant number seven. It's designed to be ridden for days on end. It's elegantly shaped with calculated curvature. You still don't know which hype belongs to which bike, and that's all you have to make a decision based on today. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Frick. All right, Hannah, choose which bikes you want. I would like to redefine resilience and performance with bike number two. I would also like an ultimate getaway vehicle. Of course. That's bike number four. I would like bike number six to crush gravel. That's what I'm here to do in Maine. Oh yeah, absolutely. All right, Alvin, I'm no mathematician, but I know that leaves the other bikes for you. All the bikes on the left side, obviously. I mean, that's okay. I really wanted to ride a labyrinth of possibilities. One bike all day. I can see it in your eyes. Days on end. Who wouldn't want to ride a bike days on end? Well, I wouldn't personally, but let's go hit it. We've got seven bikes to test and a lot of riding to do. So I'll see you at the test loop. See you on the trails. So we are in Camden Hills State Park for this test loop. We chose this spot mostly because of the array of terrains and surfaces, gradients that this provides. We've got some like category one gravel which is just like really smooth fast dirt basically you could ride it on a road bike right we've got category two a little bit chunkier a little spicier yeah a little spicier glass smooth tarmac that we can go up and then we'll go a little bit faster going back down just getting the drops and let her rip We've got a steep, punchy climb that's like a minute or two up. It's a bunch of little appetizers of gravel routes. Yeah, exactly. It's like just under five miles. It's gonna take about 30-ish minutes. All right, here we are. First round of the First Impressions. Alvin, Pinarello Gravel, Hannah, State Titanium Allroad. You guys ready? All right, get out there. Let's do it. See ya. Have fun. Make good choices. Bye, Dad. I'm gonna stay here and eat food. That sounds a lot better to me right now. Pinarello Gravel, designed to be ridden for days on end. Elegantly shaped with calculated curvature. I have a lot of experience with the previous generations of the Greville, which were very racy. And then with this one, it doesn't have to be racy. So it's got a lot more mounts. It's a lot more upright as well. My early impression is that that's totally a good thing. The retail price on this bike is $3,700. That is pretty reasonable. Immediately doesn't feel as darty as the other Grevilles I'm used to. The positioning, classic Pinarello. I think it's, they tend to spec a stem. That is 10 millimeters longer than I would have expected. And that's kind of the case here. I thought size 50, the reach to the bars would be like a little bit closer. It's getting steep here. Garmin reading 7%, my heart is saying 10. Both these bikes have SRAM Apex Explorer access. So electronic shifting, 11 to 44 cassette, not quite as low of a low gear as some of the other bikes here. With kind of mantra of this bike, I would have hoped to see like an 11 to 50 cassette. And frankly, for that bike, I'd probably say the same thing. Even though I'm having a good time up this, I absolutely do not think that this is low enough gear. For most people, I just don't. So Alvin, you did your first climb. What are the vibes? We're at the top. Gearing's not low enough. The gearing is not there! Alvin, first ride Pinarello gravel. Tell me two sentences, how'd it go? Two sentences? All right, you're running out of time. That's one sentence. Is that two sentences? That's two sentences. Standard gravel bike. Just standard, like down the road, middle, what you'd expect? Less twitchy than before also. Kind of just standard, not as adventurous as they'd position it as. Okay, interesting. The State Titanium Allroad redefines resilience and performance. So yeah, the State kind of, it's a little bit of an underdog here. My initial impressions visually was that it was a little bit the run to the litter. Yeah, it doesn't quite have the like cachet of these other brands, at least in most circles. But it's also the only one that's not carbon. I mean, it's competing against bikes that are several thousand dollars over the price point of this. Tough shoes to fill. So it's $4,400 out of spec. It comes with NVAG 25 wheels. And it comes with the carbon titanium frame and the electronic shifting. However, everything else that it comes on the $2,500 bike is also there. So you get an alloy bar, you get an alloy seat post, which I think that's the only bike here to have an alloy seat post. Initial impressions? Bike feels very rough on the harsh terrain. It is not forgiving. In terms of ride feel, it's not my first pick. The frame is very stiff. So that is interesting. One thing about titanium, it's not supposed to be like the stiffest or the lightest bike, particularly compared to carbon. I do know that that state is double butted titanium. If I remember correctly, it's only the top tube and the down tube of that bike that are double butted. Can you break down for me how double butted like impacts? Ride feel? Yeah, so it's just kind of lighter for a given amount of stiffness or strength. And it might feel a little bit more lively. Like you can kind of feel everything just because there's less material. The gearing limitations are adding up, Alvin. Yeah. I'm feeling it. I believe we both have a 40 or 42 tooth chain ring and then an 11 to 44 cassette. So our low, low gears are pretty similar. Yeah, it's definitely lower than like what you get on a road bike, which is not low enough, I think for most people. No. I also don't feel like my bike was really the geometry for like a steeper climb. I feel like this bike is meant for like rollers all day and not quite like punches. And that's okay. Hey. That was chattery. Uh-oh. Oh, Jesus. Oh, no. Whoa, turkeys. Turkeys? Yeah. Do you see them over there to the right? No. What? You got a turkey? Is it a flock? I don't know. What is it? What is a group of turkeys? Now we're talking. Okay. Set. All right, Hannah, you just did your first ride on the state titanium all road. Tell me what you think I mean this bike it feels pretty bombproof on the descent, but you're gonna feel everything through it I don't feel like it was very forgiving but at the same time I had a ton of fun on the ride Interesting. Okay. I have swallowed so many bugs I'm full of bugs Oh, look at this. Round two of the first impressions Hannah you are on the Giant Revolt, Alvin you're on the Canyon Grizl You guys ready? Get out there, go ride. Canyon Grizzle, one bike, all adventures. I just gotta say, I want my bike computer to be in the middle of this handlebar situation here. Do you want a little quadrant up front? I want it so bad. Oh, snake. Sorry. Okay, okay. I believe it's $3,300 as equipped. It's one by 12. It's a new GRX mechanical that came out last year. 11 to 51 cassette on this bike. So lower low gear than before as well. This new Shimano GRX is just so good. It's so buttery. I think the first thing that we've got to mention here though is my handlebars, right? Yeah, Alvin, you got a whole system going on up there. You got a whole ecosystem. It's called the full Mountie. It's a bar where you're supposed to have a ton of hand positions, it's carbon fiber. Mounting points underneath the bar, and then you can put a bag right here. When you're riding along pretty quick, you're supposed to be able to put your hands down and just use it as kind of like an aero tuck position. Looks notwithstanding, I actually liked these quite a bit. Yeah, do you think the snake and I are friends? I don't think so. So as I said, I have ridden this bike before and I have a good amount of experience on the previous one. Early impressions just on this terrain. I kind of like that the early bike felt just a tiny bit tighter. Makes me think that this becoming more adventure-y, a little bit more big tire focused. 53 mil tire, front and rear, max tire clearance on this. It makes plenty of space for something like the Canyon Grail, the race bike. Usually a bike that feels like this The upside of something like that is that when it gets kind of chunky or chundery, it kind of just stays on where you're pointing it a little bit better. Oh yeah, this is the stuff. I swallowed a bug. Oh, you did? So this is the Canyon VCLS seatpost. It's a design they've been doing for a really long time. I believe they claim up to 20 millimeters of deflection, which is not the same as suspension. I've had this on other bikes. I'm a big fan. I do like the direction that Canyon is going. They're really planting their foot. They're saying, hey, we are making this bike. This is firmly planted, adventure-y, like getting you out there first and foremost. I'm taking in that view. Look at all this ocean, I think, right? Kind of hard to see through the trees, but look at this ocean vibe. That's not a lake, that's for sure. Yo! Welcome back! Yo! Alvin, how'd it feel? It feels long. Which means that like when you're going kind of fast and through some chunk, it holds its line, but it's also not the most responsive gravel bike that I've ridden. Fair. Okay. And tell me about these guys. What's going on with these bars? Yeah, the full Mountie. So you've got this, you got this, you got this right here, which is like kind of curved. This? This? This? This? You could also do, like, a ride in the bowl. Oh. Thanks for doing that so close to me. You're welcome. Don't call HR. Oh, Alvin almost hit a snake. Ooh. Like a real snake. And it was, like, fully across the road. Like, he avoided the snake. Slippery snake. Mm-hmm. Slippery, slippery snake. Slippery little snake. Oh my God. Giant Revolt. Gravel Crusher. Alvin, I'm listening to all these amazing things about your bike, but I'm a little distracted by how well this bike is climbing. We are ripping up the hill. We have gears for days. Crispy shifting. You have SRAM Rival Access. It's just been updated earlier this year. I think my favorite thing about the new SRAM Rival Access is that it has new lever ergonomics. The levers are a little bit longer, a little bit narrower. The brakes are very different. You noticed that, right? Yeah, the brakes are very, very powerful. You can brake from the tops of your handlebars with one finger. Like I can kind of do that with Shimano. You can do that a lot more easily. With the new SRAM stuff, if I were on a budget, I would try and stretch the budget at least to get those levers. Feels really nimble in the front. I think that's a double-edged sword. Like nimble can be twitchy. Okay. And nimble can be very fun uphill. Hill. Alvin, I have a confession. Yeah. I think I'm on a road bike. What makes you say that? It goes so fast uphill. This has to be one of the fastest climbing gravel bikes I've ever ridden. We haven't weighed the bikes yet, but I would say that that's probably the lightest, if not the second lightest bike here. It's got fork mounts, 53 mil tire clearance, which is the second biggest here on test. People race it. Melissa Rollins crushes it on the bike. She's won many races on this bike. Feels more efficient. I felt the most benefits of this on the tarmac. Crusher. Yeah, hit me. Cluster down! Get down! That's why you run Velo around my job. Hannah, you told me this was faster. Giant Revolt. Going from the all-road to this was pretty night and day. I would say, I mean, this bike feels like a road bike. I told Alvin that I'm not totally convinced it's not a road bike. Interesting. It's very lively. It's not as planted as the state all-road. There were moments that I felt pretty loose because it was so, so light. I had way more fun on the entire ride probably than the state because I climbed better. It was more efficient on the up. Okay, some trade-offs. All right, cool. Thanks, Hannah. Crusher? Yes, please. All right, cool. Now these two have now tested two different sets of bikes, so four bikes in total. We're running out of daylight here, so I think we're gonna call it a wrap for today. Go find some lobster, go find some dinner, and we'll see you back out here tomorrow for the rest of the first round impressions. Relaxing. Where do you want to go for dinner? Can you say it in Puerto Rican? I think it's Croatian. Croatian. Oh, I don't want to go to the Croatian thing. I've never been to Croatia. There's a place that's Puerto Rican or Costa Rican or something. I probably don't know if I want, like, experimental food. I'm down. We can go there. Food looks like garbage. I just want something to eat, man. I don't care what it is. There's this place called Sea Dogs. There's a bike right there. Why don't you want to go to Sea Dogs? We've been there. We've done that. I got a compression. Okay. Damn, son. That's a very sleazy shirt. Where are we going? That's a very sneezy shirt. Where are we going? All right, Hannah, Alvin, welcome back. Day two of our first impressions. We got a couple more sets of bikes to test, so we'll just get right back into it because we've got a lot of riding to do today. Hannah, you are on the Cannondale Topstone and Alvin, you'll be riding the Specialized Diverge 4 today to start. Both these bikes have some sort of suspension built in, so it'll be interesting to hear what your thoughts are on that and how it rides. Yeah. All right, guys, get after it. We'll see you in a little bit. See you later, Will. All right, day two. Day two, beautiful Maine. We're back. I've got the Specialized Diverge. Specialized Diverge, the ultimate getaway vehicle. $6,000. The big thing that Specialized has going on here is its feature shock system. It's the third generation of it. It's built into the steer tube of the bike. Like, it sits just under the stem. So we have experienced feature shock in the past. On the Specialized Roubaix. That one is a little bit different. That was the 3.3 system. This one's the 3.2 system. So you get spring and damper, but you don't get a knob. I would have loved to see the knob here. That being said, Future Shock doesn't really activate all that much until you hit kind of the chattery stuff. If you're on something like this, it just kind of stays at the top of the travel and it doesn't feel like anything. If I stand up and pedal, like I can kind of feel it, but you can't feel it as much as I think you think you would. Now, I feel like there's a lot of mixed opinions on Future Shock. I feel like there's some haters. Yeah. And some super fans. Yeah, I was a hater previously, for sure. Okay. At least on the Roubaix, I thought it overcomplicated the bike. However, on a bike like this, I'm much more interested in seeing it. Because ideally, you're riding more dirt. Yeah. And the other reason I was a hater is that previous iterations of the Future Shock were not serviceable. This one is now user serviceable. And there's a turkey. There's a turkey. Oh man, look at that bug. What the heck? Man, there just aren't nearly as many bugs where we are. No. I feel like, because there are out here, right? So you really start to feel the Future Shock through this small lighter stuff right here. So this has 13 speed SRAM Rival Explore Access, 10 to 46 cassette. It's an alloy handlebar, which right at $6,000, I would have liked to see a carbon bar like you get on the Giant. But I like that it offers a slight bit more rise over the stem. There's a slight flare to these drops too. I like the ergonomics of them quite a bit. It's climbing pretty well. I find that the front wheel is not moving around a ton. I haven't lost any grip in that rear wheel. Just does it. Does it? Nothing noticeable. That's weird or quirky about how this bike climbs just yet. Drop it in. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is a feature shock is noticeable here, especially right here. Oh man. You know, I was a hater for a long time. I think most people hate to love it. I hate to love it. But the fact of the matter is most of the time they make a pretty freaking good bike. Guys, welcome back. Okay. How'd it go? How'd the bikes go? It's not a replacement for a full suspension fork, it's not a replacement for a wider tire, and it's not the same as adding a suspension stem, like a Redshift shock stop. Okay. It feels like it's its own thing. Secret fourth thing. I generally really like it, though. All right. Yeah. Cool. Do the pose that's a ghost. Cannondale Topstone. It's a smooth operator meets gravel grinder. You're on the Topstone Carbon today. I believe it's the entry-level access equipped model. It comes in at $4,700. I've got a kingpin system in the back to help, as they say, reduce chatter. Kind of smooth out the whole ride. I believe it's up to 30 mil flexion at the seat post and 10 mil of flex at the rear wheel. These two bikes both have suspension, but they go about them in such different ways. I don't feel like Kingpin is affecting my road climb right now. It's not so helpful that it makes a new problem. I did want more gears when I was descending. You were spinning out. I was spinning out. But it also has a mountain bike cassette, so it's trading a high gear for descending and pedaling through for a low, low gear. More turkeys, okay. Oh. Oh, we're testing it. Well, I can be a first-hand witness that Kingpin works. Probably the least vibration of a descent yet, though I'm comparing it to very stark alternatives. I could be more adventurous in the lines that I picked, knowing that like the back half wasn't as chattery. And I really appreciated that. That was fun. We got turkeys and snakes. Never underestimate a snake. Yeah, that's good saddle height. Oh, you guys are back. Okay, I'm gonna be riding. Uh, Orbea Terra. I can't roll my R's. Okay, well, you go enjoy it. Orbea Terra. Each pedal stroke takes you deeper into a labyrinth of possibilities. I've got the M10i LTD Team. It is one of the top spec versions of this bike. It's Shimano GRX Di2. These Oquo high-end wheels, and it also gets Orbea's MyO custom configurator. So you can customize not only the paint color of the bike, but you can customize your touch points, the fit dimensions if you really want to as well. 50 mil tire clearance on this. I've got a carbon handlebar. Orbea lets you choose what shape handlebar you want. You get fender mounts, you get rack mounts. Until earlier this year, when Orbea updated the bike, it was just the Terra, and it had to be kind of one bike to do everything. And it ended up kind of just being like a master of none. Now there are two versions. There's this, the Terra, and then there's the Terra Race, which is longer, lower, lighter position. Handling is a little bit sharper. First road climb, quick impressions. It's not quite as zippy as I would have thought it to be. It's pretty good. I don't know. I definitely have to spend more time on it. Oh, we got more turkeys. Oh my goodness. They're big ones too. What's up turkeys? Oh, they're taking off. I don't blame them. Is it capable? Is it dependent on like what situation you're in? Ride a hundred miles? Yes. Capable to inspire you to like push even harder than before. Maybe a little bit less. Oh, hello. Sorry Tarek. So this is Shimano GRX, I do two by. Newest generation, 48 31 chainrings up front 11 to 34 cassette. These levers are known for being kind of longer than a traditional Shimano lever. It's supposed to make effort at the lever when you're riding on the hoods lower. So a lot of these bikes are coming with a 40 or a 42 centimeter bar or even wider. In these basically size small bikes that we have here, this one's a 38. I noticed that immediately because I run a 36 on my road bike and a 38 on my gravel bike. Most riders that are riding this have narrower shoulders. They should be on a narrower bar. And so it's good to see Orbea offers you that suggestion, but out of the box, it's like this. Okay, up the climb. And I am digging the position on this bike. Front wheel not moving around too much. It just feels like a competent gravel bike. Nothing here really stands out as far as handling is concerned. It's the other things that make this bike intriguing. Woo! Woo! Woo! First ride on the Orbea Terra, how'd it go? How'd it feel? I was really excited for this bike visually and like on the spec sheet. Out riding, it doesn't, like there wasn't anything huge that stood out, which is both kind of like a pro and kind of a detriment. So it's just kind of somewhere in the middle, nothing stands out. Yeah, nothing huge going on here compared to the other bikes. But there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. Yeah. Where he's at. Just do it. Just do it. Just nail it. Just do it better and you'll be good. Hannah and Alvin have now tested all seven of our test bikes on our test loop and they now have some ideas about which ones they like more, which ones they like less. They don't know this yet, but we have some decisions to make. They have to choose one bike based on their initial impressions to remove from the test. We've now tested all seven of these bikes. I know you have some thoughts, so run me through it. Favorite bikes, Hannah. I love the Giant Revolt. I liked a lot of the bikes, but the Revolt was the one that I wish I could have done another loop of our test loop on. Okay, awesome. Alvin. I'm not sure if I'm ready to narrow it down to just one bike. I think so far, like, the Specialized Diverge really piqued my interest. And the Cannondale Topstone. Both for different reasons, even though they both have suspension. Let's kick it over to the other side of the spectrum. Bikes you didn't like. Hannah, anything stand out to you? Unfortunately, the State Allroad wasn't my favorite. Do you have a favorite? It just didn't leave the best first impression on me. But I need to ride it more. It's bottom of my list right now. Yeah, I think I'd have to agree. I agree. The state was... It really intrigues me because it's the lone bike here that's not made of carbon fiber. It was probably a little disjointed feeling, like it was a little tall, a little short as far as reach. It just didn't feel like it was as cohesive a package as the other ones and so if I had to choose one right now it would be the State. Now, I have a sneaking suspicion. I know which one y'all are going to choose now, but let's hear it. Hannah, which bike do you think you want to get rid of? No surprises here. Probably the state all-road. Okay, Alvin. Again, if I had to choose one right now, it'd have to be the state, unfortunately. Okay. I know we've had a really good few days together and we have developed a connection. I just don't think it's the connection that I can take into a long-term relationship. I mean, we're here to learn more about ourselves and that's what I've learned. That's my truth and that's what I'm sticking to That does it for this first episode of the field test. We have a bunch more challenges in store for you to figure out which of these bikes is our favorite. We'll see you on the next episode. Is that something? Perfect. I'm just reality TV brain rotted. I hope we can continue a friendship out of the test, but for now, I think it's time for us to part ways.