How to choose a gravel bike manufacturer and brand! Thorough explanation of comparisons and key points.

How to choose a manufacturer/brand

Determine your budget.

Unless you have an unlimited budget, you will usually have a fixed amount of money you can afford to spend on the purchase of a gravelike. So, it is very important to have a budget, even if it is just a “how much can I afford?” It is very important to have a budget, even if it is only a few dollars.

This is because each manufacturer has a certain price range for its own brand and series of gravel rinks, and some manufacturers may exclude you from their choices once you have set a budget.

Also, if you set your budget at less than 100,000 yen, or several tens of thousands of yen, you will not be able to purchase gravel ikes from major bicycle manufacturers in the first place, so you will have to choose other options.

So, when deciding on a budget,

1. $1,000 to $2,000
2. $2,000 to $3,000
3. 3,000 to 5,000 dollars
4. from $5,000

You should narrow down the manufacturers and brands by setting your budget roughly in the following four ranges.

Selecting the Right Bike for the Right Purpose

There are “all-road” gravel bikes and “off-road” gravel bikes. Gravelikes are positioned somewhere between road bikes and MTBs, so the manufacturer will have a distinctive feature that determines which side of the spectrum they fall into.

The differences between the two are as follows

	All Road	Off-Road
width of the tire	wider	very wide
Suspension	No suspension	Yes suspension
Handle Shape	Normal Drop
Geometry	Road Like	Upright

If it is more off-road, the configuration is similar to an MTB, and if it is more all-road, the configuration is similar to a road bike, especially an endurance road bike.

The manufacturer you choose will depend on which use you want to ride your gravel bike for.

Choose the color and design you prefer.

Gravelik is an expensive purchase, so it is very important that you like the way it looks. Some people even say that being a favorite color and design is more important than functionality.

Gravelike is a point of differentiation among manufacturers in terms of frame shape and color development, so narrowing down your choices by color and design will narrow down the manufacturers you prefer.

Comparing Gravel Series from Major Bike Manufacturers

Price Range

Let’s start with the price range of the major bike makers’ gravel ikes.

Manufacturer	Country of Origin	Brand Name	Price Range
Specialized	USA	Diverge	$2,000 and up
Trek	USA	Checkpoint	$2,500 and up
Giant	Taiwan	Revolt	$1,700
Cervelo	Canada	Áspero	$3,700
Canyon	Germany	Grail	$1,800
Colnago	Italy	G3X	$10,000 and up
Bianchi	Italy	Impulso Allroad	$2,300
Pinarello	Italy	Grevil	$6,500
Ridley	Belgium	Kanzo	$2,900 and up
Scott	Switzerland	Addict Gravel	$3,700
Kona	USA	Rove	$2,300
Merida	Taiwan	Silex	$1,500
BMC	Switzerland	URS	$3,900
Orbea	Spain	Terra	$2,200
Focus	Germany	Paralane	$3,200
Giant	Taiwan	Revolt	$1,700
Cinelli	Italy	Zydeco	$1,900

There is quite a difference between manufacturers. For example, in the lower price range, you will find that Giant Revolt, Canyon Grail, and Merida Silex are good choices.

The best balanced options are Specialized Diverge and Trek Checkpoint, which are priced over 200,000 yen, but as explained in the features section below, they are highly cost-effective considering the fact that they incorporate a unique suspension mechanism.

Characteristics

Next, let’s take a look at the characteristics of gravelikes by manufacturer.

Manufacturer	Country of origin	Brand name	Features
Specialized	USA	Diverge	Unique suspension mechanism for a smooth ride. Well-balanced gravel bikes.
Trek	USA	Checkpoint	Cost-effective with a lineup that covers everything from travel to racing
Giant	Taiwan	Revolt	High performance yet cost-effective
Cervelo	Canada	Áspero	Race grade top performance gravel road
Canyon	Germany	Grail	Broad choice from entry to high-end, high performance and high cost performance
Colnago	Italy	G3X	V3 racer bike but also great for endurance
Bianchi	Italy	Impulso Allroad	High-end series like a gravel version of Otre
Pinarello	Italy	Grevil	Based on the Dogma F, the highest performance gravel road
Ridley	Belgium	Kanzo
Scott	Switzerland	Addict Gravel
Kona	America	Rove	Classic looking gravel bike
Merida	Taiwan	Silex	MTB-like gravel bike with upright geometry Highly cost-effective
BMC	Swiss	URS	High-end bike that is a race bike made upright for gravel
Orbea	Spain	Terra	Balanced all-road gravel bike for both road and gravel
Focus	Germany	Paralane	Lightweight gravel road bike for endurance and all-road
Giant	Taiwan	Revolt	Cost-effective gravel road with an eye-catching and distinctive frame design
Cinelli	Italy	Zydeco	All-road gravel bike that balances road and gravel

The more expensive series inherit features from race-grade bikes or use high-end parts and materials.

There is also a difference in terms of “targeted riding.” Off-road bikes incorporate unique suspension features such as Specialized’s Future Shock and Trek’s IsoSpeed to achieve both light weight and shock absorption performance.

On the other hand, the all-road gravel series can be divided into high-grade models that are “gravel versions of racing road bikes” and affordable gravel bikes based on endurance road bikes.

This area will depend on what kind of riding you want to do, and will be a key factor in your choice.