Revel introduces the Rover carbon gravel bike

Published December 2, 2021 08:04AM

Revel Bikes may be best known for its full-suspension mountain bikes, but the crew at the Carbondale, Colorado brand is also down with gravel. Today Revel launched the Rover, a carbon fiber gravel bike that joins the brand’s three mountain bikes: the Rascal, Rail, and Ranger.

To look further into the family tree, the Revel Rover is a carbon cousin to the Why Cycles bikes. Why is Revel’s sister brand that produces titanium hardtail mountain bikes, as well as the R+ all-road bike. Although the ti R+ has been the go-to gravel bike for the Revel lunch ride for the past five years, Revel’s director of stoke Chris Reichel said that the brand’s engineers wanted to see what they could do with carbon.

“We like to think we know a thing or two about designing high-end, modern gravel bikes,” he said. “Really, we’re materials geeks at heart, and we always like to use the right material for the right application. However, gravel bikes are where the waters get a little muddy. We’ve been riding the titanium R+ since we launched it in 2016 and it has gotten glowing reviews, but we all wanted a carbon version, too.”

Reichel said that the Rover boasts a more progressive geometry than the R+, and the brand’s MTB heritage shows. With 69mm of trail for stability and a 71.5-degree head tube angle, this bike can do the business in the front and the party in the back, but will likely appeal to a rider who doesn’t want to lollygag.

Unlike some gravel bikes on the market, with their myriad mounts for bottles, fenders, and racks, the Rover is not attempting to be everything to everyone. It can accommodate two bottles on the down tube and one on the seat tube. Other than that, the bike is naked.

Reichel said that the dearth of accoutrements on the Rover is intended to give the bike a racier vibe than that of the more multipurpose R+.

“We basically thought, ‘how would we change the R+ a little bit?,'” he said. “So we used modern geometry and dropped the chainstay. It fits a 50mm tire with plenty of room but it’s still nice and snappy and quick. The geo also allows it to fit a big 46t ring. We think it’s the best tire-to-chainring clearance of anything on the market right now.”

The Rover also features Revel’s first venture into custom fork production. The carbon forks on the Rover will also come stock on the Why Cycles R+ next year.

The Rover will be available in sizes S-XXL and in three different build kits. Complete builds range from the $3,999 SRAM Rival kit to $4,600 for Shimano GRX to $8,199 for SRAM Red AXS. The GRX and SRAM Red AXS builds will come stock with Revel’s own RW23 gravel/all-road wheelset, released last July. The SRAM Rival build has I9 1/1 GRCX hoops. Framesets cost $2,400 and include headset, seat collar, and front and rear axles.