Guest staring: Albion Abr1 pocket, Giant Pioneer Gravel & Madison Roam Cargo

I will freely admit that I thought the idea of a pair of bib shorts with pockets on the legs was a silly idea. I could see the value in some pockets at the base of your back where jersey pockets sit, especially if you were wearing a jersey or a casual shirt, but leg pockets? nah.

I can’t deny the popularity these shorts seem to have gathered though and when Giant UK got in contact to see if I’d like to review a pair of their shorts I thought I’d say yes just to see what all the fuss is about. Needing something to compare them to I did a quick poll on the ukgravelco instagram page to see which companies the followers thought I should try. Albion Cycling got a lot of votes so I contacted them and they agreed to send out a pair of their ABR1 shorts. Madison Sportive bib shorts have long been a favourite of mine so when I saw they also did cargo shorts I bought a pair to try those too.

Madison Roam Cargo Bibshorts

As mentioned, I’ve been a fan of the Madison Sportive bib shorts for a few years, they are a great medium ride length short that fit me like a glove. The cargo shorts with 5 rear pockets and two thigh pockets don’t lack carrying capacity so they are ideal to wear with a pocket less jersey or a standard shirt. the shoulder straps are wide and there’s a guide on both shoulders to route a hydration pack hose if that’s your thing. mesh panels cut down on the sweatiness on hot days. The pad is “Premium Italian TMF chamois” designed to be comfortable on hour long or multiple day rides.

I was so disappointed in these shorts. The size chart is exactly the same as the standard Madison bib shorts I like so much but the Roam cargo shorts were a world away from that sizing. The pad feels like you are sitting on a massive naan bread and tends to creep up where the sun doesn’t shine. Weirdly though, the legs feel baggy and you feel you constantly need to adjust them. Adding the weight of something in the thigh pockets such as a phone only exacerbates this. This and the pad don’t make for a comfortable long distance riding short. The rear pockets and mesh sections though are well though out and useful.

Giant Pioneer Gravel Shorts

The Giant shorts are advertised as “replica Giant off road team” shorts. They have two thigh pockets and two rear pockets. The pad is described as “MS-2 Chamois for optimal performance and comfort on any ride” and the legs are gripperless to allow natural movement. They are heavily branded with Giant logos and come in the team colours and are on the shiny spectrum of lycra.

These shorts are described as a pro replica and although you don’t need to be a pro rider to wear them you will need to check the sizing. I usually size bib shorts by height and being over 6ft tall I go with XL sizing just to stop the feeling of being squeezed longitudinally. These shorts were perfect in that sense but are definitely a “pro fit” I’ll admit they are also advertised as a compression fit so that does add to the feeling of tightness and you can feel your muscles supported. What I didn’t like though was the seam that runs from the hip around mid thigh which digs in and gives a definite crotch bulge. I was conscious of this pressure all through the rides in this short. The pad is very comfortable for short and long rides. I did feel a little silly wearing Giant branded shorts on a non Giant gravel bike though. if you are pro sized (I’m not sure what that is or the connotations of it) and like big logos and perhaps ride a giant bike these are a short to consider.

Albion Cycling ABR1 Pocket bib shorts

I’m embarrassed to say until followers of the ukgravelco instagram page mentioned Albion Cycling I’d not heard of the company but took their advice and tried out their cargo short. They have two mesh thigh pockets and one large horizontal rear mesh pocket. There are mesh panels for ventilation, wide shoulder straps, wide silicone leg grippers and the shorts have reflective tabs at the rear and sides. The pad is described as ” x Elastic Interface ultra pad technology for long distance riding (with recycled face fabric)”

The Albion ABR1 shorts are a much different design to the other two with the wide straps and wide leg grippers, the rear pocket too is unusual as is is horizontal. In practice though nothing fell out and it’s actually easier to access while riding, especially if you are wearing a gilet with a side entry rear zip. Straight from the first pedal turn I have liked these shorts on short and long rides. the pad is very comfortable even in the 30+ degree heat the UK has experienced recently. The wide straps spread the load evenly and you forget you are wearing the shorts they are that comfortable. The thigh pockets are slightly elasticated and I’ve taken to putting my phone in there. It doesn’t seem to get sweaty there as it does on the rear pockets of any of the shorts on test and the accessibility means grabbing things from that pocket is safer that riding with hands behind your back. I like these shorts so much I’ve even gone so far as to delay a ride while I waited for the ABR1s to come out of the wash even though I’d got lots of different shorts ready to go as I knew the Albion’s were better performing.

Out of the three there’s clearly one set of bibs that stand out, the Albion ABR1 pocket bib shorts as recommended by ukgravelco followers, it seems that sometimes you can believe what you read on the internet!

Albion Cycling have so much confidence in their product that they offer a 60 day trial window, if you don’t like the shorts they’ll refund or replace them. no other company I know of does that.

more info on the Albion Cycles ABR1 short here

Giant Pioneer shorts here

Madison Roam Cargo Shorts here

If pressed I’d always describe myself as an off road rider first and road rider second, I’d much rather ride a half mile of technical trail than 10 miles of tarmac, however scenic the view. I started my off road riding bike journey on a mountain bike and so I was excited when, after dropping the guys at Stanton Bikes a message they said they’d love to send their new gravel bike out for review. This excitement was because Stanton is well known in the off road riding world for their range of superbly riding steel and titanium mountain bikes. Their take on the gravel bike would be an interesting one to try out.

There aren’t too many Titanium gravel bike frames on the market but as mentioned Stanton have had Ti MTBs in their line up for a while so they know what works and the best place to get them manufactured. Made from triple butted 3AL 2.5V titanium alloy the frame has that lovely “ping” you only get from Ti when you flick it with your finger. The tubes are internally butted to give compliance where it’s needed and stiffness where it’s not. The bottom bracket area for example has no side to side twang, which some Ti frames I’ve ridden previously have had.

The frame has generous clearance even with the 47mm tyres fitted, in fact with the correct rims maybe even larger would fit too. The headset is integrated and thank you Stanton, the bottom bracket is external and threaded! The cable routing is internal with swappable stops if you want to run mechanical or electronic gearing. As is becoming more popular now and shows Stanton’s MTB back round the frame allows for an internally routed dropper post although the test bike came fitted with a standard post. The welding is neat and tidy and there is a range of options for finishes, including the Cerakote as seen here.

The frame has three bottle cage mounts, two inside the main triangle and one under the downtube. Rack and mudguard mounts are fitted too. The frame has a slightly flattened section under the downtube which is not mentioned on the Stanton website as a feature but if you are shouldering this bike over a gate or the 3 peaks CX race or similar then that little bit of flat tube will be a little more comfy than a normal tube digging in.

Interestingly Stanton have decided to not use the usual flat mount caliper fitting and instead have opted for an I.S. (international standard) mount. This is found on a lot of MTBs and needs an adaptor to fit brake calipers too.

Although Stanton only have this available as a frameset it’s worth noting that depending on your choice of brake caliper when you build the bike the I.S. mount can be quite fiddly to set up. The test bike came with Hope’s 4 pot RX+ calipers and because of the design of the calipers the only way to align the brake is through use of shims/washers which can be a nightmare of lost washers and some swearing! Shimano and Sram calipers are much more straight forward because an adaptor allows their post mount caliper to be used and that is a lot less expletive inducing. Choose your brake carefully.

The fork is full carbon fibre, both steerer and blades and has just as generous clearance for tyres as the frame. It comes with mudguard mounts but no other mounts which is quite unusual as Stanton say the bike is ideal for bike packing. The fork has a flat mount brake fitting.

I always describe titanium frames as having the ride characteristics of steel with the weight of aluminium and the Switchpath conforms to this. Titanium is not super light compared to carbon fibre but it has a far superior ride quality. The ride is comfortable over all surfaces but because of the design and butting of the frame tubes this doesn’t mean there’s unwelcome flex or the feeling that your pedalling power is being lost. Hit a climb with some momentum or stand to put power down you can feel the bike surge forward in response to your input. Over the other side of the hill when you get your hands on the drop bars and stay away from the brakes the bike will go where you point it without being deflected by trail hazards like roots and rocks. The carbon fork does a good job of smoothing out the smaller gravel sections to cut down on hand and shoulder fatigue without ever feeling like a wet noodle when sprinting.

Descending fast on loose gravel brings that “Ting Ting” noise back as small stones hit the down tube but by then you are grinning so much you probably won’t notice. The other good thing about a bare Titanium frame is that blemishes can just be polished out. So if you are serial bike cleaner who loves a shiny bike at all times you will love Titanium!

Tight switchback trails on a bike called a switchpath you’d think would be somewhere it would excel and so just as well it does! This is down to the geometry of the bike. the bike will go where you point it with good trail manners.

If you read Stanton’s description on the Switchpath page on their website (link below) you’d think they were trying to distance the bike as far away from a road bike as possible.

“You can sleep easy knowing we’ve drawn a line in the gravel and come down firmly on the side of the mountain fraternity. This is as close to the r*@d as we can cope with“

The above statement is quite interesting as the geometry of the bike is quite a lot closer to a road/CX bike than a mountain bike unless it’s one from the 1990’s, Stanton even mention this in their model overview. with mountain bikes now getting head angles of 62 degrees the Switchpath’s 70 degrees is quite conservative, but I’ll admit still slacker than a road bike. This doesn’t hold the bike back though, far from it, its a quick turning speed machine if you want it to be. which brings us to bike packing.

If you want to load up the bike with bike packing bags and use it for long self supported adventures you’ll need to get creative and maybe invest in a rack as apart from the three bottle cage mounts and the rack/mudguard mounts there is nothing else on the frame to bolt to. The quick handling might not be what you want on a fully loaded bike though.

Sizing, the Switchpath comes in 4 sizes, 51, 54, 55.5 and 57cm. I usually ride a 56cm frame or thereabouts and the 55.5 was the only size available for this test. It tuned out to be a size too small for me and this manifested itself by me getting a lot of toe overlap. Toe overlap happens when your foot is on the pedal at the 9-3 position and the turn of the bars makes the front tyre rub on your shoe. Not ideal on tight off road turns. The next size up is around 10mm longer and might have stopped this. Again though, the top tube/reach on the biggest frame size is quite near traditional road bike numbers.

The Stanton Switchpath is a great riding bike, it’s quick and agile handling will delight anyone who loves a responsive bike. For Three peaks CX racing or a quick blast after work it excels. Stanton are probably going to cringe to see me write that if you are coming from a predominantly road bike back round or you’re someone who is still riding your ATB from 1995 you will feel instantly at home. if all you’ve ridden is one of todays long, low and slack MTBs you’ll need a period of adjustment but the adrenalin rush will be great!

If you want that Titanium “ping” with great fast handling and a great looking frame to build your dream gravel bike around then the Stanton Switchpath Ti is definitely one to put on your list.

The Stanton Switchpath Ti with prices starting at just over 2k can be found here

I find stories and pictures of riders doing multi-day rides, wild camping and riding places I’ve always wanted to ride very inspiring, But then reality steps in and I realise I’m not currently or may never be that type of rider who pushes themselves to the limit of endurance, or finds suffering and sleeping in a bivi bag, in a field, in a storm all that appealing. I realise that organising such trips and fitting them around busy work and family life would be a logistical nightmare and I know I’d agonise over what to take, which bike to use, will I have time etc etc so I’ve always dismissed the idea to the drawer marked “one day”?

Recently I ventured down the Chiltern Hills for the 1816 Cycles bike launch (read it here) The guys at 1816 had asked John and Jon (yes it is quite confusing chatting to them via email) from Wild Cycles to host the event. They set up the campsite and supplied the catering and also joined the ride to give logistical support. After to chatting to the Jo(h)ns and learned about what Wild Cycles was all about (I initially thought they were a bike shop) I realised I could do those bike adventures without the organising, route planning and having to haul all my worldly goods with me and be able to sleep in a tent I haven’t had to carry for 70 miles.

Ok, you might say I’m a lightweight for not wanting to do the serious adventures where your life could be on the line but I suspect I’m not alone in this. Adventures though, don’t have to conform to the “epic” scenes you see on social media. you can have just as much fun on an adventure much closer to home.

I thought it would be a great for readers of UKgravelCO to hear about the services that Wild Cycles offer. Their events and rides are also all in the UK so much easier to get to and I bet there aren’t many of us who’ve tried all the great locations the UK has to offer. Staying local will obviously use less precious energy too.

I put together a few questions to get a better idea about the guys at Wild Cycles and see if what they offer can recreate that sense of adventure.

Who are wildcycles, where are you based and how did the idea of guided and catered rides start?

Wild Cycles is a family run/ father & son business based in the Chilterns – Buckinghamshire. Dad raced professionally in South Africa for many years before moving to the UK and I’ve been a passionate cyclist for my whole life. Having lived and grown up in South Africa, we wanted to bring our experience of camping out in the African bush and under the stars to the UK. Combining that with gravel cycling, delicious locally sourced food and epic routes – we hoped to bring a new experience to the cycling tour market which seemed a little stale at the time.

We really kicked Wild Cycles off during the Pandemic, the country was locked down and it was during this time that we discovered the adventures available to us on our doorstep. Like many others, we were surprised and delighted at what we found and rode the local area flat. There was a slight sense of guilt as to why we hadn’t ridden these incredible routes in the Chilterns before and had overlooked them for more exotic destinations. Once we’d created the routes, we wanted to sound the bells and let people know that there is some amazing riding available right here on London’s back doorstep.  

Using Komoot, we traced all of our routes and initially just offered these as free to download tours. We were still getting our heads around the Wild Cycles business model and how we’d run our tours. When Cycling UK released The King Alfreds Way, a 220 mile gravel adventure in the heart of the UK – we knew we’d have to recce this and give it the Wild Cycles treatment. So that’s exactly what we did and since then we’ve been running several multi day off road adventures around the UK.

Is it all UK based riding?

Wild Cycles is all about the Adventures that you can find on your doorstep, wherever that may be. We’re currently only running gravel adventures in the UK, and haven’t even scratched the surface of what is possible. There are so many incredible routes and experiences waiting to be explored! With the way that the environment and COVID-19 has affected our lives for the past few years, we strongly believe that long distance travel to far flung locations is a thing of the past. We’re passionate about using what we have available here and creating unique memorable experiences around that.

Do you cater for all abilities or do you need to be an expert rider to come on one of your rides?

Definitely, our mission is to make nature accessible to anyone and everyone using the power of the bicycle. We run monthly gravel rides and gravel basics coaching sessions for those looking to get more into the gravel scene. Our tours vary in difficulty but usually sit around the 50 miles -75 miles per day mark so are challenging, but bear in mind that you’ll have an entire day to complete this distance with plenty of cake, coffee and beer stops! We get a real mix of abilities, from those who want to smash out the miles, to those who like to take a more leisurely approach. 

What does a typical day at Wild cycles involve?

A typical day on a Wild Cycles adventure involves pedalling through incredible landscapes, enjoying a warm welcome to camp upon arrival with an ice cold beverage of choice, enjoying sitting around a fire and recalling stories from the days adventure, delicious bbq, stone baked pizza or pub dinner, snoozing in a cotton bell tent, hot coffee and breakfast spread in the morning and repeat!

If I have a special diet can that be accommodated?

We want to make cycling as accessible as possible, so all dietary preferences are catered for!

What happens if one of your guests has a mechanical problem out on a ride that they can’t fix themselves?

Our rides are supported so if you do run into trouble on the trails, we are always at hand to come and help as best as we can or ferry you to a bike shop nearby.

Of all the routes you offer, which is your favourite?

Oooh tough choice, our favourite has to be the Wild Wales Gravel Festival route. Created by us in collaboration with some lovely people at Neighbourhood Gravel CC and Gravel Union. After months of recce’s and riding the routes in all conditions, we feel we’ve got them down. From waterfalls, to valleys, natural pump track descents and tonnes of gravel, Wales has it all! We can’t wait to kick things off again at the festival this september, as well as some epic riding there will also be live music, pizza, and a lot of celebrating!

Can you guarantee the weather will be good and if it is wet and horrible, is there a contingency plan?

We like to think that we’re on good terms with the man upstairs, but unfortunately can’t guarantee the weather will be perfect! Saying that, all of our tours run in the British summer from May- September, so you’d be pretty unlucky to get rained on and we’ve only run into rough seas a few times!

Why should I use Wildcycles rather than organise the trip myself and carry all my own stuff?

Our mission is to make cycling and the great outdoors more accessible to everyone. So if you don’t have the kit or the bike, our trips are a really affordable way to access these amazing adventures. We’re providing everything from logistics, to food, to carrying your luggage – so all you have to do is ride your bike! We even have a fleet of hire bikes if you don’t have one yet. Even if you’re a seasoned cyclist, there’s something incredibly liberating about travelling light – with no kit sloshing around on the bike, it makes for a great experience.

Are the group rides mixed? Quite a few of ukgravelco’s women readers contact me to say they are reluctant to attend events because the majority of participants are male. Do you also offer women only rides?

Our group rides are completely mixed, but we’re super aware of the lack of diversity within cycling as a sport and are passionate about helping to change this. Whilst we don’t run any women’s only rides yet, it’s something that we’d love to incorporate. We’ve been looking to expand the team and if any of your readers want to get in touch about running a women’s only ride/ adventure – we’d be all ears! We’ve also saved 50% of tickets to our Wild Wales Gravel Festival for Women and people from ethic minority backgrounds.

I see from your website that you also support multi day rides, If I signed up to do the King Alfred way package what can I expect to get for my fee?

– Ride briefings at the beginning of each day and campsite welcome at the end of each stage. 

– GPX routes for each day are provided in advance and we’ll walk you through each days riding. 

– We support and transfer of all the gear you aren’t carrying with you on your ride and ensure it gets to your overnight camp before you! 

– We support you during your ride and are always on hand. 

– Your pitch is ready for when you arrive after a day’s ride – complete with bell tents, cooking gear, bike maintenance kit, tables, chairs under cover of our iconic boma. To complete the set-up – your very own open fire where you can chill and recount that day’s highlights. 

– For your 3 evenings – we’ll be sourcing some truly special local meals with Vegetarian and Vegan options available (all dietary preferences catered for). Includes snacks, main & salad as well as a selection of brews and non-alcoholic drinks. 

– Breakfast on 3 mornings is a delicious locally sourced granola, pastries, fruit, fresh coffee and tea. Snacks & fruit for the road included.  

What’s not included Train fares, parking, lunch and refreshments en-route.

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So you can see there’s not really an excuse now not to go and explore the UK on day tours or 4 day adventures. The Two Johns really are enthusiastic about riding, nothing seems too much trouble for them and nothing seems to phase them, they couldn’t do more to look after us on the 1816 weekend and the pizzas were fab! They are genuinely nice people you’d want to ride and camp with.

I’ll admit you are probably not going to risk hyperthermia or have to milk a wild Yak to get fuelled for the next days riding but for some of us just making it to the end of a supported 4 day ride is an adventure and an achievement in itself and who knows might lead to you opening that drawer marked “one day” and making plans!

I’m hoping to get the Wild Cycles Wales festival in September for some chilled out Welsh gravel riding. Maybe meet you there?

You can find more information here Wild Cycles

Wild cycles have just been featured in The Times too 16 beautiful Routes

Recently I was invited down to the Chiltern Hills by 1816 Cycles to have a look at and ride their “new” gravel bike, the L’enfer du Nord. I’ve put the word new in inverted commas because the original design was begun and a bike released into the wild in 2020. I’m sure I don’t have to go into what happened to the world that year, It wasn’t the best time to launch a bike even with the sudden scramble for bicycles and components the globe saw. You couldn’t exactly pop over to the far east to check out the frame manufacturers and talk to sample makers on a whim. Happily though those two years have allowed 1816 cycles to perfect their design, this latest bike for example now has a healthy tyre clearance suitable for UK conditions and a much neater and integrated seat post clamp.

There are three guys behind this brand (incidentally 1816 is the unofficial year the two wheel “bi-cycle” was invented) two engineers Tink and Jonty and a sportswear designer Stuart. Apart from those skills the three of them have years of MTB, cyclocross and road bike riding experience to put into the bike and it really does show. This isn’t a bike designed to just look good on social media, although it achieves that too, it’s a bike designed to have the best ride quality, to go fast if needed but without compromising the riders comfort. Read on to see if it matches the design brief with an ordinary rider on it.

I got to ride the bike in the first picture and although it was dripping in a Sram Red AXS mullet electronic groupset, mullet meaning the shifters/crank etc are from Sram’s road group but the rear cassette and mech are from their MTB group. This means you can fit a huge range of gears to get you up any slope. The wheels were mid level Zipp 303s, a great all round wheelset for gravel and road. This review is about how the bike rides and the components do have a lot to do with that experience but the main focus should be about the frame and fork. However as 1816 do offer three builds (as seen with Sram mullet, Shimano Di2 and a dream build with Sram AXS, Enve and Chris king) I will say that the Sram AXS gears are sublime, very intuitive to use and were faultless throughout the weekend. Zipp 303s wheels are great too, stiff and yet still comfortable. The wheels came with 43mm Gravelking tyres which were nice and fat on the rims with still plenty of room in the frame. As the weather was dry and the trails dusty they were spot on for rolling resistance and added to the comfort.

The chiltern hills are made up of a rolling chalky escarpment and the trails there are really a gravel bike paradise. Apart from overly rocky terrain there’s pretty much all the conditions you’ll find in the UK. Twisty singletrack, rooty shutes and climbs, open grassland and field edges, off camber eroded chalk paths, tarmac and even some genuine US style gravel!

The bike side on looks fast, there’s a gentle slope to the top tube, the rear chain stays are asymmetric to allow clearance for the 1x chainset (you can fit 2x if that’s you thing) and the bottom bracket area is beefy to push all your pedalling power to the rear wheel. The seatpost is 27.2mm. The cables, if you weren’t running wireless are all internal making the bike look super clean. The seat stays looking from the back of the bike are flattened to build in some compliance, both wheels use the industry standard 12mm bolt through axles. the fork is straight bladed and profiled to give side to side stiffness but front to rear compliance. The head angle on each size is slightly different, the medium is 72 degrees which is effective at overcoming rough ground without being slow to steer. The bottom bracket is pressfit, not my preferred choice but it had zero problems or creaks throughout the test.

My first ride was around the campsite to check the seat post height and my position, the handlebars were the owners own preference and were 42cm one piece bar and stem with only around 15mm of spacers under the stem. It was a little lower than my personal ride but nothing I could do to alter it. The frame size was medium which although lower at the front than I’d like felt spot on reach wise.

Riding away from the campsite our first obstacle was a gate we had to lift the bikes over. Straight away the difference from my usual bike became apparent, this bike is light! I can’t tell you exactly how light as I don’t camp in a field with a set of scales but I will say it doesn’t feel too light. that might sound strange but bikes that are super light tend to be skittish riding down rough descents as they literally bounce off every root or stone. This bike was light enough not to fatigue you over long distances but heavy enough to be very well mannered downhill. This was proved straight after that gate lift as we sped down the field into a sharp right hand rutted turn. I’d not really had time to get used to the bike but it delivered me to the bottom of the hill with a big grin on my face. A road section next allowed me to press on the pedals and try out the power transfer. No complaints here, stand up and pedal and the bike responds instantly, no detectable side to side movement. I tried the same when we got to a long section of towpath with multiple small rough climbs past lock gates. I was either putting the power down while sat on the saddle or standing to sprint. Sat down the skinny seatpost and seatstay profile of the frame meant I wasn’t bounced around and could concentrate on looking where I was going and choosing a good line avoiding erosion on the towpath surface.

Downhill the bike was fab, it’ll hold a tight line if needed but shift your position forward a little to allow the rear wheel to drift and kick up some dust and it feels like you are 10 again ragging your bike round the woods with your mates. I know the three guys designed this bike to be on the faster side in a point A to point B way but designed in or not it’s fun just to mess about in the woods with!

A new bike takes a few rides to get used to but I felt at home straight away on the L’enfer. It encourages you to stay on the pedals that little bit longer and leave your braking that little bit later, in short it’s a lot of fun. most importantly for me though was the comfort level while still being able to speed along. I was suffering from a bad back before I got to the campsite we were staying at and I did wonder if riding was going to make it worse. In the event it didn’t and in a way it was the perfect test for the claims made for this bike. Go faster for longer is what this bike is about and after around 50 miles on a mix of surfaces it enabled me to do just that. (although as the other riders on the weekend will attest my fast is probably different to their fast!)

Tink, Jonty and Stuart set out to make a no compromise idea to build the very best gravel bike out there. They’ve even added a hydrophobic coating to the paint! it’s definitely on the racier end of the gravel bike spectrum, it’s cool how gravel bikes are diversifying into different camps now. calling your bike L’enfer du Nord (hell of the north) is a big clue to how this bike was envisioned by the team. Naming your bike after one of the toughest, roughest road bike races in the world, Paris-Roubaix is a bold statement. With the right rider this bike could do well in that race or races such as Unbound Gravel in the USA so in that sense they have succeeded in their design brief, however I also think they have failed, here’s why..

Having designed the bike to go fast over long distances without destroying the rider they have also, maybe inadvertently, but I suspect because of their back round in UK off road riding come up with a great bike for just having fun on. Yes it’ll win races but it’ll also put a big grin on your face riding around your local woods for an hour after work or on a weekend away with your mates. Ok it’s only got two bottle cage mounts but if you really wanted to hang bags off it you could but what it excels in is going fast, going far and having fun and there’s no downside to that.

1816 Cycles offer 3 builds but also can supply framesets, They can also custom paint your frameset to whatever colour scheme you like, they’ve done bikes to match owners cars. They are definitely at the higher price end of the scale but are much more exclusive than brands in the same price bracket.

Find 1816 cycles website here, 1816Cycles.com for more details. Get in touch with the guys if you have questions about builds, there aren’t many companies where you’ll get a reply from the person who designed the bike.

Pics by ukgravelco, Dan and Jon.Snaps special mention to WildCycles for hosting the event

Below is a Vlog I put together about the weekend of the L’enfer du Nord launch. please subscribe to the youtube channel and check out the other videos.