24 of the best gravel bikes in 2020, reviewed by our expert testers

In this buyer’s guide you can find out about the best gravel and adventure road bikes available on the market in 2020. We’ve ridden and tested these bikes in real conditions, and this is our pick of the bunch.

Gravel bikes and adventure bikes have gone very quickly from the latest craze to a significant part of most bike companies’ ranges. These bikes are tailored for long-distance comfort, with disc brakes, big tyre clearance and geometry honed to excel both on the road and off, whether it’s a gravel, forest or dirt track.

Descended from touring bikes, endurance bikes and cyclo-cross bikes, gravel bikes and adventure bikes are go-almost-anywhere machines for riders who want to explore and race on dirt roads, and ride Tarmac to get there.
Disc brakes allow frame clearances for fatter tyres, making for a bike that can cope with a very wide range of surfaces and that points & laughs at potholes.
With even the tiniest lanes infested with motor traffic, gravel bikes get you properly away from dangerous drivers.
At the adventure end of the spectrum, these are the rugged successors to traditional long-distance touring bikes.
Some manufacturers are exploring short-travel suspension and 650B wheels to improve comfort and traction.

The best gravel bikes 2020

Get the Best Gravel Bikes Now

Cotic Escapade 105 — £1,799
3T Exploro Pro GRX 2020 — £4,000
Mason ISO — from £3,140
Bergamont Grandurance 6 2020 — £1,399
Lauf True Grit — from £3,549
Nukeproof Digger 275 Factory — £1,999.99
Fairlight Cycles Secan — £2,699.00
Whyte Glencoe 2020 — £1,298.99
Orro Terra C 105 Hydro — £2,099
Canyon Grail CF SL 8.0 — £2,599
Merida Silex — £900-£3,250
Reilly Gradient — £2,999
Ribble CGR — from £999
Giant Revolt 2020 — from £1,049
Genesis Croix de Fer, Tour de Fer & Vagabond — from £1,099.99
Specialized Diverge — from £898.99 (2021 models from £948.99)
Raleigh Mustang — from £640
GT Grade — from £1,199.99
Kinesis Tripster ATR V3 £2,200 (frame only)
Surly Straggler — from £1,750
The Light Blue Robinson V2 Rival 1x — £2,024.99
Norco Search — from £1,195
Shand Stoater — from £2,695
Mason Bokeh Force — £3,100

Why you might want a gravel or adventure bike

Their adaptability, versatility and ruggedness makes them the perfect commuter bike, an ideal light touring or audax bike, a great winter training bike, or simply one bike that can tackle any sort of terrain you care to take it along. If ever there was a case for the one perfect bike for the British non-racing cyclist, then an adventure bike is probably it.

The US gravel bike racing scene hasn’t been much emulated in the UK yet, but the style of bike has piqued the interest of British cyclists. The idea of the bigger tyres and relaxed geometry that promotes extra comfort when the going gets rough and bumpy is very attractive given the generally poor state of repair of UK roads. Let’s be honest, in many places they’re almost gravel anyway.

They can be ridden anywhere, these bikes, on the road and off it. The idea of adventure (or allroad, roadplus and enduroad as some people are calling this style of bike) is also finding fans, with the ability to dart down a bridleway or over the plain or along a fireroad to mix up a regular road ride appealing to cyclists keen to get away from the congested streets and into the wide open countryside.

Of course, the idea of riding a road bike across any sort of terrain, be it smoothly paved roads or rough and bumpy gravel tracks, woodland trails laced with roots or edge-of-field bridleways, is nothing new really. Road cyclists have been doing it since the dawn of the bicycle. How do you think cyclo-cross was invented? Gravel bikes and adventure bikes, though, are better suited to the demands of on and off-road riding. They split the difference between an endurance road bike and a cyclo-cross bike, with space for bigger tyres than an endurance bike and geometry better suited to road riding than a cyclo-cross bike.

Don’t confuse a gravel bike or adventure bike with an endurance road bike like the Cannondale Synapse or Saracen Avro. While they do look similar, the key difference is in the bigger tyres the former accepts and the modified geometry. It’s worth taking a look at our roundup of endurance road bikes for examples of bikes that come close to a gravel and adventure bike.

Call them what you want, these bikes are all about having fun and exploring the beautiful countryside we’re fortunate to be surrounded by. You could be riding along smooth tarmac one minute, then hurtling down a tree-lined bridleway the next, then trucking along a fireroad in deepest Wales the next. And that really appeals to a growing number of British cyclists.

What to look for in a gravel and adventure bike

For a start, gravel bikes and adventure bikes aren’t simply rebranded cyclo-cross bikes. While there’s no single blueprint that gravel bikes and adventure bikes follow, they generally sit between an endurance road bike and a cyclo-cross race bike, if anything leaning more towards the former. Gravel bikes and adventure bikes are designed with longer wheelbases, so they’re stable on the road and when riding over an unpredictable surface like gravel, and provide comfort over long distances. The geometry is more relaxed than a race bike, the head angle slacker and the head tube often taller. The bottom bracket of a gravel bike or adventure road bike will usually be a little lower than a cyclo-cross bike.

They all feature disc brakes. By removing the rim brake caliper you can easily design a frame and fork able to accommodate bigger tyres. Disc brakes, especially hydraulic discs, offer more power which provides more confidence when riding off-road and are useful in mixed conditions.

Gravel bikes and adventure bikes will have space for bigger tyres, but how big varies from brand to brand. Endurance road bikes go up to about 32mm as a general rule, but gravel bikes and adventure road bikes increase the clearance up to as much as 55mm. That provides a vast range of tyre choice options, including many rugged touring and cyclocross tyres, as well as road slicks, so you’ve got plenty of options for setting the bike up for your riding demands. In some cases you can even fit 29er mountain bike tyres.

Tyre choice very much depends on the riding you want to do and the terrain in your local riding spot. There’s nothing to stop you fitting light 25mm or 28mm tyres if you want it to be fast on the road. Or you could use a 35mm treaded tyre if you want to include some gravel and dirt paths in your rides. We’re seeing more tyre choice as well to go with the bikes, such as the Panaracer Gravel King, to name one example of the growing selection aimed at gravel and adventure riding.

While gravel bikes and adventure road bikes have grown from the gravel racing scene, manufacturers have been wise to cotton on to their do-it-all appeal, and many equip their gravel bikes and adventure road bikes with eyelets for fitting racks and mudguards. That means you could build up the perfect winter or commuting bike, or add a rack for some light touring and explore further afield. With events like the Transcontinental Race proving popular it’s this sort of bike that is becoming the go-to choice for long distance bikepacking or lightweight touring, where you want a rugged bike able to tackle any sort of terrain you might encounter, the comfortable riding position a bonus when going the distance.

See the sidebar to the right for more reviews of gravel and adventure bikes

>>Read more: all reviews of gravel and adventure bikes

Some bikes for your consideration

Cotic Escapade 105 — £1,799

Larger tyre clearances, a new carbon fork and a tapered head tube have now upped the performance and dropped the weight of the latest version of Cotic’s venerable do-everything bike, making the new model an absolute joy to ride whether on or off road.

Launched back in the early 2010s, the original Escapade was ahead of its time but with the explosion of the whole gravel/adventure market, components have caught up and things like quality 1x groupsets, brilliant hydraulic disc brakes and 650B wheels mean the Escapade can really strut its stuff, especially if you like to chop and change your choice of terrain.

tester Tony wrote: “I spent so much time on the gravel with the Cotic because it was just… infectious. The wide tyres floating around on the smaller aggregate were easy to control thanks to that quick steering, backed up by the lengthy 425mm chainstays which brought a feeling of stability to the whole thing.“

Read our review of the Cotic Escapade

3T Exploro Pro GRX 2020 — £4,000

The 3T Exploro Pro GRX is an excellent gravel bike that’s focused on aero efficiency, and this is the first complete bike in the range to be specced with a Shimano groupset. With loads of tyre clearance, it offers plenty of comfort and control to go along with its speed.

Test Mat wrote: “You get gravel bikes that owe a lot to mountain bikes – like the Merida Silex+ 6000, for example – and you get others that are a lot more roadie. The Exploro Pro GRX falls into the latter category. It might not be all about speed, but it’s a lot about speed.

“The Exploro Pro GRX is at its best when you can get down on the drops, wind up the power and hold it there, so its favourite environment is open terrain with empty tracks that roll off into the sunset – but, failing that, it’ll settle for anything that’s reasonably solid! It feels great when you crank up the speed.”

Read our review of the 3T Exploro Pro GRX

Mason ISO — from £3,140

Sometimes a bike comes along that completely delivers in capabilities, looks and build quality. The Mason ISO – In Search Of – is one of those bikes. With an Italian hand-built frame, and a superb level of finish and detail it nonchalantly comes along and redefines what a drop-bar bike is capable of being.

This is the sort of bike where you feel at home from the very first ride. It’s a bike you ride in, rather than on; you feel integral to it. Its geometry sits you in an effective pedalling position and it handles gracefully and instinctively. It also encourages outright speed. You often find yourself aiming into corners or rooty sections off-road, at speeds that you have to brake and scrub speed. It’s properly inspiring and the only thing that slows you is your confidence in holding on.

Read our review of the Mason ISO

Bergamont Grandurance 6 2020 — £1,399

The Bergamont Grandurance 6 is a well-equipped aluminium gravel bike or adventure road bike. It’s decent value and has a striking paint job, if not paired with the most progressive geometry. This is a classic endurance road bike with allowances for gravel tyres, mudguards and racks, and for the price it makes a great weekend gravel bike or adventure road bike that will commute with ease on the weekdays too.

Read our review of the Bergamont Grandurance 6
Find a Bergamont dealer

Lauf True Grit — from £3,549

Lauf’s True Grit shuns the usual versatility of most gravel bikes for a pin-sharp focus on racing, with their unique leaf-sprung fork taking centre stage on a bike that’s quite unlike most others out there. As a complete package for going very quickly on dirt roads, it’s hard to beat.

Read our review of the Lauf True Grit

Nukeproof Digger 275 Factory — £1,999.99

The Nukeproof Digger’s chunky WTB Sendero tyres, dropper post, wide handlebar and short stem ensure it really shines on the dirt with great handling poise that’ll have you ripping, popping and sending in no time. Nukeproof is a mountain bike company and has brought this experience into its Digger gravel bike, with a lot of influence from the mountain bike world evident in its design and specification.

For razzing about in the woods, linking up bridleways, commuting to the office or just plain old road riding, the Digger Pro is very capable. You could easily chuck it into the lactic acid hell of a cyclocross race or eye up one of the growing number of adventure events like Dirty Reiver say. It’s also an excellent option for commuting especially if you want to take the more interesting route. And if you had a second set of wheels and tyres you’d have all the bases easily covered.

Read our review of the 2019 Nukeproof Digger Pro

Fairlight Cycles Secan — £2,699.00

In taking a plethora of tyre widths, the new Secan – the latest model from young British company Fairlight Cycles – can be pressed into action as a rugged off-road bikepacking bike or shod with wide slicks, mudguards and racks for the daily commute or multi-day tour. It’s a truly versatile gravel bike or adventure road bike, depending on how you configure it.

The Secan may not be the lightest option – steel never will be – but it doesn’t lack the performance that makes it a really fun and exciting bike to ride. The ride quality and the smoothness on rough terrain more than compensate as well. I’m a sucker for a good steel road bike, which is why I’ve always owned one, and the Secan offers that unmistakable balance of comfort, unflappable smoothness and assured handling you expect from a very well designed steel frame.

Read our review of the Fairlight Cycles Secan

Whyte Glencoe 2020 — £1,298.99

Whyte’s Glencoe combines an aluminium frame with 650B tyres and a very different approach to geometry to provide a supremely relaxed, comfortable and confidence-inspiring gravel bike that excels on rough roads and fast descents.

Swing a leg over the Glencoe and the first thing you notice is the massively wide handlebar. Within a few miles, and especially after a couple of descents, it becomes very natural and comfortable. I was bombing down all my favourite descents with more speed and less nervousness than any gravel bike or adventure I’ve tested recently. The wide bar gives you plenty of control through the bends and despite what you might think about the short stem, there is absolutely no twitchiness to the steering, it’s all very calm and relaxed.

Read our review of the Whyte Glencoe
Find a Whyte dealer

Orro Terra C 105 Hydro — £2,099

The Orro Terra C 105 Hydro is a stable carbon-fibre gravel bike that’s quick on the road, with the strength and confident handling required for heading on to dirt and other hard-packed trails with the appropriate tyres. Mudguard and rack mounts make this a versatile option that can cope with everything from commuting to adventure biking.

Read our review of the Orro Terra C 105 Hydro
Find an Orro dealer

Canyon Grail CF SL 8.0 — £2,599

Canyon doesn’t rush things. It studied the disc brake market before finally taking the plunge on its road bikes and now it has entered the gravel bike and adventure road bike scene with the Grail, and boy was it worth the wait. The Grail CF SL 8.0 is light, nimble, fun… and that handlebar – laugh as much as you like, it’s a clever design that brings a lot to the ride, especially if you want to go fast on a constantly shifting surface. What a machine!

Read our review of the Canyon Grail CF SL 8.0 SL

Merida Silex — £900-£3,250

The Silex is a completely new platform for Merida, driven by some intriguing ideas. Taking a cue from current mountain bike thinking, Silexes (Silices?) are long out front compared to almost all other gravel bikes and at 71° have a shallower head angle. The idea is to make the bike more stable over rough surfaces, and it works. The Silex 9000, got our tester grinning over a variety of terrain, offering excellent off-road handling whilst still able to turn a wheel easily to road riding too.

For 2020 Merida has added two models with 650B wheels for even more off-road capability, including the Silex 8000-E Plus, above, with Shimano’s new GRX Di2 groupset.

Read our review of the Merida Silex 9000

Reilly Gradient — £2,999

South Coast-based Reilly Cycleworks has produced the Gradient as a do-everything adventure road bike or gravel bike, with a lovingly finished titanium frame and smart specification in this £2,799 complete bike. It provides a ride that is as lovely as the bike is to look at, with space for wide tyres for heading off into the wilderness or adding dirt and gravel roads to your route, and a high level of refinement.

The Gradient provides a lovely ride. It’s composed and comfortable, the titanium frame providing a sublime balance of stiffness and comfort. The carbon fork and oversized head tube gives the handling a crispness and it changes direction quickly when you want it to.

Read our review of the Reilly Gradient

Ribble CGR — from £999

Cross, Gravel, Road, that’s what the CGR initials stand for on Ribble’s all-rounder, a bike with solid gravel bike DNA that’s also up for adventure road bike riding. This disc brake-equipped, mudguard-shod ‘do a bit of everything’ machine that makes a lot of sense for the rider who doesn’t always want to stick to the tarmac. Thankfully, this jack of all trades is no master of none.

The CGR is a very easy bike to ride thanks to some neutral and balanced handling. This might make it sound dull but it’s far from it, especially when you go off-road.

With a long wheelbase, mounts for mudguards and racks plus being designed for disc brakes, the Ribble is likely to see a lot of use in the wet and cold of winter where the road surface is often less than ideal. It’s a bike that’s dependable and trustworthy when it comes to the handling.

Read our review of the Ribble CGR

Giant Revolt 2020 — from £1,049

Giant bills its Revolt bikes as “the perfect way to explore roads you’ve always thought about but never ridden”. There are seven models in the range, three with aluminium frames and four in carbon fibre with clearance for tyre up to 45mm wide. That’s a big difference from the Contend and Defy bikes that only take up to 32mm tyres, so don’t fall into the gravel and adventure bike category.

Read our review of the Giant Revolt 1
Find a Giant dealer

Genesis Croix de Fer, Tour de Fer & Vagabond — from £1,099.99

British brand Genesis was doing adventure road bikes long before it became the latest trend, and the most recent changes to the Croix de Fer – a lower bottom bracket and taller head tube – took it further away from its cyclo-cross roots and closer to an adventure bike. And is there any adventure bigger than riding around the world? That’s something that Vin Cox did in 2010, setting a new record in the process, aboard a Croix de Fer. Steel frames feature across the range with a choice of steel or carbon forks, plus disc brakes, external cable routing and eyelets for racks and mudguards.

Find a Genesis dealer
Read our review of the Genesis Croix de Fer

Specialized Diverge — from £898.99 (2021 models from £948.99)

Specialized just announced a major revamp of the Diverge range of gravel bikes. The latest versions of the high-end carbon fibre Diverges get the Future Shock 2.0 front shock absorber from the Roubaix range, while the whole range has been redesigned with a slacker head angle, longer frame reach, shorter stems, a higher bottom bracket and longer chainstays.

The idea behind all these changes is to make for a bike that’s more stable at high speed, but still nimble. The new Diverge design also features more tyre clearance, so you can fit 47mm 700C tyres or 53mm 650Bs and still have 6mm of clearance round them for crud to pass through. If you’re looking at one of the high-zoot carbon fibre Diverges — the Comp, Expert, Pro and S-Works models — you also get an internal SWAT compartment in the down tube for storing tools, spares and so on, a feature that’s crossed over from Specialized’s mountain bike line.

And speaking of mountain bikes there’s also the Diverge Evo which is, er, a flat-bar gravel bike. Looks an awful lot like a rigid mountain bike to us, but then these categories have always blurred one into the other at the margins.

Read our review of the 2020 Specialized Diverge Comp E5
Read our first ride review of the 2021 Specialized Diverge Pro Carbon
Find a Specialized dealer

Raleigh Mustang — from £640

We really liked the Raleigh Mustang Elite when we tested it. It does everything a regular road bike does, but it does it with the added comfort of the big tyres. It’s part of Raleigh’s three-bike range of gravel/adventure bikes and a great example of the booming category. Its 6061 double butted aluminium frame is designed for both on and off road riding so if you’re getting tempted by your local dirt roads and trails, or a canal towpath commute, it’ll take it in its stride.

Along with a carbon fork with through-axle and TRP Spyre disc brakes, the 2018 version, above has SRAM’s Apex 1X transmission with a single 40-tooth chainring and wide-range 11-42 11-speed cassette. It’s the ultimate Keep It Simple, Stupid derailleur gear system and just the thing for a do-it-all bike.

Read our review of the Raleigh Mustang Elite
Find a Raleigh dealer

GT Grade — from £1,199.99

The GT Grade is available with an aluminium or carbon frame (which features a frame design and carbon layup designed to provide comfort in the rough) with disc brakes and space for up to 35mm tyres. You could fit a slick tyre in there or a treaded cyclo-cross tyre if you want to inject more dirt and gravel into your riding. The Grade has versatility too, with mudguard and rack mounts neatly incorporated into the frame and fork. The top models have a carbon thru-axle fork for added stiffness.

The £2,000 top model, the Grade Carbon Expert, is a superb bike that’s brilliant at being fast and comfortable on rough roads, and right at home on forest trails and gravel roads. The new frame, with its ‘floating stays’ design, is impressively smooth at the saddle. Rough tracks, jagged roots and rippled fields are soaked up exceptionally well thanks to the seat post flexing backwards. It’s freer to do this on the new frame since the seat tube can bow forwards, unhindered by the seat stays.

Read our review of the 2020 GT Grade Carbon Expert
Read our review of the 2015 GT Grade Alloy Tiagra
Find a GT dealer

Kinesis Tripster ATR V3 £2,200 (frame only)

ATR stands for Adventure-Tour-Race and it’s a bike built for adventure riding, cyclo-cross, touring and sportives. Kinesis build the frame from custom drawn 3AL/2.5V titanium tubing, with geometry featuring a low bottom bracket, long head tube and relaxed head angle, something that all these adventure bikes have in common. There’s space between the rear stays and carbon fork for up to 40mm tyres (but we’ve comfortably fitted wider) along with full-length 45mm mudguards, and there are rack mounts too.

Read our review of the Kinesis Tripster ATR here
Find a Kinesis dealer

Surly Straggler — from £1,750

Surly’s Straggler is a sturdily built and eminently adaptable steel all-rounder. It boasts a handful of interesting design touches, an unusual amount of tyre room, plentiful luggage rack mounts and a very comfy ride. It has a strong bias towards rough roads and trail use, but weight-weenies should look away now.

Read our review of the Surly Straggler
Find a Surly dealer

The Light Blue Robinson V2 Rival 1x — £2,024.99

The Light Blue Robinson V2 Rival 1x exudes class and comfort, and thanks to plenty of stability and neutral handling allows you to just get away from it all, on the road or off. Its weight can sometimes be a limiting factor, though.

The ride quality from the tubes feels soft, like it smooths the road surface out but still gives you all of the good vibration, so you can still feel the feedback and be involved in everything that is going on.

The Light Blue has achieved this without sacrificing stiffness. True, it’s no oversized carbon fibre race bike, but it can take plenty of power through what in the modern world looks a tiny bottom bracket junction.

With the level of comfort on offer you can just waft along on the road for hours and hours without feeling like you are having to work too hard. Overall, it is a heavy 10.55kg, but thanks to the low ratios of the cassette offering you some bailout gears, you can spend a lot of time in the saddle just tapping out the pace.

Once up and rolling, it is quite surprising how quickly this bike can travel, the 38mm tyres singing along on the tarmac. However, if you’re going to spend a lot of time on dirt you’ll probably want to switch to something grippier than the supplied Halo Twin Rail tyres.

Read our review of the The Light Blue Robinson V2 Rival 1x

Find a The Light Blue dealer

Norco Search — from £1,195

Canadian firm Norco is best known for its mountain bikes, and its Search bikes have been designed as adventure bikes able to tackle a multitude of paved or unpaved surfaces. Combining a steel or carbon frame and ‘endurance’ geometry with disc brakes and thru-axles at both wheels, it’s a bike ticking a lot of boxes. Comfort has been factored in with a 27.2mm seatpost and bowed seatstays, arcing chainstays and a tapered seat tube.

The 2020 range kicks off at £1,195 with the Search XR A2 and peaks with the £2,195 Search XR S1 above.

Find a Norco dealer

Shand Stoater — from £2,695

The British made Shand Stoater offers a steel frame and fork that has been designed for “the pure enjoyment of go-anywhere riding… refined enough to be your main road bike but rugged enough for off road trails and singletrack, it could be the only bike you ever need,” according to the company. It’s available in several builds, we tested one with a Rohloff hub and Gates Belt drive costing £3,595, but other builds are available. Tyre clearance is good enough for 45mm tyres and the frame is decked out with rack and mudguard eyelets and three sets of bottle cage mounts.

Read our review of the Shand Stoater

Mason Bokeh Force — £3,100

The Mason Bokeh is a highly capable adventure bike with a feature-packed aluminium frame, splendid aesthetics, and handling that ensures it’s as at home on the road as it is on the trail.

The Bokeh combines an aluminium frame and carbon fork with all the key ingredients of an adventure bike, including wide tyres, disc brakes, thru-axles, relaxed geometry and mounts for mudguards and racks. The Bokeh goes the extra mile with a front dynamo mount, third bottle cage mount, 700C and 650B wheel size compatibility and fully internal cable routing.

As lovely as the Bokeh undoubtedly looks, its appearance is pointless if it’s not backed by a high-quality ride. Fortunately, a high-quality ride the Bokeh most certainly does deliver. In a nutshell, it’s a lovely bike to ride, whether on tarmac or gravel roads, or woodland byways.

Read our review of the Mason Bokeh Force

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