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The Giant Revolt 0 is an affordable aluminium gravel bike with generous tyre clearances and a drivetrain based on Shimano GRX components. It’s an entry-level counterpart to the brilliant carbon Giant Revolt Advanced Pro, one of the best gravel bikes on the market right now.
The alloy Revolt 0 is a likeable all-rounder with all the versatility we expect of the genre, but stodgy tyres and so-so weight dull it compared to the very best of the competition. Let’s get into the details.
I tested the original aluminium Giant Revolt way back in 2014 and it felt significant. It was a bike ahead of its time that offered a pleasingly blend of comfort and versatility, not to mention disc brakes, which were still a relative novelty on drop bar bikes. In a world yet to utter the phrase ‘gravel bike’, it felt achingly modern.
The bike industry has since caught up and it’s testament to Giant’s foresight that the underlying recipe for the Revolt hasn’t really needed to change – even the geometry isn’t radically different, as Giant was an early adopter of the longish-reach-plus-shortish-stem approach.
The current Revolt’s frame is a little more sophisticated, the standards have evolved, and the components have been brought up to date, but it’s very much in keeping with the spirit of the first-gen bike.
Giant popularised the compact frame (with help from the late Mike Burrows) and the Revolt’s top tube has a pronounced slope, one that’s mirrored by the very dropped seatstays specced for rear-end comfort.
Some nicely manipulated tubing and a striking oval seat tube profile bring it all together in a design that flows nicely and avoids looking gawky despite a relatively lofty front end, while internal cabling keeps things tidy.
All the practical touches you’d hope for are present and correct including mudguard (fender) mounts, with an optional bridge across the seatstays ensuring that standard guards should fit.
There are also enough bosses to accommodate three bottle cages while the mounts on top of the down tube offer two positions – potentially useful if you’re working around a frame bag.
The practical theme continues with generous tyre clearances – 53mm up front and either 42mm or 53mm rear depending on which way you set the flip chips at the rear dropouts.
As on the carbon Revolt, the flip chips allow you to adjust the rear-centre by 10mm. The default ‘short’ position snugs the rear wheel in closer and should in theory make the bike more lively, while the ‘long’ option lengthens the wheelbase and adds that tyre clearance. It’s a neat trick but one we’d hazard few riders will actually make use of.
The Revolt 0 ships with a D-section Giant D-Fuse seatpost designed to add comfort, but the frame will accept round seatposts, so in principle it’s possible to fit a dropper post.
Giant specs the Revolt 0 with a mixed bag of 11-speed Shimano GRX mechanical components – 105-equivalent RX600 levers, Ultegra-equivalent RX810 series derailleurs, and Tiagra-equivalent RX400 series brakes.
This is a pretty typical combination at this price level. GRX, remember, doesn’t offer counterparts to every tier in the road groupset hierarchy.
The cranks on this early sample bike are Praxis, but production models get an equivalent FSA Omega model.
All the finishing kit, meanwhile, is Giant’s own, as are the aluminium wheels that are properly wide, with an internal rim width of 25mm that’s perfect for gravel tyres. These are fitted with Giant’s own tubeless-ready tyres, more on those in a bit.
All dimensions in mm except where noted. Short figures use 700×42mm reference tyre, long figures use 700×50mm.
The aluminium Revolt 0 has nearly identical geometry to the carbon Revolt, with the same reach and stack figures across the board.
Like the Trek Checkpoint, the Revolt’s trail figure of 68mm (with a nominal 42mm tyre) sits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, aiming to balance nimbleness with stability.
It’s a fairly upright design with 586mm of stack for a size medium. The alloy model features a taller headset upper too, so the effective stack is slightly taller, and many riders won’t need any spacers. It should be possible to source a substitute a shorter cap if you want to get the bars lower.
Reach figures are long but not the longest out there at 387mm for a medium, while stems are correspondingly short. Note that at the time of writing Giant’s own spec sheet has the stem lengths wrong – it states 90mm for a medium but this bike comes with a 70mm.
At 174cm tall with a saddle height of 72cm I was comfortable on a medium but needed a longer than standard stem to feel fully dialled in.
Incidentally, while the Revolt 0 might be considered unisex, Giant’s women’s-specific brand Liv offers a counterpart in the form of the Devote. There isn’t a direct equivalent to the Revolt 0 as the top of the range alloy Devote 1 costs £1,499 and gets a 10-speed Shimano GRX drivetrain.
The Devote comes in sizes XS to L and gets its own geometry, with shorter reach across the board.
It was immediately apparent that this bike deserves better tyres. According to the brand’s own figures, the 38mm Giant Crosscut AT 2s fitted to my test bike weigh 673g each, and it shows.
They feel stodgy and slow on tarmac and their hybrid-esque tread doesn’t offer meaningful extra grip over a good slick in typical gravel conditions.
Officially, the bike now comes with Crosscut AT 1s, which are allegedly somewhat lighter but share the same tread pattern. Either way, we’d budget a tyre upgrade sooner rather than later.
To take the tyres out of the equation I swapped to a spare wheelset with some light and supple Teravail Washburn tyres, and the difference was immediately apparent.
If there’s a challenge in reviewing the Revolt’s ride, it’s that it doesn’t have any single strong defining characteristic – it’s comfy enough and stiff enough but not exceptional in either of these areas.
With the same geometry as the carbon Revolt, decent handling is a given – all in all the aluminium Revolt is a perfectly pleasant bike that’s well suited to a variety of riding on and off tarmac.
The bike’s relatively upright riding position and wide range of gears are beginner-friendly, while the bars are wide enough for confident handling off-road without feeling cartoonish on the road.
The slight sweep on the tops is a welcome detail too, which your wrists will appreciate.
This is not a light bike at over 10kg out of the box but that’s fairly typical for a big-clearance aluminium gravel bike.
As such it’s better suited to steady progress and spinning up climbs rather than dancing-on-the-pedals heroics.
It would be an ideal first gravel bike, all-weather commuter or do-it-all bike for someone looking to get into bikepacking.
Tyres aside, there’s little to complain about with the Revolt’s spec, save for noting that Giant rarely misses an opportunity to spec third party components over groupset-matching ones, witness the half-nickel KMC chain, own-brand disc rotors and those cranks.
There’s nothing wrong with any of those components and in the age of shortages we’ll take what we can get, but they may offend some purist sensibilities.
The Revolt 0 is a solid choice that rides well and offers the sort of versatility we expect from a gravel bike, but with fierce competition in this segment of the market it doesn’t really stand out.
Products reviewed by Cyclist are independently selected and tested by our editorial team. Cyclist may earn an affiliate commission if you make a purchase through a retailer link. Read our reviews policy.
For an extra £400, the Revolt Advanced 3 is a tempting proposition as it gets you the outstanding carbon version of the Revolt frameset. You do drop down in spec to 10-speed GRX however, and you'll still want to budget for better tyres.
Canyon’s entry-level gravel bike is a staff favourite thanks to its all-round ride quality and complete spec with all-matching groupset components (OK, the bottom bracket is from Token).
Canyon has juggled its model names and paintjobs repeatedly, but you can’t go wrong with any of the aluminium Grail builds, assuming you’re able to lay hands on the bike in the first place – lead times on orders can be considerable.
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Photos: Matthew Loveridge except where noted
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