Your complete guide to the 2021 Giant Bicycles gravel bike range

While a big player in the world of mountain bikes, Giant Bicycles has also made a considerable mark with the range of gravel and cyclocross rigs. Giant has almost every budget covered from wallet-friendly adventure bikes to eye-wateringly blingy gravel bikes. Here’s our guide to the full 2021 range.

Understanding Giant’s naming system

Giant’s naming system follows a very similar pattern as the mountain bike range. Adventure bikes aside, there’s a choice of a carbon or alloy frame across the range and then there are options between traditional cable operated shifting or wireless offering.

Using Giant’s gravel bike, the Revolt, as an example the simply named Revolt is the base model. Then there’s the Revolt Advanced. The suffix ‘Advanced’ means that the bike gets a carbon frame. One more step above that you’ll find ‘Advanced Pro’, that is the wireless shifting model. Note that there’s not a Revolt Pro, an alloy frame with wireless shifting, in the range. Additionally, some of Giant’s bikes come with different sub-models. These are described by a ‘0’ for the spendiest model and the numbers can go up to ‘3’ which describes the cheapest in the range.

Prices for Giant’s gravel and adventure range start at £450 and go right up to £4,700. Of course, there’s also a complete mountain bike range (here’s our guide!) and women’s specific mountain bike models from sister brand Liv.

The Giant Revolt is the brand’s gravel bike. It’s available in both alloy and carbon models with a carbon frameset offered too if you would like to build a Revolt up yourself. Each model in the range gets kit from Giant that has been developed to offer a bit of compliance for a smoother ride. The frames are designed with endurance positioning and short chainstays for confidence in all situations. As for the Revolts geometry, a large frame gets a 391mm reach with all sizes benefitting from a 71° head tube angle and 430mm chainstays. Seat tube angle differs from size to size with the S and M frame receiving a 73.5° angle, the ML gets a 73° seat tube, and the L, and XL get a 72.5° seat tube angle. Each bike rolls on 700c hoops and hydraulic disc brakes can be found across the range. 

Revolt Advanced Pro 0

£4,700

Sitting at the top spot of the whole of Giant’s gravel and adventure range the Revolt Advanced Pro 0 is the priciest bike by about £200. It’s built around Giant’s Advanced-Grade Composite frame with a matching carbon fork. Driving the bike is a SRAM Force eTap drivetrain which includes the SRAM Force D1 crankset with 30t and 43t chainrings. This bike rolls on a pair of Giant CXR-2 carbon wheels that are wrapped in a pair of Maxxis Velocita 700x40c tyres and is stopped by a set of SRAM Force eTap AXS hydraulic brakes. As for the finishing kit, it’s all supplied by Giant and the Contact range excluding the Giant Approach saddle and D-Fuse SLR carbon seat post. Something to note about the Revolt Advanced Pro 0 is that there isn’t an XL frame in the line-up.

Revolt Advanced Pro 1

£4,500

The Revolt Advanced Pro 1 follows the 0 with a slightly different build and it’s £200 cheaper. The spec doesn’t stray too far from its pricier superior but instead gets a Shimano GRX RX-815 Di2 drivetrain with GRX RX-815 hydraulic brakes. The crank changes too, on this bike it’s a Praxis Zayante X Carbon with 32t and 48t chainrings. Everything else on the Revolt Advanced Pro 1 follows suit with the Advanced Pro 0.

Revolt Advanced 0

£3,200

With the Revolt Advanced Pro 0, the wireless shifting gets dropped in favour of a cable alternative. It’s built around the very same carbon frame and fork but gets Shimano GRX RX-810 groupset, including the crankset which comes with a 31t and a 48t chainring. Everything else follows suit with the Pro bikes including the finishing kit but with this frame, an XL option is introduced.

Revolt Advanced 1

£2,200

The Revolt Advanced one is the only bike in the 2021 Revolt line up that comes equipped with a 1x drivetrain. With this bike, we also see some more major changes to its kit list. Keeping the carbon frame and fork we now get a mish-mash drivetrain from Shimano. On this bike, there’s a GRX RX-600 shifter paired with a GRX RX-810 derailleur and a Shimano FC-RX600 crankset with a 40t chainring. The Revolt Advanced 1 rolls on Giant’s own P-X2 wheelset which is shod with Giant CrossCut AT 1 tubeless-ready, 700x38c tyres. The finishing kit follows the rest of the line up with Giant’s own components. Notably, the XL frame option stays with the Advanced Pro 1.

Revolt 0

£1,600

At this price point, Giant has done away with the carbon frame and has opted for an alloy unit in its place however, the Revolt 0 benefits from a carbon fork. For the drivetrain, Giant has kitted the Revolt 0 with a Shimano GRX set up consisting of a GRX RX-810 front and rear mech with an RX-600 shifter. Praxis has the crank sorted with the Alba 2D, sorted with a 32t and 48t chainrings. Shimano supplies the brakes too, with GRX RX-400 levers matched to GRX RX-600 calipers. Giant has the wheelset covered offering the S-X2 Disc wheelset and it’s wrapped with Giant CrossCut AT 2 Tubeless 700x38c tyres. The finishing kit is the same as all other bikes in the line-up.

Revolt 1

£1,350

We’ve actually reviewed the 2020 version of this model (check it out here). For 2021 it gets Giant’s ALUXX Grade Aluminium frame with a carbon fork. Again, there’s a bit of a mix of Shimano drivetrains here, GRX RX-400 takes the place of the rear derailleur, shifter, and the brakes but the front derailleur is from the brands Tiagra range. This bike gets a different crankset too, here we find an FSA Omega Adventure crank with a 32t and a 48t chainring. The wheels on this bike are the Giant S-X2 Disc wheels with the same tyres as the rest of the base Revolt range. The finishing kit is also the same.

Revolt 2

£1,050

The Revolt 2 is the cheapest bike in the Revolt range and it sees another change in drivetrain along with some cockpit based changes. This one gets the same aluminium frame but this time it gets a Shimano Sora drivetrain with Tektro MD-C550 brakes. As for the crankset, there’s an FSA Vero Pro with 32t and 48t chainrings, and there’s a Giant S-X2 Disc wheelset. This bike uses the same tyres like the rest of the base revolt range. The handlebar on the Revolt 2 is a Giant Contact XR Ergo-Control which is mated to a Giant Sport Stem. The rest of the finishing kit remains the same.

Revolt Advanced Frameset

£1,300

Rounding up the Revolt line-up is the Revolt Advanced frameset. As its name suggests, it’s full carbon including the fork and seat post.

The Giant TCX is the brands’ cyclocross-specific bike. For 2021, there are only two versions (well… Two and a half) which include the range-topping bike and a frameset. We’ll touch on the 2020 base model as it’s a more budget-friendly option. As a cyclocross bike, its geometry is more aggressive featuring a 72° head tube angle, 430mm chainstay and a 73° seat tube angle. On an L frame, there’s a 395mm reach. The geometry does change from the 2020 bike, take a glance at the geometry sheets below to see the differences.

2020 Giant TCX SLR geometry sheet

TCX Advanced Pro 1

£3,500

Unlike the other Advanced Pro bikes in Giant’s range, the Advanced Pro models of the TCX don’t see wireless shifting. Instead, the full carbon framed TCX Advanced Pro gets a Shimano GRX RX-810 groupset, including the hydraulic brakes. That also includes the crankset which is set up with a single 40t chainring. As for the wheels, they come from Giant and the SLR-2 WheelSystem, and they’re wrapped in Maxxis All-Terrene 700x33c tubeless tyres. The finishing kit is also Giants own with a Contact SL handlebar and stem with a Giant D-Fuse SLR carbon seat post and Fleet SL saddle.

TCX Advanced Pro 2

£2,500

A full grand cheaper than the 1 model, the Advanced Pro 2 gets the same full carbon frame and fork but opts for a SRAM Apex 1 drivetrain which includes the hydraulic brakes. The crankset also comes from SRAM in the form of the Rival 11x with a 40t chainring. This bike rolls on the same wheels as the 1 model and uses the same tyres. While the rest of the finishing kit is the same, this bike has Giant’s Connect handlebar.

TCX SLR

£2,000

The TCX SLR hasn’t seen an update for 2021 but it acts as the base model for the TCX range so it’s definitely worth going over. It’s worth noting again that this model has a slightly more conservative geometry than the 2021 bikes. At this price point, we get Giant’s ALUXX SLR-Grade aluminium frame with a full SRAM Rival 1 groupset which includes hydraulic brakes. The cranks differ a bit here too, they’re still from SRAM but instead, it’s the S-350-1 crank with a 40t chainring. As for the wheels, it rolls on a Giant P-X2 Disc wheelset with Maxxis All-Terrene, 700x33x tubeless tyres. The finishing kit comes from Giant too with a carbon seat post.

TCX SLR 2

£1,400

The TCX SLR 2 is the most budget-friendly bike in the range which conveniently has an added XS size option. It’s built around an alloy frame with a SRAM Apex 1 drivetrain and Giant Conduct Disc brakes. The crankset on this one is the FSA Omega with a 40t chainring and the bike rolls on a Giant P-X2 Disc wheelset. As for tyres, it gets a pair of Maxxis All-Terrene 700x33c’s. The finishing kit, like the rest of the range, comes in house with a carbon seat post.

TCX Advanced Pro frameset

£1,450

Completing the line up is the TCX Advanced Pro frameset. It’s full carbon including the seat post and fork.

With the Toughroad SLR, we’re now edging into the adventure range. This Toughroad SLR is built to blur the lines between pavement and trail. It’s fully rigid and comes with a 2x drivetrain. There are two bikes in this line-up and both come with alloy frames and 700c wheels. Geometry-wise, it gets a 71.5° head angle on an S and M frame then for the L and XL frames it steepens slightly to 72°. There is a 450mm chainstay and a 72° seat angle on a large frame which varies from size to size of which there are four.

Toughroad SLR 1

£1,200

The Toughroad SLR 1 is built around Giant’s ALUXX SLR-Grade aluminium frame and is driven by a Shimano Deore drivetrain. Shimano also supplies the brakes with a pair of BR-MT201 levers matched to BL-MT201 callipers. As for the crank, that’s an FSA V-Drive crank with 32t and 44t chainrings. The wheels come from Giant in the form of the GX Disc wheelset and they’re wrapped in Giant Sycamore S, 700x50c tyres with FlatGuard Deflect 2 tech built-in. The finishing kit also comes from Giant.

Toughroad SLR 2

£1,000

The second and final bike in the Toughroad range is the Toughroad SLR 2. As you can see, it doesn’t come with panniers like the 1 model but it’s built around the same alloy frame and it gets a mix of Shimano Altus, Acera and Alivio handling the drivetrain. There’s an unbranded crankset with a 28t and a 44t chainring, and the rest of the bike is finished off exactly the same as the pricer 1 bike.

Rounding off Giant’s gravel/cyclocross/adventure range is the Roam. This bike is built to be as versatile as possible being equally as happy on the road than it is off. It uses the brands’ D-Fuse seat post which allows for a bit of flex so it can offer a more comfortable ride. It also gets a suspension fork (with 63mm of travel) to aid the cause. Coming in four sizes (S to XL) the Roam gets a 70.5° head tube angle, a 73° seat tube angle and a 450mm chainstay. On a Large frame there’s a 416mm reach.

Roam 0 disc

£1,000

Topping the range at £1k the Roam 0 Disc is built around an alloy frame with a bit of a mixed-up drivetrain. The fork on this bike is a Suntour NCX E Lo 700C air. There’s a Shimano Deore XT derailleur with a microSHIFT Xpress Plus shifter and microSHIFT XLE front mech. Brakes on this bike come from Shimano and the BL/BR-MT400 set. The crankset is unbranded but it comes with a 30 t and a 46t chainring. Wheels come from Giant with the GX Disc wheelset with Giant’s own Cross Cut AT ERT 700x42c tyres. It’s then finished off with more Giant kit.

Roam 1 Disc

£850

Knocking 150 quid off the range-topper, the only differences on the Roam 1 Disc is in its drivetrain and brakes. Instead of the mix we saw on the first bike, this one gets a full Shimano Deore set up with Shimano BR-MT201 levers paired to BL-MT201 callipers. 

Roam 2 Disc

£600

With the Roam 2 Disc we start seeing some real componentry changes. This one gets an SR Suntour NEX HLO 700C fork and a Shimano drivetrain built up of Altus, Acera and Alivio. This one gets Tektro HD-M275 hydraulic brakes and a Giant GX Disc wheelset with Giant’s own CrossCut 700x42c tyres. The rest of the bike is finished off with Giant’s own kit.

Roam 3 Disc

£550

The Roam 3 Disc doesn’t change an awful lot from the Roam 2. This one gets everything the 2 does but it gets a Shimano Altus mech and shifter with a Shimano FD-TY710 front derailleur.

Roam 4 Disc

£480

Sitting at the cheapest end of the scale is the Roam 4 Disc. Once again there’s not an awful lot of difference between this one and the more expensive models but here there’s a 3×7 drivetrain from Shimano with a 28t, 38t and 44t chainring. It’s built up of an Altus shifter and rear derailleur with a Tourney front derailleur.

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