Unbound Gravel weekend is here and with it come the carefully planned ‘leaks’ and teasing of new bikes and parts.
This time, it’s Giant’s turn, and the Taiwanese behemoth has turned up with what appears to be a new Revolt gravel bike.
Although much of the talk leading up to the race has been about Scott’s prototype 32in gravel bike, Giant’s new bike looks set to use 'standard' 700c / 29in wheels.
Teased on Instagram, along with what looks to be a set of unreleased Cadex gravel wheels with carbon spokes, Giant says simply these are “a few prototypes we’ve been working on”.
We believe it could be the 2027 Giant Revolt Advanced SL, however, as a model with such a name was added to the UCI’s list of approved framesets late last year.
If that’s the case, it would mark the first time Giant has made a top-tier, Advanced SL version of its Revolt gravel bike – and this likely means it features a premium, and likely lighter (and more expensive) carbon fibre construction.
The Revolt gets racier
The most obvious changes, compared to the existing Giant Revolt Advanced Pro, appear to be a general move towards a lighter, more aggressive and racier design.
The front-end stack height, for example, appears to be reduced significantly, presumably for a more aggressive fit.
The frame shapes themselves also appear to have been slimmed down and simplified slightly, although it’s not clear whether Giant has made any tweaks to the frame’s aerodynamics beyond the truncated aerofoil shapes seen on the head tube and fork legs.
The bikes on show also forgo mounting points on the fork, and integrated internal storage on the down tube – because the hatch appears to be missing beneath the down tube water bottle cage.
There is, though, a third set of bottle bosses inside the frame’s main triangle, enabling riders to run three 750ml bottles within the frame – at least on the pictured frame sizes.
It appears the frame may lack top-tube mounts, however, because we can see riders with top tube bags look to have used cable ties for mounting these.
UDH is in, adjustable dropouts are out
The prototype frame also adopts SRAM’s Universal Derailleur Hanger dropout design, which enables compatibility with SRAM’s ‘Full Mount’ rear derailleurs (such as those found in its latest mountain bike and gravel groupsets).
This also means the adjustable dropouts of the current Revolt have been dropped, though.
On the current Revolt, these ‘flip chip’ dropouts enable the position of the rear wheel to be set in a ‘short’ or ‘long’ position, to adjust the bike’s wheelbase, rear tyre clearance and handling characteristics.
Given one of the builds pictured features Continental’s Dubnital cross-county mountain bike tyres, we can surmise this new bike features at least 50mm of tyre clearance, because that’s the smallest size offered by the German brand for that tyre.
This looks to have been achieved by dropping the driveside seatstay slightly compared to the existing Revolt, and perhaps also by making the new frame 1x-only. There doesn’t appear to be a mounting point for a front derailleur hanger and all the pictured builds feature single-chainring setups.
New Cadex wheels and components
As well as a new frameset, it looks as if Giant and its high-end component brand, Cadex, have some new wheels and parts in the works.
The wheels featured on the bikes, for example, look to be a new set of Cadex aero gravel wheels with carbon spokes.
These feature rims that look to be deeper and likely wider than Cadex’s existing options, such as the AR 35s, while the carbon spokes also look to be larger, with a deeper bladed section.
From what we can see of the hubs, it appears these wheels may feature the ultra-light construction seen on Cadex’s Max 50 wheels, which see the carbon spokes bonded directly to the carbon hub shells.
Elsewhere, the new bikes also feature Cadex integrated cockpits, instead of the two-piece setups found on existing Revolt Advanced Pro builds, and what could be a new version of Giant’s D-Fuse seatpost.
Instead of an aero profile, this seatpost uses a round (likely 27.2mm) shape, narrowing at the top for increased flex and improved comfort on rough terrain.
When will this new Giant gravel bike launch?
Given Giant’s post says these are prototype components, it’s fair to imagine an official launch may not be imminent.
As noted, though, a 2027 Giant Revolt Advanced SL features in the UCI’s list of approved framesets (meaning framesets that have been approved as compliant with its standards and can therefore be used in its sanctioned events) – and bikes typically launch just ahead of their stated ‘model year’.
Given this, and the fact the bike is clearly developed enough to have been approved by cycling's international governing body, and raced at the most important gravel event of the year, we’d put our money on this bike being launched fairly soon.
