Focus Atlas 6.7 review: a bargain-priced bikepacker with hardtail handling

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The Focus Atlas frame is designed for rugged, adventurous bikepacking.

With Shimano’s GRX RX400 drivetrain, and quality WTB wheels and tyres in a generous 45mm width, the Atlas has the potential to live up to its name as a globetrotting go-anywhere bike.

It's a bike that's ready to ramble across continents, but has the handling chops to rival a hardtail mountain bike when the going gets technical.

It comes at a great price, of £1,899 / €1,999, too.

Focus Atlas 6.7 frame

The Atlas frame is made from butted aluminium, with a sloping frame design and dropped stays.

It's packed with practical additions, two-position bottle mounts on the down tube, a second set of bosses on the underside and top tube (bento box) mounts.

You’ll also find mudguard mounts on both the rear and fork, triple ‘anything’ fork mounts and rear rack mounts to boot.

It has a large luggage capacity of 26kg when using the 3kg-per-side capacity on the fork and Focus’ accessory rear rack, rated to 20kg.

Add a frame bag, making use of the two-position bottle mounts, and you have further luggage space too.

The head tube is oversized and uses the combination of Focus’ Integrated cable/hose design and an Acros ICR headset.

That enables the cables and hoses to be routed down into the frame through the head tube, keeping the bike looking clean (albeit at a cost to the home mechanic) and making it easy to add a bar bag.

Focus states the Atlas has 47mm tyre clearance, although with the 45mm tyres fitted, that number looks conservative.

The Atlas can also run 650b wheels, raising the clearance to 53mm on paper.

Focus Atlas 6.7 geometry

The Atlas takes its geometry cues from modern gravel design, with an endurance bike high stack of 615mm on my large test bike, and a long reach of 410mm.

It’s designed to be used with a shorter 90mm stem (across all sizes).

The 70.5-degree head angle is relaxed and the 73.5-degree seat angle matches the steep aggressiveness of gravel race bikes such as the Specialized Crux DSW.

The 50mm fork offset, relaxed head angle and large 45mm tyres combine to make a 70mm trail figure, which is long even for gravel.

In short, it should make for a very stable front end, giving the Atlas an edge when it comes to seriously rough going underfoot.

Focus Atlas 6.7 specification

The Atlas 6.7, like the Boardman ADV 8.9 I tested it alongside, is based around Shimano’s RX400 2x10 speed GRX groupset. Unlike the Boardman, Focus has used the full complement of GRX parts. That said, the chosen cassette sports a closer-range 11-34t cassette.

The wheels and tyres come from WTB, pairing the i23 TCS wide gravel-specific tubeless rims with 45mm-wide Riddler tyres.

WTB also provides its SL8 gravel-specific saddle with multi-density padding and a pressure-relief channel.

Focus' own-brand components round out a quality build with a wide handlebar (44cm, measured centre-to-centre), shallow-and-short drop and a broad 10-degree flare.

The zero-setback 27.2mm seatpost keeps you positioned over the cranks and should add a bit of compliance compared to a wider 31.8mm design.

Focus Atlas 6.7 ride impressions

The Atlas has a great ride position for off-road riding. It sports endurance road bike fit – semi-aggressive, but with a wider hold at the handlebar that adds MTB-like stability when you get further into more technical terrain.

On the roads between gravel sections, it’s a more sedate ride, but that’s not to say it doesn’t feel responsive.

The stiffness in the frame responds well to out-of-the-saddle efforts, with a solid feel from the head tube down to the bottom bracket.

It’s a bike I was happy to sprint on and get out of the saddle on road climbs.

That said, the chunky Riddler tread doesn’t flow like the low-profile Goodyear Connectors on the Boardman or the almost-slick Specialized Pathfinders on the Crux.

That’s certainly not the Atlas’ preferred surface, however.

Get onto unmetalled roads and gravel and the Riddlers came into their own – cushioning, compliant and offering grip for days in the corners.

The Atlas really shines on more technical trails, with a front end that tracks brilliantly and doesn’t get knocked off-line at speed.

It makes for a bike that has more in common with a hardtail mountain bike than lightweight gravel bikes such as the Crux DSW.

The large-volume Riddler tyres certainly play their part, smothering chatter and gripping impressively in dry, loose corners in my unseasonably warm and dry early-spring test period.

The Atlas revels in choppy, fast descents on root-filled, twisting singletrack. The wide bar and stable front end provide the necessary tools to not only cope with challenging surfaces but to practically revel in them.

The GRX drivetrain is good overall and the braking is exceptional. It did, however, suffer from the same front-derailleur rub at the ends of the cassette as the similarly specced Boardman ADV 8.9, and the front cable required a few tweaks during the test period.

It’s not a light bike, coming in at over 11kg with the big-volume tyres and mid-range finishing kit.

It manages its heft well, but could be improved with a wider cassette fitted as standard, or a few upgrades down the line.

A step up to the 2x11, GRX-800 equipped Atlas 6.8 would address both counts on weight and gearing, but at a price.

The gearing lacks the 1:1 lightest gear common to gravel bikes. I found that, on seriously steep climbs, the Atlas was more effective if I stayed seated and ground out a steady tempo at a more sedate pace rather than high-cadence out-of-the-saddle blasts on the Boardman or Specialized.

Focus Atlas 6.7 bottom line

The Focus Atlas 6.7 manages to bring all the practicalities of a well-equipped bikepacking bike and blend in the sort of handling I love from the best gravel bikes.

The way in which it inspires confidence on technical terrain puts it in the same category as bikes such as Cannondale’s Topstone and Mondraker’s Arid. It does this at a fraction of the price of those rivals.

That said, it's not a purely gravity-focused take on gravel; it’d make for a solid do-it-all bike.

Like the Boardman ADV 8.9, this would make a great commuter bike too, and one that – without panniers and bags – you could take to the trails at the weekend and have some serious fun.

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