Kona Ouroboros CR/DL review: an intriguing blend of gravel and cross-country held back by its spec list

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The Ouroboros is a new model in Kona’s gravel bike line-up, designed to push the boundaries of gravel riding. 

Kona isn’t trying to reinvent the gravel or cross-country mountain bike, but instead pays tribute to both disciplines. 

It took me a while to fully understand what Kona were going for with the Ouroboros, which takes its name from the ancient symbol of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. However, I ultimately came away impressed by this genre-blurring frameset, despite some obvious flaws.

It’s a shame this mid-range CR/DL model, priced at £3,499 / $3,499 / €4,499, is draped in some so-so kit.     

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Kona Ouroboros CR/DL frame details 

The Ouroboros is certainly distinctive in its appearance, with its stout head tube and beefy seat tube junction the first thing your eyes are drawn to. To my eye, the Ouroboros looks like a cross between the Salsa Cutthroat and the dropped rear end of a Yeti ARC. 

Kona says the striking tube shapes are deliberate, and the reinforced head tube and seat tube junction are claimed to “deliver the strength, stiffness and control needed for this kind of riding”. 

The frameset is made of carbon fibre, with Kona claiming a 1,942g frame weight for a size 52cm, with the fork coming in at 312g (both painted with hardware and including the thru-axles) – weighty, but understandable given its rugged intentions.

Kona doesn’t delve much into the carbon construction of the Ouroboros beyond the fact that the layup is optimised for “strength, durability, and [optimal] ride quality”. 

Although this particular CR/DL model wears a rigid carbon fork, the Ouroboros’ front end is suspension-corrected for a gravel suspension fork, with a 420mm axle-to-crown measurement.  

Most gravel suspension forks have 40mm travel, although RockShox’s recently announced Rudy XL fork has 60mm travel. Ridley and Lee Cougan, for example, go the whole hog and spec 100mm-travel mountain bike forks on their Ignite GTX and Innova Super Gravel models, respectively. 

With the Ouroboros sitting on the fringe of gravel and cross-country mountain biking, Kona says it didn’t opt for a longer-travel fork because it wanted the geometry and spec to be “tailored to fast, capable performance without fully drifting into mountain biking territory”.  

The rigid carbon fork has a whopping 2.5in tyre clearance (63.5mm), but the rear end is less generous at 2.1in / 53.34mm clearance. Although competitive, it’s a shame the rear isn’t slightly more spacious – 57mm would be ideal and in keeping with the latest releases. 

That said, most current gravel suspension forks limit you to 50mm tyres anyway, so this balances things out.   

A curiosity is that Kona opts for a BB86 bottom bracket standard because it “allows for increased tyre clearance and simple cable routing”, according to the brand. 

A wider BB92 standard would also achieve this, while increasing tyre clearance, but Kona says it wouldn’t be possible to run a 2x groupset due to the front derailleur’s placement. Full compatibility with 1x and 2x road and gravel bike groupsets is something Kona wanted. 

Elsewhere on the frame, you get protection on the driveside chainstay and underneath the down tube / bottom bracket junction. There’s also a SRAM UDH (Universal Derailleur Hanger) dropout for compatibility with direct-mount rear derailleurs. 

Borrowing from the mountain bike world, Kona specs a 31.6mm seatpost diameter standard with a 34.9mm clamp, saying it allows for more choice than a 27.2mm option. On the 48cm to 52cm sizes, you can run a dropper post with up to a 100mm length, extending to 125mm for the larger sizes. 

Although the frame can take common 160mm disc brake rotors, Kona specs 180mm rotors across the range “to give riders more braking power and control, especially when carrying gear or tackling long descents under load” – no bad thing, in my book. 

It may be a small detail, but I love the new head badge of the snake eating itself, even if the lack of the original head badge might upset Kona purists.  

Finally, there’s a multitude of mounting points – five inside the front triangle alone for bottle cages or a custom frame bag, although you don’t get any mounts under the down tube. I don’t mind this omission because whatever you pack there will always get covered in dirt anyway.  

In addition to ‘anything cages’ on the fork, there’s routing for a dynamo hub, and while you can fit full-length mudguards front and rear, there aren’t any rear pannier rack mounts. 

Kona Ouroboros CR/DL geometry

The Ouroboros’ geometry is very similar to the brand’s Sutra, albeit with a suspension-corrected front end. 

The 395mm reach on the size 54cm bike isn’t especially long, but the 610mm stack is lofty and stands out – you’re sat upright. 

Kona says it has designed the stack and reach around a 35/40mm stem to give riders a “comfortable, confident position in the drops without feeling too stretched out or too low”. The brand envisages Ouroboros riders will spend more time in the drops than on the hoods. 

Kona says the 69.5-degree head tube angle was chosen “to keep things snappy on slappy singletrack, yet relaxed enough to not send you kissing the front tyre when things get beguiling”. 

This is paired with a relatively steep 73.5-degree seat tube angle, which Kona says offers a balance between comfort on long, flat sections and efficiency when climbing steep hills, and a long 1,094mm wheelbase on the 54cm size. 

The bike is available in six sizes, from 48 to 58cm – I’m 5ft 11in / 180cm and tested a 54cm. 

In most brands, I would typically be a size 56cm, but the Ouroboros is rather different in its sizing and the 56cm would have been too big for me. 

While the fit of the size 54cm was fine, I’d have been better off with a bike in between the two sizes. It would also be fair to say given I have rather generic measurements, many other riders would be better off for it too. 

Kona Ouroboros CR/DL build 

The Ouroboros CR/DL is the mid-range offering, setting you back £3,499 / $3,499 / €4,499. 

You get a SRAM Rival eTap AXS Wide 2x groupset, with Kona speccing a 43/30t crankset and 10-36t cassette – the lowest gear ratios SRAM offers. Kona says it opted for this groupset because it wanted to include “gear steps that are closer together to help you maintain your ideal cadence”. 

The wheels are WTB KOM i27 rims on cheap-and-cheerful KT-Taiwan QL-S3GR front and QL-DD4DR rear hubs. On the plus side, the rims have a generous 27mm internal width, meaning your tyres should plump up wider than claimed. 

45mm Maxxis Rambler tyres (but not the newly updated version with the HYPR-X compound) are set up tubeless on them. 

Ritchey takes care of the finishing kit. You get a wild-looking Venturemax XL Comp handlebar with a 24-degree flare and 4.6-degree backsweep. My 54cm bike has a 480mm bar, which measures 42cm between the hoods, but 60cm between the drops (measured outside to outside) – that’s seriously wide. 

This is paired with a 60mm Ritchey Trail Comp stem, which also features on the 56cm and 58cm builds (52cm sizes downwards get a 45mm stem). 

Finally, you get a Ritchey Link 20 WCS aluminium seatpost with 20mm setback. 

My 54cm test bike weighs 10kg on the dot and comes in this rather admirable ‘Gloss Harbor Grey w/ Plum and Bloodstone decals’ colourway. 

I like the small graphics here and there around the frame that continue the cyclical theme and there’s a helpful graphic on the rear face of the seat tube that tells you what standards the frame uses – making life a little easier when it comes to replacing the bottom bracket or headset. 

If I’m nitpicking, some of the masking around the mounting points could be neater, though.

Kona Ouroboros CR/DL performance

I tested the Ouroboros over 2,000km around my usual Bristol and Chilterns trails in the south of England, as well as day trips to Salisbury Plain and the New Forest. 

I also took it on the Trans-Cambrian Way, a 168km bikepacking route that traverses mid-Wales, with 4,000m elevation. 

Testing culminated in using the bike for Mother North, a 1,008km gravel ultra-endurance race with 16,800m of elevation in Norway. 

The Ouroboros certainly feels like a platform that bridges the gap between gravel riding and cross-country mountain biking, and the upright and relatively short position took a few rides to get fully used to. 

But straight from the off, this is a lively-feeling bike with a spring in its step and higher-than-expected comfort levels, especially at the rear end. 

While the Ouroboros will happily mile munch on tamer hardpack (which there was a lot of on my ultra-endurance race), it’s more at home on flowing singletrack with its mountain-bike inspired geometry. 

This is a bike that encourages you to get rowdy, although its technical trail ability exists on a bell curve – I was able to find its limits quite easily, especially with the stock 45mm tyres. 3T’s Extrema Italia is the best gravel bike I’ve tested in this respect, with the Ouroboros lacking the sheer ferocity and point-and-shoot approach that bike has on challenging terrain. 

A gravel suspension fork would certainly further unlock the Ouroboros’ potential – and it’s clear to see the bike was designed around one. 

I also reckon Kona could have leaned a little more into the mountain bike world with the geometry – an even-slacker head angle and longer reach would likely make the bike even more fun when descending, and mean it’d find its limits a little later in proceedings. 

While the relatively steep 73.5-degree seat tube angle makes for an efficient pedalling position when climbing, the Ouroboros gets you up ascents without fuss but isn’t a climbing demon compared to a dedicated gravel race bike. 

I found the Ouroboros really shone once I’d swapped the stock 45mm tyres out for wider 50mm rubber and loaded the bike up with bikepacking bags, where it took on a calmer demeanour. 

While there’s a lot to like about the Ouroboros frameset, I’m less fond of some of the components.

My chief bugbear is the SRAM Rival eTap AXS Wide 2x groupset. While it’s true that the jumps between gears are closer together than a 1x drivetrain, as Kona says, it’s at odds with the Ouroboros’ leaning towards being on the gnarlier end of the gravel bike spectrum. 

1x drivetrains have become the de facto standard on most gravel bikes, especially ones with larger tyre clearances, and for good reason – they offer a generous range, while removing the front derailleur, which can be a mud magnet. 

The front derailleur also limits you to officially running a maximum 45mm tyre with a SRAM AXS Wide front derailleur – although, unofficially, you can run wider, as I did. 

The 2x drivetrain also means you can’t run a RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post, which would be more in keeping with the Ouroboros’ ethos than a front derailleur. 

I’ve got lots of experience with Rival eTap AXS, both in its 1x form on gravel and 2x on the road, and I found the groupset’s performance to be mixed. 

While the rear shifting is perfectly acceptable, my experience is that the front derailleur shifts rather baggily on the road – and this is only amplified in an off-road scenario, especially when it’s covered in mud or dirt (as I discovered when I experienced a grisly chain drop during the Trans-Cambrian Way).  

This is despite scrupulously checking the front derailleur’s setup prior to testing (the margin for error on SRAM’s AXS front derailleurs is very tight). 

Simply put, I don’t think this groupset is worthy of being put on this frame and I would strongly recommend installing a chain catcher to mitigate chain drops. 

Outside of the shifting, the brakes were good and, while I’m not a fan of the old Rival shifter ergonomics, it has its fans. Fortunately, the new Rival AXS has adopted the newer hood shape first introduced on SRAM Red AXS. 

It won’t be easy if you want to upgrade the groupset to a 1x system – you’d have to replace all of the drivetrain, a significant expense. 

Moving on, the WTB wheelset was unremarkable but reliable, and while the Maxxis Rambler tyres are competent, I’d recommend upgrading to wider 50mm rubber to unlock this frameset’s true potential. 

I happened to be carrying out a group test of 50mm-wide tyres when testing this bike, and the Vittoria Terreno T50, Continental Terra Adventure and Schwalbe G-One RS Pro all dramatically improved the bike’s performance. 

Moving on to the finishing kit, the Ritchey stem and seatpost are quality items, and I was impressed by how comfortable the aluminium seatpost was. Still, a carbon seatpost (or dropper post) would be a nice upgrade if you want to introduce some further comfort. 

I wasn’t a fan of the Ritchey Venturemax XL handlebar. I found the ovalised hoods uncomfortable to wrap my hands around for extended periods of time, and the drops have an awkward shape, with a kink at their mid-point. This means when you hold the drops with your hand over the brake lever, the kink presses into your thumb, which is uncomfortable. 

Fortunately, handlebars are a relatively easy component to replace. 

In terms of value, the Ouroboros CR/DL is competitive with mainstream brands and although some of the components aren’t to my preference, thumbs up to Kona for not simply bolting on a load of own-brand kit. 

Although not an apples-for-apples comparison because brands seldom spec the 2x groupset found on this Kona, Trek’s Checkpoint SL6 AXS Gen 3 undercuts the Ouroboros CR/DL in the UK at £3,400, but it’s more expensive in the US and Europe at $3,999 / €5,999. Your investment gets you a full SRAM Rival AXS XPLR groupset with Bontrager Paradigm Comp 25 wheels. 

But the Ouroboros CR/DL represents similar value to Cannondale’s Topstone Carbon 3 GRX 2x, which retails for £2,950 / €3,299 (this model isn’t available in the US). For the money, you get mechanical rather than electronic shifting, with Cannondale speccing a mish-mash of Shimano’s GRX820 and GRX610 components with WTB ST i25 rims on Shimano TC500 hubs. 

Kona Ouroboros CR/DL bottom line

The Ouroboros is a rather unconventional bike, but the frameset at its centre is admirable, despite its sizing and tyre-clearance quirks. It’s particularly adept at bikepacking and I like its no-nonsense eagerness to get rowdy. 

It’s a shame this particular CR/DL is hampered by a spec that doesn’t enable the quality frameset to achieve its full potential. 

If I were in the market for an Ouroboros, I would recommend opting for either of the other two models that come with 1x drivetrains, a dropper post and 50mm tyres as standard. That way, you have a spec list that’s nearer what it should be from the start. 

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