The Continuing Evolution Of The Gravel Bike

Image courtesy of King Fabrications

As I study the new 2025 releases for gravel bikes, a couple of things are clear. This post will explore some of those things I am noting. The very first thing to understand is this; Most manufacturers do not understand what the target market for gravel is, nor do they understand what those riders need. 

This is bourne out in what I see being offered for 2025 and which press releases are getting all the run on cycling media sites. Essentially there are three distinct directions which are somewhat at odds with each other. The industry is trying to pull the hardest, though, in the direction of making gravel bikes into full-on, aero based racing bikes. Bicycle that have a lot more in common with Pro road racing on pavement than anything else. 

The second main direction I see is the more mountain bike styled gravel bike. Larger tires, suspension, higher bottom brackets, and longer top tubes. Thirdly, and less common, but still a distinct direction, I see the "adventure based" gravel bike as the last distinction. 

The Davinci Hatchet Vista (Image courtesy of Devinci)

Why do manufacturers and marketing departments have such a hard time with an "all-around" bike? Well, for one thing, an "every-person's bike" isn't easy to market. It also is not a very easy place to distinguish a brand with a notable difference. Although, it could easily be argued all the current "gravel bikes" pretty much look the same anyway. 

I found a company which is taking a unique approach to this conundrum. It is the Canadian company, Devinci. Instead of trying to take their gravel range into one direction, they decided to take the "divide and conquer" route. 

Their range of new gravel bikes for 2025 is called the Hatchet. Within this range they have the Hatchet Pro Rival AXS, the Hatchet Vista, and an electrified e-Hatchet Tour model. Devinci seem to be saying "gravel" is essentially going into two categories, and oddly enough, one of them is not a more mountain bike style. 

It would be easy for a brand to offer two different spec levels and two different paint schemes and say that they have two different bikes, but Devinci has really made two very different gravel bikes. Their geometries are different, and even what the frames are made from is different. I'll leave the electric Hatchet out of this comparison and focus on the other two models. 

The Hatchet Pro (Image courtesy of Devinci)

The Pro model has a lower bottom bracket and a road bike steep 72.5° head angle. The marketing copy puts a heavy emphasis on stiffness and aero. Meanwhile the Vista is a more adventure focused bike with a higher bottom bracket, slacker head tube angle more in line with current gravel bike geo, and it has many accessory mounts. The frame is also an aluminum one instead of carbon. 

It is interesting because in other brand line-ups these would be two different models. Salsa Cycles Warbird/Cutthroat/Fargo, or Specialized's Diverge vs Crux, as examples. And yes, this divergence of focus in gravel bikes is definitely not confined to Devinci, nor is it anything all that new. 

The differing focuses in gravel are driven by many factors. Some feel that gravel is not one thing or another, but a loosely defined thing. Even Devinci recognizes this on their page introducing the new Hatchet range. They state the following about gravel bikes : "Yes, that discipline often seen as some sort of cross-breed between road and XC, without any universally agreed-upon definition among companies in the industry." (As if the industry can agree on the definition of anything cycling related!)

Maybe Devinci has identified what is wrong when they point out the cross between "road and XC" (XC= mountain biking here) If this is the case, then the intentions for "gravel" were misunderstood from the beginning. Probably due to the insistence on the term "gravel" for these bicycles. Had the term "all-roads" been employed, would this have made a difference? 

Had a bicycle meant to cover "all roads", including gravel roads, been the design intention all along, would we be seeing bicycles really adept more at pavement (Devinci Hatchet Pro), or bicycles more akin to something that would tackle those roads, yet still be great on rustic two-track roads? (Devinci Hatchet Vista) Would suspension forks, aero, or MTB width tires even be a thing in "all-roads" bikes? 

As of 2025, it is a nice thought exercise to do when you have the time. Reality now is quite different. Brands are still trying to "cover all the bases" when they really shouldn't be because they are missing a big chunk of riders in the middle who are not racers, are not always just adventure riders, and want a bike to "just ride" all-roads on. Of course, why sell the public just one great, do-it-all bike when you can sell them three.

Right?