grannygears

Hello, I am in the market for a good quality carbon gravel bike with a Shimano GRX 810 build. I have looked at alot of the major manufacturers from my local bike shops here in Canada and narrowed it down to these two. I would like to keep my budget to as close to $4500 Canadian as possible.

The only other two bikes that interest me are the Canyon Grail SL 8.0 and the Salsa Warbird GRX 810. The problem with these two is who knows when Canyon can get their $hit together and come to Canada and the Salsa Warbird GRX 810 is $6326 Canadian out the door.

So back to the two original bikes the Giant Revolt Advanced 0 and the Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon. I get a 10% discount from my local Giant dealer bringing the Giant to $4473 out the door and the Specialized dealer offered me -$200 off which brings the Specialized to $5536 out the door.

If we don't take the discount into account the Specialized is almost $1000 more for a similarly spec'd bike. Can we please put the whole "whatever bike fits best" argument aside because I know and I will try and get fit as best I can. Why is the Specialized bike so much more? Can you guys please compare these two bikes for me. Frame quality, build quality, spec seems the same or very similar. Is the Specialized worth almost $1000 more? Thanks

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zen_

The name on the downtube is a big part of the cost difference, plus Giant has economies of scale manufacturing their own frames, and many of the parts on the bike.

As for whether it's worth it, if you were totally neutral on the brands, the Giant is actually the best equipped (has a very nice looking set of carbon wheels), and has the best warranty. It may weigh a bit more than the other bikes though, but again, the only way to know that too is to get the LBS to weigh the same bikes all built up.

Sorg67

I am also looking at gravel bikes. I have focused on the Specialized Diverge and Trek Checkpoint. I think I will take a look at Giant.

Rides4Beer

Specialized is def proud of their bikes, they're good, but I don't think they're worth a grand more.

I have a 2019 Revolt Advanced 2 and love it. It's comfortable, stable, well geared for on and off road, and Giant has probably the best warranty out there, especially for a bike you're going to take off road and beat on, 2 years full crash replacement.

Mr.Barbeque!

I just got my Diverge Specialized Comp E5 (aluminum) a couple of days ago. I am not sure why the price differences but many of the Diverge models come with an internal shock (future shock).

Sorg67

Comparably equipped, it appears the Specialized is about $450 more than the Giant for 2020. Revolt Advanced 2 $2,450, Diverge Sport Carbon $2,900. Revolt has Shimano 105 group set Diverge has GRX RX 810 which I believe is comparable to the 105, just more gravel oriented. Specialized Roubaix Sport has 105 and is more road / endurance oriented. Also $2,900.

tdilf

Unless you are looking for a proprietary shock in the steer tube, I would def go for the giant. That said, I would still try to ride both and see what appeals more after a ride.

grannygears

Thanks for the information guys I have just ordered a 2021 Giant Revolt Advanced 0 in size L. Here in Canada the Specialized Comp Carbon is $800 more than the Giant. I have no brand loyalty what-so-ever and I have always been a "bang for your buck" type of guy. This 2021 Revolt advanced 0 is stacked with full GRX 810, a carbon wheelset and tubeless tires for 2021. Cant wait to see it!!!

jcg878

Both are excellent bikes. I have a Revolt Advanced 2 and have since upgraded to carbon wheels. They completely transformed the bike into the do-it-all bike that I wanted. I'd lean towards the Giant here for that reason alone. Ride both, see what suits you best.

FWIW, the Revolt D-Fuse handlebars are excellent at smoothing the roads out, especially when you're in the drops. I find myself gravitating to the drops often for that reason. I imagine the Future Shock does a better job smoothing things out when you're on the hoods, but I'm impressed by how much compliance is built into the Revolt (seat post too).

dwmckee

I see the future shock as a quick band-aid to make a too-stiff frame more comfortable and call it an advantage that the dealers sell really hard as a reason to buy Specialized. Wait 2 - 3 years and they will be on Future Shock Version 4 and say that is the best one now that everyone should have instead.

It is also prone to a lot of recalls and requires maintenance and proprietary parts.

Also, think about it; the "shock' is not between the front wheel and the frame, it is between the steerer and handlebars, so it does nothing to dampen hits to the frame itself which means all vibrations still are transmitted to every other part of your body through the frame and seat. What good is that? If you want a real shock, put it between the wheel and the frame like any reasonable motor vehicle. What if Ford took their cues from Specialized instead and on their next model line-up took the suspension out from between the wheels and body and instead put it in the steering column between your hands and the steering controls like Specialized? How effective would that be?

If you do want suspension, the Lauf fork is a great and simple way to add effective suspension for gravel that you can add to just about any bike if you want to (and take it off if you want do that later).

Just about every good major brand has built gravel compliance into the frame and eliminated any need for wear-prone proprietary bungie gadgets in the steering linkage. And they do not gouge you $1,000 for it either.

So, I guess you know what I think between these two bikes!

Sorg67

@dwmckee comments are interesting to me. I philosophically prefer simplicity. Less to break. Less to malfunction. Less to maintain. Therefore the FutureShock is worrisome for me. I have been leaning toward the Specialized Diverge but am re-thinking that now.

My understanding of the rationale for this kind of system is to reduce vibration without loss of efficient transmission of energy from pedals to wheels. Whether that actually works or not is another matter. I believe the same principle applies to frame stiffness.

I have turned the pre load all the way up on my hybrid to reduce loss of efficiency. It feels better but I do not know if it is more efficient or not.

I doubt the finer points of energy transfer are material at my level. Getting rid of front shocks may be noticeable for me, but I am not sure about the rest of it.

Rides4Beer

Good call, it's a great bike! FYI, the 2021 frames are di2 compatible, if you want to upgrade in the future (19/20 frames were not, had to either open the hole or splice a wire, neither options I was very comfortable with). Just ordered a 2021 Advanced 2 in Rosewood, gonna have the shop upgrade it to GRX di2. But even the mech GRX setup is nice, shifters are def improved and the RD is clutched.

dwmckee

I ride a LOT of different gravel bikes and I suggest you ride a Warbird or a Renegade or an Open or a Revolt to see for yourself what a well designed frame can do for compliance while maintaining efficiency and speed. The Future Shock idea goes against the grain of pretty much the rest of the industry in addressing compliance and the other big companies out there are not all dumb in their approach to gravel bikes and compliance. Many of their frame solutions have evolved over 10 years or more of testing and refinement. The Future Shock is a way to try and quickly repurpose all of their old technology that was based on most road bike development over the past 30 years which was simply stiffer (and lighter) is always better. What can they do quick to catch up? Put a spring on it and market it as brilliant. The Gen 2 Future Shock already says Gen 1 was not there yet and I say watch for Gen 3 and 4 to be marketed each as the best, then in 5 years they will be marketing a superior frame with compliance built into that. No doubt that Specialized has had some absolutely fantastic bikes over the years, but this a sidestep until they figure our gravel themselves or buy technology from someone else to really get caught up.

BluFalconActual

The Revolt is a superb bike. I also tend to shy away from proprietary suspension bits. The Giant has a ton of flex in the right spots to make it really comfortable on dirt and rough roads. I have ridden mine all over the country and it has been a wonderful companion and friend.

Idaho:


San Diego:


Virginia:

Takis

How much will the Di2 Upgrade cost versus you getting the Advanced 0 right from the get go though? It comes with GRX 810 throughout plus Carbon wheels..

Rides4Beer

Still waiting on di2 parts, but should be about $1600 to upgrade, and then I'll make some back selling off the GRX mech parts. I didn't need the carbon wheels or bars, so it made sense for me. Going from the Advanced 0 to the Pro 1 and getting di2 for $900 def makes sense if that's the end goal and you want the carbon wheels/bars.

Hiro11

To me, Giant is the most underrated bike company out there. Great riding bikes with top quality carbon, no bull**** in their engineering and fair prices for what they offer.

dwmckee

One final comment. Our shop specializes in gravel bikes and we now carry 19 gravel models across 8 different brands to span a very wide variety of customer needs.. We take trades for new bike purchases and what is by far the most common bike to be traded in? The Specialized Diverge. We find a lot of new gravel riders figure Specialized is the best so purchase a Diverge without shopping around much. Then they get more educated and learn more about what they want and trade the Diverge in for a bike that is a better fit for what they want. Giant and Open are popular trades for Diverge owners. I am not saying the Diverge is a bad bike, just the handling and comfort on longer rides is more akin to a road bike and is not what many more experienced gravel riders tend to prefer.

JSinLR

I was down to a Diverge or a Revolt in my search....but I just got a 2021 Giant Revolt Advance 0 and so far I've been pleased...the bike is light, smooth and nearly as fast as my road bike. I was skeptical of the gravel slicks (Maxxis Velocita 40mm) that come on the bike, but they actually have performed decently on gravel so far...I'm going to change them out for some Gravel King SKs (43mm) soon. But one thing I'm really impressed with is the stock carbon wheels (CXR2) that come on the Revolt. Not many people mention these but they have a whopping 25mm inter rim width. That's pretty outstanding in my opinion. You can buy the wheelset from Giant for around $1200 so if you are looking for a wide gravel wheelset with decent weight, they'd be worth considering even if your'e not riding a Revolt. The Advance 0 came with tubeless set up right out of the shop...that's a rarity! It was also still $300 less than the Diverge Carbon Comp I was considering...doesn't have a swat box or future shock. However, a friend of mine who rides a Revolt also said he put a Redshift stem on his bike that essentially does the same thing as the future shock. I don't know if I need that but it's a $150 option if you want to try it. He seems to like his. And the Balsam Green color is really cool too...depending on the light the bike is a deep green or smoky gray...understated look but I kinda like that verses a bright flashy look.

greysquirrel

I also got one several weeks ago and actually considered the Diverge also. Surprisingly, Revolts are in stock where I live.(SF/bay area)

JSinLR

Yeah, it’s spotty here in the mid-south. I had to keep watching the Giant site and search for inventory near me. I had to drive from Little Rock to Memphis to get my bike. Then one came in stock that I could have ordered locally! Oh well, I got what I wanted. One local bike shop told me he had a guy drive from Colorado to Arkansas to get the bike he wanted. Crazy times.

mstateglfr 

Can you expand a bit? What about the Diverge's geometry is unliked so much that owners trade it in and spend thousands more for something different?

The size 54 Diverge has 577mm of stack height, 374mm of reach, the seat tube angle is 73.75(to account for the longer front center that is trendy), chainstay length is a very average 425mm, and trail is 66m due to a 70.5degree head tube angle and 55mm of fork rake. Bottom bracket drop at 80mm is about the only measurement that stands out and I cant imagine the 1cm difference from average is driving people to trade their bikes in.
There is the Futureshock stem and clearance for 47mm tires which combine to offer up comfort.


What types of comfort and geometry are more appealing to experienced gravel riders? Are they looking for a slower steering bike for the long rides so the bike can be stable and just point it forward? Are they looking for more frame compliance? Im curious how Open and Giant(two brands you mention) address the wants of those experienced gravel riders.
These sort of posts and discussion really help differentiate brands and models and put the narrative that 'they are all the same and come from a couple factories' to bed.

greysquirrel

When I was at the Specialized store(SF area), they said that they had people from NY buying bikes and they had a backorder of 3000 bikes!

dwmckee

Yes, and yes. Only about 10 - 15% or the gravel bikes we sell are of the stiff, twitchy sort that are more akin to pure racing. The vast majority (not all!) of gravel riders prefer more compliance higher stack and more relaxed handling that gets more and more appreciated on longer rides on loose and lumpy gravel. Nothing wrong wioth either, but definitely most people prefer the more compliant and relaxed ride. That is not to say a more relaxed bike as any slower as they are not (other than a bity less areo position), they can be equally fast, but they do not have the snappy feel and stiffness of a cyclocross bike that is raced flat out for 40 minutes at a time.

Both types have their fans.

The typical Diverge tradein we see is an experienced road rider moving to gravel that bought a Diverge after a 10 min test ride and it feels like their road bike they are comfortable with, trust the the brand and make the purchase, Then they ride it on gravel for a few months and are less and less happy with the ride and handling on gravel. They come into the shop and ride a Warbird or a Revolt or an Open and immediately are sold on a different bike now that they have some gravel experience. These riders usually are over 40 as well so are more appreciative of a comfortable position and compliance.

The older you are the more apparent the difference is between the two styles. When you talk about compliance wih a 20-someting rider they have no idea of what you are talking about!

dwmckee

Gravel is where the versatility of carbon fiber really hits a home run because you can vary the material, amount of material and placement of types of carbon fiber layups almost infinitely.

With road bikes the main two factors were make it stiff and light. For a couple of decades most manufacturers were investing in making road bike frames stiff and light and compliance was of little consideration. With gravel you want to maintain the lateral stiffness but want to design in vertical compliance. The really good gravel frames from the companies that have been at gravel for several years are getting it tuned in very well. The companies thah have heavily invested on stiff and light road bikes (and hundreds of costly molds) tried to lever their imvestments and technology and evolve their road bikes into gravel bikes with iterative changes instead of a radical redesign. Look back at when the Diverge was a road endurance bike. Then they widened the tire clearance a bit to accomodate a 32mm tire and marketed it as a gravel bike. Then they added some more tire clearance and the future shock to try and quickly add compliance that way instead of designing it into the frame like just about everyone else in gravel.

Gravel is still relatively new and there really is a lot of difference in frame approches by the manufacturers. Nothing wrong with many of the bikes out there, but there is a lot of variation in the frames brands are creating right now and it really is worth trying several brands tio see what you like. Test ride in some loose gravel or a lumpy pothole-riddled decent if you can and you may see an immediate difference in approaches to different frame designs!