Is The Spirit Of Gravel Dead? This Brand says No!

The new Guava Ace is racier than its predecessor, but can a modern race bike ignore the wind tunnel? Simon von Bromley rode the bike in Girona, Spain, to find out. Though ostensibly racier than Guava’s previous offering, the Spot, the Ace doesn’t come with a white paper detailing how many watts you’ll save at 45kph or similar. Instead, Guava co-founder, David Álvarez, insists the Ace is designed to be “faster and more responsive, without losing the fun side”, and is open about having not employed tools such as CFD modelling or wind tunnels when designing it. On top of this, Guava offers an impressive range of customisation options, from paint through to components. It also leverages a slick new sizing tool from a company called SCIMM to help riders select the right sized bike and parts. At first impressions, Guava has achieved what it set out to do, though Simon can’t help but question whether vibes alone are enough to convince performance-conscious riders to part with their cash. What’s most important to you? Vibes Vs. optimisation 👇 Listen to the BikeRadar Podcast 👉 https://www.bikeradar.com/bikeradar-podcast/ Follow BikeRadar on our social media channels: 👉 https://instagram.com/bikeradar 👉 https://facebook.com/bikeradar 👉 https://twitter.com/bikeradar BikeRadar is supported by Mountain Biking UK and Cycling Plus Magazine –For more information and to subscribe please visit 👉 https://bit.ly/3nMr3Rn For more content like this see our latest subscription offer – 👉 https://www.cyclingplus.com/subscribe-today/ 👉 https://www.mbuk.com/subscribe-today/