BH’s carbon GravelX gets a ground-up redesign focusing on going further, faster by soaking up the little dirt & gravel road bumps that wear down a long-distance racer. Its secret to comfort is a tiny bit of rear wheel travel – just 3-5mm – derived from those open flexing chainstays and seatstay pivot, paired to the possibility of a 40mm suspension fork up front.
But even though we’re essentially looking at a full-suspension gravel bike here now, BH kept the GravelX lightweight, and sees it as more of a ‘light gravel’ or ‘fast gravel’ race bike, not some backcountry adventure bikepacking rig…
BH GravelX lightweight full-suspension gravel race bike
The new BH GravelX is a major departure from the last iteration of the Spanish bikemaker’s gravel bike offering. While that old GravelX Evo was more of a cross bike evolved for light gravel, this 2nd generation is a purpose-built gravel racer. Tire clearance is bigger, geometry is more progressive, and rider comfort gets a huge boost thanks to the innovative rear end’s flexing suspension.
Micro Rear Gravel Suspension
What really sets the carbon BH GravelX apart is its rear end… which looks remarkably similar in concept to the Topstone’s Kingpin. But here large open cutouts in the tall chainstays are paired to a pivot point where the dropped seatstays meet the seattube. The frame promises to flex vertically to eat up fatigue-inducing gravel road buzz, delivering a claimed 3-5mm of rear wheel travel, depending on the rider weight. BH calls it their Smooth Riding System (SRS) vibration absorption with the goal of “providing greater control and riding comfort without reducing performance” paired to a forward arcing Air Bow Gravel fork inspired by BH’s latest road bikes.
All that engineered vertical flex is built into a lightweight HCIM (hollow core molded) hi-mod carbon frameset reinforced with the same “Ballistic carbon” BH puts in their mountain bikes for extra impact resistance.
In the end, the new carbon softail gravel frame has a claimed weight of 1050g, and bumps up to 45mm tire clearance for modern gravel racing and a little more cush.
Gravel Race Geometry
Geometry of the new BH GravelX v2 is just a bit tweaked over the previous carbon generation, but in a few key aspects that make for a more progressive ride. The headtube is slightly slackened on larger bikes, while the seat angle is steepened a bit, and chainstays grow a few mm for a more stable overall ride.
Fit-wise, there are still 4 bike sizes but frame Stack is brought into a narrower range, generally slightly higher than before, while Reach is also brought into a narrower spread that should give many riders more choice in frame size – while potentially alienating the smallest & largest riders.
Tech details
The new gravel bike also goes full-on into modern integration trends. A more subtle inclusion is an integrated downtube protector that hides a tool-free toolbox down below with space for a tube & inflator.
It also gets fully-internal cable routing passing into the frame through the FSA ICR headset, a hidden wedge-style clamp under the toptube to secure its proprietary D-shaped aero post with its own optional integrated taillight, flat mount disc brakes with 12mm thru-axles featuring BH’s own clean hidden QR levers, and is 1x or 2x compatibility with a removable front derailleur hanger.
Mount-wise, the new BH GravelX gets 3 sets of bottle cage bosses inside the main triangle, mounts under the downtube just in front of the BB, plus simple 2-bolt cage mounts in each fork leg – but no rack & fender mounts, and no direct toptube bag mount. BH also makes a special Aerolite aero water bottle for the downtube mount, with an optional additional Aerolite Toolbox that can bolt onto the lower downtube mount for a clean extra storage solution
BH GravelX – Pricing, Options & Availability
The new BH GravelX lineup includes 4 complete bike builds in 4 sizes (S-XL), and 5 standard colors plus BH Unique customization. Pricing starts at 3300€ complete for the GravelX 3.0 with mechanical GRX 1×12 & Shimano AGX wheels, or 3400€ for the GravelX 3.5 with GRX 2×12.
The top fast gravel racing build goes for GRX Di2 1×11 with carbon Vision Team TC30 wheels in the 4400€ BH GravelX 4.0.
And then for rougher racing, the 6300€ BH GravelX 4.5 adds a Fox AX 40mm suspension fork on top of that.
The new gravel race bikes are available now, starting today. But numbers are limited, so you might have to shop around quickly to find the spec, color, size combo that you need.
