Fuji gains traction in gravel road bike segment with new Tread

@mudrock Because it was a CX bike first.

@mirwin that kind of definition is always fuzzy, but my guess is that a gravel bike is a CX bike optimized for folks who don’t want to race at all… so braze ons, a bit of geo, loadout, weight.

Similar to Specialized. The CruX EVO is essentially a regular CruX with 3 bottle cage mounts, compact (not CX chainrings), and wider gravel tires — that’s it. Doesn’t stop it from getting great reviews as a swiss-army knife, winning the Dirty Kanza, & crushing as Rebecca Rusch’s main steed before she jumped over to Niner.

Honestly don’t get the point of the Diverge when they have this. Guess it’s not comfy enough for a Roubaix crowd.

I like to see the industry acknowledge that in fact cyclocross bikes work great as gravel bikes.
@Mr.P I don’t see why you want a long distance bike to be longer, for instance a quick comparison of a cannondale synapse and superX show identical reaches and the superX having a longer wheelbase.

CX and gravel bike??? Splitting hairs.

Agreed. One is intended for a 50 minute race whilst the other has to be comfortable for rides that can go for longer then 12 hrs. A CX bike has too high a bottom bracket and not enough tyre clearance IMO

@Tomi: I rode almost 3000 miles of gravel last year, and a CX bike does *not* “make for a very good gravel bike”, for the reasons SSS points out. It may look similar for those like you who don’t ride gravel, but I can tell you the last thing I’m looking to do is raise the bike’s center of gravity and have to run skinnier tires.

Fuji is just trying to put some marketing spin on a bike made of parts they happen to stock, to cash in on a market they don’t actually understanding. The problem with even the low-end Tread 1.5 is that anyone buying one as a gravel bike would need to spend that $770 plus the cost of their next bike.

@John:

I am riding on gravel too. I do it on all sorts of bikes, with very different bikes : my race road bike with 25mm tubulars, my CX racing bike and my drop bar converted MTB. I can put a 47mm 29er front tire on my CX bike with a 40mm at the rear, it may not be as good as a bike with two 47mm tires but it is good enough.

What are your issues with what you call an high BB really ? Please explain it to me. Do you even know that many big brand CX bikes are using much lower BBs than 10y ago ?

Hey Steven, I was also looking at this bike and was wondering the same thing. I did some research on the frame geometry of this bike and vs some other gravel/adventure bikes and found it to be very similar to most of them. In fact it had a slightly longer wheelbase then some, same bb height, same head tube angle as well as other specs from gravel specific Frames. I’m thinking that’s why Fuji went ahead and used this frame for there new gravel/adventure bike, because it looks like it’s better for that type of riding anyway. So it probably doesn’t make sense to use, (make) a different frame just for the sake of saying it’s a new gravel/adventure bike when they already had a great starting point. This will be my second Fuji this year I just picked up a 2014 Fuji Absolute 1.3 Disc and it’s a great bike.

@Steven, What store are you buying yours from? I’m lucky I have a Performance Bike locally and they have all sizes I’m pretty sure in there warehouses. What’s also good about Performance Bike is you can order the bike have it shipped to store, assembled allcaig at no charge and when it’s ready go pick it up and if you for some reason don’t like it, ordered the wrong size or whatever you don’t have to buy it. I was able to stop by my store today and they had a Tread 1.1 on the floor in a 52 which is too small for me, but I was able to check it out in person and it’s definitely a great bike for the price. It was also $899 for that Tread 1.1 which is a super good deal as well.
If anyone knows of any more gravel/adventure road bikes under $ 1,000 that are worth looking at let me know because I’d like have more choices if there worth looking at. Only one I saw that was in my price range was the new Kona Rove al.

Hi,
Has anybody encountered any info regarding tire clearance with or without mudguards?

Well… I just grabbed one Tread 1.0 from performancebike. $1099 for a full Shimano 105 makes it a steal. Its a comfortable ride and does everything well. Did 10 miles of gravel w/o any issues. If you have 10 hrs + to ride gravel only roads get a serious gravel. If you want an all rounder road bike for 1/3 less get a Tread.

@ Eric, my brother picked up a 56 Tread 1.0 last month and I don’t think he has weighed it yet. I have ridden the 1.0, 1.1 and 1.5 and can say that the 1.0 is definitely lighter mainly because it’s fully equipped with 105 components. I do know there not the lightest bikes out there because they are gravel adventure bikes so some of the major part’s of the bike are bigger. I also can say he likes ridding it more than his Specialized Tarmac Pro which in my opinion says a lot about the bike. I liked the bike so much I went and ordered a 1.5 for myself and couldn’t be any happier.