Home > Feature Stories

Grava Bikes Brings Revised do-it-all Bike to Market: The Maple Sally

19 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

GravaMapleSally2015-1

The original Grava Bikes Maple Sally made its first appearances in and around Western North Carolina, at various ‘cross and gravel races in the area. Since that time, Grava Bikes have continued to enhance the product line, most recently with the release of their USA made steel bike, The Revenuer. But, they’re not resting on their laurels. Cue the next version of the Maple Sally, their carbon do-it-all bike…

GravaMapleSally2015-3

Grava’s Maple Sally drew its name from a road in the Wilson Creek Gorge area of Western North Carolina – the roller coaster like topography of this dirt thoroughfare inspired company founders Jeff Welch, Shawn Moore and Sonny Dyer to create the near perfect do-it-all bike.

GravaMapleSally2015-4

Road, Roubaix, Gravel, Ultra / Monster Cross, Gran Fondo or Cyclocross, the Maple Sally is one bike for all of these jobs. The frame was designed to be stiff and compliant, but without forgoing comfort; the rider should not have to endure both terrain and bike. The Maple Sally’s unidirectional, high-modulus, Toray 24-ton carbon fiber lay-up sees to that.

GravaMapleSally2015-6

In line with a frame of this nature, the Maple Sally features many of the conveniences people expect these days – all carbon tapered steerer tube fork, internal routing of shifter and disc brake cables, support for electronic shifting and PF30 bottom bracket shell.

GravaMapleSally2015-5

A longer wheelbase provides excellent stability when descending, with tire clearance for a 29’er x 1.8″ tire on the front and 700c x 40mm tire on the rear. Thru axles front and rear keep wheels secured to the frame.

GravaMapleSally2015-2

MSRP on the all-carbon Grava Bikes Maple Sally is $US 1,850.

For the dedicated cyclocross racer, Grava Bikes is offering an “A” bike / “B” bike special. Buy two frames of the same size, get custom paint and $200 off each frame. Special pricing and custom paint is available to teams who order a minimum of four frames.

Grava Bikes

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

19 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Pette
Pette
9 years ago

Very Nice!

BMW
BMW
9 years ago

Press fit and a non flat bottom of the toptube, you done fuuuu…..up.
Thru-axle front and rear, great tire clearance, decent looking paint, and internally routed cables. Many claps from this chap.

Volkswagen
Volkswagen
9 years ago

@BMW why does the top tube need to have a flat bottom?

JamesS
JamesS
9 years ago

Isn’t this just the ac059 frameset? Or at least very similar :S

SNIPE-HUNTER
9 years ago

ENOUGH with the rebrand show… China deluxe is getting old.

Heffe
Heffe
9 years ago

This frameset is a bit like a Bailey, but vastly more expensive.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
9 years ago

@SNIPE-HUNTER, since you feel compelled to link to your website I noticed you carry 2Quick wheels. They don’t own any of those carbon molds and the rim designs aren’t theirs. The “rebrand show” continues, eh? And at your supposed anti-“rebrand” shop, right?

Rebrand or not the forward facing curve fork on this Grava bike looks absolutely terrible.

Jimbo Calhan
Jimbo Calhan
9 years ago

Limited to 40 in the rear? Eh. Not very monstercross. You want to be able to run a 45 max. Like the Panaracer FireCross. That tire is it for such.

Marin
Marin
9 years ago

Looks like an LTK027 with the reversed forks. I have the canti version, great frame.

Mecanico do Paladar
9 years ago

I was looking. at this frame, and couldn´t stop thinking in my Ltk027 Disc Frame, which by the way i enjoy a lot!!
Nice paintjob for this rebrand, a show absolutely!!!

Ajh
Ajh
9 years ago

Same exact mold as my China special cross bike. The only difference is this has thru axles and internal routing in the fork. I paid 480 for mine so there is no way I will pay more for a name on the side.

Craig Harris
Craig Harris
9 years ago

Not really a do-it-all … it can’t clear 700×42 studded winter rubber and doesn’t have rack mounts, and is a bit slack for road racing, so whilst it’s probably good for many things, it’s certainly not a do-it-all.
And that reverse curve fork – really? why? so weird & ugly (shame, as the frame looks really nice)

Ajh
Ajh
9 years ago

Mine is an ican AC059

Grammarnazi
Grammarnazi
9 years ago

@ Volkswagen, flat top tube makes for a more enjoyable shouldering experience.

Argh
Argh
9 years ago

I have same china frame with db brakes. looks like made in the same factory with minor differences.

Jeff Welch
9 years ago

As one of the owners of Grava I would like to thank you for comments both positive and negative. First, I would like to note that this is an open mold frameset that we get from China, what is being overlooked is that we have gone to a better carbon (unidirectional, high-modulus, Toray 24-ton carbon fiber) which increases stiffness and strength of the frameset. This feature alone accounts for a substantial price increase on our end. Above and beyond that we also have the framesets painted in the US to allow for a better quality control and customization. We have also chosen a thru-axle design, again this feature increases the stiffness of the frame and fork and reduces rotor rub found on the QR equipped bikes.
As for the fork, we felt like the fork gives a unique look and does provide a bit of relief from the roughest gravel conditions. Obviously, not everyone is on-board with the look! We do offer the TRP thru-axle fork our US built Revenuer steel frameset and we can offer that option on the Maple Sally frames as well, you would just need to let us know when ordering.
Frame clearance on this frame is definitely less than the clearance found on our Revenuer frameset that will accept a tire width of 29×1.8. We feel the Maple Sally will do the job for most of the disciplines, as we have tested for years as a cross bike, gravel bike (Including the Hilly Billy Roubaix) and road bike with no problems.
We appreciate the feedback by all means, we are a small company with good customer service and we are able to make running changes based off customer input/requests, so please feel free to contact us at info@gravabike.com
Thanks for reading.

The Truth
The Truth
9 years ago

Maybe they got a sweet deal on a batch of screwed up forks with the caliper mount mounted on the wrong blade backwards?

eliflap
9 years ago

this frame is like my chinese LTK 027 disc

1000 grams in 53cm size UD raw no paint

McClain
McClain
9 years ago

This looks pretty cool, but don’t call it a “do-all” bike unless it has rack mounts.

My Kona Jake the Snake is a do-all bike, at least to me.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.