Home > Bike Types > Cyclocross

Grava hunts Appalachia’s moonshine stills with new Revenuer steel gravel bike

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

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

About a year ago, many of our Asheville, NC, friends started showing up to the ‘cross races aboard a sleek looking carbon bike emblazoned with raised silver letters spelling out GRAVA. More and more of them started riding them, including some of the Industry Nine folks, and getting good results in the local and state series. That model’s called the Maple Sally, and that’s a story we’ll tell in another post soon.

Now, Lenoir, NC, based Grava Bikes is bringing their next model’s production to the States, and they’re looking to Kickstarter to make it happen.

Called the Revenuer, its name refers to the revenue collectors from the long defunct Bureau of Prohibition, whose agents would comb the Blue Ridge Mountains seeking illegal moonshine stills. Many of those dirt roads and secret paths now make for excellent riding through the area, and this bike’s made to handle them all…

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

The frame will be made of Dedacciai and Columbus Zona tubing. The standard head badge will be a tribute to the Revenuer’s badges, and the first five backers will get a custom brass plaque with “Kop van de wedstrijd” (head of the race) brazed onto the frame along with the option of a special white and black paint scheme. The standard paint scheme, shown here, will use a matte black base that’ll stand up to less than ideal conditions.

The frame’s geometry leans towards the racy, but has a bit longer wheelbase than a pure road machine and uses TRP’s cyclocross disc brake fork, blending on- and off-road traits to match their goal of having “one bike, many rides.”

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

A PFBB30 lets you run any type of crankset.

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

It has clearance for 700×44 tires front and rear

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

Out back are Paragon Machine Works’ Wright-style 12×142 dropouts and post mount brake tabs with replaceable threaded inserts.

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

Going with a steel frame hearkened back to founder frame designer Shawn Moore’s early racing days. It also made it easier to source domestic production. But they wanted it to be thoroughly modern and work with today’s components, hence the thru axles and 44mm headtube that’ll fit straight and tapered forks. They say these attributes provide the snappy performance we all expect nowadays without diminishing steel’s inherent ride qualities.

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

The chainstay has a nice graphic resembling tax stamps, but with Grava’s logo centrally located.

Grava Revenuer steel cyclocross gravel road bike on Kickstarter

Price for frame, fork, Cane Creek headset and Salsa Lip Lock seat collar is $1,599. Branded trinkets are available through the campaign for smaller supports starting at just $40, but jumping to $800 puts a deposit on a frame. Pony up the full $1,599 in advance and you’ll get the frameset. $2,499 gets you the special paint scheme, and $6,000 gets you a complete bike, two nights B&B stay and guided rides around Appalachia. Our bet is there’ll be some ‘shine along the way, too.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign here. The frames have been prototyped and tested, all that’s needed now is the funding to launch production.

GravaBike.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

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

16 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
SketchyD
SketchyD
8 years ago

Reckon I saw this pre-production model at the Darby Roubaix Gravel Race outside of Lenoir. Looked great.

shadizzle
shadizzle
8 years ago

I thought to myself, “man that is a pretty bike…much prettier than my bike”, as I noticed the blur of blue fly past me this past weekend during the Bootlegger 60 Proof out in Lenoirville.

WV Cycling
WV Cycling
8 years ago

$900 for a paintjob?

scentofreason
scentofreason
8 years ago

Steel is REAL!! Unless we’re talking about the front fork, then not so much really…

Papi
Papi
8 years ago

“A PRBB30 lets you run any type of crankset.” I’m pretty sure that’s an overstatement. I can think of a lot of cranks / bottom brackets that are not “PRBB30” compatible.

Shawn
8 years ago

@Papi – not an overstatement at all. We are going to be spec’ing Wheels Mfg. PF30 bottom brackets on the complete bikes we introduce later this spring. They have models to fit 24mm spindle Shimano, FSA, SRAM cranksets. Plus BB30 cranksets work with PF30 and there are adapters to allow the use of square taper bottom brackets.

@WV Cycling – yep, $900 for a limited to 5 in the Kickstarter only, two color powdercoat paint job. Like Big Daddy Kane said, “Pimpin’ ain’t easy”

@scentofreason – we’ve been looking into building a Colnago-esque straight blade steel fork with a tapered steerer tube and a crown that would visually fit in with the 44mm head tube (those tiny crown forks look so out of place coming out of the oversized head tube!), but the cost is pretty significant to the point of doubling the cost of the bike. We’ll keep working on it, though. We’re right there with you on how cool it would be…

Bob
Bob
8 years ago

The way the state keeps tar & loosely graveling roads in western NC I’m gonna have to get one. Riding 23 slick tires is getting pretty sketchy around here.

Shawnriffhard
Shawnriffhard
8 years ago

Great looking ride! Fender and rack mounts?

Papi
Papi
8 years ago

@Shawn – Square taper? Paul? Velo Orange? White Industries?

Shawn
8 years ago

@Papi – SRAM makes a PF30 adapter for use with any english threaded bottom bracket. That should cover the scenarios you list. To be honest, we thought long and hard about whether or not to go with a threaded bb shell or PF30. After much debate, we decided that PF30 was a more inclusive choice that gave the consumer more freedom in choosing their equipment. We’ve been testing our prototypes with Shimano cranks on Wheels Mfg. PF30 outboard bottom brackets (http://wheelsmfg.com/bottom-brackets/pf30-outboard/pf30-outboard-bottom-brackets.html) with zero issues. Our complete builds will feature these as the stock bottom bracket whether they are spec’ed with 24mm spindle cranksets or BB30 cranksets.

brian
brian
8 years ago

What is someone wanted to SS this bike? Threaded BB does not make that super easy. So PF30 wins in more situations I think.

Papi
Papi
8 years ago

@Shaw NICE! Who knew? (clearly not me). thanks!

Evanstonian
Evanstonian
8 years ago

What’s the approximate weight of a fully built bike?

Shawn
8 years ago

@Evanstonian – the bike you see pictured here is built with Shimano 105 11 speed, TRP Spyre brakes, Boyd Altamont Disc wheels and weighs a little over 21 lbs. (including pedals, bottle cages, and everything an actual bike would have).

@Shawnriffhard – The Revenuer doesn’t currently have rack and fender mounts.

Shawn
8 years ago

We are in the final two weeks of our Kickstarter campaign! We have added complete bikes to the perks that are available. A Shimano 105 built bike is $2799 and an Ultegra 600 mechanical with hydraulic disc brakes is $3499. Jayson O’Mahoney of GravelCyclist.com did a full ride review of The Revenuer at http://www.gravelcyclist.com/bicycle-tech/review-grava-bikes-the-revenuer/

jtdcg
jtdcg
8 years ago

Will these still be made since the kickstarter failed?

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.