You might not know the Noble name, but you’re probably already familiar with Mark Landsaat’s work. As the former Director of Product Development at Raleigh America, Mark had his hands in a number of popular bikes – including the Raleigh Tamland. That’s an important detail when you consider the newest model from Noble, the GX1 gravel bike.
Back in his Raleigh days, Mark says that they had used Reynolds steel tubing for years, and actually wanted to use 853 for the Tamland. However, Reynolds advised against it, suggesting that they use the stronger 631 steel alloy instead which is often used in motorcycle frames. But, the tubing sizes were too big which led to Reynolds adding more tubing profiles specifically to adapt to the needs of Raleigh.
Now that Mark is doing his own thing with Noble bikes, he still has those connections at Reynolds which is why he has once again designed a gravel bike using a custom Reynolds 631 steel tubeset. These aren’t just the old tubes from Raleigh though – Mark says that they feature new profiles and result in an even better ride quality with improved durability.
Built with both gravel riding and bike packing in mind, the GX1 offers full fender and rack mounts with the ability to run full coverage fenders on 700c x 40mm tires. Noble lists the tire clearance of the bike as 700c x 40mm, but Mark points out that is the ISO 4210 rating which requires 6mm of clearance on both sides of the tire. So depending on the tire and rim combination, you could probably go larger.
Built with a press fit bottom bracket, Noble equips their bikes with a Wheels Manufacturing thread together PF bottom bracket which eliminates creaking issues, and the frame runs flat mount 160mm disc brakes, and a 12 x 142mm rear end.
Designed around a “forward geometry”, the GX1 follows current gravel trends of using a longer top tube with a shorter stem for improved handling both on and off road. Complete builds include a Toray carbon fork with 12 x 100mm thru axle, fender mounts, and flat mount disc brakes.
Pricing is set at $2,499 for a complete Ultegra 2×11 build with tubeless rims and tires, and it’s expected to be available in a few months.
