Imagine showing up for a hilly century ride and being presented with a singletrack-loving gravel bike with 700×50 tires. That was the scenario for my Alchemy Lycos test ride, and it was the new, more affordable stock builds introduced just a few days prior…not the handmade-in-Colorado Ultralight model.
Always one for an adventure, bottles were filled, pedals installed, and we were off for a mostly pavement loop in the hills inland from Monterey, California.
Quick background: Alchemy’s first gravel bike, the Ronin, is more of a race bike, with geometry closer to a road bike and a short headtube that allows aggressive body positioning. The Lycos is their sophomore effort, aimed at riders who like to mix mountain bike trails into their rides, with slacker geometry and much larger tire clearance (which we were maxing out with 700×50 Maxxis Ramblers).
Both bikes feature top tube bag mounts and three bottle mounts, one being under the downtube near the BB shell. The key difference is the geometry and layups.
Once we rolled out, any concerns about the Lycos’ road manners quickly dissipated. Starting in a paceline full of strong riders, it held a line and behaved well riding two abreast once we reached low-traffic country roads.
The real fun began once we hit dirt, with a long, gradual climb through the hills before a ripping fast descent that had its share of stutter bumps, loose pebbly ground cover, and winding curves.
Handling was stable and predictable, allowing me to look around and enjoy the scenery a bit.
The Lycos’ fork has three mounts for extra storage, plus fender mounts for foul-weather riding. It’s not pitched as an “adventure” or bikepacking bike and lacks the extra frame mounts to support racks or fixed bags, but there’s no reason you couldn’t strap a variety of frame bags to it and head out for multi-day excursions.
The thin seatstays are set low, and the bottom half of the seat tube thins and flattens, adding compliance and comfort over rough roads. I’ve found that the Ronin is surprisingly comfortable for having a racy attitude, with seatstays that go straight to the top, but the Lycos improves upon this while maintaining spirited performance when you need to beat your buddies to the county line.
Alchemy offers stock colorways with your choice of stealth or standard logos, plus custom paint from their in-house studio.
I rode the GRX Di2 build ($6,499), which even with a 1x drivetrain was fine on the road sections and gravel…which is good, because the frame has no accommodation for front derailleurs. Just change the front chainring size to suit your needs, or swap to a MTB cassette and derailleur for more range.
Complete bikes start at just $4,999, and other than the GRX build, all others are SRAM with your choice of XPLR gravel or Eagle MTB cassettes and derailleurs out back. All frames use a UDH rear derailleur.
It’s something I could see riding long miles, on road or off. If you’re looking for a single drop-bar bike to pull double duty, it’s worth a look. I certainly wouldn’t mind one of these in my own stable.
