Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 gravel bike review - top of its class

The Revolt range is Giant’s family of gravel bikes. Starting at $1,350 / £1,199 for the alloy framed version, this is the range-topper carbon version. 

The Advanced Pro range tested here was developed to be more of a racer rather than a multi day tourer. It boasts an impressive weight of 8.27 kg (Size medium) and is said to be Giant’s most lightweight, compliant, responsive and efficient gravel bike yet. It has been developed in conjunction with top gravel racers to meet the demands of long and fast courses. 

Not only is the Giant Revolt amongst the best gravel bikes available, we were so impressed with its ride comfort, versatility, performance and value that we crowned the Revolt the overall winner of our gravel bike of the year head-to-head.

Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0: construction

The frame is built with Giant's Advanced Composite Technology - it's the carbon fiber and lay-up that the Taiwanese brand specs across all its top end bikes.

The oversized head and downtube is offset with skinny top and seat tubes - all designed to make it as stiff, but compliant, as possible.

The shape mirrors the road endurance range in sharing Giant’s own compact frame design - so there’s plenty of seatpost showing and a tight diamond frame shape. It adds a real poise to the bike and looks fast. Although the sloping top tube slightly limits frame bag options, there’s still an abundance of mounting points for bottles, bags, racks and guards - certainly enough for everything you’d need for weekender bikepacking trips.

The wheelbase is adjustable by one centimeter across the carbon Revolt range thanks to the ‘Flip-Chip’ dropouts. Effectively, these can be run in two positions: one that offers a shorter more nimble ride and 45mm tires max, and another which is longer to give more stability and the chance to run 53mm tires whilst still staying within the recommended clearance. 

Developed with a longer than average toptube and steeper headtube angle (71.5 degrees M) and a low bottom bracket all nod to its racing intentions.

This is Giant’s top of the range gravel bike, for that you get Shimano’s highest GRX Di2 groupset - the braking is sublime and the shifting is fast, slick and quiet. The 48x31 chainset matched up to a 11-34 cassette gives plenty of gearing range. The wheels are Giant’s own CXR 1, which have hookless carbon rims, with 25mm inner rim width, 31mm outer width and 35mm in depth.

They are bang-on for the requirement of gravel riding, retailing for just shy of $1,400 / £1,200 it’s impressive to see that Giant doesn’t neglect this all-important aspect of the build. The crowning glory for the set is the base weight of 1,398 grams (Giant claimed). 

The Maxxis Receptor 40mm tires sit at the slick end of the spectrum when it comes to the best gravel bike tires and nod to dry fast hardpack terrain rather than anything too muddy.

The Giant D-Fuse seatpost is, you guessed it, a ‘D’ shaped post, with the flat section at the back to provide a level of flex. You can, however, run it with a round post for a stiffer ride - or use with a dropper seatpost. It is teamed with the alloy-railed Giant Approach SL saddle.

In-house carbon bars and a 7cm alloy stem complete the finishing kit. The bars are slightly tapered, these are more in keeping with the latest trend of narrower racing bars as opposed to super flared bars that adorned many gravel bikes just a few years ago. 

The frame is well set to run a dropper post and suspension forks should you want to keep up with what is going to be on trend in the gravel world in the next few years.

Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0: the ride

I rode this bike on tarmac, dry and sodden hardpack, sand, mud covered roads and across muddy fields. 

Firstly, this is a seriously quick and capable bike, on the road or hardpack it rides like a top end road bike. Despite the mass of rubber, it responds beautifully to any increase in input, yet those tires also flow over unkempt wet roads. Off-road, when speed is replaced with a need to launch the bike around trail obstacles, the shorter stem and stiff front end are confidence inspiring. 

I kept the wheelbase short (1026mm M). As I like an agile feel, this allowed me more than once to adjust my line mid turn and hold and tame any sideways action that the mud covered roads and tracks presented me with. Only once on a fast 40 mph road descent did it start to feel a little twitchy.

Having raced cyclo-cross and MTB XC for years with a single chainring set-up, initially I thought having a 2x set-up would be like stepping backward. However, I was soon a convert. I covered lots of backroad miles and really appreciated the higher gears on the tarmac sections. Off-road, I thought I’d need lower, but not once did I run out of gears.

I’m a big fan of the D-Fuse seatpost having used them on my ‘cross bike - the benefits are increased even further due to the sheer amount on show. There will always be feedback, but not once did I feel that I would be rattled to death. Of course, tire pressure amounts to a lot and I did at times run them quite high. The level of overall comfort is really impressive -I have never felt so good at the end of 100-mile-plus rides. 

If I'm being picky, I wish the stem was another centimeter longer. At the tall end of the recommended sizing I did knock my knees on the bars a few times, it won’t affect most people, but is something to be aware of if you’re sizing down. In addition, a little more length to the bars would have been nice and offer a slightly different hand position away from the hook.

Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0: value and conclusion

In a category where versatility is king, this bike covers the whole spectrum. It sets a benchmark when it comes to racing, but is equally at home loading up all your kit and heading out on a multi-day adventure.

Giant hasn’t cut corners on the kit that this bike is decked out in, the in-house components are available separately and you can see the ratings and pricing is inline with other top end kit.

There is no mistaking that the wheels add so much to how responsive and nimble this bike feels, with most rival brands specing far weightier options. At $6,400 / £5,499 it’s not a cheap bike, but this level of kit is usually found on bikes worth a lot more than this and Giant should be commended, in this respect it is brilliant value for money.

Personally I think a bike should be judged on how it rides and makes you feel, I was astounded at how responsive this bike is, it shouts at you to go faster. I was out of the saddle spinning up over the top of climbs that normally I’d be just about be hanging on for, even on lighter road bikes with skinny rubber. It was so apparent that I had to check the length of the cranks to see that something smaller than my usual 172.5 had not been specced. 

Similarly the 48t ring felt smaller; combined with the closer ratio than a 1x would allow, I could stay on top of the gear even on the most undulating terrain. This ceaseless quest to ride faster, combined with such positive fun inducing handling and an ability to deliver the best long distance comfort I’ve ever had led me to conclude that this is one of the best bikes for the money in this category you can buy.