Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0: First look and ride impressions of the revamped gravel racer

With the relaunch of the Revolt lineup, the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 is now the company’s top-end gravel racer. Since the Revolt came out in 2013, it has evolved as enthusiasm for gravel has grown. With the latest version of the bike, it gets features that make it a more capable machine for racing on rough routes. It seems the Giant Factory Off-Road Team had a lot of input on this Revolt. They wanted the bike to help them go faster in big events across North America. “I’ve never been more involved in the process of developing a bike than with this Revolt,” says Josh Berry of Giant Factory Off-Road, who is also a Belgian Waffle Ride winner and podium finisher at Gravel Unbound. “All of the race team was very much on the same page with what we wanted. When Giant came back with the actual product we were like, ‘Oh my god, this is exactly what we asked for.’”

The addition of a flip-chip

With the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0, you can tweak the handling of the bike with its flip-chips. In the gravel world, you’ve seen this type of technology on the Cervélo Áspero. While the Áspero has its flip-chips at the dropouts on the fork, the Revolt’s chips sit in the rear dropouts. If you put the chips in the short position—that is, setting the rear wheel’s axle closer to the bottom bracket—you shorten the wheelbase. That change makes the bike more agile. If you’re running narrow tires, Giant recommends this setting. Your treads can get as wide as 42 mm when you have the bike in the short position. If you want to ride wider tires, go long.

The long position sets the rear wheel’s axle 10 mm farther away from the bottom bracket. On my test bike, a Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 in size medium, the move from short to long changes the wheelbase from 1,026 mm to 1,036 mm. The bike then becomes more stable, a little better suited to tricky descents and long climbs on rough terrain. The long position is what you need for maximum tire volume: a width of 53 mm.

As with the Cervélo’s flip-chip change, you also have to adjust the brake caliper afterward so that it accepts the right amount of rotor. With that added adjustment, my sense is that most riders will find the settings they like and stick with them for the most part. Having the versatility is nice, but I sense that ultimately there will not be much flipping going on. For my ride impressions from both sides of the chip, see First ride impressions of the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 below.

Changes in geometry for the Giant Revolt

For Josh Berry, the previous Revolt was too much the jack of all trades. He put a lot of thought into the new Revolt’s geometry to make it better suited for racing. The head-tube angle on the latest bike is one degree steeper than the previous model: 71.5 degrees on the new Revolt. That change makes the bike a better descender. Another change is a lower bottom bracket to help Berry to go hard in a gravel race. The new bike has a drop of 80 mm in the short position and 81 mm in the long position, which is 10 mm or 11 mm more than the old Revolt.

The trail figures for a size medium are 68 mm (short) and 72 mm (long). These numbers are lower than the old Revolt’s 74.1 mm of trail. The steeper head-tube angle and reduced trail make the bike noticeably more agile.

Another part of the steering equation is the bike’s stem. When Trek’s Checkpoint relaunched recently, it had an 80-mm-long stem on a size 54 to keep that bike nimble. The Giant has gone even shorter: 70 mm on its size medium.

The continued diffusion of the D-Fuse

An updated version of Giant’s D-Fuse seatpost and handlebars are on the new Revolt. The D-Fuse post, which first appeared on the company’s 2014 cyclocross bike, has a D-shape cross-section. The design gives the post some reward flex to help manage road vibrations. On the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0, the D-Fuse SLR can bend as much as 12 mm.

You do have the ability to run a non-D-Fuse post. You can swap the stock component for a 30.9-mm-diameter round post or even a dropper post.

The Contact XR D-Fuse handlebars also have D-shaped tubes along their tops. Giant says that that design gives you 10 per cent more pushing or downward compliance, while adding 30 per cent more pulling or upward stiffness. The mix of features makes the bars good in a sprint, while they also help to mellow road buzz along many kilometres.

A mix of composite formulae

The top-end Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 uses the company’s second-level of carbon fibre, which is called Advanced. The really good stuff, Advanced SL, is used for the fork only. The top-tier composite offers better vibration damping and shaves off some weight. Giant says the frame and fork of the new Revolt Advanced Pro 0 is 200 g lighter than the previous model. My scale reads 8.01 kg for the complete bike with Shimano GRX Di2. The non-Pro models of the Revolt are made solely of the Advanced composite.

A lot of mounts

Even though the Giant Revolt is designed for racing, it features enough mounts for some bikepacking. There are two bolts on the top tube, three on the top of the down tube and two more underneath, near the bottom bracket. There’s also the standard seat tube mounts. The fork features two on each blade. With an adaptor on the seatpost, you can add a rack or fenders.

New hoops: Giant CXR 1

With the launch of the new Revolt comes new wheels as well. The Giant CXR 1 wheels have evolved from cyclocross hoops to wheels that are meant for all sorts of terrain and rides. They have a rim height of 31 mm and an inner rim width of 25 mm. Giant says they’ll easily run 28c to 32c road tread and 40c to 50c gravel tires. The Advanced Pro 0 model comes with 40c Maxxis Receptor tires.

Recently, Giant has been a strong advocate for tubeless setups. The Receptor tires come fitted to the CXR 1’s hookless rims with no inner tube. Since the wheels’ rims are hookless, you need to use tubeless-ready tires even if you are planning to use tubes.

The rims are laced to DT 350 hubs with Sapim CX-Ray spokes. The lacing pattern is Giant’s dynamic balanced lacing setup. It features a pattern that keeps spokes at their most efficient tension when the wheels are spinning. Some spokes are angled to “pull” each rim, while others are set out to “push.”

Giant says the wheels weigh 1,398 g.

Canadian prices for 2022 Giant Revolt models

Model	Spec	Canadian Price
Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0	Shimano GRX Di2	$6,599
Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 1	SRAM Rival eTap AXS	$5,899
Giant Revolt Advanced 0	Shimano GRX 800	$4,799
Giant Revolt Advanced 1	SRAM Rival eTap AXS (1-by with dropper)	$4,499
Giant Revolt Advanced 2	Shimano GRX 600	$3,499
Giant Revolt Advanced 3	Shimano GRX 400	$2,799

An aluminum version of the Revolt will launch at a later date.

First ride impressions of the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0

I’ve been able to take the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 on a bunch of surfaces: straight highways, back roads, ATV trails and just a little bit of singletrack. It cruised well on all of them, even the swampy craters of the ATV routes. I spent most of my time with the flip-chip in the short position. It made me feel quite centred. While this setting does make the bike more nimble, it’s still well-behaved when it has to go straight ahead. With the flip-chip in the long setting, the bike felt more planted.

Whatever setting I had the flip-chip in, the steering was always very responsive. With the head-tube angle, trail figures and short stem, the bike really likes to carve. Once you are in a turn, you need to be aware of your input at the bars. You do have to manage the turn a bit more on the Revolt than with other bikes, but this behaviour slips into the background as kilometres tick by.

I’ve ridden the D-Fuse seatpost and handlebars in the past. They work, albeit subtly. Berry puts it best when he says the benefits of the D-Fuse technology come in after hours of riding. “It’s not an acute thing when you go out and hit the first bump and notice ‘suspension,’” he says. “The D-Fuse post and bars help you to stay on the bike longer and to be comfortable.” After my long rides, I didn’t notice sore wrists or discomfort from the saddle. I’m sure the D-Fuse components, along with the cushy 40c tires, played a role.

I do gravitate to the speedier gravel bikes. A machine that is nimble and fast simply ups my enjoyment of a ride. While the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 is meant for big, rough races, it’s also a joy on whatever routes you feel like ripping through.