Allied's gravel bike designed to tackle more technical gravel races
(Image credit: Allied Cycles)
Allied Cycle Works has launched an update to its Able gravel race bike, claiming the new bike is engineered for speed, performance and versatility.
The new bike boasts clearance for tyres up to 57mm wide, thanks to dropped chainstays and wide stance fork legs, along with a new carbon frame with in-frame storage. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Allied says that its redesign is aimed at the most technical gravel races.
According to the CEO of Allied, Drew Medlock, the Able has been redesigned in response to the fast-evolving gravel racing scene, where bikes and riders are pushed to their limits.
“The new Able was born from that evolution, built to thrive on the most demanding courses, where speed, durability, and adaptability are paramount,” he says.
Allied reckons that the big tyre clearance and updated geometry of its gravel race bike allow riders to tackle technical rock gardens, previously the domain of MTBs, as well as ride the fast, smooth dirt roads more typical of gravel riding stateside.
Geometry update
The slack head tube angle and wide tyre clearance are claimed to aid technical riding (Image credit: Allied Cycles)
The head tube angle is a comparatively slack 70.5 degrees, and the rear centre 428mm, with a wheelbase a little over a metre. Allied claims that its gravel geometry adds high-speed stability while still offering nimble handling for more technical terrain.
Frameset weights for the five available sizes vary from a claimed 900g for the size 52 frame to 1,030g for the size 61.
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Cabling is now fully integrated, with a two-position stem that lets you increase or decrease its rise.
Allied reckons that its in-frame storage separated from the bottle cage mount saves weight and makes it easier to use (Image credit: Allied Cycles)
In most bikes with in-frame storage this typically resides under the down tube bottle cage. But Allied has positioned it further down the down tube from the cage mounts, with its own magnetically closed hatch, so that it doesn’t interfere with bottle use or security and, Allied claims, saves weight due to the simpler design.
You can purchase the Able in three single-chainring specs, with SRAM Red XPLR AXS for the premium build, along with Industry Nine Solix SL AR40c carbon wheels for a 7.37kg / 16.25lb claimed weight.
Available specs include this SRAM Force XPLR AXS mullet with Industry Nine wheels (Image credit: Allied Cycles)
There are also SRAM Force XPLR AXS and Rival XPLR AXS mullet builds, both with Industry Nine 1/1 Ultralite Carbon wheels and you can buy the Able frameset-only, priced at $4,000.
All the build specifics, along with the colour scheme and other details, can be chosen by the customer at purchase, so there's plenty of price variation.
The Able is available online direct from Allied or from its dealers in the USA and Canada. There are a few UK dealers, and UK buyers can also buy online, pay in US dollars and have the bike shipped to them.
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
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