Allied Cycle Works debuted its new ABLE gravel bike during last weekend’s Dirty Kanza race, displaying radical, elevated chainstays as its most standout feature.
“We at ALLIED have watched the gravel market experience a fascinating evolution, and what started out as a segment of quiver killers has turned into a discretized genre with machines that serve very specific purposes, and for good reason. Consumers are using these bikes for such a wide variety of things. Everyone loves our award-winning ALLROAD and we believe it is a great bike for a majority of mixed surface riding, but when things get real rowdy it leaves a little to be desired. We found ourselves on occasion wanting a bike that was still super high performance but felt more at home on steeper, rockier more rugged terrain. After working on it for the past year we are happy to introduce the ABLE.”
According to Allied Cycle Works, the use of an elevated driveside chainstay provides for greater tire clearance, in this case a whopping 700×43 or 650×47 and as much as 700×47 or 650×55 at the front.
The ABLE’s geometry mimics much of the company’s popular Allroad, featuring the same 420mm chainstays, but with a slacker head angle (71 degrees), a steeper seat angle (74 degrees), a lower bottom bracket height (66mm) and a slightly increased stack for a less aggressive position.
“The ABLE is a highly capable performance off-road machine that tilts more towards the “mountain skinny” side of the gravel segment. It can handle a lot of tire but still has an extremely short rear end, the same in fact as the ALLROAD at 420mm. This is achieved by the most striking feature on the bike, the elevated drive side chainstay. The front end is geared more towards offroad riding so it gives up a little in terms of handling on the pavement, but feels incredibly stable at speed on the dirt. We have been ripping around here in Arkansas on everything from pavement to single track and I can tell you that every ride has us finishing with a huge smile – it’s just so fun to ride. We are blown away by how agile a tight, lightweight bike feels on single track. We can’t wait to get these bikes out to you all so you can share in the fun.”
The ABLE is only compatible with 1X drivetrains, providing full internal cable routing, extra bottle mounts on the downtube,, as well as toptube mounts for a bag and hidden mudguard eyelets.
The ABLE is available in three models equipped with SRAM Force 1 ($5,299), SRAM Force AXS ($7,499) and SRAM Red AXS ($9,499).
You can learn more about the new ABLE by visiting Allied Cycle Works’ website here.
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