GT Grade Carbon Expert 2020 - my review

Hello,

I have managed to test this bike and to me its rear flexing triangle is an engineering wonder! On a daily basis I ride a steel Jamis Renegade Exploit bike with a Ergon CF3 (aka Canyon VCLS 2.0) flexing seatpost and I thought that you can't get any more comfort than that but a stock GT Grade with a standard (but carbon) seatpost and a Fabric Scoop saddle turned out to be in some cases more comfortable! I also experimented with Flipchip fork and found out that it really changes the bike characteristics but in the same time you quickly adapt to this change so in the end I found this more of a gimmick than a really useful addition to this bike.

In general this is a very fast and effective bike but in the same time I can't shake the feeling that the ride was somehow muted compared to my steel bike.

If you want to by this bike just remember that it has a fairly long geometry (I did not liked it that much but this is a trend in todays gravel bikes so it looks that we have to deal it anyway).

Got questions? I will happily answer them and you can always read my review to get more informations:
https://gravelbikes.cc/tests/gt-grade-carbon-expert-2020-review/

I am happy to hear any feedback from you.

Nice review.  I was intrigued by this bike when it was first launched years ago, but ultimately it did not seem to live up to its allroad promise because of limited tire clearance.  But that was before “gravel” was really a thing.    It did ride amazing and seemed like a wonderful bike – we just were not there with 40mm gravel sizing back in the day.  Certainly good to hear how they have brought it up to date.

I imagine you did not ride an aluminum one.  I was disappointed in that one – for while the carbon had somewhat of a magic carpet ride, the aluminum road just like any other aluminum bike…

As for the flipchip – to me that could (theoretically) be useful for long loose downhills where I would want a little more stability – although ultimately that may be as much a factor of wheelbase than anything. 

I did smile and nod at your comment “but to be honest we as a human beings have a remarkable ability to adjust to the changes very quickly. What I mean by that is after 5 to 10 minutes of riding all the changes disappears”  So true – in spite of the “internet arguments” about the importance of a few mm of geometry change.  ;-)

chas wrote:

Nice review.  I was intrigued by this bike when it was first launched years ago, but ultimately it did not seem to live up to its allroad promise because of limited tire clearance.  But that was before “gravel” was really a thing.    It did ride amazing and seemed like a wonderful bike – we just were not there with 40mm gravel sizing back in the day.  Certainly good to hear how they have brought it up to date.

I imagine you did not ride an aluminum one.  I was disappointed in that one – for while the carbon had somewhat of a magic carpet ride, the aluminum road just like any other aluminum bike…

 

As for the flipchip – to me that could (theoretically) be useful for long loose downhills where I would want a little more stability – although ultimately that may be as much a factor of wheelbase than anything. 

I did smile and nod at your comment “but to be honest we as a human beings have a remarkable ability to adjust to the changes very quickly. What I mean by that is after 5 to 10 minutes of riding all the changes disappears”  So true – in spite of the “internet arguments” about the importance of a few mm of geometry change.  ;-)