There’s a thought gnawing at me, scratching gently at the bit of my brain where really good thoughts come from. I’ve got a dropper post, two-inch tyres and a squishy air fork. I’m riding serpentine singletrack. But my thumbs are pointing forwards rather than down, and my hands are closer together than perhaps they should be.
The thought is this: I am riding a mountain bike but also I am emphatically not riding a mountain bike.
The Giant Revolt X is the Giant Revolt but more so. A chunk more tyre clearance and commensurately more substantial rubber is accompanied by a Fox suspension fork offering 40mm of travel, and a dropper post that adds 25mm of squish at the back.
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X marks the sport
The Revolt X is aimed at riders with a zest for genre-blurring, says Giant global category manager Nixon Huang, who’s responsible for a lineup that includes the TCR race all-rounder, the slippery Propel and the standard bounce-free Revolt – all bikes we rate highly.
It’s for ‘mountain bikers that hate wasting time driving’ (because the Revolt X can be ridden to the trails) as well as the ‘experienced gravel rider that wants to explore more terrain, and mountain bike trails’.
Achieving this wasn’t a radical exercise, according to Huang, but the bike’s designers did look to XC mountain bike standards, adjust the geometry for suspension, and selectively ‘beef up’ the frame compared to the standard Revolt.
The X feels less compromised on the road than you might assume. The rolling resistance penalty of the 50mm Maxxis Rambler tyres isn’t terrible while the riding position is more ‘tall endurance bike’ than fully upright cruiser, with 576mm of stack for a medium, plus 389mm of reach married to a stubby 70mm stem.
Leave the Fox air fork in its fully open setting and it will bob merrily when you get out of the saddle. You can lock it out but doing so deadens the front end completely, leaving you hauling around a heavy fork for no good reason.
Nose the Revolt X onto gravel and you quickly feel the Fox doing its thing. It lacks the ultra-fine small bump sensitivity of the Specialized Diverge’s coil-sprung Future Shock, but the effect is transformative on rutted, rocky sections that would rattle you senseless on a rigid fork. Likewise, the dollop of travel provided by the seatpost helps smooth the way and doesn’t impact on pedalling, although the firm bottom-out slightly detracts from the plushness.
Underbiking over hill and dale
I've ridden my fair share of gravel on skinny road tyres and I’m a great proponent of ‘underbiking’ (ie pushing the envelope of what a bike is designed to ride) because it makes you feel like a bit of a hero.
To explore the mountain bike credentials of the Revolt X, I rode a favourite section of the blue route at my local trail centre, one that features sweeping berms and a series of small jumps that’s enjoyable on the most modest of hardtails.
With the saddle slammed on the Revolt X, however, it was more scary than fun, because the riding position just isn’t well suited to getting truly lairy. And herein lies the rub. The Revolt X soaks up rough terrain in a way most conventional gravel bikes won’t, but it’s better suited to the flowy, non-technical stuff where wheels stay on the ground.
Drop bars don’t lend themselves to truly gnarly riding. Tackling proper rough stuff on the hoods feels precarious; hunkering down in the drops is more secure and gives better purchase on the brakes, but places you narrower and lower than you want to be when things get steep.
The Revolt X makes a valid case for itself if you want the ability to soak up long stretches of challenging surfaces, perhaps for bikepacking expeditions where the distances mean a drop bar is the more comfortable option. But if it’s mountain biking-lite you seek, the cocktail feels off. I’d sooner have a flat bar on a gravel bike than a suspension fork, because it would be a more meaningful upgrade for control.
Likewise, the dropper feels redundant – if the terrain is demanding enough that I need the saddle out of the way, it’s the riding position and bars that are going to hold me back. And while we’re on the subject, the substantial dropper remote lever is only accessible from the drops – if ever there were a case for a wireless dropper with satellite switches, this is it.
Other points to note: you’ll never see wild animals in the woods riding this bike, because the ear-splitting freehub din will have scattered them in terror before you arrive. And there’s a touch of toe overlap that could have been eliminated with more assertive geometry tweaks – why not go longer at the front?
Giant Revolt X Advanced Pro 0 review summary
The Revolt X is overkill for most gravel riding but unsuited to anything resembling real mountain biking. It’s a very entertaining novelty and it will be a small subset of riders’ perfect bike, but for most of us the standard Revolt makes a whole lot more sense. Or a mountain bike.
Giant Revolt X Advanced Pro 0 specs
| Price | £6,499 |
| Brand | Giant |
| Frame | Advanced-grade carbon |
| Fork | Fox 32 Float AX Performance Elite 40mm Fit4 |
| Weight | 9.9kg |
| Sizes available | S, M, M/L, L, XL |
| Groupset | SRAM Force eTap AXS / X01 Eagle |
| Brakes | SRAM Force eTap AXS |
| Rear derailleur | SRAM X01 Eagle AXS |
| Crankset | SRAM Force D1 DUB |
| Bottom bracket | SRAM DUB press-fit |
| Cassette | SRAM XG-1295 10-52 |
| Chain | SRAM X01 Eagle |
| Wheels | Giant CXR X1 carbon |
| Tyres | Maxxis Rambler 700×50mm |
| Bar | Giant Contact SL XR D-Fuse |
| Stem | Giant Contact |
| Saddle | Giant Approach SL |
- Buy now from Cyclestore (£5,849)
