Guava Spot gravel bike overview: Tested over 200km of Girona’s hardest gravel on the Santa Vall stage race

With solely round 150 bikes in existence, you will be forgiven for not having heard of the Catalan bike model, Guava. I’ll admit that I hadn’t till earlier this 12 months, when an introduction led to a possibility to experience the Guava Spot for a weekend in Girona. 

The Spot is Guava’s solely mannequin and is out there in a handful of spec ranges, which, as you’d count on, come at various value factors. 

Alongside it, the model additionally sells clothes and a choose few elements. It sells through its web site and two shops located in Barcelona and Girona respectively, the latter of which is only a few yards from The Church of Santa Maria, or Girona Cathedral, maybe higher often called the filming location of Game of Thrones’ Great Sept of Baelor. 

The model is owned and run by simply two males, and in a small-world coincidence, it got here to be after certainly one of them attended a frame-building workshop with the sadly-now-closed Bicycle Academy in Frome, England, simply 10 miles from Cyclingnews HQ. 

Interestingly, the model is funded by footballing legend Andrés Iniesta by means of the Spaniard’s funding agency, Never Say Never Ventures. 

As the title of this overview suggests, the Spot is a gravel bike, designed with an affordable quantity of tyre clearance, a reasonably protected geometry, and a spec package deal that appears like glorious worth for cash. 

The bike I examined was the Guava Spot GRX Carbon mannequin, priced at €4.299,00 / £3,999.00, with a one-piece cockpit, carbon wheels, and a 12-speed GRX mechanical groupset coupled with a Deore 10-51 cassette. For readability, that ‘carbon’ nomenclature refers back to the wheel spec. All choices include the identical carbon fibre body. 

The base mannequin with mechanical GRX, a two-piece bar and stem, and alloy wheels is priced at simply €3.699,00 / £2,950.00, whereas the top-tier mannequin with Force AXS, carbon wheels and the one-piece cockpit is €5.299,00 / £4,950.00.

I used the bike for the two-day gravel stage race, Santa Vall, and regardless of it being priced at a 3rd of among the bikes alongside it, a few of which function in our information to the perfect gravel bikes in the marketplace, it held its personal extremely properly, as I’ll get into under. 

Design and specs

As touched on above, the bike’s design and geometry are pretty protected, however within the areas that matter – at the least in my view – the bike is progressive and forward-thinking sufficient to be attention-grabbing. 

The finest method I can describe the bike, and certainly the model behind it, is ‘playful’. In a literal sense, the bike is dotted with playful slogans reminiscent of ‘Let’s Get Lost’ and ‘Freedom Machine’. But greater than that, the geometry is designed to create a enjoyable and forgiving bike for giant adventures and singletrack trails. 

In my dimension XL body, the 621mm stack and 395mm attain are according to that of a Specialized Diverge, albeit squarely between a 56 and 58cm body dimension on that bike. Something racier like a Trek Checkmate is longer and decrease, however as already talked about, that is not the Spot’s major intention.

The body can simply clear 45mm tyres on 700c rims on the rear, wider with 650b, and wider on the entrance too, which is on development with the present transfer towards wider gravel tyres being sooner. 

The dropped drive-side chainstay allows this with out limiting the chainring dimension an excessive amount of, and my mannequin cleared a 40-tooth 1x chainring with none hiccups. 

I initially winced on the lack of a series information and braze-on mount for a entrance derailleur, however regardless of 200+ kilometres of gravel racing, I did not undergo a single chain drop, so my fears have been misplaced. 

There is not a two-by mannequin out there however in the event you needed so as to add a entrance mech, the spherical seat tube is suitable with band-on derailleurs, so there is not any limitation there both. 

Up entrance, I had Guava’s proprietary one-piece cockpit fitted, and I appreciated the small aero profit this could have introduced, given my aggressive endeavours. 

This cockpit transitions from a squared-off stem to a small spherical part on both facet, which then sweeps up and deepens into barely ovalised tops on both facet, earlier than curving down right into a compact drop. 

Another proprietary function of the Spot is the down tube storage compartment full with a intelligent latch. 

Storage within the down tube is hardly distinctive, however the method to locking the door is one the place manufacturers have but to choose a standardised answer. 

Guava’s method makes use of a magnetic latch from German model Fidlock, which merely pushes into place, locking with a click on that is extra satisfying than an Ikea soft-close kitchen cupboard. A video from the model displaying how straightforward it’s to make use of can be seen here. 

The instrument roll inside was sufficient to comfortably retailer a tube, a multi-tool, tyre levers and some spare plugs, and will simply have taken extra had I needed. 

The door to this storage housed one of many bike’s three bottle cage mounts, which have been complemented by further mounting bolts on the highest tube, in addition to mounts on the entrance and rear for full-length mudguards. 

My bike additionally got here specced with a pair of 28mm-deep carbon wheels from Volte, full with a 25mm inside rim mattress. These are normally specced on the Force AXS mannequin, whereas the Shimano GRX Carbon mannequin is mostly specced with Hunt CGR40 wheels, however they weren’t out there on the time. 

I additionally swapped to 45mm Schwalbe G One RX Pro tyres away from the 45mm WTB Riddler tyres offered. 

Performance

Despite its intentions not being aimed toward gravel racing, Guava does sponsor a few gravel racing privateer athletes, together with former Astana-Premier Tech rider, Ben Perry. 

Given my weekend in Girona coincided with the two-day professional gravel stage race, Santa Vall, I made a decision to place the bike to the final word take a look at. Full fuel racing for near 200km, together with quick dusty gravel, steep rocky descents, even steeper climbs, technical singletrack, a few river crossings, and a complete load of every part else in between. 

I had a difficulty on day one with a slipping seatpost, however a visit to the Guava retailer and a alternative publish later, day two went away with no hitch, and total I got here away from the race actually impressed with the Guava Spot. 

It held its personal properly towards bikes thrice the value, and the one space the place I felt the bike was slower than these round me was on barely uphill highway / clean gravel sections, however I put that extra right down to the extra relaxed using place and well-treaded (learn: slower rolling) Schwalbe tyres than something mistaken with the bike. 

I might usually make up any misplaced time as soon as the path pointed downhill although. 

The bike’s relaxed geometry, paired with the responsive cockpit and extensive grippy tyres was an awesome mixture for confidence-inspiring dealing with, even regardless of having the brakes arrange euro-style and me getting used to using ‘moto model’ UK brakes. 

I turned so assured on the descents that I used to be completely satisfied to let wheels go to save lots of vitality, understanding I’d make again the place moments later. 

On steep climbs, the geometry put me in a reasonably well-planted place. On the actually steep stuff  – 15% and extra – I believe the YT Szepter nonetheless units the benchmark with its steep seat tube, however the Spot coped properly, and traction was a non-issue, albeit aided by the dry circumstances.

I did not spend a lot time on the tops due to the relentless calls for of racing, however when climbing, that was my pure hand place and the little indentation on both facet of the stem made for a very safe and cozy connection. 

With that mentioned, as I sort this on Monday evening having raced Saturday and Sunday, my palms are nonetheless fairly sore, with small blisters on the base of each index fingers. 

If I have been being choosy, I’d ask for a barely extra compliant handlebar for the rougher roads, particularly given the bike’s all-day-adventure intentions, however in actuality, I believe most of my points stem from the rubber on the GRX hoods that are notoriously dense and ill-suited to the form of my palms. 

The gear vary offered by the Shimano GRX 610 groupset is unimaginable although. With the 40T chainring and the 10-51T cassette, no hill was too steep and no descent too quick. 

Shimano’s groupsets are recognized for his or her unwavering efficiency and there was no distinction right here. Being mechanical, the shifting is barely much less crisp and premium than extra fashionable digital alternate options, however for the value, you would be hard-pressed to complain. 

Similarly, there is a small however tangible distinction in experience high quality between a body at this value level and one thing two- or thrice the value. It did not provide that ‘magic carpet experience’ sort of smoothness, however I definitely did not really feel overwhelmed up. 

Besides the measurable variations reminiscent of weight, aerodynamics and stiffness, such refined variations solely turn into noticeable when using two bikes again to again anyway. 

The enjoyable – and performance – provided by the Guava Spot continues to be each bit as actual as what you get with opponents. 

Value

It’s onerous to argue with the worth on provide with the Guava Spot. On paper, €4.299,00 / £3,999.00 is a good value for a carbon body, carbon wheels and a one-piece cockpit, and though most opponents’ bikes at an identical pricepoint boast the digital shifting of SRAM Rival, not often do they get carbon wheels. 

It is beatable although. At the time of writing, the Cube C:62 Race is one such instance price testing at £3,499.00. Although I’ve not ridden it to have the ability to examine the 2 bikes’ efficiency.

Verdict

I believe in the event you’re studying this overview, there is a good probability you are on the lookout for one thing extra distinctive than a Cube, a Specialized or a Trek. 

Particularly in the event you’re primarily based in Catalunya, Guava’s attraction goes past the worth for cash, the spec, and the intelligent Fidlock downtube storage door. Perhaps even past the bike totally. 

All of these are promoting factors in their very own proper, however to my thoughts, Guava’s key USP is that it’s a small – albeit rising – enterprise, so in the event you decide up the cellphone with a query or a difficulty, otherwise you go into certainly one of its shops, you are more likely to be served by one of many model’s founders. 

I will not fake that two days of racing is sufficient for a full, long-term overview, even when the take a look at was fairly a extreme one, but it surely’s greater than sufficient using to get an actual really feel for the way the bike performs, and the Spot is an effective, enjoyable, do-all-things-well kind of bike that meets fashionable traits head-on. If you purchase into the model’s story and order your self a Spot, you will not be disillusioned. 

Sure, it isn’t a crazy-progressive aero racer just like the Ridley Astr RS or the Trek Checkmate SLR. It’s not obtained the tyre clearance and vibration-damping fork of the Lauf Seigla. It’s not a hyper-lightweight piece of engineering magic just like the S-Works Crux, however crucially, it is lower than half the value of these bikes whereas providing simply as a lot enjoyable.