Giant has launched its latest gravel bike, the Revolt X, which is designed to allow you to take on more extreme gravel riding. It features a RockShox Rudy XPLR suspension fork with 40mm of travel, along with a 100mm travel dropper seatpost that also offers 25mm of saddle suspension. Like the latest version of the standard Giant Revolt, its rear dropouts include a flip chip that, in the Revolt X, lets you add 10mm to the chainstay length and increase the rear tyre clearance to 53mm.

Flippable Geometry

Do-it-all gravel bikes seem to be falling out of fashion, with gravel bikes increasingly differentiating into fast aero machines which are close to road race bikes, but add a little more tyre clearance, and much more rugged options with large tyre clearance and increasingly incorporating suspension.

The new Giant Revolt X falls squarely into the second camp, but also aims to add some more road-going capabilities thanks to a flip chip in the rear dropout.

In its short position, the flip chip gives the Revolt X a 425mm chainstay length and clearance for 700c rear tyres up to 42mm diameter. Flip the chip round and the effective chainstay length increases by 10mm to 435mm, meaning you can fit tyres up to 53mm wide. As you’d expect, increases the wheelbase by a corresponding amount.

You can expect the short position to offer a more snappy, more agile ride on mixed terrain that may include some tarmac. The longer position increases the bike’s stability. Along with the wider tyre clearance and suspension, that gives the potential to tackle more aggressive off-road terrain. Saying all that, Matthew Loveridge found the effect of flipping the chip relatively negligible when he tested the standard Revolt Advanced Pro.

Giant has engineered the Revolt X with a geometry to suit its suspension fork, a long reach and its trademark compact road frame geometry. You get the full complement of three bottle cage mounts, with the down tube mount allowing you two cage positions. There’s also a set of top tube bag mounts.

Ready for the rough stuff

That tough terrain ability is augmented by Giant fitting a RockShox Rudy XPLR suspension fork with 40mm of travel. While the two lower spec bikes get the standard shock, the higher spec Revolt X Advanced Pro 1 is fitted with the Ultimate version. The 0 spec, which isn’t sold in the UK, has a Fox 32 Float AX Performance Elite fork. 

Giant fits its Contact SL XR D-Fuse handlebar, which has 16 degrees of flare and a D-shaped profile that Giant says helps to reduce shock transmission to the rider.

All specs are equipped with a dropper seatpost as well. The Postmodern post has 100mm of drop (or 75mm on smaller sized frames) to get the saddle out of the way for descents and also offers 25mm of saddle suspension. 

Don’t want a dropper? The dropper post can be swapped out for a Giant D-Fuse D-shaped seatpost or a standard round 30.9mm seatpost instead.

Giant Revolt X geometry

Frame sizeSMM/LLXL
Flip chip positionShort 70.971.5