Showing just how prevalent the gravel trend is, Colnago has just launched the G3-X, its first foray into this new market with a full carbon frame and fork with space for 700x42 and 650bx467 tyres. The complete GRX equipped bike pictured here costing £4299.95.
The G3-X has some geometry changes to ensure it’s suited to gravel and adventure riding. It has a lower bottom bracket, longer chainstays to stretch the wheelbase, and a longer top tube that is designed around the use of a shorter stem. Colnago advises a 10-20mm shorter stem.
This long front centre and short stem is an idea borrowed from mountain bikes and a few gravel bikes have adopted it, namely the Cervelo Aspero we recently tested. The idea is to liven up the handling for more responsive steering, whilst maintaining a comfortable fit for long-distance comfort.
It’s a full carbon fibre frame and fork that looks to borrow some design cues from the V3-RS road race bike, especially around the sculptured head tube and top tube, and the dropped seat stays and internal seat clamp with an aero seatpost.
There’s full internal cable routing, the cables entering a port on the down tube, with flat mount disc brakes and 12mm thru-axles. Colnago has added a plastic bash guard to the down tube to protect the carbon from rock strikes.
Colnago has added the obligatory top tube mounts for a bag, but there aren’t any additional mounts. Clearly it’s a bike built for fast gravel riding and single day epics rather than adventurous bikepacking where you might want a plethora of extra mounts. There are also no mudguard eyelets, but I don’t think Colnago has ever made a bike that will take mudguards has it?
There’ll be just one model available in the UK costing £4299.95 with a choice of two colours, metallic green/duck egg blue and carbon/white. The specification includes Shimano’s new GRX 800 mechanical groupset with a a 48/31t chainset and 11-34t cassette. Handlebar and stem come from Deda, the seatpost is Colnago’s own and the saddle comes from Prologo. Tyres are Pirelli Cinturato Gravel 40mm.
More info over at www.colnago.com/en/bikes/g3x/ (though there is precious little detail on the website which is odd given it's a brand new bike)
David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.