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TECH NEWS
2022 Crow Gravital UL 1 Ltd - 1.jpegCrow launches full e-bike range, including a stealthy gravel lineup with removable drive systems
You can now buy Gravital e-bikes direct from Spanish brand Crow Bicycles after they were previously available only through the IndieGoGo crowdfunding site. The gravel, urban and road bikes all have removable Fazua Ride 50 Trail drive systems so you can ride with or without assistance, and prices start at £3,240.
We covered Crow a couple of times last year, first when it teased pics of its new bikes and then when it was looking for funding for what it called “the world’s first crowdfunded electric gravel bike”.
All of the Crow Gravital bikes share Fazua's removable Ride 50 Trail electric system which was announced last September. It has a maximum torque of 58nm and 250W of power. You can ride each model as an e-bike or as a conventional non-assisted bicycle that’s 3kg lighter
Crow has three different gravel e-bike platforms: the carbon Gravital UL and the aluminium Gravital SL – both with drop bars – and the Gravital Risbar SL, which is aluminium and fitted with a riser handlebar.
Check out 11 of the best electric gravel bikes you can buy
The Gravital UL comes with a carbon fibre frame and fork and the cheapest version, at £4,381, has mainly 2x Shimano Tiagra components. There is also a 1x GRX 800 (£5,082) model, and two Campagnolo Ekar options, the top-level one (£7,885, main pic) with a claimed weight of just over 13kg (28.7lb).
The aluminium Gravital SL2 comes in a 2x Shimano Tiagra build (£3,767), while a model with components from Chinese brand Sensah (£3,242) is due soon.
The flat-barred Crow Gravital Risbar SL4 is also £3,242. It features an aluminium frame, carbon fork, and a 1x system with Shimano Alivio shifters and rear derailleur.
The Gravital Pace SL3 road bike (£3,767) has an aluminium frame and a mainly Shimano Tiagra groupset, and there are two aluminium urban bikes in the range too.
Crow recently closed its first investment round with a capital increase of €300,000 (around £258,000) and says that it “aims to fill the gap between traditional bicycles and standard electric bicycles [and] is focused on ultra-light e-bikes, providing the best riding experience and maximum performance with or without assistance”.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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7 comments
As someone who regularly uses both a standard road bike and a road ebike, I really like the concept: my Orbea Gain would make a fabulous unpowered gravel bike if the battery was easily removable and the rear motor wheel swapped out. If all the motor weight and the battery weight can be easily removed that would be fantastic, I can imagine major brands developing these in future as a real boon for those who'd like the best of both worlds but have limited storage space/funds (though I have to say £4k+ is pretty ambitiously priced for Tiagra, even in the world of ebikes).
that's what I thought when I built my first e-bike with a front motor. Just remove the battery and swap the front wheel and . . . . . it's never happened as I'm too lazy!
You could get better value at Halfords:
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/electric-bikes/boardman-adv-8.9e-mens-adv...
Not seen that one before, looks a great option - way cheaper and also with the reassurance of an established quality brand (Boardman rather than Halfords) rather than a startup - not in the market myself at the moment but if I were I'd definitely consider that one.
Riding buddy has the women's version. Had trouble with the Fazua parts. Halfords were unfortunately worse than useless (literally, they broke bits whilst not understanding what they were even doing about the original problem). Fazua, through my LBS, were fabulous, and fixed it all under warranty.
Good to know that Fazua are reliable, if I wanted to buy a Boardman bike I think I would get it mail order from Tredz rather than risk it going anywhere near a Halfords, even just in transit, they seem to have a talent for breaking things.
I was seriously impressed with Fazua. I contacted them in despair when the bike came back in bits botched by Halfords. They identified my nearest Fazua dealer (which happened to be my LBS) and basically took it from there. Honestly I was expecting them to say "user error" and quote me prices, and they'd have been within their rights. But they had the parts shipped to and from Germany, supplied equivalent reconditioned parts to replace the broken bits, and charged me nothing. Given that neither Fazua nor my LBS had any contractual warranty obligation I'd say that was well above the expected level of service.
Of course they're Porsche now. Hopefully they'll keep up the good work.