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NAHBS 2013: Independent Fabrication’s Prototype OSXS, Steel Gravel Royale Bikes

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independent fabrication gravel Royale dirt road bike

The Gravel Royale is a new bike made for gravel road riding, based on the club racers they’ve been selling in Europe for a while.

They were getting so many requests for bike like this, they decided to make it a standard model. It’s essentially a steel road bike but with very generous tire clearance (can be built to fit whatever you want, they’re all custom) and a bit more relaxed geometry.

They’ll be disc brake only. This one’s steel, but they can build it out of Ti also, and to fit other forks. Framesets will start at $2,295 for custom geometry, paint and fork. Ti would be around $4,100.

independent fabrication gravel Royale dirt road bike

Note the new seat tube logo on the bike, it represents the building they moved into after leaving Boston. Check out the factory tour here.

independent fabrication gravel Royale dirt road bike

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Prototype OSXS uses oversized everything. It gets a 44mm headtube to accept a tapered fork, PFBB30 and 1-3/4″ downtube.

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Basically, they wanted to make the XS stiffer and bring it up to modern standards. This one’s owner Gary Smith’s personal bike and uses new (prototype) carbon tubes from ENVE.

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The PlanetX steel cyclocross bike with discs.

Corvid (background) remains unchanged, but this one has the new Michelin Pro4 tubulars and CK PFBB. Both looked very nice.

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andyb
andyb
11 years ago

frickin sweet rides, guess i’ll start saveing my pennies…

mudrock
mudrock
11 years ago

Gravel bike is sweet – like the color too. Now I just need 2300 bucks. Why is this sport so damn expensive?

Matt
Matt
11 years ago

@mudrock
Because it’s so damn awesome!

BikeTart
11 years ago

Delicious.

The only thing I don’t get with the Corvid is why they run a 44mm head tube but use an integrated headset and standard fork rather than an I7 or I8 Chris King with an oversize fork. I’m sure they have their reasons – just seems odd in the current marketplace.

Sevo
Sevo
11 years ago

Mudrock-Because it’s worth it 🙂

I'm So Hard(tail)
I'm So Hard(tail)
11 years ago

I’m totally diggin’ that PlanetX, but isn’t that also the name of a the brand On-One co-owns?

vectorbug
vectorbug
11 years ago

Its interesting that “gravel bike” is becoming a marketable thing.

Why do I need a gravel bike if I have a road bike (and or a cx bike)? Is it a compromise between a cx bike (which is kind of a compromise between a mtb and a road bike) and a road bike?

Sean
Sean
11 years ago

Somerville, not Boston… geez.

It’s like the difference between Westminster and Southwark. Literally a river apart!

tae
tae
11 years ago

@vectorbug

It depends on area to area but some people want to have a dedicated road geometry but still be able to handle riding dirt/gravel roads. A cross geometry is not suited to to the same type of long rides you can do on a gravel bike (though plenty of people do it – pros or otherwise). Here in Minnesota we’ve got hundreds of miles of scenic dirt and gravel roads that a bike like this is perfect for. I was in Reno recently and plenty or riders do similar rides, ride their bike to the top of a pass and jump onto a jeep road that follows ridge lines that circle the city. Or consider San Francisco, ride across the Golden Gate then jump onto a fire road and take your bike up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais. These roads are too tame to bother bringing a mountain bike but they’re too long for a cross bike – thus the gravel bike was born.

David French
David French
11 years ago

@Mudrock – Cheaper than F1 🙂

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