Fast/race-ish Gravel Bike wanted

[Freddy__HH]

Hello everyone,

I am fairly new to this forum. Thank you for accepting my request to join. Also I am fairly new to the DIY Bike building - but highly interested and motivated.

What I am looking for is the following: a fast, race-ish oriented gravel bike (wireless shifting, carbon rims and >45mm tire clearance).
I am 180cm with 82cm legs. Usual saddle height ist 73cm. Currently riding an aluminum Canyon Grizl size M. I am already looking through the Forum and found some maybe fitting frames like: GR201, G068/G069 or Velobuild AERO Grav. Still quite unsure though.

What I am also unsure about is the following: How "expensive" is it, to build a nice sub 8,5kg bike (without bottle cages, pedals, etc.) with an electric/wireless shifting and 4-5cm carbon rims? So far it's quite hard to estimate for me.

Any help/recommendations would be highly appreciated. Also any indication how hard it is to build the first bike by yourself.

Best reagrds,
Freddy

[maza]

What is even a fast bike? Second place of 2025 Unbound 200 mile was "won" with a BMC URS, their adventure bike rather than BMC Kaius, their gravel race bike. Unless you know what you're doing and aiming for budget build you'd expect to spend about 2000 - 3000 euro for a nice gravel bike with electric shifting. Building the bike by yourself is relatively easy - you don't need any degree to work at a bike shop - you just need plenty of tools that can be quite expensive, patience and willingness to learn.

[ArchM87]

I build my first bike last month. A ICAN GRA04 "Race" Gravel Frame (there is a thread in this forum). With bottle cages, pedals and a toptube-bag its about 8.6 kg. I installed the Wheeltop eds gex. The wheelset is the elitewheels ent gravel carbon with 45mm hight. The frame have 50mm tire clearence.

So I would say it "fits" your criterias. Without the tools it costs around 2300,-/2400,- € including shipping, tax and a custom paintjob. I used some non-Ali products, like the chain, the tires and the bar-tape

The build went smooth. Watched some tutorials before and during the build. There was no problem I couldnt fix myself.

[Serge_K]

I sound like a broken record, but Peter's Grevil clone fits your bill. I have one, it's great.

[jonathanf2]

8.5kg is easy with gravel. Both my gravel bikes with pedals/mounts/cages are in the 7.5-8kg range and that's without doing anything exotic/expensive with parts. Tires seem like one of the biggest factors of weight for gravel. I always try to go for tires that balance weight and traction. Good luck!

[klindsey00]

I built up a G068 for around 2500 USD with elite wheels and sram rival axs 2x (dunno the weight but it's an XL frame and I didn't try to go for lightweight parts) . pricing is very uncertain right now with the tariffs (at least for the US). The biggest variation in build cost would be group set and wheels imo,

[carbonda3]

Hi, I think 505sl is suitable for you. In terms of price, the components and wheels actually account for the largest part

[Freddy__HH]

8.5kg is easy with gravel. Both my gravel bikes with pedals/mounts/cages are in the 7.5-8kg range and that's without doing anything exotic/expensive with parts. Tires seem like one of the biggest factors of weight for gravel. I always try to go for tires that balance weight and traction. Good luck!

May I ask what bikes you have and what the built cost you?

[jonathanf2]

May I ask what bikes you have and what the built cost you?

My main gravel bike is a Ceccotti RF25 gravel frameset (also know an SPCycle G056). I picked that up for about $400 USD during the 11.11 sale. I'm running LTwoo eGR which I picked up for $300 USD during the Black Friday sale. In terms of parts, I'm probably in the $1500-$1600 USD range including all the carbon bits and other components (lightweight cassette, carbon crankset, etc.). Depending on which wheelset+tire combo I use, my bike fluctuates in weight between 7.5kg and less than 8kg.

My other gravel bike is an older CX carbon frame that I use spare/leftover parts on. Even that bike in a 1x configuration is 7.9kg with a mix-n-match of Shimano & LTwoo groupset and whatever spare parts I have laying around.

If I actually took my gravel bike weight reduction seriously with higher end lightweight components, I'm sure I could build out a frame in the sub 7kg mark.