Another unreleased gravel bike, this time from Taiwanese brand Dare, was ridden by Silas Koech of Team Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank, at the UCI Gravel Worlds.
While Dare doesn’t have a direct UK distributor, its value-focussed pricing in the EU makes it a very interesting brand to keep and eye on.
The current gravel bike in Dare’s range is the GA, standing for Gravel Ace. This adventure gravel bike comes equipped with “the largest tool bag on the market”, with a cavernous storage compartment in the bottom bracket.
While Dare’s new bike borrows the same max tyre clearance of 50mm, it looks like a more performance-focussed machine.
The first crucial difference is what Dare confirmed to be a brand new front end. This integrated cockpit features fully internal cable routing and flared drops.
Gravel and adventure handlebars have a large flare to provide extra stability and control when you’re using the drops. We are, however, seeing flared drops becoming increasingly popular on both gravel and road racing bikes.
With the UCI updating its equipment rules for 2026, this will likely continue as racers look to combine an aero position at the hoods with additional stability in the drops.
Dare also showed us an aero extension which it makes for the new bar, but it’s not UCI compliant, so couldn’t be used at the World Championships.
While the front end is very slick, the overall geometry leans more towards endurance than pure race. A quick look at the length of the head tube suggests that Dare will be keen to sell this bike to more than just racers.
Frame Details
While the team mechanics couldn’t share too many specifics about the bike – they only got the bikes two weeks ago – we do know the tyre clearance will be 50mm. Racers looking to tackle harsher terrain than was found at Gravel Worlds may be able, then, to squeeze in a narrow XC MTB tyre, as is the current trend.
Koech, however, was riding 45mm Schwalbe G-One RX Pro tyres mounted on the team-sponsored Shimano wheels.
On the fork legs sit mounting points for additional carrying capacity.
There doesn’t, however, appear to be any frame storage as found on the GA gravel bike and Koech kept his CO2 canister, pump and spares taped to his seat tube.
Groupset
Koech ran a Shimano GRX wireless rear derailleur and shifters, with an XT 10-51T cassette.
His cranks, however, were the Ultegra model from Shimano’s 12-speed road range. This featured a built-in power meter and Koech opted for a 1x aero chainring.
The mechanics were unsure of the new bike’s maximum chainring size, but they told road.cc that the ring fitted was a 50T size.
To get this to fit, the crankset had to be spaced out on the driveside.
