The Vitus Substance CRX-1 is a gravel bike that is fun to ride fast, and its lightweight feel and well-balanced geometry make it a joy regardless of the terrain. With plenty of mounting points and the ability to accommodate large tyres don’t discount it for those epic days out either – this is a very capable machine whatever route you have planned for the day, and a worthy consideration as far as the best gravel bikes go.
Vitus Substance CRX-1 Rival – Ride quality
The Substance is one of those bikes that are easy to ride quickly. That’s not to say that the steering has been dumbed down or that the frameset feels subdued to stop the feedback to not overload the senses like a twitchy, aggressive machine often delivers. You still get all of the ‘chatter’ giving you all the information you need to push on regardless of what the surface is doing beneath you.
The geometry is very well balanced, giving a neutral riding position which distributes your weight well whether cruising along on the hoods or down in the drops for a technical descent. This is what makes the Substance so easy to ride. It takes everything in its stride and, thanks to it feeling nippy and nimble, should you get caught out by some rocks on a downhill or catch an unfortunate tree root on a bit of singletrack it isn’t going to bin you into the hedge.
The wide 650B tyres give you a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card, too, when it comes to taking some unavoidable hits. They help the comfort levels, too, but even with them pumped up hard for a bit of tarmac action, they highlighted the comfortable nature of the frameset.
On my favourite test loop, which takes in 33 miles of gravel, grass, chalk and the odd singletrack through the woods, the Substance feels solid- regardless of the surface. The Maxxis Rambler tyres aren’t that heavily treaded but when I hit soft, wet parts of the trail -resulting in next to no grip – they highlighted the progressive, controllable nature of the Vitus’ handling.
Controlling a slide was simple with just some shifts in body weight and, due to the lack of twitchiness in the steering, I didn’t find myself overcorrecting things which can happen on some gravel bikes which are more racier. From a riding point of view, I can’t really fault the Substance as it’s a solid performer on any terrain or setting, really.
Vitus Substance CRX-1 Rival – Frame and fork
Both the frame and fork of the Substance are made from uni-directional carbon fibre although Vitus doesn’t necessarily give away any details about specific grades. The overall quality is very good and, when riding it, the carbon lay-up has no harsh feel to it.
The frame follows the typical design of a carbon fibre offering with the lower half being on the chunky side for power transfer and stiffness, while the upper half uses more slender profiles to create a bit of flex for comfort.
The head tube is tapered with a corresponding steerer tube on the fork which takes care of braking and steering loads. This flows into the large-section downtube and bottom bracket shell, where you’ll see that Vitus has gone down the threaded route, which brings peace of mind for riding in all kinds of conditions. Threaded BBs tend not to suffer from the same amount of creaking and noises associated with press-fit options used in frames with sloppy tolerancing.
Underneath the bottom bracket, you’ll find a cover which gives you access to the inside of the frame to aid with re-cabling or replacing the hydraulic brake hoses.
When it comes to mounts, you get the usual twin bottle cage points, and an additional set added to the underside of the down tube. There are also twin mounting points on each fork leg for extra carrying capabilities.
Full mudguard mounts are also included, and it’ll accept a rear rack. If you are using a 1x gear system like the CRX-1 is then you can run a dropper post internally, and should you want to make the shift to a 2x system at any time the Vitus will happily take a front mech.
Tyre clearance helped by the dropped drive-side chainstay is ample with the 700c-equipped Substance models easily swallowing 40mm and the 650b option here going with 47mm.
The Substance is available in five sizes, from XS to XL, to suit riders between 163cm and 200cm (5ft 5in to 6ft 5in). We have the large, which Vitus says is suitable for riders between 185cm and 192cm, or 6’ to 6’ 2” in old money.
You get an effective top tube length of 560mm, a 170mm head tube and 560mm seat tube. Alongside those, there is a 72-degree head angle, and a seat tube of 73-degrees, which gets you in a decent forward position when you want to get the power down.
This leads to stack and reach figures of 589.8mm and 379.6mm, respectively. When it comes to the length of the bike, the wheelbase is 1,036mm with 435mm chainstays. That’s much longer than a road bike, but well within the parameters of a nippy gravel bike.
Vitus Substance CRX-1 Rival – Specification
The Substance is available in either carbon fibre frame or aluminium, both of which come in a range of builds starting out at £749.99. There are even a couple of models that come with a front suspension fork offering 30mm of travel – we’ve got one of those in for testing at the moment too (the CRX-1 HT), so keep your eyes peeled for that review.
The CRX-1 is the range-topper built with a SRAM Rival 1x groupset, Prime Kanza wheels and FSA finishing kit.
The chainset uses a 40T ring while the 11spd cassette has a spread of 11-42T. Which is a decent range of ratios for the majority of off-road riding. It was only on the road that I was lacking some top-end speed.
SRAM’s Rival groupset sits mid-range and it provides a decent balance of performance and durability. The levers and mechs will take a fair amount of abuse which is par for the course on the gravel trails, while still delivering slick shifts even in poor conditions.
The clutch in the rear mech keeps chain tension high, too, to stop damage to the frame.
With 160mm rotors, front and rear the braking is powerful and comes with plenty of feel and modulation for keeping control of the tyres on loose terrain. The tall protrusion of the lever for the hydraulic reservoir also gives you a good secure platform to rest your hands against when braking hard downhill.
The Prime Kanza alloy wheelset has a rim depth of 30mm and an internal width of 21mm, so not massively wide, something similar to that found on a lot of modern road wheels. The 47mm tyres sit well on them though, not looking overly lightbulb shaped.
The build uses 24-spokes front and rear linked to alloy hubs giving an overall weight of about 1,550g. I had no issues with them whatsoever during testing taking on everything I threw at them which included whacking some rocks (unintentionally) on a high-speed gravel descent.
As I touched on earlier the Maxxis Rambler tyres are lightly treaded but they work well on all kinds of hardpacked routes and dry surfaces. They are tubeless-ready should you want to go down that avenue.
Just like the wheels they never let me down during testing, and I got on with them well. The tan walls look great, and they have a supple feeling carcass which certainly adds to the Substance’s great ride quality.
For the cockpit the Vitus uses FSA components with an Omega stem and their Adventure Compact handlebar. The bar has a 12-degree flare to give you a wider stance in the lower part of the bar, and the 125mm drop means that the position doesn’t get too aggressive.
The seatpost is also from the FSA stable, a Gossamer model which supports the Vitus saddle via its titanium rails.
Overall, the kit is nothing flashy but it all does a decent job, and I wouldn’t be in a rush to change anything from the stock build.
Vitus Substance CRX-1 Rival – Verdict
The price of the Vitus Substance CRX-1 is £2,199.99 which I think represents great value for money considering the build and overall quality.
Competition-wise, Ribble has recently launched its new Gravel range of bikes (we have some of them in for review) and the carbon fibre SL Enthusiast model comes specced with a Rival groupset, Mavic Allroad Disc 650b wheels, and their in-house LEVEL finishing kit for £2,799.
The Orro Terra C gravel bike always performs well under review across our sites, with the main reason being that they deliver on performance and value just like the Substance.
For £2,399.99 you can get an Orro equipped with a SRAM 1x groupset although it is the lower-level Apex. It comes with a full carbon fibre frameset, Fulcrum 700c wheels and a mix of Deda and Orro finishing kit.
Overall, the Substance in my eyes has pretty much everything covered if you want a gravel bike that’ll cope with all kinds of trails and tracks, whether you are out for a quick blast or a longer adventure. It offers great ride quality and comes at a great price.
About the bike
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This sums the Substance up well. It is a bike that gives a confident ride feel regardless of the surface and will suit both those new to gravel riding or those who have plenty of experience.
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