The 19.5-pound version of the Grevil F Ekar that I tested and is the only version that will be available in the US until September comes with alloy wheels and Campagnolo Ekar parts, a metal groupset The first pebble of the iconic Italian company. The 13 mechanical speeds are 1x, which means the car has one front chain instead of two. The advantage of 1x is that it provides simpler, more efficient shifting and has fewer replacement parts should it fail. It’s also lighter, especially in this case – the Ekar steering train weighs just 5.29 pounds, which, according to Campagnolo, is the lightest gravel drivetrain on the market. The disadvantage is that cyclists living in the mountain states, or those competing in an endurance race on different terrains, will likely need more gears.
So how does this package add up? Overall, the bike is snappy, responsive, and fun to ride. I’m 5 feet, 9.5 inches tall and tested the 53 cm frame — 3 cm smaller than my gravel bike, but the size Pinarello recommends. With the upright and super-responsive feel of the more compact cockpit, my body feels ready to deliver powerful and efficient kicks. But when I struggled to get out of the saddle, I felt my thighs graze the front handlebars and the rear wheels turned out, which indicates that I was too far ahead of the front wheel and the bike needed a bit of adjustment to get a better fit. . I could have used a longer stem; one of the pitfalls of testing a bike sent from the factory is not being able to fully customize the fit.
Photo: Pinarello
To shift gears, Campagnolo uses a thumb lever on the inside of the right handlebar. It took me a few miles to find it, and a few more miles to get used to it. The advantage of a thumb shifter is that it’s easier to use when cycling on top of your bars, cyclists with gravel positions tend to be most of the time. The mechanically-drive train has left me capable for most of the steep and gradual subsidence on more than 30-mile rides in and around the hills of Duluth, Minnesota, where I live. However, on very short, steep climbs — like a 30% slope — on soft gravel, I found myself missing a few gears, which made climbing painful, if not impossible. .
