TOM’S REVEL RANGER £3,699 (frame only)
Senior tech ed Tom has been on some wild adventures with the Ranger
I’ve just spent 12 weeks on sabbatical, so I haven’t written about the Ranger since April. Six of those weeks were spent riding my gravel bike through Europe, and another three on a longer-travel machine out in the Alps. However, I haven’t completely neglected the Revel. For the middle three weeks, it was this bike that joined me on a few trips around the UK.
When I built up the Ranger,
I bolted on a load of lightweight kit, including a Fox 34 StepCast fork, carbon fibre hoops from SILT and Hope’s racey XCR brakes. However, I wasn’t intending to race it. That changed this summer. Heading up to Scotland with the idea of using my post-bikepacking fitness to tick off some big rides in the mountains, I received a late-night call from my friend Luke. His buddy had pulled out of the 10 Under the Ben race at late notice, leaving him in the lurch with his pairs category entry. Luckily for him, I was only 90 minutes away.
Early that Saturday, I packed my van with two changes of trail kit and as many snacks as I could fit, then headed into the driving rain of Fort William. Luke took on the first lap, so I had a little more time to get settled before my heart rate went from resting to bursting-out-of-my-chest in seconds. The loop had two major climbs, some technical descents and a few evil false flats into headwinds, and the bike took it in its stride. Over the rough, it pedalled well, while when things got wild, I was happy slinging it into berms and rattling through rocks. The racing was hard work, but I can’t complain about the bike. Despite a packed pairs field, we won the Senior category and came third overall.
Soon after, I headed to the Alps on a bike with a super-sticky 2.5in front tyre, an extra 30mm of reach and three degrees off the head angle. Unsurprisingly, this rode significantly differently! This meant that upon my return, my first ride back on the Revel, on the hard-baked, dustsprinkled trails of the Forest of Dean, was a shock to the system. I certainly needed a few runs to re-adjust to what is, in reality, a shorter-travel, XC-specced bike, even if I had popped a chunky Maxxis Minion DHR II on the front in my quest for grip. https://cyclorise.com