R.A.D REVIEW: Flow Mountain Bike's Long-Term Test of the R.A.D Force LTD

July 03, 2019

Flow Mountain Bike's Chris Southwood put the Grove R.A.D Force LTD through its paces over 6 months and 1000+kms.

"This bike had its claims of versatility greatly tested. We’ve ridden it a lot: everything from 100km pure road rides, long gravel rides, over-nighter bike packing epics, to razzing the smoother singletracks in our local area. Undoubtedly the highlight so far was loading it up for the Graveleur Thunderbolts Adventure ride, a 250km two-dayer in the Barrington Tops."

"We were surprised by the low overall weight of our bike – even with whopping 48mm rubber, it was just on 8.6kg. The build quality is obvious, from the smooth finish of the head tube welds to the complex curves of the stays which have proper heel clearance, through to the clever machine work of the chainstay yoke."

While Flow are accustomed to reviewing mountain bikes, it was no surprise that they opted for the Gravel Plus wheelset, of course upgrading to the Hunt 650B Adventure Carbon Disc wheelset.

"Fitting in 48mm tyres without blowing out the chainstay length is a challenge that many gravel bikes face. Some resort to a dropped chainstay design (like the Norco Search XR we tested), others use non-standard wheel dishing (like the Cannondale SuperX SE, tested here) in order to create room. The Grove RAD addresses the issue with a slim CNC machined chainstay yoke which maintains clearance for up to a 46-tooth chainring with plenty of room for mud around the tyres. The compromise, if you can call it that, is the absence of front derailleur compatibility – this bike is single-ring only, but for mountain bikers, that’s nothing new."

So how did it ride? Check out the full review to find out!

READ THE REVIEW 

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