Fulcrum's wavy rims, Bianchi's new gravel bike and SRAM's Pod Rocker

This week's tech news roundup.

Liam Mercer

Jun 8 2024

This week's tech news focuses on the gravel discipline with Fulcrum launching its wavy all-road hoops and Bianchi unveiling its latest gravel bike that takes inspiration from endurance road bikes. SRAM has also made headlines once again with its new AXS shifter. In case you've missed it, here's this week's top tech news.

Bianchi released the Arcadex gravel bike

The Italian brand known for its road bikes introduced its latest gravel offering, the Arcadex. It's a bike with endurance-style road bike geometry adapted for use off-road. On top of that, it ushers in plenty of tyre clearance as it's capable of accommodating up to 50mm rubber, too.

With gravel taking a racing angle over recent weeks, the Arcadex is a little more relaxed and littered with mounting points to help the rider carry luggage for big days out on the bike. Boosting the bike's storage capability is clever tool storage in the thru-axle, which is something we always like to see.

For more on Bianchi's new gravel bike, check out the story – Bianchi's new Arcadex doubles down on integrated frame storage for gravel and bikepacking adventures.

SRAM refined its AXS Pod shifter

As SRAM is a brand constantly developing its componentry, it's refined and upgraded its Pod remote shifter, introducing a Rocker shifter. Similar to what we saw with the original AXS shifter, the Pod Rocker boosts ergonomics through an improved interface and larger buttons. But what we're really excited to see is that there's now a button at the rear face of the shifter that allows for actuation with a finger. This should allow for easy shifting while climbing.

Better still, the Pod Rocker is available as a whole unit for £150 but if you've already got a Pod shifter, the Rocker interface can be picked up as an upgrade for £20.

Here's the story – SRAM shows off refined AXS Pod Rocker shifter.

Fulcrum's all-road wheel gets a fancy waved design

Aerodynamics are becoming seriously important in gravel and the Sharq wheelset is Fulcrum's addition to the market. However, as you can see, the brand has taken a different approach to aero gains, choosing a variable rim depth as exhibited by the wave-shaped rims.

Fulcrum says that this is all to make the deep-rimmed wheels stable in the wind. At a 10 to 20-degree lean angle, the brand claims that instability caused by wind is reduced by 30 per cent. Then when upright, or between 10-degrees of lean, instability is reduced by 21 per cent.

With aerodynamics being the name of the game with these wheels, of course, there are bladed spokes and as you might have guessed, they're not cheap, coming in at £2,289.

For more, click over to the article – Fulcrum goes all-road with the wave-shaped Sharq wheelset.

Did SRAM unveil a 13-speed T-Type drivetrain at Unbound Gravel?

Unbound Gravel is the biggest and most exciting gravel race in the world and with that, teams, riders and brands bring new componentry and what's really been piquing interests is sightings of a 13-speed drivetrain from SRAM. While 13 gears isn't anything new, as seen on Rotor's hydraulic shifting drivetrain, what's very exciting to see is that this version of SRAM's Red group uses a direct mount derailleur, as seen on the brand's current T-Type offering.

However, in this piece, our Steve dives deep into the event itself and unpacks Lachlan Morton's win.

Check out Unbound Gravel 2024 - conclusions and takeaways.

We reviewed Canyon's Grizl:ON

At the other end of the gravel spectrum belongs e-gravel and our own assisted gravel aficionado has been putting Canyon's Grizl:ON through its paces. Released only earlier this year, the bike places itself in an interesting segment of gravel, not only because it's equipped with a Bosch Performance Line SX motor but because it's built for capability and adaptability.

Our Matt awarded it a solid four stars, praising it for said capability and its integration with the Bosch Flow app. However, not all is perfect and to find out what, you'll need to head over to the Canyon Grizl:ON CF9 e-gravel bike review.

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Liam Mercer

Since beginning his mountain biking career while working as a resort photographer in Greece in 2014, Liam became a freelance contributor at off.road.cc in 2019. From there, he’s climbed the journalism job ladder from staff writer to deputy technical editor, now finding his place as technical editor.

Partial to the odd enduro race, heart rate-raising efforts on slim-tyred cross-country bikes, hell-for-leather e-MTB blasts or even casual gravel jaunts, there’s not a corner of off-road cycling where Liam fears to tread. With more than 40 bike reviews under his belt and hundreds more on MTB, e-MTB and gravel parts and accessories, Liam’s expertise continues to be cemented and respected by the industry.