The best titanium gravel and adventure bikes you can buy

The best, prettiest and most desirable Ti drop bar bikes

Rachael Gurney

Jul 24 2019

Titanium gravel and adventure bikes are ever-increasing in popularity these days, whether that be for the sleek good looks or compliant ride. We've rounded up all the Ti bikes you can buy for drop-bar off-road forays. Enjoy the premium bike goodness...

If you're more interested in pure mountain bikes, then make sure you check out our roundup of all the best titanium mountain bikes on the market too.

Knolly Cache

Knolly might be best known it's many-linkaged full-suspension machines, but it's surprised us with the launch of a new, titanium-framed gravel bike. It's called the Cache and the brand is making some bold claims for comfort thanks to a custom tubeset.

Knolly has aimed to push towards an ultra-modern off-road geometry, designing the bike to be used with a short stem while featuring a longer front centre. It’s claimed that there will be enough clearance for a 45mm tyre on 700c rims and the frame is designed to run with either a rigid or a suspension fork. Ok, so we're not totally sure you'll be able to buy one of these in the UK but we kind of hope that they do decide to sell them here to!

Frame only - $2,763 (about £2200)
www.knollybikes.com

Reilly Cycleworks Gradient

We reviewed the Reilly Gradient back in 2017 where we found it provided a ride that is as lovely as the bike is to look at, with space for wide tyres for heading off into the wilderness or adding dirt and gravel roads to your route, and a high level of refinement. The frame is still available in 2019 too.

Frame from £1,599
www.reillycycleworks.com

J.Laverack GRiT titanium

Here is another new gravel and adventure bike to add to your wishlist. British titanium specialist J.Laverack has added a gravel bike to its range called the GRiT which can take up to 700x48 or 650x52 wheels and tyres and costs £2,050 for the frame, with complete bikes priced from £3,850. The new GRiT builds on the popularity of its original J.ACK allroad bike with bigger tyre clearance and a few geometry changes to ensure it can tackle challenging off-road terrain. The new fork has an increased rake and the chainstays are longer to provide a more stable ride on loose and rough trails at high speed.

Frame - £2,050
www.jlaverack.co.uk

Kinesis GTD

Kinesis launched the new GTD (Go The Distance), a titanium 'ultra-endurance' road frame in July last year. It replaces the GF_Ti Disc with an all-new frame designed to offer a smoother ride with bigger tyre clearance. Compared to the GF_Ti, the GTD uses an all-new custom-drawn 3AL/2.5B titanium tubeset, intended to be both tough and lightweight, though no frame weight is given. It has also sought to increase compliance by curving the seat stays while straightening the chainstays to increase lateral stiffness.

Frame - £2,200
www.kinesisbikes.co.u k

Ribble Adventure Ti

Ribble launched a whole new range of bikes at the Cycle Show last year, this is one of two new adventure bikes, aptly named the Adventure Ti. You can build up the bikes to your specification on the Ribble bike builder website or buy them as a frameset - the ti frame get a carbon fork whilst the other steel 'Adventure' bike sports a steel one.

From £2,499
www.ribblecycles.co.uk

Enigma Escape

Enigma has a deservedly good reputation for high-quality, UK made titanium frames and the Escape is their do-it-all bike for un-made roads, gravel and off-road. It's a bike that can take on a serious amount of terrain, and miles, either loaded or light.

The Escape boasts a revised geometry that has lowered the bottom bracket a touch over the outgoing Ecroix and made the angles a little less road orientated and more relaxed for the conditions that its aimed at. It's aimed for exploring - and exploring a wide array of paths, trails, roads and tracks. We tested this frameset back in 2017, you can read the review here.

Escape Ultegra R8000 - £3,999
www.enigmabikes.com

Enigma Bikes Excel GR

Enigma Bikes added this UK made titanium gravel bike to their lineup last year and the show sample we saw was sporting some bold, blue Hope Tech bling. Frames will retail at £3,200 and can be built up with whatever components you choose.

Frame - £3,200
www.enigmabikes.com

Salsa Fargo Ti

The Salsa Fargo Ti , a bike that treads that narrowing line between road and mountain bikes, it appeared back in the brands range in 2017. It is pitched firmly into the growing adventure and bikepacking market but with a mountain bike DNA, there is a lot to like if you're coming from a mountain bike background.

First introduced in 2009 the Fargo was ahead of its time, a mountain bike with drop handlebars built around 29in wheels. Since then the whole gravel and adventure category has exploded, and the rise in popularity of bikepacking leading to many bikes capable of tackling all sorts of terrain, from smooth to wild. Tyres are getting wider and there's a growing interest in 650b (27.5in) wheels to allow even more voluminous tyres.

$2,499 - frame and fork
www.salsacycles.com

What have we missed? There must be other Ti gravel bikes out there that have have been missed by even our eagle eyes! Let us know in the comments.

Author block

Rachael is happiest on two wheels, she's been riding bikes for a good few years now after horses got too expensive! Partial to a race or two Rachael also likes getting out into the hills with a big bunch of mates. She's been writing - for publications such as Mountain Biking UK and Flow magazine - for as long as she's been riding and is equally happy getting stuck into a kit review as she is creating stories.