00:00I'm here at Girona World Series Gravel to do a gravel race and I've got a brand new gravel bike
00:07to do it on. Now it's a Factor and you might be thinking why am I not on an Ostrogravel
00:14and to
00:15sort of talk us through the new bike and how it's different to the Ostrogravel we found David Miller
00:20how about that? Yeah Jamie this is a bit different to the Ostrogravel in the sense that what we've
00:26noticed with Factor and the constant evolution of gravel in the last few years is that there's not
00:32one bike to do everything. The Ostrogravel we'd really designed as a pure race machine a direct
00:36descendant of the Ostrogravel which is a pure racing road bike yet we've seen we wanted to create a
00:41bike that was a little bit more of a generalist rather than a specialist and so the Aluto what
00:46we've done is we've basically created a bike that sticks to the racing DNA of Factor but we've
00:52broadened its range of abilities we've given it more tire clearance so you can go it's optimized
00:57for 45 front and rear yeah but you can put 47 front and rear even up to 52 on the
01:02front I actually
01:03raced unbound on my prototype with 48 running hearse front and back and had no problems whatsoever
01:07there's a few other little things we've done in the sense of the head tube it's tiny I mean 0
01:12.3
01:13degrees slacker okay so not much but it's just a little bit to kind of give it a slightly slacker
01:19a little bit more responsive counterintuitive it feels more responsive but that's due to the
01:24layup of the tubing but also the fact that it's kept its short chain stays at the back which is
01:28the same as the Ostrogravel to keep the wheelbase quite tight we've lowered the bottom bracket
01:32slightly so you've got a lower center of gravity so hopefully that'll help me out on the descent
01:37that's wait till you see it for technical stuff this bike's incredible then we've lifted the stack
01:42at the front and the head tube as well so you're a little bit raised up between I think about
01:46five mils up to a centimeter depending on the size yep and one of the most interesting things is and
01:51I
01:51didn't kind of learn this until I came to Factor and understood a bit more about how they make
01:55bikes the tubes are what it's incredible the fact that you've got we're taking this from the Ostro van
02:00with this sort of flattening here gives you a little bit more give and the round seat tube 27.2
02:06means that if you wanted to go nuts you could put a dropper post in there but it just means
02:09it's a
02:09lot more practical so not many bikes at the moment come with standard standard round seat tubes well we
02:16really wanted this bike to be I mean I don't want to use the word standard but kind of standard
02:20in
02:20the way because that gives you so much more access to doing different things with it but I can tell
02:24this bike is just nuts because the moment I got on my prototype I've been riding the Ostro gravel for
02:30two years and immediately I noticed a difference it's just so much lighter at the front end it's
02:35pretty feels the Ostro gravel is very much as I said very linked to a road bike yeah but this
02:40bike you get
02:41on it and it's more akin to almost a mountain bike or a cyclocross bike but it's still super fast
02:45but
02:46you can just do anything and it just puts a big smile on your face hopefully by the end of
02:50this
02:50as well yeah we'll see yeah no it does I did unbound I definitely was not smiling but it helped
02:56me
02:56slightly there is one other change I noticed we've got some integrated frame storage here oh yeah that
03:02did slip my mind so this is I've got some gels hiding in mine so what's the thoughts with with
03:09the
03:09downstream storage this is not just we realize there's a lot more going on with that we're
03:14actually taking across that came from the slick it was designed for a triathlon bike where we were
03:17looking to kind of help triathletes where they need lots of storage and wants to stay aero but
03:22once we created the system we put it on the Monza which is a kind of everyday race bike where
03:27we know
03:27that people want to carry storage and then in gravel I mean if you go and look around everybody's
03:32just carrying stuff I mean you have to you've got to carry so much stuff so it just seemed natural
03:37to put it on
03:37this bike as well so forgive me for asking because Factor has always been a really race-orientated
03:43brand and some of its recent bike releases the Monza and the now the Aluto haven't been quite so
03:51race-orientated as previous bikes well is this a new new heading for Factor or no I it's kind of
03:59I suppose this is what we've got to get across they're still race pure race bikes it's a different
04:02racer yeah so our engineering team what they do is they when they're starting to design a bike they
04:07choose the racer and they choose the type of racing now in the past it's been only the very elite
04:11pinnacle racing world tour kind of an even austro gravel the likes of the world's best gravel races
04:16but that's not the majority of races so for the Monza it's very much for the vast majority of people
04:21who just want to go and race for fun and also have to train on the same bike and it
04:24has to be utilitarian
04:25this is a pure race bike we're always we always design race bikes and never not will but we just
04:30are perhaps just opening up slightly now to different types of races and different types of races
04:35so basically what you're saying is today when I'm racing around I can't blame the bike
04:39so you cannot blame your bike no I'll be interested afterwards to hear what you say because
04:44it's uh this is only you're the second person in the world to race on this bike so there we
04:49go
04:51and what can you tell me about the course is it uh it's guys hard oh boy all the gravel
04:57events
04:57around here are bonkers yeah now I think this is a UCI gravel once they might have not gone as
05:02gone as absolutely uh lucas mind-bendingly wrong as the gravel earth series can sometimes do around
05:10here but I think it's gonna be fun because you go straight up here it's hard but I don't think
05:13it's
05:13gonna be super technical I've seen there's a big climb at the start yeah all separated out pretty
05:17quickly but like I said either go we discussed this yesterday you either hit out really hard
05:21get humiliated get dropped find your group or you start really slow feel like superman and then find
05:27your group I think what might happen is I might start slow and continue slow but we'll see we'll find
05:33out cool well thank you very much and uh yeah see you in a few hours
05:40so
05:54so
05:55so
06:46Well, that was absolutely savage.
06:51I think I was out there for nearly five hours.
06:54At least the last 30k were easier than the first 30k.
06:59It was just up, down, up, down.
07:01I think Girona has some lovely gravel.
07:04And then it's got that as well.
07:06No, there was some really pretty gravel.
07:10And some absolutely savage gravel as well.
07:13Some of the climbs just went on and on and on.
07:16You'd go around a corner and there'd just be another one.
07:18And then you'd go around another corner and there'd be another one.
07:21And then you'd descend.
07:22And I've never seen so many broken collarbones in one place.
07:26But, hey, I had a good time.
07:28So that is the main thing.
07:30And actually, I'm very glad that I was on the Aluto and not the Austro gravel.
07:34Because, honestly, I would take every bit of trail, stack, bottom BB drop as they've got going.
07:43And actually, I think that this is probably the gravel bike for 95% of people.
07:50I think that, yeah, the people at the very front of today's race, maybe they were going fast enough to
07:55benefit from the aero characteristics of the Austro gravel.
07:59But, for me, I really enjoyed having the downtube storage, putting some gels and spares and stuff in there.
08:06So I had more space in my pockets for those all-important gels.
08:11And, yeah, like I said, the slightly more relaxed position was absolutely essential today.
08:18I do think, though, they could probably do another one that goes in between this and the Lando.
08:26So I think Factor is basically a really good brand if you want a specialist tool for a specific job.
08:36And not many brands do that.
08:38A lot of brands are sort of reducing their SKUs.
08:40They're reducing, amalgamating lots of different models into one.
08:44And Factor seemed to be doing, well, the opposite, really.
08:49So I can't remember all the prices and colors now.
08:52So I'm going to pop them on the screen for you so that you get all of them without me
08:56absolutely making a hash of all the names and stuff.
09:00So, well, I used the SRAM Force XS Explore model.
09:05And I think the only change that I might have made is making the most of the Aluto's tire clearance
09:11and going at least a bit bigger on the front because there was some really rocky descents.
09:16Oh, and maybe I would have changed the 44-tooth chain ring as well.
09:20I think Factor maybe over-anticipated how strong I was.
09:24If you want to see more gravel content on the channel, then please make sure you're subscribed.
09:29Give this video a like.
09:30And we'll see you next time.
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