Allied Able GX | Gravel Bike

The ABLE is a high-performance off-road machine that tilts more towards the “mountain skinny” side of the gravel segment. It prefers a big tire but keeps a short rear end - in fact, it’s shorter than the ECHO at 420mm. This is achieved by the most striking feature on the bike - the elevated drive-side chainstay.

Getting a chainstay this short with high tire volume is a packaging exercise because the chainring, chainstay, and tire all compete for space behind the bottom bracket. On mountain bikes this problem is addressed by widening the bottom bracket -- but that affects Q factor in a negative way. When the decision was made to make the ABLE 1X-specific it opened the design envelope and ultimately led to the decision to elevate the chainstay. By moving it up and out of the way this make it extremely wide resulting in an incredibly responsive ride.

While the award-winning ECHO is a Swiss Army knife for a majority of mixed surface riding, when the path gets rambunctious its road-racing genes might seem lacking. Allied found themselves on occasion wanting a bike that was equally engineered, but felt more at home on steeper, rockier and more rugged terrain. It was from this desire that the ABLE was born. It’s lightweight, tight, durable and agile. You can point it in any direction and go.