Commence build.
It’s not easy buying the bike you really want during the Covid/Brexit shitstorm of Winter 20/21.
I originally caught on to the Giant Revolt Advanced at the start of November 2020. I’d been looking at gravel bikes for a while and, after spending far too long speccing an Orbea Terra M20, discovered that the next delivery date was the following summer (as it turns out, Brexit has currently put a halt to UK orders all together so summer may have been optimistic).
I contacted Giant Store Leamington to see what was available and they told me they were getting some framesets in. They arrived a couple of weeks later and, after popping down for a look, we worked up a spec and put wheels in motion to get a Cycle To Work voucher in place through the helpful folk at Green Commute Initiative. Then we waited…
My spec for the bike was fairly straightforward - the shiny new, Ultegra-level GRX810 gravel groupset and the Giant finishing kit that came on the Revolt Advanced 0 - the top of the non-Pro, non-Di2 Revolt range. By this point, I’d already found a great deal on a set of Mavic Allroad Elite wheels and I’d knew from experience that saddles supplied with bikes rarely suit me, so I could sort the rest myself.
Almost immediately that I’d got the voucher in hand, the bad news came: there was no stock of the GRX groupset and it could be January before any showed up. They suggested SRAM Apex as an alternative. This was the first time they’d suggested Apex, but it wouldn’t be the last, and it bothered me for a number of reasons. From what I can work out, the rough Shimano equivalent groupset would be Tiagra, a couple of spec levels below the GRX I’d requested, and it was a 1x10, vs the 2x11 in my spec. Not the same, not by value nor by function. I said I’d wait - if it ended up being January, that was by now little more than a month away.
After a month of silence, Christmas and new year passed and I got in touch, just to see if there was any news - still no luck finding parts. Might be February…
At the start of February, having heard nothing, I got in touch again and got the same story. No news, no ETA, might be March, might be May. Would I consider SRAM Apex instead? Time to take matters into my own hands.
I’d seen elements of the GRX groupset for sale, but quite a lot of it out of stock, and it seemed to be the derailleurs which were the sticking point. Indeed, I very quickly found that Merlin Cycles had a 2x11 GRX810 shifter and brake package in stock, plus the chainset to match. I called to check that it was the right one, which was confirmed by their helpful sales team. Derailleurs however, were proving hard to find, so I did what anyone would at a time like that - checked eBay.
Now, I’m a fairly cautious buyer, particularly on eBay, but I figured that these were desperate times so some desperate measures were definitely in order. Plus, if I paid by credit card AND did so though PayPal, there were all sorts of protections in place if items didn’t turn up, so I ordered a front derailleur from the reputable-sounding Duck Shop Japan.
To their credit, the service was exceptional. From placing the order on 6th February, I received a tracking number the following day which allowed me to follow the package’s progress from Yokohama to Tokyo, in to London Heathrow, East Midlands Airport, down to Bristol, and finally back up to Bromsgrove. Total door-to-door time: 4 days. Impressive.
With a rear derailleur also ordered and in transit the bike shop order was amended, the value of the C2W voucher revised and it was agreed that Saturday 13th Feb would be new frameset collection day.
Having heard nothing from them in the week leading up to collection day, I called Giant Leamington, just to check I wouldn’t be wasting a journey if I drove over. They said, yes, they could get it ready, but the BB hadn’t arrived. The one I had ordered a full three months earlier.
“It’ll be in on Tuesday”. Ok, fine. It would take me a while to assemble the rest of the bike and, at this stage, the rear derailleur was still in transit. I collected the frame and headed home.
When I got back from Leamington - a good hour-and-a-bit round trip - I began unpacking the frame and discovered that the build kit was missing. No headset, no thru axles, no clamp for the seatpost. The cable clamp was floating around loose in the box, along with some litter, but no other actual useful parts. Bloody brilliant.
After a phone call and some back-and-forth on Whatsapp, I headed back to the shop and collected the build kit from another bike, which presumably some other poor soul will go home without. Double checking on the BB, which would definitely be in on Tuesday and they’d put in the post.
The week has been spent routing cables, mounting discs and cassettes onto wheels, fitting saddle, bars, shifters and brake calipers; the thing is finally taking shape and it’s looking good.
It’s now Friday again. The GRX810 rear derailleur has arrived from Japan and has also been fitted to the bike. The BB still hasn’t arrived from Leamington.
