Wilier Adlar Gravel Frame

If you make a habit of reading online bike reviews, you have probably noticed that one criticism that gravel bikes often have leveled at them is that they don’t offer attachment points for things like bikepacking bags and mudguards. That is one thing you certainly can’t say about the Wilier Adlar, which aside from being a responsive carbon gravel bike, can easily be transformed into the best equipped, most versatile adventure bikepacking bike on the planet. In German, “Adlar” means “eagle”, and even if we’re not sure how up on their German the Italians at Wilier are, we are sure that they designed this bike so that you could feel free as a bird on the longest adventures.

Some gravel bike designs verge toward the road bike, race-ready type of geometry. The Adlar, however, tends more toward the mountain bike, trail capability in terms of geometry and intent. Available in five sizes from XS to XL, the Adlar’s geometry riffs off what we look for in modern mountain bike designs. So the reach has been extended to accommodate a short stem, flared bar set up. The 70° head tube angle works well in conjunction with the shorter stem to help keep steering predictable even on quick, loose gravel descents fully loaded. And when we say fully loaded, we mean it. The Adlar’s carbon frame layup has been reinforced so that it can handle up to 35 kilograms of load. That’s over 77 pounds. They manage this without adding an excess of weight to the frame, which still tips the scale at only 1100 grams. That’s pretty exceptional when you consider bikes designed to be gravel racing bikes seldom hit the 1000 gram mark themselves. Of course, once you load on another 35 kilos, who cares about an extra 100 grams here or there?

Dynamo Hub Cable Accommodation in the Wilier Adlar

Recognizing that real adventures sometimes go way-off the beaten track, the Adlar frame has been designed to fit a fork with longer legs, which also facilitates installing a suspension fork with travel up to 40 mm without changing the geo numbers or negatively impacting the handling. They’ve even provided an opening in the standard fork’s right side to accommodate a dynamo hub cable, if you want to use one. And at the back the standard sized 27.2 mm seatpost can be replaced with a dropper post to give your backside more room to move on rough descents.

Unsurprisingly, the Wilier designers made sure that big rubber could be fit on the Adlar. So you can accommodate any 52 mm (52-622) gravel tire and up to mountain bike tires measuring 29 x 2.00-inch. Similarly, well thought out, the fixing and load points have been integrated into the frame design to allow for bigger weights without causing any structural stress on the frame. The front and back carriers load the weight of the bags onto the thru axles that pass through the frame and fork. Other fixing points allow for a third bottle holder or a tool bag under the down tube, in addition to a top tube bag.

The Wilier Adlar has thought through just about everything you’ll need for your next bikepacking adventure, whether you are exploring your own back roads or hitting the high trails of the Atlas Mountains.

Also check Mosaic Cycles Gravel & CX Bikes.