When it comes to comfort, the maxim of ‘the bigger the better’ definitely applies to tyre volume on gravel bikes. We’re increasingly seeing this trend in the professional ranks in gravel racing, but until fairly recently, having capacity for bigger volume tyres was limited mainly to men’s bikes. A few companies though have realised that women gravel riders are also looking for the perfect combination of comfort and speed. Liv launched their Devote gravel bike back in 2020 and the latest version ticks all the boxes for women riders who want to get really off the beaten track. Read on to find out more.

It would be lovely to have endless ‘champagne’ gravel rolling away into the distance as soon as left your back door, but for most riders that’s just not realistic. Instead a combination of ‘chonky’ gravel, potholed tarmac, root-strewn woodland trails, hoof-marked farm tracks and singletrack of various degrees of technicality is much more likely to be what you face when you head out on a gravel ride. Sure, there will be sections of smoother trails and pretty much any gravel bike will deal perfectly well with those, but when the going gets gnarly, that’s when you’ll really notice the benefits of a gravel bike designed to take the sting out of the trail.

Liv’s Devote Advanced 0 (LDA0) seems to offer everything that adventurous women riders would look for in a gravel bike – optimised geometry for women riders, in-house seatpost and handlebar designed to offer impressive levels of compliance and comfort, lots of flexibility when it comes to carrying gear/winterising your bike and plenty of tyre clearance.

Perhaps the easiest way to add compliance and comfort to your gravel bike is to fit bigger volume tyres, but this does assume your frame and forks have sufficient clearance. Fortunately, the LDA0 will fit tyres up to "a measured 53 mm" – all you need to do is to set the ‘flip chip’ in the frame to the long wheelbase setting. The actual tyres that you choose make a huge difference too – the suppleness of the casing, the tread pattern and the durability of the sidewalls are all things to consider. The LDA0 comes with 700 x 40 mm CADEX AR tyres (set-up tubeless in the factory) but for this feature, where comfort was the overriding factor, a pair of Schwalbe’s G-One R Pro in 700 x 50 mm were fitted. Tyre pressure can make an enormous difference to the ride feel of the bike. During the period that we had the loan bike, tyre pressures were set at 17 psi/1.17 bar. 60 ml of Giant’s own tyre sealant were added to each tyre to try and help ward off the puncture fairies…..

It shouldn’t be important, but when you’re considering spending a lot of money on a bike, aesthetics probably will be a consideration for many people. Everyone’s opinion will vary, but in our view, there is something about the combination of a small frame size and large volume tyres which just seems to look ‘right’. Of course having a bike which looks great but where the performance doesn’t match the image would be less than ideal. Changing the tyres for bigger ones was a decision based partly on science and partly on experience. Historically professional riders on the road thought that bigger tyres had more rolling resistance, which is why everyone stuck with using 21 mm tyres pumped up to super-high pressures for so long. Fortunately modern testing methods allow for a more scientific approach to be used. Although the team at Bicycle Rolling Resistance haven’t tested the 50 mm variant of the G-One R Pro tyre yet, the 40 mm version produced a rolling resistance figure of 16.6 watts, which is dramatically lower than the majority of its competitors. Changing the tyres added just over 400g to the overall weight of the bike. Generally adding weight to the wheels would be considered a bad thing, but our assumption was that the extra weight would be balanced out by improved grip, increased comfort and reduction in fatigue for the rider.

In an ideal world the bike you’re going to be using will have many more features designed in by the manufacturer and these should offer significantly more comfort and compliance than just switching out the tyres. The LDA0 comes with some significant adaptations to make it as comfortable as possible. Liv say that their “Advanced-Grade Composite frames are designed to offer light weight and stiffness with optimal compliance.” The LDA0 is fitted with a Giant Contact SL D-Fuse seatpost “with up to 7 mm of flex, this engineered compliance produces a smooth ride quality to help minimise fatigue” and a Giant Contact XR D-Fuse handlebar which “features lightweight construction while offering outstanding vertical compliance.” The rider’s contact points with the bike are critical in terms of insulating the rider from vibration and making them as comfortable as possible. The LDA0 is fitted with a Liv Approach saddle which has “a strategically placed, ergonomic cutout and supportive yet cosy design structures” and padded Liv All Condition bar tape.

With limited potential to change the component spec on a newly purchased bike, the one area you can adjust which will dramatically enhance your comfort as a rider is the fit. Getting the saddle height correct, the angle of the handlebars set appropriately and the brake lever position set correctly (and consistently) will all have a huge positive impact on how comfortable your ride is. Many bike shops offer a bike fitting service where you can fine tune the fit before heading out on the trails, but you can also find plenty of good advice online. 

With the set-up of the LDA0 finalised, it was time to hit the trails. Would the built-in compliance of the bike and the big volume Schwalbe tyres make a noticeable difference? How would the tyres feel on the tarmac linking sections? Would the bike need mid-ride adjustments to the set-up or would it work perfectly right from the start? The only way to find out was to take the bike out onto the trails. Our "size does matter" gravel loops included a vast mix of surfaces, but each loop had been designed to specifically include sections of ‘lumpy’ terrain. The hot, dry weather in the spring and early summer meant the trails were baked as hard as concrete, which further added to the challenge of the loops in terms of rider comfort and fatigue.

Loop One was a mix of urban, hinterland and rural riding, never straying very far from the centre of Newcastle. What made it memorable was the temperature, which was constantly above 30 degrees C and which reached a high point of 35. If we had been riding in Tuscany or the south of France you wouldn’t bat an eyelid, but for a ride in mid-June in the north-east of England, these were exceptional conditions. The parcours included a real mix of trails types – everything from hardpacked grass to paved cycle path to velvety-smooth gravel to an exceptionally rutted and lumpy edge-of-a-field trail. The route had been designed as a shake-down test and the fact that even with the heat we averaged 20 kph, says a lot about the comfort and the racy feel of the LDA0.

Loop Two started with a bang – a 15% paved road climb heading directly out of the carpark. A distinct lack of gear crunching, weaving all over the road or muttering of expletives showed what a great job CJ Performance Cycles had done of setting up the bike, but more importantly that the fit and the geometry of the LDA0 were perfect. After the initial section of paved road, our route next took in just over 20 km of unbroken off-road riding, through a vast manmade forestry plantation enmeshed with logging roads. As the forest is still actively used for commercial wood production, some of the gravel tracks see significant volumes of heavy trucks using them and in places they have been extensively armoured with chunks of crushed limestone. The difference between the armoured and non-armoured sections is pretty obvious – one minute you’re gliding along on buttery smooth ‘cava’ trails (the slightly less refined version of proper ‘champagne’ gravel) and the next section there are big chunks of sharp-edged rock doing their finest to knock you off course, or bounce up and smack you hard on the shin. Or worse, make the sickening noise of rock hitting expensive carbon fibre downtube. 

Although the sun was doing its best to burn through, there was a brutal block-headwind battering us anytime we headed due-west. Fortunately the dense nature of the planting meant that for long stretches we were pretty sheltered from the full affect. The sections where we were exposed to the wind were a great test of the bike’s stability and the perceived dragginess of the tyres. Although Liv don’t make any claims about the LDA0’s aerodynamic slipperiness, the sculpted tube shaping and the love-it-or-loath-it nature of the cables/hoses being routed through the headtube presented a fairly minimal frontal area and we made speedy progress despite the wind.

After the long off-road section, the next section was all paved. First, we tackled a fast and steep descent, complete with sharp, gravel-strewn corners and a number of potential hazards in the form of cattle grids. The well-dialled geometry and confidence inspiring manners of the LDA0 meant the obstacles were easily dealt with. A long section of undulating tarmac followed, some of which was affected by strong cross-winds, before we eventually turned far enough east to have the wind behind us. Despite the big volume tyres (or perhaps because of the extra comfort they created?) we averaged around 25 kph before turning uphill and straight into the wind again for the final time. 

The last section of the route took in a number of sections of ancient stoned tracks which at one time allowed horse-drawn carriages to travel to a nearby manor house. The hardpacked and fast-rolling nature of these tracks offered a perfect challenge to the composure of the LDA0. Although on some of the steeper and less-compacted sections there was some scrabbling for grip from the tyres, the built-in compliance of the bike smoothed off the rougher edges and reduced rider fatigue to a minimum. Even though the route contained more than 1000m of climbing and the fact the first half of the route was ridden into a strong headwind, the fast rolling and sporty feel to the bike meant we were able to average 19 kph. 

For the final ride, the route included two extremes – nearly 70% of the route was on paved roads, but the off-road sections included a section through a former quarry, some exceptionally lumpy farm tracks and some former railway lines, now converted to a shared-use trail which were liberally dotted with potholes. The first section of the route headed away from the carpark on a newly paved shared-use trail. It was smooth and fast-rolling and you might assume that narrower tyres would be faster here, but it definitely wasn’t the case. 

Constant switching of surfaces is where a gravel bike excels. Sure, you might be more comfortable on an XC MTB or faster on a road bike, but only on specific sections. A well set up gravel bike offers that perfect middle ground of speed, comfort, surefootedness and most importantly, flexibility. 

The former quarry was the crux of the route, to steal a rock climbing term. A super-fast vehicle width gravel track funnels you down to the low point, frequently a swamp in the winter, but fortunately currently bone dry, but is instantly followed by a short sharp climb. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but there’s really one sensible line to take – up the right hand side nearest the fence. Although it’s significantly smoother than the lines to the left, it’s much steeper than it looks, there’s the constant presence of the barbed-wire topped fence next to your right elbow and the surface varies wildly from one pedal stroke to the next. While it’s not unrideable (as the photo demonstrates), it requires a combination of finesse and power. Fortunately the LAD0 proved to be the perfect tool for the job.

If you’re in the market for a women’s gravel bike and want one that offers the goldilocks combination of comfort, speed and surefootedness the Liv Devote Advanced 0 is a worthy contender for your shortlist. If your standard gravel rides ever include terrain which isn’t velvety smooth, then fitting some big volume tyres will create the perfect do-everything bike. You can find full details about the bike on Liv’s website. 

Thanks to Giant UK for the loan of the bike and to Schwalbe UK for the amazing G-One R Pro tyres.