'A lot of gravel bikes have gone soft in the pursuit of comfort' - Factor’s new Elara rails against do-it-all in search of speed

While The Traka was many months ago now, it’s still fresh in my head thanks to the slew of unreleased bikes that were spotted on that dusty and incredibly pollen-heavy Gironese long weekend.

Of all the secret machines on show, the one that lit up the switchboard the most was Factor’s gravel monster, which seemed to mate a somewhat normal gravel rear end with the absolutely outlandish fork of the brand’s ONE hyper-aero road bike.

Now, as we head toward the UCI Gravel World Championships, all the best gravel race bikes come back out on show for a UCI-sanctioned hurrah after being happily raced all over the more prestigious courses of the Lifetime Grand Prix and Gravel Earth Series.

And within said hurrah, Factor has now officially unveiled the aforementioned monster, and it’s called the Elara.

It’s another slightly poetic-sounding name to sit alongside the more multi-surface Factor Aluto, and the endurance-leaning Factor Sarana. Unlike those two bikes, which profess to offer usability beyond the confines of a race environment, the Elara has been created for the cut and thrust of the biggest gravel races on the calendar.

This isn’t Factor’s first aero gravel bike; the Ostro Gravel was one of the very first crop of aero machines designed for gravel races, but Factor is keen to stress that this isn’t just an Ostro Gravel with bigger tyres, but rather a complete redesign, even though it was internally known as the 'OG2' at Factor until relatively late in its development cycle.

Frame and geometry

It’s perhaps too easy to look at that gargantuan fork and just say ‘It’s just a Factor ONE with bigger tyres’, but besides the fork's wide stance, it - and the rest of the bike - is quite different, and even with the very wide and very deep legs, it eschews a bayonet design in this case in favour of a more traditional internal, and round, steerer tube.

The super wide legs claim to fit up to 57mm (as measured) tyres, though as I’ll go into in my initial ride experiences below, I think this may be pushing it and would suggest the maximum if you’re actually buying your own frames is more like 55mm.

The width isn’t an issue, but the height is, though at the back things seem a little more roomy, despite keeping the chainstays to a pretty short 423mm. Still, 57mm is the stated clearance, though this is only with 1x setups, and is claimed to be an industry first for ‘true race geometry’.

Against the run of play, Factor has maintained 2x compatibility for the frame with a direct-mount front derailleur plate for those increasingly few riders who want a double chainset. This will reduce the tyre capacity down to 47mm at the rear, due to derailleur clearance.

Geometrically, it doesn’t stray far from the other machines in Factor’s gravel range. It’s the lowest of the bunch, 5mm lower in stack than the Aluto and 13mm lower than the Sarana. It has the same chainstay length as the Aluto, and 2mm shorter than the Sarana, and the same BB drop as the Sarana at 80mm (the same as the Fara GR4, too - another bike designed around very large tyres). It’s 5mm longer than the Aluto, and 1mm shorter than the Sarana, but with a head tube angle steeper than both. In short, it has the most ‘race’ geo of the lot.

Aero claims and system weights

The Elara doesn’t come with any hard-and-fast wattage figures, despite its clear aero optimisation. It is "CFD-validated for 45-57mm gravel race tyres" however, and average speeds of 35km/h are mentioned too, so we assume this is the speed at which it has been tested.

Luckily for Cyclingnews subscribers, we've had it in the wind tunnel ourselves, so head to our Factor Elara wind tunnel results for the details there.

The brand also claims "comparable aero efficiency to modern aero road frames at equivalent yaw angles," and a "5-8% lower drag coefficient vs Ostro Gravel with a 47mm tyre."

The frameset weighs in at (claimed) sub-1,110g for a size M raw frame, while our test machine (a 56cm frame) tipped the scales at 8.76kg with SRAM Force XPLR.

New gravel wheels

Not to be outdone by the likes of Enve and Zipp, Black Inc., Factor's in-house componentry wing, has concurrently launched the Sixty Four Gravel wheelset, with a 64mm depth, a 40.25mm external width and a 30mm internal width with a hooked rim; the first of the big name brands to offer a hooked bead in this category.

This set has a claimed weight of 1,620g (excluding tape and valves), and runs on ceramic bearings as standard. Freehubs are swappable and available to suit the three main providers of groupsets, and engage with a three-pawl ratchet system.

New cockpit

As well as a new frame, and new wheels, the Elara also comes with a brand-new cockpit, the Black Inc. Aero Gravel Bar AB07, with 40/38/36cm widths available and stem lengths of 80- 130 mm. There’s a 17-degree flare, 75mm reach, and 114mm of drop.

Price

The Elara is available with either SRAM Red or Force, or Campagnolo Record, and with a choice of the new Black Inc. 64 wheels or the slightly cheaper 46 wheels.

First impressions

I’ve logged about 200km on the Elara so far, though a chunk of these were simply riding it to and from the office rather than on gravel, so I am not able to give a full account just yet. Before we go into how it rides, though, I must make a note on the tyre capacity: I am sceptical about the ‘true 57mm clearance’.

On taking delivery, I swapped the 50mm Continental Dubnitals out for a set of 2.25” Maxxis Aspens, which measured 57.6mm with my calipers, and when inflated to the pressure suggested by the SRAM tyre pressure calculator, they touched the crown of the fork.

Dropping the pressure made them rideable, but I wasn’t comfortable with the extremely limited sub-1mm gap and swapped the tyres back to a 50mm. I’d suggest a 52, and maybe even a 54 may be OK, and while the rear seemed to swallow the 57mm fine, the fork is not as cavernous as its width suggests.

This may be down to the specific tyre model, and in conversations with Factor it seems some athletes get away with a 57mm fine, but all the same, it’s 57 with caveats rather than a true 57 in my view.

As for how it rides, if you like road-like sensations with big tyres then you’ll like the Elara. The geometry keeps the handling lovely and sharp and poised, and it does match up to the claims of Factor that “we wanted the handling to feel fast again. A lot of gravel bikes have gone soft in the pursuit of comfort. We’re bringing back that sense of urgency.”

Going soft is a criticism that won’t be levelled at the Elara, which is hugely stiff. It is stiffer than the old Ostro Gravel, which was itself quite a stiff machine, but this is ameliorated to a great degree by the larger tyres. I did actually prefer it during my brief time on the 57mm tyres, and on rough terrain even the 50s can’t stop you from feeling a little rattled, but the flip side to this is that it never feels wallowy or anything less than immediate.

I also found it quite a competent climber, more so than I expected on rough, technical terrain, likely a function of slightly steeper geometry keeping your weight more over the middle of the bike.

In short, I think it hits Factor's internal brief, and I’d wager it’s more appealing to the gravel generalist than the ONE is to your enthusiastic road rider. The comfort is likely going to be the weak point, especially in the context of quite rough courses like Traka, but it needs more riding to tease that out. On fast, well-graded stuff, it absolutely rips.