The best carbon gravel bikes cover off-road riding from races to bikepacking and everything in between

By Paul Norman

Published: Friday, 16 June 2023 at 12:00 am


The best carbon gravel bikes offer a range of ride options to suit your style and budget. There’s a huge range to choose from, with no brand’s range complete without a gravel bike. Many bike makers have two or three different gravel platforms to cater for different gravel riding styles.

The ability to deliver flex where it’s needed and stiffness where it can aid pedalling efficiency means carbon fibre is an ideal material from which to construct gravel bikes. Carbon fibre also has the ability to reduce vibration transmitted to the rider and micro-suspension elements can be built into the carbon layup to further aid comfort.

Below is quite a long list of the best carbon road bikes, all rated and reviewed by our expert testers, who between them have clocked up thousands of riding hours and have years of experience.

You can skip to the end to read our buyer’s guide to the different types of carbon gravel bikes and how carbon gravel bikes compare to the best gravel bikes made from other frame materials.

The best carbon gravel bikes in 2023

Boardman ADV 9.0

5.0 out of 5 star rating
"Pack
The Boardman ADV 9.0 is one of our favourite bikes.
Russell Burton / Immediate Media
  • £1,800 as tested
  • Pros: Excellent value; great ride quality; low weight is impressive for the price
  • Cons: Sharp edges on stem

The value for money offered by the Boardman ADV 9.0 is exceptional and made it the winner of BikeRadar’s Bike of the Year Best Value award in 2021. It’s a sub-£2,000 gravel bike that can go anywhere and is very light for its price, stiff and responsive. This leads to great off-road riding and fast acceleration in tarmac.

Boardman is good at spending its money where it will make a difference, so you get a canny mix of Shimano GRX components with a good gear range and tubeless-ready wheels. They’re shod with Panaracer GravelKing SK gravel tyres, which are grippy off-road but roll fast as well.