If you look at the bar chart of the Focus, the balance is striking. The inconspicuous Focus Atlas with "fully covered" cables and lines combines sporty gear ratios and frame stiffness with a relatively low weight. With its cleverly positioned fixed points for luggage plus accessories and the good WTB tyres with mini knobs, it could be the Koga Colmaro Extreme in terms of top all-rounders, but the handlebars and stem are not one hundred per cent cleverly chosen.
The already protruding brake levers of the Shimano groupset together with the 100 mm stem and the wide arc of the drop bar result in a hand position 25 cm in front of the pivot point, 20 to 30 % more than usual. On straight sections it doesn't matter, in slalom or narrow trails you have to move the grips very far to the side to ride small radii. This shortcoming also costs points in the urban jungle. With bags But this also has advantages on tourThe weights on the fork did not cause any unrest in the handling, also due to their stiffness and the fact that the fork mounts sit nice and low in terms of riding physics. Tuning potential!
Conclusion on the Focus Atlas 8.8
Small detail, big effect - the most balanced bike in the carbon class in terms of basic substance, top for long distances, but no cornering predator.
The most important information about the gravel bike
- Price: 3499 Euro
- Weight of complete wheel: 9.2 kg
- Frameset: Weight n.a. / max. system weight 120 kg
- Frame sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL
- Seat tube / top tube: 515 mm / 567 mm
- Stack / Reach / SR quotient: 583 mm / 395 mm / 1,476
- Wheelbase: 1046 mm
- Drive: Shimano GRX RX 810 groupset, 2 x 11 gears, GRX crank 46 / 30 teeth, GRX cassette 11-34 teeth
- Brakes: Shim. GRX RX 810, hydr. disc brake, 160 / 160 mm
- Wheels / tyres: Novatec Twentyfive aluminium wheels, 32 steel spokes 1.8 mm / WTB Riddler, 700 x 45 mm
- Guarantee: 2 years (6 on the carbon frame set)
