Ben Delaney Tests (and Loves) the Obed GVR at Desert Gravel
Ben Delaney is one of the industry's preeminent bike reviewers, and his YouTube channel, "The Ride with Ben Delaney," is one of the best independent sources for gravel news and reviews.
Delaney has spent a couple of months testing our Obed GVR equipped with a DT Swiss F 132 ONE gravel suspension fork. He decided to put it to the test at Desert Gravel, a tough 125-mile race in Fruita, CO. Check out his experience and thoughts on the bike in his latest video:
The Obed GVR Review:
“I think Obed really knocked it out of the park with this bike in having racey geo, a fork that’s built for that ... a huge amount of choices for how you can configure the main triangle, and huge tire clearance.” - Ben Delaney
Delaney is an independent journalist (he doesn't take money for reviews), and he's not known for pulling punches (which has angered many brands!). It's always nerve-wracking to hand him a product to test, but he's only had good things to say about the GVR. In fact, he used the words: "knocked it out of the park." To say I'm pleased is an understatement.
Delaney has over 25 years of bike journalism experience and has tested over 100 of the best gravel bikes released over the last few years. He's also strong as crap. I have yet to beat him in any group ride or gravel race (though that day will come!), so if he has an opinion about equipment, I tend to listen.
Delaney complimented many of the things that we worked hard to optimize with our latest gravel race rig, most notably the race-oriented geometry. Our lead engineer, Brad DeVaney, has been designing race bikes for nearly 40 years, including custom bikes used by world champions, Tour de France stage winners, and Olympic Gold medalists. He knows how to make a bike feel fast and agile, while also maximizing control and inspiring confidence. He was very intentional about tuning the geometry to work in tandem with the latest gravel suspension forks, and Delaney was clearly impressed with how the GVR handled with the 40mm DT Swiss F132 ONE.
Also appreciated was the ample tire clearance (it fits 2.2" MTB tires!) and the extra bolts inside the main triangle that give riders more options to configure their bottle and/or bag set-up. He is going to be spending more time with his GVR, so I'm excited to see what else he does next with our latest bike!
Check out more of Ben Delaney's work at The Ride on YouTube.
Unboxing Ben Delaney's Obed GVR
Want a little peek behind the curtain?
Ben Delaney and I are both based in Boulder, CO, so it was very easy for me to pester him to ride our latest bike. To get it in his hands so he'd have ample time to test it out, I was sent the first production-ready size Large GVR to come out of our factory. This bike had already been raced to a top-10 finish at Transcordilleras, and we had to scramble to get it stripped down, cleaned up, and rebuilt for his test period this spring.
We managed to get it shipped to my house, and I got the final assembly done mere minutes before Delaney was scheduled to come pick it up. While doing so, I gave a quick rundown on some of the bike's key design features and the process of bringing it to life.
In the bike world, Obed is still a relatively small brand, but we're all working hard to punch above our weight. Everyone here has kept the foot on the gas over the past few months to make this bike a reality, and to see it so well received has made all the hard work worth it!