Focus Atlas 8.9 Carbon Gravel Bike – Reviewed & Tested

Feeling the call of gravel roads but not quite ready to leave sendy climbs, segments, and even the lycra behind? Tim’s been riding the highly-specced Focus Atlas 8.9 and wondering if he’ll ever need a road bike again.

Gravel bikes are relatively new in the cycling world, so new in fact that we had to explain what they are last year. They’re also vaguely defined, given that almost anything can ride on gravel, including Tour de France riders on elite road bikes, apparently.

But generally, it’s like a road bike, with the sleek look, drop bars, and light weight, with burlier brakes, tyres, different gearing, and (hopefully) a few mounting points to take things off road (or overnight).

I have an apartment garage that was modelled around the original Morris Mini Cooper S, leading to a very strict bike quota – unfortunately my partner Mary doesn’t share my view that ‘bikes can be wall art’.

The mountain bike isn’t going anywhere, I need that to keep up with my brother who loathes pedalling, but the road bike, while fun on the blacktop, seems rather limited. Gravel bikes look kind of similar, right? Could a fast, premium gravel bike actually replace the road bike and open up the world of gravel biking and bikepacking?

That was my thinking when I agreed to review the Focus Atlas 8.9, a bike that features, among other things, electronic shifting, a carbon fibre frame, 45mm tyres that would outgirth my first mountain bike, and a curb weight of under 9kg. Sounds pretty speedy right?

‘I’ll just give these a quick squeeze to check they’re still working.’

Why am I the right person to do this review?

Due to a stubborn refusal to stick to one thing, I ride both mountain bikes and road bikes, and everything in between. I’ve been riding bikes my whole life, yet have always steered clear of the deep technical obsession that grips many bike fanatics. That is to say, I understand what’s going on, but I’m not about to launch into a bunch of comparisons of rim widths and gear ratios.

Sounds like a We Are Explorers review right? At the end I want you to know who this bike is for, if that person is you, and if it’s worth your hard-earned. Let’s dig in.

I’m also working on building a #gravelgang but my brother (far-right) isn’t getting it

Design

Design, performance and comfort are three of the big pillars of our reviews, but we change around the order depending on the product. For the Atlas 8.9, design is definitely the first thing I want to talk about.

Aesthetics

Firstly, phwoooar, it’s good looking innit? The bronze colour has netted dozens of compliments and complements the tan walled tyres too. It looks brilliant flecked with pale Aussie mud too. From a purely aesthetic standpoint I give this bike full marks.

Mounting Points

Focus didn’t hide the bikepacking ambitions they have for the Atlas 8.9, which itself is an update of the alloy (metal) framed Atlas 6.8 that weighs 1.7kg more. The bike has heaps of mounting points, three for bottle cages (including one sneaky one below the downtube), mounting points on the forks that can handle 3kg per side, mudguard mounts, and the option to add a lightweight pannier that’s sold separately. The only issue I saw was that Focus’s own fenders made for the Atlas reduce your tyre size from 45mm (stock) to 40mm. Despite wet conditions being the one where you’d want tyre width the most. Curious.

On second thought, mudguards are sounding pretty good

Overall though, mounting points are great, because you can’t just ratchet things to a carbon frame as you might crack it. The mounts really have to come from the factory. Sure, you’re not loading up the Atlas 8.9 to ride the Great Divide, but I’m not sure that’s why you’d buy a bike like this anyway. It’s for fast and light missions, but we love the versatility.

One note, the maximum total weight of the setup is 120kg, including you. If you’re on the heavier side and thinking about overnight trips, it could be worth doing some quick maths before committing to this rig.

Top Tube Bag

A final mounting point on the top tube near the handlebars comes with a pre-installed bag, which is sleek and functional.

Unfortunately the bag has a hard plastic bottom that sits against the carbon frame, thus anything heavy and hard (Leatherman, bike tool, CO2 canister) immediately started bouncing up and down and making a godawful racket. I thought I’d broken the bike to be honest.

This was annoying because it’s a great little bag and for shorter rides and road rides it’s the only one I’d use (partly because it’s bolted on). Having to carefully pack the bag and ensure it was full was annoying, I reckon it needs a foam base or something.

Flared Bars

The flared carbon handlebars on the other hand are elite. The position is comfortable with a slightly outturned angle, the hydraulic brakes and electronic gears are super easy to use, and apparently very adjustable (my fit was perfect because I am mid), and turning was quick and responsive. On the road it felt maybe a little twitchy, but this was a good tradeoff as it’s necessary when navigating rougher terrain.

My only gripe is that there isn’t heaps of space to clamp things. I fit a bike computer and light, with a bit of faffing around the internal cable routing (worth it, looks sleek) but I think I’d be changing up the bar tape to use a front roll bikepacking bag on the reg. Focus do have specific mounts for bike computers and lights, as well as fancy internal cable routing, but this does rely predominantly on bespoke parts from Focus.

Love the handlebars but the bar tape doesn’t need to go that deep

Transporting It

I use a clamp style Yakima bike rack that can be kind of scary to use with carbon fibre bike frames, as carbon fibre doesn’t really like being squeezed. Luckily the down tube on the Atlas 8.9 is pretty burly, so I haven’t noticed any issues with applying some pressure.

That being said, I’m sure not all bike racks would accommodate a down tube like this, especially if you’ve loaded it up with bottle holders, so try before you buy.

Performance

Ok so it’s pretty and versatile, but does it GO?

Electronic Shifting

I’m not going to attempt to review every component on this bike in detail because you don’t have all week, but essentially, the Atlas 8.9 uses something called SRAM Rival ETAP AXS XPLR wireless electronic shifting with a gravel specific gear ratio. This means that:

1. There are no cables to your gears
2. The shifting is controlled by a small button in each handlebar grip
3. The buttons only need to depress a few millimetres
4. The left handlebar button goes to a lower gear, the right goes to a higher one
5. You have to remember to charge your bike’s gear shifting
6. The handlebar button batteries will also die eventually

From a performance standpoint, it’s brilliant. Gear changes are quick and seamless, the chainrings are designed to shed mud and they do. There’s even an app which I will not be using.

Look Mum, no cables! (The battery is the black bit on the left, it’s super easy to remove)

I definitely have range anxiety and charge the battery before every ride, despite the claimed 60 hour run time. The charging cradle is tiny and uses USB, and I confirmed it works off a battery pack, so you could always bring it along for multi-day if you’re worried. If it runs flat, it’ll downshift to the lowest gear and you’ll have a slow pedal home.

To be honest, it’s a luxury, but so far it hasn’t skipped a beat and regular gears feel clunky in comparison. This is impressive as apparently it’s an entry level electronic shifting setup.

The big question is how often are you going off-road? For my use, which includes a lot of road riding, it’s a delight and not that risky. However if you were planning to mostly ride dirt and overnight missions, perhaps a mechanical shifting would be easier to fix and allow you to spend money in other areas.

Gearing

The 12 speed gearing is perfect. With only one ring on the front like a modern mountain bike you really clean things up on the handlebars and reduce a potential chain drop.

Out the back you’ve got a cassette with a huge granny gear, big enough for any hill I encountered on steep Blue Mountains fire trails, and a top gear rapid enough to add speed when I was already going uncomfortably fast bombing hills on the road. Unless you’re literally racing, I can’t see why you’d need anything different.

Reliable brakes: necessary for gravel hill bombing in the fog

Brakes

Also SRAM Rival AXS, the 160mm hydraulic disc brakes are beefy too. They’ll stop you dead if called upon, but the beauty lies in how much control you have over the pressure, so you’re not destined to lose traction descending loose dirt tracks. If I was being insanely picky, I’d say I wish they were a little easier to use with one finger like a mountain bike brake, as the levers are quite large.

Tyres

Tyres are one of the most changeable things on a bike but the WTB Riddler tyres that come on the Focus Atlas 8.9 are a great stock option. At 45mm wide there’s more than enough grip and ample room to drop the pressure for really slippery terrain. To be honest, I haven’t had to do that yet, the geometry of the bike allows me to easily move my weight around and maintain traction in most situations, a big reminder that it’s most at home on the rough stuff.

On the road the tyres roll well, but have noticeable resistance, even compared to other gravel tyres I’ve used on the tarmac. For chill road rides with mates it’s no trouble, I’m just working a little harder, but if I was keeping this bike (it’s a loaner) I’d be looking at getting a second set of wheels so I can quickly change to road tyres.

On the Road

Speaking of, how does this gravel bike perform on the road, what are the trade offs?

The tyres are an easy one, and they’d be the first thing I’d change. In terms of brakes, gearing, shifting, the lightweight wheels and (weirdly quiet) hub, and the carbon frame, I don’t feel like I’m making any compromises at all, which is brilliant. Dedicated roadies would have a laundry list of marginal gains that I’m missing out on, but for a bike that’s covering the role of two in the shed, it’s doing great. As a dedicated gravel bike, it’s exceptional.

It’s a little bit twitchier at speed on the road and the riding position is more relaxed than an all-out road bike too, but it’s safe to say that Focus is straddling the best of both worlds quite well with the Atlas 8.9.

8.7kg is easy to carry when the path gets unrideable too, an underrated feature

Comfort

My god this is subjective, but I’ll do my best.

Compliant Frame

On the road the Atlas 8.9 feels pretty normal, but once you hit the rough stuff it comes alive. It’s subtle, the carbon frame is still stiff, but the flex, combined with fairly wide tyres, leaves the ride feeling plusher than it has any right to be.

We rode down a disused fire trail that was a bit of a hot mess and I didn’t have any issues. Compared to my alloy framed Specialized Diverge, which still features a carbon fork, it was noticeably more planted off road.

Relaxed Geometry

The seating position is more upright than you’d expect, which is way more comfortable on all-day kind of rides. It’s a long bike, with lots of reach, but the chainstays are short. This means you really feel like you’re over the back wheel when you sit up, and your weight is perfectly-balanced when you lean into the drops to negotiate a tricky section.

Touchpoints

The flared bars are pretty performance oriented, which meant that after 4-5 hours of rough roads my hands were getting pretty fatigued. You’d toughen up to this a bit, but they’re not exactly comfy.

The ‘fi’zi:k Taiga’ seat is pretty standard too, definitely comfortable, but not doing anything special.

Sustainability

Focus have a Better Tomorrow section of their website that mostly focuses (heh) on social issues. In terms of sustainability, a link to their ‘sustainable survey’ in Australia led to a broken page (this is actually weirdly common).

However, a bloke named Patrick Laprell started work as their Head of Sustainability nine months ago and his bio simply says ‘Working on FOCUS’ sustainable transformation.’

Soo, it’s a start. Given how much bike companies rely on nature for off-road and gravel riding I’d really love to see much more in the future.

Price

It ain’t peanuts! At $6,999 RRP the Atlas 8.9 costs more than I spent on my car, though you can get it for $5,999 right now because bikes are cheap at the moment.

There’s a few things to think about here. Firstly, if you’re not seriously into road biking, this highly-specced gravel bike can do the work of two bikes. Therefore you can spend twice as much. It’s simple maths.

Secondly, do you really need electronic shifting? Dropping down to the Atlas 8.8 saves $2000 at the moment, and you still get that sweet, sweet frame. Options continue to get more affordable from there while retaining many of the features I’ve talked about in this review.

You’ll also have to convince your mates to get gravel bikes

One Bike To Rule Them All?

Maybe I was being a bit ambitious with the whole road + gravel bike thing, we all know the correct amount of bikes in the garage is N+1, where N = your current number of bikes.

However, if you’re going to invest in a quality biking setup, and you’re at all interested in gravel, bikepacking or getting more adventurous than the local highways (you’re reading We Are Explorers, of course you are), then to me it’s a no-brainer to get something that’s versatile.

The Atlas 8.9 strikes a really nice balance between versatility and performance. It’s light, beautiful, and fast, but not afraid to get into the thick of it. I haven’t had the chance to load it up for an overnight mission yet, thanks to the shocking weather recently, but on day rides everywhere from the CBD to the Blue Mountains it’s taken it all in its stride.

The motto of the Atlas is ‘this bike is made to lose’, by which Focus means lose your mind, track of time, and yourself. Fast for fun’s sake you might say. Count me in.

This thing opens up so many possibilities

FAQs Focus Atlas 8.9 Carbon Gravel Bike

How much does the Focus Atlas 8.9 Carbon Gravel Bike cost?

The Focus Atlas 8.9 retails for $6,999, but we’ve seen it on sale for $5,999 so hunt around and you might be able to score a bargain.

How wide are the included tyres on the Focus Atlas 8.9 Bike?

The included tyres are 45mm wide.

Can I use a carbon road bike on gravel?

Absolutely! Especially with the included extra grippy 45mm tyres.