BIKE REVIEW – VELOCE GRAVEL PRO 3

Veloce Bikes is a Bangladeshi bicycle manufacturer that aims to provide good quality bikes at an affordable price point. They are set to compete with the likes of Firefox and Hero for a slice of the affordable bike market in India.

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 is Veloce’s flagship Road/Gravel bike, with it coming in almost a full 10k more expensive than its little brother the Gravel Pro 2.

Check Out Our Review on the Veloce Grave Pro 2

Let’s take a look at how the Gravel Pro 3 stacks up against the Pro 2, and let’s find out if it is truly worth the additional asking price.

VELOCE GRAVEL PRO 3 – BIKE OVERVIEW

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 is a versatile, all-around Road/Gravel bike that gives you the sportiness of a road bike, and the ruggedness of a mountain bike in one frame. It sports a 2×9 Shimano Sora Drivetrain with integrated drop-down handlebar shifters and Shimano Tektro Disc Brakes.

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 is not a cheap bike, but it is cheaper than most and is the perfect entry-level Gravel bike to get you started. Gravel bikes are built to be more comfortable than Road bikes as they give you significantly more give and comfort through their thicker wheels and some level of flexibility built into the frame. However, this is where the Gravel Pro series suffers, we’ll get into it in detail later on.

The frame in its space grey stands out as sleek and stealthy, which gives it an extremely premium look, despite its affordable pricepoint.

The Gravel Pro 3 is supposedly capable of mild off-roading, but from what we’re seeing, you should consider this bike more a road bike, than a gravel bike.

DETAILED REVIEW

We typically look at 5 basic areas while reviewing a bike.

• Frameset
• Wheels
• Components
• Drivetrain / Groupset
• Post Sale Support & Warranty

1. FRAMESET

The frame is the most important part of the bike as it defines the bike’s riding characteristics and not something you can really “upgrade” over time – components come secondary. Ironically enough, it’s the one part that riders know the least about.

It’s critical that the frame is well-designed, built well, and is an appropriate fit for your height and should suit your kind of riding.

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 has a 6061 Light Weight Alloy Frame – Aluminum Alloy is a tough and durable material for bike frames and can handle all kinds of riding stresses, without taking any damage. All this while remaining super lightweight and nimble while riding.

This is the same material as the Gravel Pro and Pro 2, and similarly the weld joints don’t look slick and even – quite common at these price points. The downside is a lower level of aesthetics and a slightly heavier frame. Not really a deal-breaker unless these matter to you.

The bike geometries are marginally better than its cheaper siblings, with the frame’s top bar being more horizontal, leading to a more geometrically appealing looking bike. We wouldn’t recommend really taking this bike out on very rough trails, as we feel this bike is perfect for Road riding with some scope for slightly rougher terrains, but nothing crazy.

The frame also sports ‘some’ internal routing for cables. As the rear brake cable runs through the top tube, while everything else runs externally around the bottom tubes. This is an odd design choice, and makes for a slightly confused design. But functionally everything works as it should, and still looks sleeker than some.

2. WHEELSET

Good wheels make a huge difference to any ride but you cannot really expect great wheels on entry & mid-level bike brads. The Gravel Pro 3 comes with 700C Alloy Rims (28 Holes), with their own proprietary 700 x 32C Meghna Tires (Meghna is the Parent Company of Veloce).

These tires are a bit unconventional, as the tire is significantly slimmer than conventional Gravel tires. Keeping the build quality in mind, this seems to be a good way to keep weight down and offer a bit more nimbleness to the ride by sacrificing a small bit of comfort.

The tire seemed to be quite an entry-level option and would be one of the first upgrades that we would recommend to immediately improve the ride quality & capability of this bike.

3. COMPONENTS ON THE BIKE

The bikes make use of Tektro Mechanical Disc Brakes, with 160mm front and rear rotors. These disc brakes are mid-level and low maintenance which allows for greater stopping power compared to conventional rim brakes.

The 160mm rotors are extremely commonplace, making procuring spares a piece of cake. Also, no hydraulics means no messy liquids to deal with should your cables get damaged or vandalized.

The bike sports a nice drop-down handle with VELO branded Bar Tape. The Shimano Sora ST-3500 shifters aren’t the best in the world, but they do their job and can be easily upgraded.

4. GROUPSET

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 comes with a Shimano Sora Front and Rear Derailleurs. It is a simple 2 x 9 setup that gives you 18 gears in all.

This should be more than adequate for all forms of road riding, with a bit of a struggle on very steep trails. But we don’t see this bike being used for that anyway.

A better rear derailleur compared to the front derailleur is a common strategy by bike brands to ensure money is spent well as most riders end up using the rear derailleur a lot more vis-a-vis the front. But looks like the Veloce has skipped this altogether for their entire Gravel pro range.

5. WARRANTY

Each Veloce Bike frame comes with a 5-year warranty that covers the frame of the bike against any manufacturing defect from the date of purchase. Most branded components on the bike have their own company dictated warranty timelines.

SPECIFICATION OVERVIEW

• Frame: 6061 Lightweight Alloy
• Wheels: 700C Alloy 28 Holes
• Fork: Alloy Rigid
• Groupset: 2 x 9 Shimano Sora
• Brakes: Tektro Mechanical Disc Brakes With 160mm Rotor
• Seat Post: 27.2mmx300mm Alloy Micro Adjust
• Tires: 700 X 32C Meghna

VERDICT

There is very little information on these bikes on the internet to be able to understand what long-term ownership means of a Veloce bike. Nevertheless, here are some quick thoughts from us having laid our hands on a test ride and looking thru the specifications.

The only significant upgrade we found when comparing the Gravel Pro 3 with the Gravel Pro 2 was the upgraded drivetrain. Everything else is virtually the same.

The Veloce Gravel Pro 3 is a decent option if you’re looking to score your first ever Road/Gravel bike at an affordable price point or if you’re looking for a comfortable road-based geometry bike to commute or ride in the city.