Evil Bikes

The Chamois Hagar Gravel Frameset

Evil Bikes could be considered the hard-partying younger sibling of the bike world, with their cheeky paint color names and rowdy geometry. The Chamois Hagar is precisely what we should have expected when Evil designed a drop-bar bike: genre-defying and stoke-providing. The Hagar may not be called purely a gravel bike, for it is much more nimble to ride, but nor is it simply a drop-bar mountain bike, for it is much more efficient on smooth surfaces. The Chamois Hagar leaves it to you to define where and how you want to ride and will happily come along for the journey, be it gravel or dirt, singletrack or fireroad, adventure commute or bikepacking trip.

Where most companies start from a road bike to get to a gravel steed, Evil started from the opposite end of the spectrum with their mountain bikes like the Following to create a stable and fast gravel machine. The Hagar’s geometry might make the pure gravel racers balk: a 66.67° headtube angle, long top tube, 80mm bottom bracket drop and designed around a 50mm stem. These mountain-inspired features all contribute to superior off-road handling. The slack headtube and 57mm fork offset give the front wheel greater contact with the ground for smoother handling especially at speed while descending on rough terrain or singletrack. Riding a rigid bike off-road can feel choppy already, so the 80mm bottom bracket drop helps keep the wheels planted both as we pedal through washboard and rocks as well as through corners. With the headtube angle and fork offset placing the wheel further out front than on a typical gravel bike, Evil eliminates the chance for side-swiping our toes with the wheel on those tight turns.

The Chamois Hagar is ready for the kind of rides that make most gravel bikes quake. Clearance for 50mm tires allows us to run ample tire width and tread for greater grip through corners and greater comfort on rough roads or trails. The 700c wheel size rolls better over smaller obstacles and bumps, though you can run as small as 650 x 50mm for a more nimble option. For our longest rides or overnight adventures, the Hagar boasts six bottle mounts (seven in sizes medium and up) between the frame and fork. There’s plenty of attachment points for water bottle cages, cargo, and a top-tube snack bag, so we can load up everything we need on our bike and not our backs. Since riding on all roads can also mean riding in all weather, the frame is weather-sealed to keep moisture and contaminants out, and has rubber panels on the chainstay and downtube for further protection. Internal cable routing for drivetrain and dropper post keeps the moving parts protected from the elements as well as the frame lines looking sharp.