Commencal 365 Gravel Bike Review: No Carbon, No Problem

The roadies in the room may be unfamiliar with Commencal. Maybe even the XC riders in the room might be unfamiliar with the brand. But with their Commencal 365, the Andorran brand hopes that gravel cyclists (and the gravel curious) will get to know them a bit better.

The Commencal 365 gravel bike is a bit eccentric next to your typical gravel bike. It has wider handlebars than you’d think. The bike looks more 90’s drop bar MTB than modern gravel. But the real kicker here is that there’s no carbon anywhere on this bike: the frame and fork are both aluminum.

Is this the 90’s drop-bar mountain bike you’ve always wanted? Will an alloy fork on a gravel bike rattle your teeth out? Be sure to see our news story on the 365’s initial release here, where we cover frame details, build specs, geometry, and more.

Why doesn’t Commencal make any carbon bikes?

Talking about Commencal means talking about the convictions of the small Andorran company, in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. While the company is perhaps best known for its beefy enduro and downhill bikes, all of their bikes have a common thread: an absence of carbon fiber.

Pinkbike goes into greater detail about the Commencal story here, but here’s the gist of it:

“I was so disappointed to see the bad, bad conditions for the workers… young people with the carbon dust, with only a poor paper mask. The owner was saying ‘No, it is like this’… I wasn’t comfortable with that.” That was the end to carbon at Commencal, but it wasn’t just the humanitarian side that leaves the company as aluminum advocates. As Max explains, a carbon mold is expensive and leaves little room to tweak and change the design, something which Commencal are constantly playing with, especially with their race team.”

The result is a range of aluminum bikes that are distinctly Commencal. Their bikes tend to be low-slung with a function-over-form ethos. No smoothed welds here, no fancy graphics, only a focus on bikes that they’re happy with.

Frame Details

Commencal sought to build an ‘off-road focused’ gravel bike. Wait, aren’t all gravel bikes inherently focused on riding off the pavement? Here’s what Commencal’s Derek Tsui has to say:

“The 365 is Commencal’s take on gravel riding. We’re proud to prioritize rider control, maneuverability, and comfort above all else. You’re spot on with the MTB characterists you mentioned; it’s in our pedigree.”

You really see Commencal’s MTB and trail origins across the frame. The tubing is more functional than beautiful. Welds are chunky but reassuring in look, and fittings across the bike feel stout and built to last. It’s clearly a bike intended to take a beating rather than have a short lifespan.

The downtube, for example, is concave not only in an effort to improve bottom bracket stiffness but also because it can help shield slightly from spray coming off the front wheel in wet conditions. The top tube is slightly concave as well, though that helps to hide the full-size frame bag mounts. And while Commencal says the seat stays are “thin and round,” that’s probably in comparison to their mountain bikes as they’re still on the larger side.

On that note, Commencal has added two bottle cage mounts on the inside of the frame’s front triangle and a third mount atop a beefy rubber bottom bracket cover. No fender mounts here, and no top tube bag mount.

The Commencal 365 comes with a quoted 47 mm max tire clearance. I was able to fit a 50 mm Maxxis Rambler tire, though it was about as tight as I would like at the seat tube and around the fork crown alike.

Commencal has opted to include thru-headset cable routing on all of their bikes, perhaps the sole concession to form on the bike. Dropping the fork will require bleeding at least the front brake, a more expensive proposition than if the cables were routed more traditionally. Riders in wet climates will need to keep a closer eye on the upper headset bearings than they might think, though I found it to be a non-issue in my dry and dusty conditions.

Riding the Commencal 365

In for test was the Commencal 365 Race. My bike featured a Shimano GRX 11-speed drivetrain rather than the more modern 12-speed version. It also receives a KS Lev Si dropper post actuated by the left GRX lever, DT Swiss G1800 wheels, Spank Flare 25 Vibrocore handlebars, big 180 mm brake rotors, and a Fizik Terra Alpaca XS saddle more commonly found on mountain bikes.

My size medium bike weighed in at 24.25 pounds (11 kg) without pedals.

Aluminum frames have progressed enough that there are plenty of comfortable options out there that won’t beat you up on the continuous vibrations that gravel roads subject riders to. That extends to gravel bikes, though a vast majority of them have carbon forks that tend to soak up some of those small vibrations. The Commencal’s 365 aluminum frame and fork simply don’t soak up the gravel quite as well as a steel or titanium bike does, much less if they’re paired with carbon forks.

Does this mean the Commencal 365 gravel bike will rattle your fillings loose during a 100 km gravel ride? Not quite, but it does make the rest of your component selection all the more important.

The stock Maxxis Rambler 45 mm tires make a notable difference in comfort over a gravel default 40 mm tire. An even wider 48 mm tire further improved vibration damping. Adding in the likes of a suspension stem and seat post (Redshift’s Shockstop is what I went for here) adds quite a bit of comfort without detracting from the bike’s positives. That is, unless you wanted to keep the dropper post.

You immediately notice the width of the Spank Vibracore handlebars. The bars are wide for a drop bar-centric rider like myself, but likely more comfortable coming from a flat bar MTB world. The Spank Vibracore drop bars aren’t only wide, but the drops flare out considerably too. Paired with the relatively high stack number of the bike, I found myself frequently in the drops, a far more secure place to put your hands for the roads and trails this bike seems to prefer.

Despite the alloy frame and fork that adds quite a bit of vibration to the bike, it tracks very well, both on and off-road. Mid-corner adjustments are shockingly easy, which gave me the confidence to PR several segments I’d otherwise take an XC bike for. The bike really starts to come alive when the rides look to connect singletrack, where frame material matters less than well-considered spec, geometry, and body positioning.

A look at the trail figures here – a calculated 61.7 mm to 65.7 mm trail figures with the stock 45 mm tires indicates a gravel bike that should be on the quicker handling side of the spectrum. The 70 mm bottom bracket drop and 420 – 425 mm chainstays (depending on size) further indicate a push for quick handling.

The 46 cm wide Spank Flare 25 handlebars absolutely add that stability back. But that means the rider needs to commit to it; narrow aero gravel bars that are starting to proliferate among the racey side of gravel will absolutely change the 365’s higher-speed stability.

Honestly, its geometry, ride feel, and overall stiffness make me think a suspension fork like a Rockshox Rudy or Fox AX would really take the bike where it wants to go: rough and tumble double track and singletrack rather than hours of smooth dirt roads.

Moreso, it makes me wonder how close a drop bar mountain bike from the 90’s would get to this in feel. I suspect it would get closer than we’d think. In an increasingly saturated market, I think a Commencal gravel bike makes a lot of sense.

Conclusion

While gravel cycling still feels like a freight train that’ll never stop charging ahead, it’s clear that many mountain bike brands see latent demand from mountain bike devotees. Road bike-focused brands know their clientele well enough to make a gravel bike familiar to road riders, but brands like Commencal are in a unique position to go after riders who generally grab something with flat bars first.

The Commencal 365 isn’t a gravel bike for everyone. The full alloy frameset construction suggests to someone looking at the spec sheet that it is going to be for someone who wants to dabble in gravel. But the frame details – and the handling that complements it – show a bike that is far more polished than I expected it to be.

Commencal really understands how body positioning affects handling on their mountain bikes, and that continues here. It all just makes me wonder, however, how it would feel if it was made of steel or carbon.

This story has been updated to clarify sourcing a quote from a Pinkbike story.