Want your gravel bike to stand out from the crowd? Local crew Cabal offer their Project X – and all their other bikes – with a one-off custom paint scheme of your choice, included in the price. 

Voted Best Custom Option in the 2026 Bike Buyer’s Guide

Project X draws on Cabal’s other offering: the racy Aero 2 road bike. Project X is almost as fast as the Aero 2 and looks similar in profile, with a muscular down tube and dropped seat stays. 

Our test bike came with 38mm Vredestein Aventura tyres that rolled like a dream. They were fast enough for the Friday morning group ride, and squishy enough to allow for a meander down a green belt when I wanted to miss the traffic on the way home. If you want to ride rougher gravel, the frame will clear 42mm tyres, even 45mm at a squeeze. That’s still on the narrow side if you go by modern gravel racing standards, but this isn’t a bike designed for thick sand, rocks and corrugations. What you lose in the rough you gain on the smooth, in the same way that some other gravel bikes might give you confidence on bumpy surfaces and slow you down on tar. 

If you’re willing to accept this, you’ll love Project X. How aero it is; how the Rival AXS shifts without fuss; how the 40mm-deep in-house carbon wheels roll with a satisfying buzz… And then there’s the custom paintwork – you can literally get anything you want, from a 1990s paint-splatter fever dream to toned down and minimalist. It’s your call. 

R89 000 / cabalbikes.com 

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