Review: Mercier Kilo GRX Gravel Touring Bike
- Randy Reek, The Great Out There
- a few seconds ago
- 6 min read
The PERFECT bike for light #bikepacking and rail trail riding!
ALL of my bikes are gravel bikes! ALL of my bikes are touring bikes!
My preferred bike riding is on lightly traveled gravel roads and lesser traveled back country dirt roads. When I have multiple free days, I like to extend my riding with overnight camping (especially hammock camping!) But there are MANY different categories of "gravel" and "touring".
In central Wisconsin, we are blessed with PRIMO gravel town roads, formed with crushed red granite - the State Mineral of Wisconsin! Many of these packed gravel roads are smoother than the broken up asphalt after our hard winters!
Farther north, "gravel" means broken rock. You might also run into stretches of mud or sand in rural, forested areas with few houses. These varied and chunkier surfaces favor larger tires and lower pressures.
My #bikepacking rig for moderate gravel and light loads of camping gear is a bike with front suspension and 50mm tubeless tires:
When you venture deeper into the forested areas and ride on logging roads, you can expect to have a much rougher surface with mud puddles, exposed bedrock, and eroded tree roots. Active logging often means branches and wood chips mixed with ruts from the massive trucks and equipment.
My choice for bikepacking on the roughest roads in northern Wisconsin (and the rocky Jeep roads when wintering in the western states) is my fat bike with "summer tires": 27.5" x 3.8" tubeless tires. This carries me over the roughest of trails (I am not riding MTB single track!) and - in the worst conditions and on the steepest grades - I can always PUSH this bike, or carry it unloaded!
Wisconsin is also one of the leading states for "Rails to Trails" cycling routes. We have 111 former railroad beds converted into bike trails, spanning 1,948 miles of perfect riding! Most of these miles are unpaved, but with hard-packed crushed limestone for a smooth riding surface.
For hard-packed, fast and dry gravel riding, a light steel bike with 40mm tires is ideal.
Over the years, I have had fast racing bikes with tubular tires. I have also owned traditional touring bikes with 3X chainwheels and bar end shifters. Since I don't live in the mountains, most recently I bought a new gravel and light touring bike with 2 x 10 gearing - which provides plenty of range for my style of riding.
This new bike carries the brand Mercier, reminiscent of the racing bikes from the 1970's. The frame is butted Reynolds 520 chromoly steel - another brand that dates back to elite European bike builders. But the components are Shimano GRX to provide optimum performance with the modern proliferation of gravel bikes.
I purchased the bicycle from BikesDirect.com and it took very little to get it ready for gravel riding.
The first order of business was to convert the stock wheels to tubeless. ALL my bikes run tubeless tires! There are NO downsides. You eliminate pinch flats without inner tubes. The result is lighter wheels that self-seal for most thorn and glass punctures.
The Mercier Kilo GRX gravel bike was supplied with "tubeless ready" rims and tires.
This is a RARITY! Apparently, I am in the minority with my insistence for tubeless tires. MOST quality bikes have RIMS which are tubeless-capable (that is, after adding rim tape and new valves.) But most bikes are supplied with tires that are NOT TCS (tubeless compatible system) - which means you need to buy new tires for your new bike!
Note: see the related article for instructions on the tubeless conversion process. When you buy the new TCS tires, they are folded and not ready for mounting. It is best to install WITH the original inner tubes for at least 24-hours to stretch the tires back into a round shape before trying to seat the beads.
The Mercier Kilo GRX bike was supplied with Maxxis 40mm tires that were TCS and inner tubes - so they were both round and already mated to the rims.
Tubeless conversion then required removing the tubes and sealing the rims with tubeless tape over the spoke nipples. Again - to my surprise - the rims were already sealed with a layer of tubeless tape! After converting MANY bikes to tubeless tires, this is the FIRST bike that ever had rim tape installed!
Not required - but I added a second layer of tubeless tape over the stock layer for peace of mind. Tubeless conversion is something you only need to do once. Tape is the cheapest part of the process, so I added a "safety layer" of 21mm rim tape to be double sure that the rims were perfectly sealed.
Next, you install tubeless valve stems on the rims, mount the tires, and use a compressor to seat the tire bead to the rim. Since these tires had been on the rims for months, they seated the first time. Finally, liquid sealant is added to the tires, the valve core reinstalled, and the tires inflated.
I'm happy to report that the tires seated perfectly and sealed without visible leaks! However, the next day, the rear tire was flat - despite there being no signs of sealant escaping the tire? Apparently the casing of the tire was microscopically porous so I removed the valve stem and added another 50ml of sealant. After reinflating the tire, I rode around the block and the job was done.
The completion of the Mercier Kilo GRX into my ideal gravel and light touring bike required the following components:
21mm tubeless rim tape: https://amzn.to/46SQVSt
Tubeless valve stems: https://amzn.to/3Jb3YFC
Tubeless tire sealant: https://amzn.to/3W59rkd
Double-sided pedals with flat and SPD cleats: https://amzn.to/4nQ5yMd
Two water bottle cages on the frame, and two more on the fork: https://amzn.to/4nooIbf
Rear rack for a duffel dry bag and/or touring panniers: https://amzn.to/48uVBiA
Two snack bags on the handlebars: https://amzn.to/48vUiQm
A second wrap of padded tape on the handlebars: https://amzn.to/3WAJh99
Top tube bag for sunglasses and misc: https://amzn.to/4hghkx8
Installation of a half frame bag: https://amzn.to/3JcQcCr
The Mercier Kilo GRX is complete. It is my ideal bike for fast gravel rides and touring with light loads!
Unloaded, the bike flies on paved roads and hard-packed gravel. The Maxxis tires have 60 psi ratings, but I find that 45 to 50 psi is just right. For bikepacking on gravel and rail trails, 40 psi in the front and 45 psi in the rear tire have offered a good combination of traction and cushion.
I have now completed hundreds of miles of gravel riding and really enjoy the light bike. I also did a two day ride that included a section of the Mountain-Bay Trail from Wausau to Eland. Then I connected to the WIOUWASH Trail south to Tigerton before routing onto county roads to reach the Tomorrow River Trail at Ogdensburg. From here I headed west to Amherst Junction and Plover, before more county roads back to Marshfield.
I covered 75 miles the first day, and hammock camped along the trail. The following day, I stopped in Stevens Point for an early lunch before finishing with 140 total miles.
Gravel bikes have become very popular - and for good reason! It is rare for me to see more than one motor vehicle per hour on most of the roads in my area. This is the most peaceful, enjoyable riding possible - except for the Rail Trails with absolutely ZERO vehicles!
There is a good chance that there are Rail Trails nearby, both running through towns and crossing farm lands and forests. For both rural gravel riding and these trails (either hardpacked gravel or paved), a light touring bike is wonderful. You can certainly ride any bike, up and including fat bikes and Ebikes, but a light and fast bike like the Mercier Kilo GRX gravel bike is my choice!
What is you preference for rail trails and gravel rides? Have you tried short overnight bikepacking yet? Leave your comments below. What other touring and #bikepacking topics would you like to read about? Please subscribe to the GreatOutThere.online blog for continual updates.
