The Complete Alchemy Hyas Review (Best Carbon Gravel Bike?)

If you’re on the hunt for one bicycle for everything, then you may have just found what you’re looking for.

The Alchemy Hyas? In my opinion, it’s the gravel bike of the year.

I know that that’s a big statement to make but, when you’re talking about a hand-crafted all-road bike from boutique bike manufacturer, Alchemy Bicycles, then you can be pretty confident in making it.

We’re going to look at a few aspects of the Alchemy Hyas today:

• The specification and geometry for each of the 7 models in the Hyas range
• The process for creating this world-class bike
• What the stand-out features are of the Hyas

I used to laugh at the idea of a quiver killer bike. The idea that one bike could go everywhere and do anything. However, the Hyas does all that in comfort and with oodles of style, and not just because of its super-wide tires or its hand-painted finish. The Hyas is a joy to look at and a joy to ride.

Let’s dive in and take a look at the details.

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The details

There are seven variations of the Alchemy Hyas to pick from. In addition, there’s an option to buy the frame only and add your own components.

The Super Seven are as follows:

• Hyas Ultegra Mechanical Disc
• Hyas Ultegra Di2 Disc
• Hyas Ultegra Di2 Disc Enve
• Hyas Ultegra Disc Mechanical Enve
• Hyas Force ETap AXS Gravel ENVE
• Hyas Red ETap AXS Gravel ENVE
• Hyas Dura Ace Di2 Enve

In each of the tabs below you’ll get details of the full specs and geometry for each model of Hyas. Click your way through them all and have something handy to wipe up the drool…

Ready to check out some of the most incredible all-road bikes? Let’s go!

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Review

It’s possible to sum up all the reasons why you should buy an Alchemy Hyas in just a few words:

A carbon all-road race-ready bike that is designed, hand-built, and hand-finished in the USA.

The Hyas is a bike to get excited about. Very, very excited.

The real beauty of the Hyas is that, at its very core, it’s a fully-fledged racing machine. Shipping with Teravail Cannonball 700×35 tubeless tires, this can go from super-skinny all the way up to 38c. That means you’ll go lightning fast on a range of surfaces from smooth pavement to the gnarliest gravel tracks.

The Hyas feels quick and nippy to ride and responds in the blink of an eye to changes in direction, whether you’re pulling out to overtake the Yellow jersey or executing a fast tactical manoeuvre to dodge an upcoming tree trunk on a steep dirt hardpack trail.

Design of the frame is (in my humble and opiniated view) classic and timeless. Take a close look at this bike and you just feel as if everything flows together. There are no hard corners, or odd bits that jut out. There’s just a bike where all the components bond with the frame in the most amazing way and look like they were born to be with each other.

If you’re looking for problems, or reasons why you shouldn’t buy a Hyas from Alchemy then, I’m afraid you’re going to struggle.

As an example, let’s dive in and take a closer look at the carbon frame.

This is one of the best carbon frames you’ll find in the USA. If not the World. Why? Well, Alchemy are not the type of people to just grab a bit of carbon tubing from another manufacturer and build a bike out of it. Nope. Instead, they start from scratch and make their own carbon tubing, individually rolling carbon fiber sheets and bonding them together (up to 500 CNC-cut sheets per bike) to create a unique frame that is super-strong and incredibly light.

Surely they must get a little outside assistance for this? Why would you do it all in-house…? The thing is that Alchemy’s motto is “No Shortcuts Accepted”. That means that their craftspeople do all of the hand-building themselves. That means a bike that is a work of art for you and multiple awards for them at the North American Handmade Bike Show, including Best Carbon Bike and Best Carbon Layup.

Impressed? Yep, me too.

It’s in the attention to detail that you really see how much Alchemy cares about its bikes. Not only do they do the frame building themselves, but they also complete all of the finishing in-house, using their Ethic Paint Works division. When you see a line-up of Alchemy bikes you could be forgiven for thinking that you were watching the bike equivalent of a haute couture fashion show catwalk. The difference is that, whilst supermodels may look good, the Hyas is a supreme racing machine AND looks incredible.

Take a look here to get a behind-the-scenes peek at the manufacturing and finishing process.

Two of the best aspects of an Alchemy Hyas are things you won’t even see on the bikes. Even if you look really, really closely.

They are the easy return policy and the easy financing arrangements.

Alchemy want to make it as easy as possible to buy their bikes, so they’ve teamed up with Bread to give a buy now and pay it off later facility. Check out the details here.

They also offer a guarantee that if you’re not 100% happy with your Hyas you can return it up to two weeks after you’ve taken delivery. A great option but, given how amazing this machine is, I’m guessing that not many people take them up on this offer.

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Conclusion

It may well be that the Hyas is the finest gravel and all-road bike on the planet.

I think it is and I believe that’s down to the incredible attention to detail that the team at Alchemy have lavished on creating it. From the hand-built carbon tubing to the hand-applied paintwork.

For me, carbon fiber is the finest building material for a gravel bike and Alchemy have used it to build the finest bike.

But now the hard part comes… Seven Hyas models… Assuming you’re not going to go with one for every day of the week (though that’s always an option)…

Which one do you choose? The choice, as they say, is yours.

To get more information pop on over to Alchemy Bikes and get picking the carbon gravel bike of your dreams.