Building the Ultimate £1,500 Chinese Gravel Bike: WHEELTOP Wireless GEX & Super Team Wheels
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If you’ve been following the channel, you know I previously built the best gravel bike I could for under £1,000. But today, we’re upping the budget to £1,500 to see just how much more performance and modern quality-of-life features we can squeeze out of a Chinese-sourced build.
The core remains the same: a Light Carbon frame that’s been phenomenal—reliable, UDH compatible, and even features down-tube storage. The big stars of this upgrade, however, are the new wireless components and wheels. First, I’ve swapped the mechanical L-TWOO for the WHEELTOP GEX wireless gravel groupset . It’s been a game-changer; at just £265 during the Singles' Day sale, it offers a clean look by removing gear cables from the headset. The shifting is highly customizable (supporting 3 to 14 speeds), and although indexing can be fiddly, it works flawlessly once dialed in. The shifters even survived a nasty tarmac crash with only minor scuffs!
For the wheels, I moved away from heavy hookless options to a pair of Super Team carbon gravel wheels . These are hooked, 30mm deep, and weigh a staggering 1,282g for the pair—incredible for a £441 price tag. They feel premium, featuring ratcheted hubs with a nice gunmetal finish and, surprisingly, a sensible amount of factory grease.
Paired with 47mm Terreno Dry tires and a 10-50T wide-range cassette, the total build weight came in at just 8.04kg (size Large). For £1,500, the ergonomics of the WHEELTOP hoods and the sheer speed of this setup are mind-blowing. I’m taking this build to the Dirty Reiver to aim for a sub-7-hour finish. It’s proof that you don’t need to spend five figures for a world-class gravel racing machine.