What started in a small bike shop and cafe in Berlin has grown into one of the most trendy bike brands in the world, thanks to Standert’s artisanal design qualities and stunning traditional frame architecture. Standert’s latest creation, the Kieswerk, is aimed at both first-time drop-bar riders and experienced adventure riders alike.
Kieswerk means ‘gravel pit’ in German and is clever wordplay around the bike’s purpose and terrain intentions. Contrary to the global push towards aerodynamics and all-out performance, the Kieswerk looks to pay homage to the gravel cycling’s early spirit of exploration and adventure, which is refreshing given the rise of aero gravel, and the idea of riding from A to B as fast as possible appears to go against the bike’s mantra.
‘We specifically developed the Kieswerk with new riders in mind,’ says Maxe Faschina, Standert’s head of product. ‘The gravel bike has become the go-to platform for first-time drop-bar bike buyers. However the bike spec is up to the challenge of modern adventure riding too. So I expect the majority of people to use it for proper gravel riding, be it the short after-work lake escape or the weekend adventure with your friends.’
To get a feel for all of this, I tested it in a variety of settings, all of which focussed on adventure and routing down trails I often avoid.
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Standert Kieswerk frameset
Standert sticks to aluminium for most of its frames, including the Kieswerk, with environmental sustainability at its core. The Kierswerk is constructed from 6061 T6 tubing, which is both a durable and sustainable material choice. The aluminium tubing is sourced from recycled materials and, once retired, Standert says it will join this ‘reprocessed production cycle’.
Faschina says using recycled aluminium reduces the need for primary raw materials and claims it saves up to 95% of the energy required for primary aluminium production. ‘Aluminium in general allows us to have a product that is made out of a circular material that can be recycled indefinitely without loss of quality. Once a product reaches the end of its life, the aluminium can be recovered, reprocessed and reinserted into the production cycle.’
The bike looks stunning though. Our test bike features the ‘Shimmy Raw’ design, a brushed aluminium frame with painted accents placed to complement the exposed metal.
The classic double-diamond frame architecture is offset with contemporary integration for a very clean look. There are a lot of mounting options for both mudguards and a rear rack, a top tube bag, and an additional bottle cage mount on the underside of the down tube, as well as two more options within the frame triangle. Meanwhile the carbon fork offers more carrying potential for bikepacking adventures.
Standert Kieswerk build
The Standert Kieswerk is available in two builds, a mechanical Shimano GRX offering and the 12-speed SRAM Apex XPLR AXS configuration I tested. As an entry point into electronic shifting, Standert reckons SRAM’s Apex XPLR AXS is a simple and reliable choice.
All in all, it’s a pretty well-appointed bike. Drive is provided by a 40T, 11-44T crankset complete with 170mm cranks. While there’s a lot of metal at play, all models have a carbon fork, seatpost and Scope R2.0 carbon wheels, shod in 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Adventure TLR tyres. If you prefer riding on wider tyres, the Kieswerk has clearance of up to 50mm at both the front and rear.
There’s a neat 40cm aluminium Deda Superzero Gravel bar and a Fizik Terra Argo X5 saddle rounding out the touchpoints – the bars aren’t specifiable from purchase, but there is a 38mm width option on the smaller frame sizes.
Seven frame sizes are available, starting at 48cm and peaking at 60cm, so there’s scope for a broad range of heights and body types – for reference, the 48cm bike is designed to fit riders from 150cm tall and is among the smallest gravel frames in the segment. Standert claims 9.2kg for a complete build in a size 54cm, and we weighed our 56cm at 9.29kg with pedals.
Riding the Standert Kieswerk
The Kieswerk is an absolute joy to ride, regardless of the terrain. My usual gravel test loop starts with a fair bit of tarmac riding, which is always a good way to measure the response of the frame and how the bike accelerates. While it’s pretty weighty at 9.29kg, the Kieswerk moves forward with conviction and holds momentum as well as any gravel bike that I’ve ridden in the segment – aero options included. The carbon Scope R2.0 wheels help it achieve this zippy feel, aiding acceleration out of corners and providing impressive lateral stiffness when shifting weight over the front axle during descending manoeuvres.
Despite the Kieswerk’s adventure-focussed bent, the frame angles are anything but relaxed. In fact, on paper, it represents a middle ground in the category, blurring the lines between aggressive and relaxed, with a steep 73.5° seat tube angle and a 71.5° head angle. The relatively long reach (399mm) is balanced by the 577mm stack figure, which isn’t terribly low. While you can get into an aggressive position if you want, the generous stack allows you to adopt a more upright position when needed, adding comfort on long rides.
I can understand why Standert has positioned this bike more as an adventure than a racing proposition, as the riding position lends itself more to long-distance mile munching compared to the more stretched out positions and demanding demeanours of the racier gravel bikes I’ve been testing lately.
The ride quality is notably firm, as expected, but this can be offset by fitting a suspension fork or employing wider tubeless tyres. The Kieswerk came equipped with 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Adventure TLR tyres, but I couldn’t lower the pressure due to the risk of pinch flatting the inner tubes. That said, it was only over washboard gravel where ride comfort was negatively impacted. Over the entirety of my two months with the Kieswerk, the tyres and inner tube arrangement held up well with no punctures coming my way.
My only real bugbear came from the ‘euro-style’ braking setup – left lever/front brake, right lever/rear brake – being the only configuration available. Faschina says this is down to a need to preassemble all the bikes in the same way to meet demand.
Standert Kieswerk review verdict
The Standert Kieswerk represents a superb entry point into the brand’s gravel bike range. While its £3,395 sticker price is not what most would deem ‘affordable’, it is one of the cheapest options in Standert’s bike portfolio.
Faschina says two other Standert gravel platforms offer higher specs if desire a step up: ‘The Erdgeschoss is our classic stainless steel adventure gravel bike, and the Kettensäge is an aluminium gravel race bike. The Kieswerk sits below these two as we specifically wanted to offer something for people who thought the Kettensäge might be too racy and found the Erdgeschoss too sophisticated.’
And that sums up the Kieswerk – it’s a simple, fuss-free metal machine that can be ridden all day, all year, anywhere.
The reviewed spec
- Price: £3,395
- Brand: Standert
- Frame: Aluminium 6061 T6
- Fork: Standert full carbon with mounts
- Weight: 9.29kg tested (56cm)
- Sizes available: Extra small, small, medium, large, extra large
- Headset: Token Integrated IS52 (Titanium coated bearings)
- Levers: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS, hydraulic disc
- Brakes: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS, Paceline 160/160mm rotors
- Rear derailleur: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS
- Crankset: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS, 170mm, 40T
- Bottom bracket: T47 (85.5mm)
- Cassette: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS, 11-44T
- Chain: SRAM Apex, 12-speed flat-top
- Wheels: Scope R2.0 carbon
- Tyres: Pirelli Cinturato Adventure TLR tyres45mm
- Bar/stem: Deda Superzero Gravel bars, Deda Superbox DCR stem (fully integrated)
- Seatpost: LC Carbon 8mm setback
- Saddle: Fizik Terra Argo X5