Somewhere between the stable but often sluggish beast of burden world of touring and the highly strung, tightly focused realm of road performance, there exists a need for a drop bar bike that can grind out mile after mile of washboard gravel and still snap to attention when you stomp on the pedals. It needs to be fast, with geometry relaxed and composed enough to eat all that gravel without a twitch, but still sharp enough to carve turns on pavement with authority.

Build it out of carbon fiber, so it’s super light, but plenty strong as well. Festoon it with bosses for lots of water bottles and bento mounts, but don’t go crazy. Lots of tire clearance, just in case. Sharp, but smooth. Fast, but comfortable. Gravel all day, pavement whenever you want.

This is the second generation of Libre. The original raked in accolades from all corners of the cycling media – Bicycling magazine, Gran Fondo, Peloton, Road Bike Action, Grit CX, Adventure Cycling, The Path Less Pedaled, to name a few.

There are fender mounts and room enough for both fenders and 700x45mm tires. The acclaimed geometry is refined ever so slightly; shorter chainstays, a touch steeper seat angle, a smidge less stack, a hair more reach, more sizing options. Fully guided internal cable and hose routing keeps things quiet. A 27.2 seatpost diameter adds some compliance. UDH rear hanger, flat mount brakes and PF86 bottom bracket evolve with the times.

The Libre set a high mark when first introduced; a supremely capable and versatile adventure bike, it garnered accolades from one end of the cycling media to the other. Now it’s time to meet the next generation Libre, and usher in a whole new era of gravel and adventure performance. It’s every bit as versatile and capable as before, but now it’s lighter, tighter, stronger, faster and more responsive. Cue the theme music from The Six Million Dollar Man.