The Parapera Anemos with the brand new Campagnolo Levante Gravel wheels on test – The optimal combination for gravel riding?

Minimum weight and maximum versatility – that’s how the Parapera Anemos wants to shine. In addition to clever transport and mounting solutions, it comes with the brand new Campagnolo Levante gravel wheels. How do the bike and wheelset work together? You can find all the information here in our first test.

Anemos – this word comes from Greek and means the wind. The wind can sometimes be strong and sometimes gentle. Sometimes it blows from north to south and sometimes from west to east or from other directions, but it is always unstoppable and free. And so its name fits very well with what the Parapera Anemos wants to embody. According to the manufacturer from Garching in Bavaria, the bike should enable you to handle all eventualities: long distances, bikepacking and commuting, to name but three.

In addition to a lightweight carbon frame, Parapera has placed particular emphasis on high functionality. A third bottle cage can be added, as can mudguards and a light whose cable runs internally to a hub dynamo that can be retrofitted. In addition, there are mounting points on the seat stays for a luggage rack, which is also attached to the upper end of the seat stays with a clamp. From Falkenjagd, Parapera’s sister brand specialising in titanium, there is a very light titanium luggage rack available for € 290, which fits very well here. The Parapera Anemos offers a maximum tyre clearance of 700 x 50C and goes over the counter for € 4,785. The test bike weighs 8.03 kg in size L.

The Parapera Anemos in detail

Like all of this manufacturer’s bikes, the Anemos is offered exclusively with Campagnolo gearing – in our case with the 1×13 Ekar gravel groupset with a 40 t chainring and 9–42 t on the cassette. This results in a gear ratio that in the upper speed range almost comes close to a compact groupset from the road bike sector and with which you can really pick up a lot of speed. At the other end of the gear range, and with the low weight of our test bike, there are reserves even on steep climbs. Only when you start to load the bike with luggage would you appreciate an even lighter gear. In terms of shifting performance, the Campagnolo Ekar with its 13 gears offers a good gradation. Shifting precision and speed are okay for a mechanical shifting system and are clearly better than earlier batches of the Ekar – for the best possible operation, it is important that the original Campagnolo coated shift cables and cable sleeves are used during assembly.

On the handlebar side, a proprietary carbon model from Parapera is used. With a width of 440 mm, a flare of 18° and a 15 mm rise, it offers a lot of control and security but looks very bulky on the very light and filigree Anemos. The Parapera carbon seatpost is flattened at the top to allow for some flex and comfort. The tyres used on the Parapera Anemos are Schwalbe G-One R in 700 x 45C. They are mounted on brand new Campagnolo Levante gravel wheels.

The Campagnolo Levante gravel wheels

With the Campagnolo Levante wheels, the traditional Italian manufacturer expands its gravel horizon and brings a sensible extension to the Ekar gravel shifting group. What is particularly pleasing, is the large inner width of the carbon rims measuring at 25 mm, with which Campagnolo now finally has a wheel in its portfolio that also offers proper support for very bulky gravel tyres. The rim depth is 30 mm and the outer width 30.6 mm. The Levante can be ridden in a tubeless setup as well as with a tube and with tyre widths between 38 mm and 76 mm. They are available exclusively for disc brakes.

The freewheel is not only compatible with the Campagnolo standard N3W, but also with SRAM XDR and Shimano HG. There are 24 spokes at the front and rear, which connect to external aluminium nipples on one side and to newly designed aluminium hubs on the other. A special feature of the wheels is the high-gloss finish, which is not created by painting but by special carbon processing. The logos are not glued on, but lasered into the carbon. The weight and price of the wheelset – 1,485 g and € 1,575, respectively – are absolutely acceptable. The maximum system weight of the Campagnolo Levante is 120 kg.

The geometry of the Parapera Anemos

The Parapera Anemos is offered in six sizes from XS to XXL, so all gravel fans with a body size of 155 to 205 cm should find a suitable bike. The riding position of our test rider with a body height of 185 cm on the test bike in size L was sportily centred in the bike without being too stretched. All geometry data for the Parapera Anemos can be found in the following table.

Size	XS	S	M	L	XL	XXL
Top tube	520 mm	535 mm	555 mm	570 mm	585 mm	600 mm
Seat tube	470 mm	490 mm	510 mm	530 mm	550 mm	570 mm
Head tube	110 mm	125 mm	145 mm	160 mm	185 mm	200 mm
Head angle	70.5°	71.5°	71.5°	71.5°	71.5°	71.5°
Seat angle	74.5°	74°	73°	73°	72.5°	72.5°
Chainstays	430 mm	430 mm	430 mm	430 mm	430 mm	430 mm
Wheelbase	1,022 mm	1,024 mm	1,035 mm	1,050 mm	1,061 mm	1,076 mm
Reach	375 mm	374 mm	379 mm	390 mm	392 mm	403 mm
Stack	541 mm	560 mm	576 mm	591 mm	612 mm	629 mm

The Parapera Anemos reviewed

The Parapera Anemos has a gift: you sit on it and feel like you’ve been best pals for hundreds of kilometres. This is mainly due to the very intuitive and balanced handling – the bike behaves exactly as you expect it to. It strikes a very good balance in handling that will delight experienced gravel riders with a sporty riding style without overtaxing newcomers. The bike is agile and direct, but thanks to sufficient smoothness, it never gets nervous. Only the Parapera handlebar stands in the way of the handling crown. It is basically very good, but with its bulky appearance it does not really fit the character of the bike.

You get the feeling that the wide handlebar robs the bike of a few percentage points of manoeuvrability. The Anemos also finds a middle ground when it comes to comfort. It creates the necessary compliance in the frame as well as in its parts to minimise vibrations and take the harshness out of rough impacts. The result is an overall comfort that suits the bike’s use on hard-packed surfaces very well. Nevertheless, the Parapera remains firm enough to convert every pedal revolution into propulsion without delay.

Flying over gravel highways at Vmax – the Parapera Anemos’ parade discipline.

And the propulsion works extremely well. Thanks to the low weight, including the rotating mass of the wheels and tyres, and the high stiffness, the Parapera Anemos accelerates very willingly both from a standing start and when pulling through. It climbs light-footedly uphill – even on longer and steep ramps. Thanks to the very good Schwalbe G-One R tyres, the bike maintains the built-up speed very efficiently. The Anemos feels most at home on gravel surfaces but also on broken asphalt roads. Here it moves forward extremely quickly.

The Schwalbe tires are also convincing when it comes to turning in and cornering, they ride almost like road tires on the aforementioned surfaces and generate a good amount of grip. This contributes to a high sense of safety, as do the very good Campagnolo brakes, which provide powerful and reliable deceleration at all times.

Our conclusion on the Parapera Anemos

The Parapera Anemos is an overall coherent bike that convinces with comfort, handling and speed, and forms a good unit with the brand new Campagnolo Levante wheels. With a very fair price and many mounting points, this makes it an interesting bike for many scenarios: fast laps with lots of power, bikepacking over gravel highways or all-season commuting with lights and mudguards – everything is possible.

For more info on the Parapera Anemos head over to parapera-bikes.de.

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Words: Photos: Philipp Schwab