I’ve ridden 4 out of the 5 bikes on your list and I chose the Crux for a 70/30 gravel/road bike. For me, it wasn’t even a close decision, the Crux is the most enjoyable and playful of the bikes, and by far the fastest on the road, even with the 1x gearing limitation on the factory builds and the dreaded exposed cables.
I don’t gravel race, FWIW.
If I did race, it would probably be the Aspero 5 for me. It felt a lot more planted and racier than the Crux but also a little dead/stiff and heavy (and I know it is not a heavy bike).
The 5th bike I did not ride was the Scott because I could not find one in a 3 state area. But I’ve heard it rides a lot like a Kanzo Fast which is a bike I do not care for.
Thanks I wasn’t aware of the tool to help keeping it tight
Altitude replied to me this afternoon and they confirm that their Stelvio mount is approved for gravel, not for MTB.
I think I’ll go ahead and buy the Alpitude
Ok, then the release is imminent. According to a comment on the article Di2 12spd GRX is coming in 2024. I hope for Shimano and all of us that’s not true… That’d be way too late and Campi would’ve probably moved to wireless 13spd Ekar at this point. I don’t know what the holdup is at Shimano. They have a 12spd Di2 XT groupsets. Can’t be that hard to make that derailleur compatible with their road shifters and slap a new logo on it, can it? I guess nobodys using Di2 MTB groupsets anyway. SRAMs solution is so much sleaker in comparison.
I’m trying to wrap my head around these companies showing up at the biggest gravel event of the year and just flying new product under the radar with no specifics.
Last weekend was IT, in terms of PR and media exposure. You’ll never get that much attention for simply showing up…you practically don’t have to do anything to get your details put on full blast to the cycling industry.
Shimano, Canyon, and others all showed up with new stuff under their best riders and none of them are talking about it. I would get it if it was an early season race like BWR AZ or something…but this was the Super Bowl of gravel.
Compare and contrast to new products at the TdF…we usually see the new stuff at the Criterium (or sometimes even the Giro) with no official announcement, but once July comes, everyone has their details ready for release to the press.
A bike race that isn’t a bike race it the best place to make a new bike debut that isn’t a new bike debut
Seriously though, seeing unreleased bikes at big events (road & MTB to name the places I see it most) is pretty common. Might be considered a miss to do this at the most notable event of the season rather than smaller ones before (like seeing these in road events prior to stuff like Roubaix for “endurance” bikes or TdF for “aero race” bikes), but it’s not unheard of that’s for sure. We saw much the same last year with Trek and the prelude to the updated Checkpoints as the most notable I remember, but I’d bet there were more then too.
Ben Delaney, compares my two favorites. Basically, the Kaius is better in the rear compliance while he prefers the cockpit customization options of the Factor.
Not out yet, but looks like it will be a step in the right direction for Shimano. They are speculating that it will support a mullet setup, but I didn’t see any reports on anyone running it that way at Unbound. I don’t know what the actual numbers are, but there were a bunch of folks at the pointy end running SRAM mullet setups at unbound and I’ve seen a big percentage in local races this year as well. I ran it at Unbound and it was perfect gearing for me on that course running a 42t ring and 10/50. Great shifting all day despite using peanut butter mud as chain lube for the the first ~80 miles of the race.
I still think for shimano GRX is just some side project that they don’t focus on that much. For my next Gravel bike If I get a new one I would probably go with a Mullet setup since we have a lot of Steep stuff to ride here and that would just fit well with it. I would not be opposed to have a Shimano drivetrain since I get along well with them, but if they don’t improve their 1by offerings I will have to switch to SRAM.
