I’m in Seattle and could totally use everything on that list except the fat bike. I actually HAVE everything else but a dedicated trainer bike and a racing gravel bike; currently a Ridely X-Trail is pulling triple duty as a road bike, trainer bike and skinnier-tire gravel bike (it’ll clear 38s), while my Lauf Seigla is the adventure gravel/bikepacking option.
I have vague plans to get a more racy gravel bike that will double as a roadie w/ different rolling stock. I only train on the road, don’t race there, so no real motivation to get a legit roadie.
Not on the list but I also have a Spesh Turbo Vado ebike that I use to commute. Oh and my wife has 3 bikes too. Garage space is at an absolute premium!
At one point I did have 6 or so bikes. Was a bit much haha. I have slimmed the fleet back to four. Great place to live. Will miss it whenever I do decide to leave.
Hi all, I’m on the market to replace my 2023 Trek Checkpoint SL5 as I’m planning to do a little more racing in 2024 and although I like the Checkpoint’s versatility and comfort, it’s a little on the heavy side and instead of upgrading it I would rather have something new. I also do not like the fact that I cannot easily run a power meter on the checkpoint with a Shimano drivetrain due the the lack of clearance for a left-side PM. Here are the bike I considering for next season (all bikes are around 7200 CAD with taxes - I have deals on Cervelo and Specialized which explain why they are being considered):
2024 Specialized Crux Expert
2024 Cervelo Aspero Rival ETAP AXS 1
2023 Trek Checkpoint SLR 7 AXS (lightly used)
2024 Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 1
I don’t think I can go wrong with either of the bikes here and the SLR 7 is obviously the best equipped with Force AXS and a PM. I’m just unsure of the semi-integrated seatmast and geometry wise the Trek is very long which is great for stability but not very agile in singletrack and feel quite sluggish.
The Giant is the most attractive visually with an amazing paintjob in 2024, which obviously is not adding much but nothing wrong with liking how your bike looks I suppose. Seem like this is the most versatile bike of the 4, being fairly light and having a well balanced geometry.
The Specialized and Cervelo are defintinitly the most race-oriented bikes of the bunch. I’ve read that the Crux is the most versatile bike, being the best of compromise between a road and gravel bike ( I already own an SL7 so I don’t need versatility of road and gravel) It’s also incredibly light but the geometry is the most road like of the bunch and the BB height seems on the high side.
The Cervelo is probably the most gravel race oriented with no intention of being a backpacking bike which is ok with me. It also have 40/44 reserve wheels in 2024 so excellent aero wheels also. The most expensive bike here with the Crux. Tire size is also limited to 40-42C which I suppose is sufficient for most gravel races.
Any opinion either of these bikes and how they compare?
I have the SL7 and now the SL9. I’ve taken it on plenty of single track and I don’t find it to be sluggish or not agile, then again, I come from a mountain bike background. I don’t have any complaints regarding the checkpoint, and many of my teammates have the same bike. However, I don’t have any other gravel bikes to compare them to.
I cannot speak for any of the bikes you mentioned except for the crux. I demo’d the lower tier mech equipped crux earlier this year and it was a blast. Currently I’m on a 2018 Diverge sport comp and the weight difference and response in acceleration and handling was night and day. With the current sale going on I’m going to sell my Diverge and get the crux probably this weekend.
This is what I’m looking at - if they don’t have this color I’ll pass…
I’d have to ride it to compare. The site doesn’t list what type of rims are on it or what tire width capacity is. I do like how light the crux is and that it can clear 700x47 tires.
I moved from Diverge to a Crux and love the lighter weight and nimbleness of the bike, especially for fast gravel racing. As you said, don’t think you can go wrong with your list. I was interested in all those bikes as well. My only criticism of the Aspero is the limited tire clearance. Maybe you will never need a bigger tire, but as we have seen, even the pro field in the fastest races are using bigger and bigger tires.
That’s also why I’m hesitating with the Aspero. The Giant, Trek and Specialized can all take 45mm or wider. I just feel like the Checkpoint and Giant are better all-rounder and perhaps not as quick. Maybe I’m biased because my current Checkpoint SL5 is quite heavy (and sluggish) with the stock wheels and my previous 22 Giant Advanced was not the Pro model with the lighter set-up. The Crux will probably feel like the gravel of my SL7 which is not a bad thing and there’s no added weight of useless (for me) options of adding bottle and bags everywhere. There’s just too many options these days…and everything is so expensive with Rival AXS being over 7K Canadian . Perhaps prices are better in the US but in Canada 7K doesn’t get you much these days…
The crux and aspero with the same exact parts (only changing frames) was about a .75lb lighter.
I personally preferred the Aspero more, but tire width was never a problem for me. The Aspero just felt stiffer and more solid then the crux to me and I am a larger rider with a decent 1-sec power/sprint. The bikes geometry-wise are very similar to one another.
I’m also looking at a new gravel race bike for next season, and it seems like this has turned into a general discussion thread so here goes, match me with a suitable bike:
My feature wish list includes:
-Frame storage
-Threaded BB
-Clearance for 45mm+ rubber
-Decent road manners (i.e. not mega-slack HTA or mega-high stack numbers)
-Some kind of hidden-ish cables would be nice (I recognize that this is not really a performance advantage but I like the look.)
Bikes that tick these boxes that I know of:
-Trek SLR-level Checkpoints (don’t love the IsoSpeed thing though)
-Enve MOG (lovely but man it ain’t cheap)
-Rodeo Labs Trail Donkey 4.0 (looks cool but more on the bikepacking side than I probably need, and therefore heavy. Some concerns about buying from a very small brand in the current climate, as many seem to be at risk of disappearing.)
Bikes that come close:
-New Grail (PF BB)
-Orbea Terra (PF BB)
Thanks for the feedback - I’m on the smaller side and the comfort on the bike is a concern - so I would opt for a little more compliance and more tire clearance. The lower weight appeals to me even though it’s not a huge amount. The other thing is that I love the mustardy yellow color. Last thing is that the new dealer store just opened in my area and I’ll have them at my disposal for any warranty/service needs.
can you share where you live (at least the region of the country?)
