Thanks everyone. I am certainly also looking at the Diverge, with has 2 in the front.
I think I need to just get on a cross bike and test it out. Just hard in these times!
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I use my Crux for road riding w a 48t cr on the front. I have 28mm tubeless tires and riding on NJ’s bad roads has been really smooth. The tricky thing I found is that the geometry is a bit diff than my road bike (it stays on the Kickr), so I’ve been fiddling here and there. Great for dirt/gravel roads w gravel tires.
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I have a Crux and an Allez. Both set up 1x. Allez is for going fast or indoors, Crux (and other CX bike) is for everything else. If I had just one bike, it would be the Crux with another set of wheels for the road.
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I absolutely love my Crux! I picked up an s-works with Force1 for a song four years ago. My crux has also been my winter bike when I lived in snow country. Lately it has been dedicated to gravel. I ride it with 40mm tire.
I echo what others said about 1x. When I was riding 80% road the gearing was annoying. I never upgraded it to 2x because the hydro shift lever cost a small fortune. The other option was an xd driver free hub and a 10 tooth cog but that is also pricy. I switched later to mostly gravel and the 1x was perfect.
With the right wheels and gearing, I think a crux makes a fine road bike.
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So something that hasn’t been mentioned is BB drop on a CX bike. They tend to have less BB dro than road or gravel bikes, so they sit up higher, raising your center of gravity. While a higher BB is good for CX for clearance issues, it isn’t the best option for road or gravel.
I literally just got done with a gravel ride of my Crux (new components…sweet!) and was chatting with my buddy about the bikes (he also has a Crux…come to think of it, all 4 of us today were on Crux’s today!). Anyway, I said that in hindsight, I wish I had gotten a pure gravel bike back when I bought it. But we have been riding our CX bikes for years on this trail (long before there were “gravel” bikes)…and when a LBS changed owners, I got the Crux out of habit because it was a screaming deal.
The increased BB height is definitely noticeable on the Crux…not a big deal, but I would prefer a lower BB for the type of riding I do. But the tire clearance is more than sufficient (40’s) and the fit is great.
(ETA - first time I have ridden with other people in ~5 months. Nice change of pace!!)
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I generally enjoy my Crux but I really noticed it’s limitations this year after all of my riding buddies got Salsa Cutthroat bike packing bikes. They are essentially drop bar mountain bikes with 65mm tires.
You’d think a big bike with 65mm tires would be slow but they don’t seem any slower in most conditions and then when the trails get sandy or rocky they would literally leave me and my Crux in their dust and I would be minutes behind.
This made me want to get a real gravel bike. We are moving though to a new area so I’ll wait and see what the trails are like.
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I used a Santa Cruz Stigmata as my only bike for a while. For the most part it did a great job as a road bike. I did have a 1x setup and it was great for solo rides, but I often had a hard time in group rides. Couldn’t find that right gear to stick with the group or I’d get dropped on downhills because I would spin out.
It handled a little differently then my previous road bikes, but nothing too dramatic. Overall I’d have no problem doing it again except for the fact I just like buying bikes!
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Conversely, I have zero interest in a bike like the Cuthroat. I don’t ride technical trails / gravel (none exists around here) and even for DK last year, my Crux was more than sufficient.
If I had my druthers right now, I would like something like the 3T Exploro or the Giant Revolt. Not dramatically different than my Crux, but a lower BB and more stable geometry.
I’m not giving up on the Crux yet. We just moved to Knoxville TN so I need to figure out what the trails are like around here first. I have a feeling that I’ll be doing more mountain biking in Knoxville than I did in NM.
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Okay all this has me thinking: how well would a Tarmac with wider off road tires work on dirt trails?
I’ve ridden on 28s tons on tame, smooth dirt/gravel trails. They do just fine. If you can get something like 32mm GP5000s on there I’d say you’re golden.
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Thanks, don’t know why I didn’t consider this. I mostly enjoy road stuff anyways, or tame dirt roads, so this would probably work well.
Yup. I rode some surprisingly less than smooth trails on 28mm gp4000s (which, to be fair, really are more like 30mm). I got through mud, exposed roots, small rocks. I even did some riding in a field, and power climbs up and down grass hills. Especially if you run tubeless (but not necessary…), drop pressure down to 60psi or even 50. You’d be very surprised how well soft road tires do offroad.
Edit: I should add my overall opinion though - get the crux (or other CX bike, or gravel) if it is going to be your only bike. IMO, it is the best bike for doing everything well. A road bike CAN work offroad if you have discs and fairly large tire clearance, but you will have some pretty big limitations regardless. You can’t practically race cross on a tarmac. I would be shocked if you could cram CX knobbies in there, and even if you did, you would DNF on your first muddy race when mud builds up.
Also…if you ever do serious grave rides on less than perfect gravel…you’ll appreciate clearance for tires bigger than 30mm.
On the flip side…with good road tires…you lose very very little when taking the bike on the road.
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I ditched the road bike almost 2-years ago and went Crux-only for gravel, easy MTB trails and road. I have 2 wheel sets I swap between- 1 with 40mm gravel tires that can also be used on easy trails, and 28mm Conti 5kTL’s for road rides. The bike is perfect for going between the 2. For years Specialized sold it as a “off road Tarmac”. That said- I have a 2x set up gear wise SRAM Force AXS.
Just FYI: All Crux frames from 2018 on are S-works frames. They all use the same carbon and layup. Only difference is the groups.
The new Diverge looks cool, but the stack height on it is huge, and for the money, I cant justify it. Doesn’t seem that different to me. At least for me to justify the swap and like $3k+.
Very late on this, but I had only a Crux for a couple years in Chicago. Mostly rode on roads and bike paths and raced 'cross. Great bike for your only bike! With some gearing adjustments and road wheels, you’ll never be left wanting for anything. Do it!
<devil’s advocate>
… or 1x may be exactly what the doctor ordered. With an 11-42 cassette in the rear, you have pretty much the same range as a compact crank with an 11-28 in the back.
</devil’s advocate>
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I think this is a great option to be honest, and I think mainstream road bikes will become more like the Open UP or the 3T Exploro in the future: tons of tire clearance so that you can tackle offroad better.
Whether you go the CX or gravel bike route depends a bit on taste in my opinion. Gravel bike have a more endurance geometry whereas CX bikes may feel sportier, but also twitchier.
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The problem then is that you are left with huge gaps between your gears. Not an issue for gravel riding, but if you are doing fast road rides (especially w/ groups), those gaps would be pretty tough to manage.
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That very much depends on your terrain, what you are used to and your preferences. My next road bike will be 1x, and I’m living very close to proper mountains and do group rides. If all I did was stick to the area closer to the I could get by with my 50-tooth chainring and an 11-32 in the back (I know, because I don’t touch my front shifter on those rides). For the shorter climbs where I can go above FTP for a while, I could make do with a 46 and an 11-36 cassette in the back.
I do know people who do do group rides and ride an 11-42 on their road bike, simply because they prefer it. On a do-it-all bike, I’d definitely give 1x a second look — especially if speed isn’t your primary objective and you want something that is versatile.
IMHO the only issue with 1x is that you should know what gearing you want and need whereas with 2x you can ride the Dutch hinterland and the Japanese alps without changing chain rings or cassettes. And I actually might have to change gearing for certain races — but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
Not an issue for gravel riding, but if you are doing fast road rides (especially w/ groups), those gaps would be pretty tough to manage.
The “1x is ok for gravel” seems to be a popular opinion, but I can’t imagine my gravel riding on a 1x… Tight spacing for gentle shifts and small cadence changes on the rolling terrain, changing surface conditions and to adjust to the winds of the plains. Sure, you get the range with the magical granny gear on the cassette with a 1x, but even with a 2x, there have been plenty of times where I was searching for the right cadence for a given stretch of road. I don’t need to increase the frequency of those occurrences.
Frankly, I like 1x for CX racing where speed changes over and over by significant margins and the big gaps in the rear can actually be a benefit (like when you forget to downshift until too late, you can throw a little further with those big gaps), but for versatility, its nonsense. Its marginally cheaper, weighs marginally less, but for versatility is crap. I like the function of SRAM’s 2x, but they and the frame companies seem to be speccing everything they can 1x (likely to hit a price point, not for versatility). Call me a curmudgeon all you want, but 1x is primarily a solution is search of a problem (a problem I never had).
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