https://gravel.shimano.com/us/campaign/grx-12-speed
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Doesnât look to be game changing or am I missing something? If I had 11s this doesnt make me want to upgrade to 12s.
And no power meter
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Not a huge fan of the GRX Di2 lever shape from 11sp so I went with the road shifters. Might pick up that FD though. Wish they went with the smaller profile to match the road but I need that +2.5mm chain line. I tried using an Ultegra FD but itâs just not shifting well and they removed the physical limit screw. Plus I want the 17t capacity.
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It kind of reminds me of the new SRAM Red. Nothing new or crazy, just an evolution. An extra gear, and some slight changes to the lever. And really Shimano now has two levers options based on user preference (road or GRX). I donât think theyâll stick with 2x only but surprised they didnât release it all at once. Doesnât matter to me because I still use 2x for gravel but I know many people want the 1x.
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2x only?!?
That seems almost tone deaf to me. Shimanoâs way or the highway. (To be clear: Iâm not arguing 1x > 2x, Iâm arguing that the market wants both options at the moment.)
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Then why didnât they release a 1x configuration at launch? Seems incomplete without a 1x option.
I think unlike SRAM, Shimano has forced themselves into a corner. SRAM focused on refinements by choice.
My guess is that they wanted to get something out for Unbound. And I think most of their pros use 2x (might be wrong). But it does seem like a âwho cares about the consumerâ moment by only releasing the 2x first. I think they were rushed to get something out and prioritized the wrong things perhaps. Not super smart.
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Isnât 1x as simple as not fitting a FD and then maybe adding either a chain catcher and/or swapping front chain ring for a 1x specific one with wide-narrow teeth? Not saying it wouldnât be nice for Shimano to officially support it, but lots of people have been running Shimano components in a 1x setup for years with no problems. Main limiter being the range on the cassettes which hasnât been as wide as SRAM.
Guess natively supported 1x would be a bit cheaper since you wouldnât need to swap chain rings and presumably the left shifter could be dumb with no paddles (though could also see an argument for still having the paddles in case you wanted to swap to a 2x setup and just reprogramming them for other things if running 1x).
That, the ill-fated Shimano PM, Hollowtech & crank arm power metros, and Quarqâs reputation are why I went SRAM in 2021. Really havenât looked back.
Both Shimano and SRAM are good transmissions. Iâd be happy with either, and if I had Shimano then would go with Quarq PM and Shimano chainrings.
Nice to see SRAM roll this out, but when is 1x coming? Found this in the EscapeCollective.com article:
â1Ă12 is coming,â admitted Shimano gravel and road brand manager Nick Legan. âBut weâre not saying what or when.â
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Yes and no.
- You need a range of cassettes to cover a variety of use cases. SRAM covers everything from 10â26 to 10â52.
- Having a 10-tooth cog really increases range. But that requires a new hub. Shimano could have adopted its Microspine standard when they went 12-speed on the road. Do you need a 10-tooth cog on the road? Not necessarily. Everywhere else, it really does increase range.
- No 12-speed mountain bike Di2 rear derailleur means they cannot offer mullet configurations. The reason for that, I think, is their insistence on using wires.
It seems to me that Shimano has been making decisions focusing on traditional road applications, but forgot the needs of other use cases.
This could be their M9000 moment, but for dropbars. But that another few years.
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I donât think itâs this at all. Itâs that SRAM has patents around their batteries. So it forces their hand. The workaround is what Campy did is have two unique batteries, one for RD and one for FD. Which to me is the worst of both worlds. I prefer the single internal battery, but the Campy solution is terrible all around. If they do finally go external batteries, it would be nice to keep the wired option but I doubt they would do both.
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Havenât read all the details, but watched Ben Delanyâs review and turned it off when it got to the gearing. Smallest cog is 11 tooth and 48x31 is the biggest up front. Also, it might just be because he was on sand and working a camera, but that front derailleur button on the hood looked very hard to press. Overall, this just seems a little âmehâ to me.
- What do you see as the problem there? It is the same as the 11-s gen with one exception Iâll mention next.
I run the 2x11s version with the 48/31 crank, but I swapped in a SRAM 11-36 cassette. Doing that gives a great 31/34 low gear but keeps a decent top end gear, especially if we consider people often running 700c x 40mm or wider rubber which gives a decent final drive.
Seeing that they offer an 11-36 now with the 12s steps seems a solid 2x option that I would choose.
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In my case, Iâm often riding 30% or more tarmac on a gravel ride, and Iâm considering buying a bike that can be both my road and gravel bike when traveling with 2 sets of wheels. I want the bigger gears.
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Does SRAM offer a GR-OAD gearing that hits what you want directly, or does it take some mixing between their offerings? I get lost in what they offer straight vs what can be mixed.
I guess you could look for a road crank or swap chainrings (assuming some get offered in larger sizes) for the Shim stuff too.
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Yeah, a 46x10 will give you a bigger gear than a 48x11, and my current roadie is 52x11 and I spin it out sometimes. Granted, 46x10 is smaller than 52x11 too, but closer.
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Maybe. SRAM likewise has had to design around patents, e. g. when it comes to front shifting. Patents are a fact of life, and Shimano should find some engineering solution around it.
If you only look at traditional road bikes, Shimanoâs current solution works well. It has different trade-offs than external batteries, but it is certainly no worse.
But in mountain bikes, especially full suspension mountain bikes, there is no canonical place to store the battery and I would have serious reliability concerns (tiny cables in moving pivot arms). Iâm not sure what happened to their mountain bike Di2 efforts, they have none. (Unless they are still selling 11-speed Di2 components as new.)
Thatâs another limitation of 2x: with 1x you can shift the gear range window to where you want it. 48/31 and 46/30 seem nigh identical. Do you feel the difference between a 43-tooth and a 44-tooth chainring? Even if you did, would you have those two options or, say, 48/31 and something drastically different such as 42/28?
Apart from their one gravel crank, is there a clear separation between road and gravel offerings? I donât want to enter into a discussion on semantics, but by and large, SRAM only offers one family of dropbar groupsets (minus exceptions like Apex eTap AXS or a gravel-specific crank). I personally like that, and I think it is a better, simpler approach.
The only place where I think SRAM might offer an option is with levers that are adapted to gravel riding (e. g. optimized for handlebars with more flare).
Then run a road group. Seems pretty simple. Thatâs what Iâm doing. Or even just a road FD and crankset. You can use the shifters if they fit your hands better. And the RD with a clutch.
Edit: 52/35t up front and 11-36t in back. Itâs been great for road and gravel.
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Yeah, you can (with limits) always mix and match things, but thatâs kind of outside the discussion of âwhat do you get from this new group setâ.
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I get that. But I also donât understand why you can use this as an argument when you can change things. Mix and match to get what you want. Itâs why I always wonder why people will compare bike builds and argue one groupset over another thatâs included. Change it if you donât want it. Itâs like, oh I really like this paint job but it doesnât have the group I want. Well swap it out. Yes, I get that not everybody has the money to do that and thatâs a valid point. But at the same time I donât think you can say itâs a bad groupset by refusing to mix and match. Itâs not groundbreaking sure. But itâs not bad.
What I would do is take the RD and FD, and pair them to the road shifter (I just like the feel better). Then put on a bigger front chainring like what Iâm running (52/35t) and an 11-36t cassette. You get the RD clutch and 11-36t range, with the FD thatâs designed to take a 17t jump. It still has a physical limit screw and the 2.5mm chain line shouldnât be an issue (I ran the 11sp version with a road crank). Now you have 52-11 as you fast gear and 35-36 as the low gear.