Yet another gearing thread... ooof i know

[ridethecliche]

Woo! Another gearing thread!

So I'm trying to make a Giant TCX Advanced SX frameset (Cross bike) function as a do everything bike, i.e. road and gravel, and I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to properly gearing things.

The current setup is an 'old school' 2x11 shimano hydraulic setup with RS685 levers and RS785 brakes. Currently has an ultegra RD and a 105 FD with 11-32 cassettes. I swapped rings on the ultegra cranksets rings to 46/34 which has been awesome, but I caved and bought a GRX 46/30 crankset to get more low end.

I guess my question is about cassettes. I'll post a link that I've been looking at a bunch in terms of options. Link: https://road.cc/content/feature/how-..._tabs=0&page=1

According to the link, it's feasible to run an 11-40 cassette with a stock shadow ultegra/105 rear derailleur. That sounds like it might be great for gravel use but crummy for road use.

I have two sets of wheels for this, one running slightly knobby gravel tires and the other currently running road tires. Would it make more sense to swap them both to the SRAM 11-36 or to swap the road setup to 11-36 and the gravel setup to 11-40 and set the chain for the gravel setup?

With the change in crankset to 46/30, I basically get one more gear out of the 11-32. With the swap to 11-36, I'd get 2 more lower gears... With 11-40 I'd have 3 more.

I'm a bit reticent to do something that's going to be more likely to break everything, so part of me is debating if the 11-40 is even worth consideration.

Anyone have any feedback for what you've done that works? Sorry for the long winded post but...