Shimano GRX

[jtbadge]

Originally Posted by John H.

The SRAM cassette does work ok, but it is pretty porky.

Eh, the 1170 version is only like 20 or 30g heavier than the 11-34 Ultegra.

Originally Posted by scharny

I'm running one with an RX rear derailleur and a 46/30 FSA Energy Modular BB386EVO Adventure Crankset up front and it works well. R8000 rear derailleur was not so good.

Weird that it didn't work with the R8000. I (and some other members of the forum) have used them with the plain ol' 6800 RD with great results.

[Jaybee]

I think there is a lot to like here. The really nice things that I will probably take advantage of over the next year:

1)46-30 crankset that doesn't cost $400+ dollars

2)11-speed mechanical RD that can handle a 42t big cog and interface with road shifters without a TanPan or other cable-pull modification device.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by geordanh

Yeah to me fast gravel you’re in the drops for control. The cross tops are when you’re trying to get your weight as far back as you can on something steep like a trail feature

But who can ride a trail "feature" with their hands 5cm from the stem?

Fixie kids, but that's about it.


The ergonomics of gravel-bikes as XC mountain-bikes makes no sense. Trying to hold onto hoods on technical terrain is just silly and bad for your body (hands, wrists, etc.). And being in the drops on technical terrain just puts too much weight forward - unless your drops are level with your saddle and super wide, at which point, why even have drop bars?

My $0.02 is gravel bikes need to stay on gravel, and race organizers need to resist the urge to make people ride singletrack and rough mtb stuff on these bikes.

[dddd]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

But who can ride a trail "feature" with their hands 5cm from the stem?

Fixie kids, but that's about it.


The ergonomics of gravel-bikes as XC mountain-bikes makes no sense. Trying to hold onto hoods on technical terrain is just silly and bad for your body (hands, wrists, etc.). And being in the drops on technical terrain just puts too much weight forward - unless your drops are level with your saddle and super wide, at which point, why even have drop bars?

My $0.02 is gravel bikes need to stay on gravel, and race organizers need to resist the urge to make people ride singletrack and rough mtb stuff on these bikes.

I think that there is always going to be some significant variation of how technical that Gravel-race courses will be, and riders need to be ready to judge their abilities carefully just as when road racing out of the hills. Just as Cyclocross courses can get gnarly and force decisions as to whether a dismount is worthwhile or necessary in terms of risks.

We haven't seen those new Shimano levers on bikes yet, so I'll wait to see how good of a job they did with putting the actual levers where they need to be. And the location of any step-down of diameter at the bar tops can be as important as the bar shape itself!
5cm is two inches, and even my very old Dia Comp auxiliary levers managed far better than that on a 39cm Randonneur bar (that was even much narrower up top).

True enough though that a flat bar is going to work better for aggressive riding off road, even if today's bar widths have seemingly gone beyond reason. Did no one think about how much more difficult it can be for trail users to pass one another on narrow trails as bar widths went from 58cm to what, 80cm?

I really can't quite imagine Eli Tomac riding his KX450 with drop bars for what that's worth!
One of the 250 riders who was at Saturday's Las Vegas final to claim his championship merely bent his bars and then found himself getting passed by the entire field, losing his hard-earned championship.
Blame the track though, seemingly designed to throw in a wild card.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

But who can ride a trail "feature" with their hands 5cm from the stem?

Fixie kids, but that's about it.


The ergonomics of gravel-bikes as XC mountain-bikes makes no sense. Trying to hold onto hoods on technical terrain is just silly and bad for your body (hands, wrists, etc.). And being in the drops on technical terrain just puts too much weight forward - unless your drops are level with your saddle and super wide, at which point, why even have drop bars?

My $0.02 is gravel bikes need to stay on gravel, and race organizers need to resist the urge to make people ride singletrack and rough mtb stuff on these bikes.

I do wonder how much of the gravel thing is people just not wanting to buy a hardtail mountain bike.

Is the country really covered in that many unpaved fire roads?

[hummus_aquinas]

Originally Posted by dddd

Did no one think about how much more difficult it can be for trail users to pass one another on narrow trails as bar widths went from 58cm to what, 80cm?

Uh yeah, that'll be the day...

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

I do wonder how much of the gravel thing is people just not wanting to buy a hardtail mountain bike.

Is the country really covered in that many unpaved fire roads?

Well, for about another 7 weeks I’ll be living in Michigan. Lots of unpaved roads and people seek them out because there’s literally 95% less traffic. And the traffic there is is much more sane and less aggressive.

It’s not MTB terrain. No real need for a dedicated bike beyond wide-ish tires. So my regular road bike will work, but it’s not ideal. I’m using 38mm tires and they’re about ride for the soft sections where I ride.

[dddd]

Originally Posted by hummus_aquinas

Uh yeah, that'll be the day...

Components hall-of-shame to whoever designed that ubiquitous cable housing noodle with the sharp bend in it...
...and to the company that made twenty million of them, ...and to the many bike companies that spec'd such a crappy part.
And yet it's hard to find a good one, all of these years on(?).

Those bars look like 48's? Certainly the camera lens is boosting them a bit, but I get the idea.
More for stabilizing a heavy front rack load than for off-roading in this case though.

[geordanh]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

My $0.02 is gravel bikes need to stay on gravel, and race organizers need to resist the urge to make people ride singletrack and rough mtb stuff on these bikes.

But that's what makes things fun and interesting! And I'd say that's where things are going, especially as the lines between all these bikes blur and you can start to do a lot of different types of riding on them. Combining a mix of road sections, gravel, and technical riding means you need a bit of everything, endurance, raw power, biking handling, mental stamina. Unfortunately I have none of those things so got murdered at our local race last weekend that was a perfect mix of distance, tech stuff road and gravel.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by dddd

Components hall-of-shame to whoever designed that ubiquitous cable housing noodle with the sharp bend in it...
...and to the company that made twenty million of them, ...and to the many bike companies that spec'd such a crappy part.
And yet it's hard to find a good one, all of these years on(?).

Yet one more good reason for fork crown mounted cable hangers - the cable enters vertically, after taking a wide arc from the handlebars to the hanger.

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

I do wonder how much of the gravel thing is people just not wanting to buy a hardtail mountain bike.

Is the country really covered in that many unpaved fire roads?

I just finished a 2 day race this last weekend. Each day was 100 miles, 90 plus percent of it was gravel. It was a blast!

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by geordanh

But that's what makes things fun and interesting! And I'd say that's where things are going, especially as the lines between all these bikes blur and you can start to do a lot of different types of riding on them. Combining a mix of road sections, gravel, and technical riding means you need a bit of everything, endurance, raw power, biking handling, mental stamina. Unfortunately I have none of those things so got murdered at our local race last weekend that was a perfect mix of distance, tech stuff road and gravel.

I think I'm getting old and my sense of what constitutes a fun "adventure" is changing.. I just want to ride my bike in beautiful places. Being "extreme" is not high on my list of to-dos. YMMV.

And since I'm old and not hucking my road bike off drops, or riding it through rock gardens, I'll stick with Campy road bits

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

I think I'm getting old and my sense of what constitutes a fun "adventure" is changing.. I just want to ride my bike in beautiful places. Being "extreme" is not high on my list of to-dos. YMMV.

And since I'm old and not hucking my road bike off drops, or riding it through rock gardens, I'll stick with Campy road bits

I'm not looking for extreme adventure either and unpaved roads are enough for me. Not looking for single-track on my road bike.

To my eyes the biggest thing of this new groupset is the smaller chainrings. The rest is fluff and a bit of window dressing to differentiate this from other groups.

I need to get a group for my all-road Zanconato, which is plumbed for Di2 or EPS. It can't go mechanical, something I sort of regret speccing at this point. But so be it.

This Shimano groupset will for sure be on my short list when it becomes available and there's a very good chance this is what I'll end up with.

[jdp211]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Is the country really covered in that many unpaved fire roads?

Yes. They're everywhere

[dem]

Originally Posted by jdp211

Yes. They're everywhere

Yup: "According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in 2012 there were 1,357,430 miles of unpaved road in the United States, accounting for almost 35 percent of the more than 4 million miles of roadway in the Nation"

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_ru...g/fhwasa14094/

I'm interested in the shifters (but not at $400!) because I do tend to brake from the hoods and my hands cramp up on really long descents.

And getting more subcompact adoption is great all around. 46/30 with a wide range cassette is probably what "normal" people should be riding even on the road.