Now that China is back on the menu…this is an option.
Was definitely planning on changing the tires, should’ve probably mentioned that.
Crank was top of mind for me too. My wife doesn’t have a preference for the 175; that’s just what came on the build. I was thinking of going 165. There is indeed no PM; I have Rally XC pedals on my gravel bike but those are quite heavy and have a high stack. Cassette is a good idea—to clarify, it’s a mechanical groupset. Sram mechanicals are not my favorite, but I’m not sure I have the stomach to replace an entire groupset (and what would be the choice: Shimano mechanical? GX AXS upgrade? Transmission? See what Shimano unveils for its new XTR?).
I like to keep things the same between my gravel and MTB stuff. Just makes it simpler and also nice to have backup parts for big events without having a keep a spare RD and Cassette on hand. SRAM makes that easy since I like running 1x MTB gearing on the gravel bike. I made the transition to Transmission on my MTB last year (bought a new bike that had it) and just got a new UHD gravel frame last week and went Transmission on that as well. I never had any issues with the old Eagle AXS stuff, but I do prefer Transmission and all my Eagle stuff was getting pretty worn out (had a cassette that just started skipping). I think GX is the sweet spot for SRAM, but I also don’t worry much about weight.
If you are 2x and/or Shimano guy for gravel, the whole MTB/Gravel interoperability goes out and window, but I still like SRAM for off road stuff. And you never know when you might have a gravel race that requires MTB gearing (so, it’s nice to have a groupset sitting on your MTB available to borrow when needed).
It looks like you are comparing weights with the shock. Not sure if anyone lists weight without it, but obviously would be a better comparison if you can find it. And if you can only find weights with the shock, maybe go look up shock weights to net out each frame weight. Since the evo uses fox, it’s definitely not apples to apples. Not sure about shock weight difference on the s-works vs. regular epic, could be a little messy depending on whether they are talking about frame weight on a “build” bike vs. “frame only” since the build bike comes with a FA shock and the frame doesn’t (from what I remember).
How have you liked the ZFS-5? I keep on flirting with getting one on sale, and have noticed the newer X0 version has a Fox shock instead of SID. Is that good? Bad?
Also, how tall are you? I’m 5’9 and that seems to be on the border for Medium/Large on the ZFS-5.
My medium bare carbon S-Works was 1911 with shock and protection. It was 1447 without shock or protection but I think that the swat door was off for that weight.
My white Epic Evo frame size L was 2291g with hardware. I swapped the Fox Shock to the SID FA and also bought the carbon link. I can weigh the Fox with the alu linkage after work if you‘d like to know the weight.
Everything you said makes a whole lot of sense and I am a 2x AND Shimano guy for gravel.
Tagging @tgarson who probably has logged many more miles on it than I have. I really like the way it rides though. Super fun. Medium feels right for me, I think a large would be unwieldy. For what it’s worth, I’m a completely average 5’8" dimension-wise.
Nobody has brought up changing out the fork on this build. Not worth it?
OEMs have often spec’d SID for more XC race focused builds and Fox for more “TR” focused builds due to Fox suspension generally feeling more plush and having better small bump compliance. IMO this comes at the expense of more pedal bob and being squishy under high load. You really need a 3pos lockout on Fox if you plan to use it for XC and aesthetically the rats nest of cables for the lockouts plus dropper offended my delicate sensibilities.
So short version, it’s a good thing if you want more suppleness, but not what I was going for in my build.
Overall it’s been a great bike for me but my criteria for bike selection were mostly irrational. My priorities were 1) light 2) climbing efficiency 3) feeling like I got a deal 4) avoiding my perceived stigma of being yet another a middle aged white man of middling performance riding a S-works. Getting ZFS-5 for 35% off and doing wacky custom build was the only option that checked all my boxes.
Just built up my middle aged white man of middling performance machine (hahahaha!) Incidentally I’m not even that good and tgarson definitely is NOT middling.
That’s a beautiful bike and scary light build. To be fair - I could have easily overcome my S-works phobia if there was a way I could have gotten the build I wanted without paying 15K MSRP. Last year when I was looking the Epic 8 had just come out, were in short supply, and there was no way I was going to get a deal.
Upgrades I would do first are cassette–even going up to the 1295 (X01) from GX is a noticable weight savings. The crank and chainrings are boat anchors plus allows you to go shorter if desired. If you stay with the Eagle ecosystem the X01 and XX1 shifter and derailleur are nice but doesn’t make a big enough difference as compared to cassette and crank set so I’d run that GX shifter and RD till you break it and pull use that money for a faster, lighter set of XC tires. Otherwise, it is more spendy but I’d go with different wheels/hubs. I like carbon wheels more than I like carbon frames! Lastly, may not be a weight savings but a carbon bar (especially if you have a 35mm clamp stem) is so much more comfortable than alloy. I dabbled for a while with the 35mm bars/stems and they were just too stiff for my riding, even in carbon, so I went back to 31.8 with a nice carbon bar in (gasp!) 720mm width. Amazing how much faster I can ride tight trails after being on 800s. Good luck, so much fun to research and upgrade bikes!
