If you need proper offroad tires, I’d say keep the Crux and get a second wheelset with suitable tires (32–35 mm slicks). Or you could get tires that are faster on-road, e. g. Schwalbe’s G-One Alround or G-One Speed.
If you had a XPLR rear derailleur in the rear, I’d opt for a different cassette, 44:36 = 1.22 is nigh identical to 34:28 = 1.21. But I assume you don’t want to switch rear derailleurs every time you switch wheels.
I’ve done this exact thing (only with a Felt F4X). I used the felt for CX, and bought a second wheelset for a gravel setup. After riding it for years for gravel, and mixed surface I found myself in the same situation you are in now. Last year I bought a dedicated tri bike, and sold my road bike. Put some Gatorskins on the second wheelset for the Felt and now use it to train workouts on road. I don’t ride road for fun, really just do it when I’m doing workouts for TR. The only downside I’ve found is the 1x setup isn’t as great as the 2x I had on my road bike for intervals, but it certainly still works. I’ve been doing this for over a year now and really don’t have a reason to buy another road bike.
If I raced, or road was my primary source of fun I’d probably reconsider. YMMV. Hope this helps!
Long time lurker but figured I’d chime in on this. I debated for a while about going one bike with my S-Works Crux with two wheelsets and 2x AXS but keep coming back to my Allez Sprint with aero wheels and 30mm GP5000s. It’s a totally different experience in my opinion. That said any hilly ride I’m 100% choosing the Crux with 30mm S-Works Turbos.
I have the same build basically. 2019 Pink crux with di2 ultegra.
Tera roval wheelset with pathfinders
Roval cl 50 with either gp5000 or sworks tubeless.
Love my bike. Raced crits cross and gravel on it.
I do have a dedicated road bike but I did use my crux as a do it all bike for a while.
Just get a Wheelset. Everyone is talking about gearing but you mentioned you don’t spin out.
If you have space, you can also consider a 2nd hand rim brake bike. I see some absolute weapons on sale around me for about 1200-1500 (which is the price of a lot of the Wheelset’s mentioned here). I’m talking sub 7kg with nice big gearing for fast group rides.
This is a big reason I haven’t pulled the trigger. A 2nd wheelset with rotors and a cassette is easily 2k
I get a solid industry discount from Specialized (social media team) and that’s starting to encroach on the price of a Sport level Tarmac.
Wow. That must be a serious discount!
Let me play devil’s advocate for a second: would the entry-level Tarmac ride nicer, though? 2k would get you a solid pair of carbon wheels (think Zipp 303S), a good cassette, rotors and good tires.
The Tarmac would come with heavy wheels, probably so-so tires and you might have to invest into e. g. a saddle that you like and potentially a power meter. Plus, you’d have to house and maintain two bikes.
Thanks! I just bought one yesterday. Couldn’t pass up the current pricing.
What…no NBD pics!!!
They’ll be here. Waiting on a new chainring, and converting the CLX wheels to road wheels and aligning my G23 wheels to be compatible for drop in for gravel. Think I’m going to probably need different bars too. The stock ones are WAY flared.
Enve AR SES are nice with anbout 6 deg flare, albeit pricey. I have the Lauf Smoothie bars on my Seigla with 16 deg flare - really like them for off road and would even consider them on road if they made an aero / flattop version.
I actually have a set of AR wheels I bought used, but they have blue CK hubs, which won’t work with this bike. I’m going to end up selling them.
What bars? Roval Terra? If I remember those aren’t very flared at all?
Yep Terrra. They have 12 degree flare.
I mentioned above that I bought the S-Works Crux that’s currently on sale as Specialized and SRAM phase out the old models. I’ve been waiting on some work to be done and parts to come in, but have my road setup mostly complete and wanted to share some thoughts.
First, I was wrong above about needing a bigger gear than 42 or 44 x 10 MOST of the time. I can see where I might miss a few more teeth on a downhill, but 99% of the time, 44x10 is definitely more than enough for me. I went with 10x33 for my road setup. I live where it’s flat, and the 33 gives me a bailout gear, but the vast majority of the time I’m in the heavier half of the cassette with the stock 40 tooth chainring. I’m probably going to go to a 42 or 44, but can definitely see where I might want the 40x44 on gravel. I know swapping chainrings is a possibility, but I’d really prefer to have the whole thing be a simple wheel swap with no adjustments needed. For that reason, I might settle on a 42 as a compromise.
After a couple rides and maybe 5 hours on the bike, I really like the Crux. It’s super light, not harsh, but not soft either. I also feel like the 1x is fine most of the time too. Tell will tell if I regret those words. I had a 1x Lauf and thought I hated 1x on the road, but now I think it was likely the gearing more than the lack of rings. I don’t feel like I’ve lost any speed from my Tarmac SL6, but I don’t have any measurement to prove that, just feel. Only thing I’ve noticed as a downside is that it feels a little long in tight corners. Not bad though, and I’d rather have it be long than have toe overlap.
Road setup: I converted the stock CLX wheels to my road wheels with 28mm GP5000s and 10x33.
Gravel: I already had a set of Enve G23 wheels so will use those with 42mm Pathfinders and 10x44.
Will probably switch to a 40 or 42 bar rather than the stock 42 with 44 flare.
Really nice looking frame. I did an endurance ride today on my 1by GRoadbike in roadmode. I don’t live where it’s flat so I do use the whole range and personally DO miss a bigger ring and a smaller ring at same time. In other words, 1by doesn’t work for me personally. Had to grind up some pitches at 55-60 rpm at 350-400W where I‘d wish I had 0.8 or 0.9 gear ratios.
Thanks for showing this. I wasn’t aware of this app for looking at ride results.
Does anyone know how I tell the AXS app that my bike now has a 10-33 and not a 10-44? I see the micro adjust screen, but nothing to tell it which casette it’s adjusting to.
