I think in terms of gearing, Rotor knocked it out of the park. 10-36, 10-39, 10-46 and 10-52 covers basically everything. Personally, I would have gone with 10-39 and a 46-tooth chain ring on my road bike.
I think you should definitely add one more item to the list: shorten the rear derailleur hose, it seems way too long and looks like it can get caught on something any time.
Other than that, the bike looks amazing. Rotor’s industrial look fits perfectly. Makes me want to reconsider my decision. But now it is too late. For otherwise my wife (aka sponsor) will kill me and then divorce me, although perhaps not in this order.
Just one more question: how is parts availability?
Yep, I fully agree. Besides the possibility of it getting caught. It’s just not pretty.
The rotor parts where fine. They where mostly in stock. But other parts as the handlebar for example where not available.
And I actually wanted the giant contact aero slr handlebar and stem combo. I literally waited more then 6 months for the parts. In the end we could not get the spacers to fit. So that idea was thrown out of the window. But I waisted 6 months there. Then I ordered the pro vibe evo handlebar. Which took maybe a month to be delivered. But then the workload at the bike shop was the issue
I think in terms of gearing, Rotor knocked it out of the park. 10-36, 10-39, 10-46 and 10-52 covers basically everything. Personally, I would have gone with 10-39 and a 44- or 46-tooth chain ring on my road bike. And the group set does have its own unique, industrial look.
Did you go for the Ribble? I am looking at the Ribble CGR AL with the GRX 400 groupset right now.
Looking for a winter / turbo / gravel bike to keep my SL7 nice and clean and warm during winter months haha. If you did purchase would love your opinion.
Resurrecting an old thread since there was a lot of discussion on the Ribble Gravel bike. @jhow, @gb78, did either of you (or anyone else) get a Ribble Gravel bike? What are your thoughts? I’m toying with getting a gravel-specific bike and have been looking at the Ribble Gravel, Giant Revolt, Lauf Seigla, and Fezzari Shafer.
The Lauf Seigla and Ribble Gravel have a nearly identical geometry to my Fezzari Empire road bike, but with a longer wheel base. I put some 31 mm gravel tires on my Empire and took it off road. It handled fine on well-maintained dirt roads but couldn’t handle washboard or poorly maintained fire roads, hence me looking for a gravel-specific bike (and that whole N+1 thing).
I don’t race so the Seigla is probably too much bike for what I’d use it for, but the possibility of front suspension specifically tuned to handle washboard is appealing. Plus the Wireless model comes with a power meter. It doesn’t have mounts on the fork like the others, although I’m not sure I’d do much or any bike packing … but the option would be nice.
The Ribble comes with 650b wheels, which would be a nice addition to the stable since I have a gravel wheel set. I can also get the handlebars I’m specifically interested in directly from Ribble.
The Fezzari Shafer is the least expensive, but would incur additional costs for handlebars and a PM, which puts it in the same range as the Lauf and Ribble. The Giant ends up being the most expensive of the group at the end of the day. I’m also a little concerned about Giant having a press fit bottom bracket and 140 mm rotors on the rear wheel (versus 160 mm on my other wheel sets).
Anyway, looking for thoughts on a gravel-specific bike. Thanks!!
I never did get a gravel bike. Life happened and while the world was suffering from COVID in 2020, I was battling two autoimmune conditions that basically kept me homebound for a year and off the bike for about 18 months, so the whole DK/UG 200 didn’t happen, and hence no immediate need for a gravel bike. Might try next year, but not sure. I’ve since moved closer to mountains and the hillside that have a lot of gravel trails, so it would certainly get use.
I still keep my eye on the Ribble CGR and Gravel series of bikes (the Gravel is a newer-ish, dedicated gravel grinder and was not available when this thread was recreated some years ago), and I think Ribble overall is a great value for the money. Of course, the other issue is that bike supply chains were completely a wreck until recently and many bikes (including those from Ribble) were backordered 3-6 – sometimes 9+ – months, if not longer. These issues seem to be less severe now (albeit, not completely solved).
My issue with the CGR and Gravel bikes is that they don’t offer the GRX series in a 2x up front. Then again, I wonder how much Shimano is investing in GRX in the future, so a standard road groupset with might be more flexible. Despite the move to 1x for many gravel and mountain bikes, I still really prefer the variation and tighter gearing of a 2x drive.
I think this is a combination of SRAM’s 10–44 eTap AXS offering and Shimano’s lackluster efforts in this area. I honestly don’t get it. The gear range they offer is lackluster, compatibility at the top end is a nightmare, and it seems half-hearted. I know quite a few Shimano aficionados who prefer the hood and lever shape of GRX levers, but 11-speed Di2 GRX is incompatible with 12-speed road Di2, etc. The other big weakness is their 11-34 cassette, which is IMHO unsuitable for road riding. People like you who want a dual use bike and closely spaced gears at the top end — which the 11-34 cassette does not provide. I would skip Shimano’s cassette and get a SRAM 11-speed 11-36 cassette instead. Coupled to a 46/30 crank, you get roughly the same gear spacing at the top as a compact crank with a 11–32 Shimano cassette — just with the 11-tooth cog missing. The latter is fine in my book.
Plus, a lot feels like artificial segmentation, I get the feeling that Shimano has a GRX team that works in opposition to/in competition with its road groupset team. I much prefer SRAM’s more flexible approach here, especially with its electronic groupsets. I think it’d be much better had Shimano simply copied SRAM’s playbook and e. g. released more crank options at e. g. 105-, Ultegra- and other levels, suitable front derailleurs and additional cassettes, say 11-36, as well as rear derailleurs to make it all work. Ideally, their long cage RD should accommodate an 11-40 cassette on a 2x. Plus, they should have released several 1x chain rings that directly mount to their current cranks. Riders could choose between regular STI levers and GRX-style STI levers that gave them more purchase on the brake levers (again, some road riders prefer these).
It seems the gravel market is tipping more into the 1x camp, and Shimano’s drop bar groupsets are a bit of a mess when it comes to compatibility. I don’t think a standard road groupset is better, it is just that GRX 2x is very close to a standard groupset. Its 11-34 cassette is not great for road riding, because for the road you want closely spaced gears at the top. I’d put a SRAM 11-36 cassette on it, which doesn’t just provide more range, but has better spacing between the gears if you come from the road end of things. The issue you’ll have with a 2x road groupset is that if you want to run smaller chainrings in the front, you will probably need an adapter. (For a gravel bike, I’d run 46/30 or smaller.)
@gb78 sorry about your health issues. Hopefully they are all behind you, or at least under control.
My road bike has SRAM eTap and, if I get any other bikes, will look for the same for compatibility and consistency in shifting.
I do like the tight gear spacing that a 2x system offers, especially since I like to spin at 90-100 rpm, but think the simplicity of a 1x for rougher gravel is more important. It will also force me to develop a wider range of cadences that I’m comfortable at.
I have GRX 810 2x and just did a road ride yesterday. I was trying to understand the differences between it and the Ultegra 11 speed I have on my road bike. You nailed it in what I quoted. The jumps are noticeably bigger and it isnt as easy to to find the proper gear/cadence/wattage as it is on my road bike.
I know that can be partially fixed by the cassette but it is something to consider
I haven’t ordered it yet as I bought an enduro MTB instead and took a quick hiatus from Gravel but I’m seriously looking at ordering the Ribble CGR SL with SRAM axs 2x within a month. Says it can do 45s or so and has some aero properties. I just hope they don’t release a new frame since it’s been close to 3 years with that current model. Sub 3K shipped to the states. Can’t really beat it.
If you are bothered by this, I recommend you have a look at SRAM’s 11-speed 11–36 cassette. It should work out of the box with Shimano’s GRX rear derailleurs without the need of a RD extender. The 11-34 cassette is really weird to me, it has no 1-tooth cogs anywhere and closely spaced gears in the middle of the cassette. Still, the 11-34 cassette is found on some road bikes (?!?) even though it is not a road cassette. The gap between the 11-32 and 11-34 cassettes in terms of range is tiny, but in terms of gear spacing is huge.
I think Shimano’s thought process is that it gives closely spaced gears at speeds that are typical for gravel. Two problems with this: it forgets that many gravel bikes are multi purpose bikes, i. e. they are also used for road riding. And secondly, offroad riding is nowhere near as steady as road riding, you have subtle shifts in gradients and differences in traction that can lead to larger fluctuations in power and/or cadence. That’s why larger gaps between gears is much less of an issue on a mountain bike. Plus, the last thing is to have such closely spaced gears at the climby end of the cassette. In my experience this is the last thing I want, I want bigger jumps towards the easiest gears of the cassette.
Ironically, Shimano seems to have known this at one point when they offered a 11–46 mountain bike cassette for their 11-speed 1x mountain bike drivetrains. I have one on my hardtail and the jump from the 37-tooth to the 46-tooth cog is not an issue, it never felt uncomfortable. I was surprised that I preferred this cassette to SRAM’s 10–42 cassette, mostly because of the huge gap between the 10- and 12-tooth cogs.
I don’t have that much trouble with the 11-34 but yeah sometimes I wish for closer spaced gears on the top end… a 11-36 will work just fine, the GRX, 105 and Ultegra (11spd mech) should all take up to a 11-40, at least my 105 rear derailleur and GRX deraileur did. Also the GRX cranks work with the Road mechanical Front Derailleurs, a bit more fiddeling is required to get the shifting nice but it works fine…
I’m currently debating if I want to buy a new Gravel bike and use it for my Road riding as well or if I should go for an endurance road bike and keep the current Gravel bike. Locally I can ride both, but Gravel ends up rather steep most of the time. And I’m planning on doing longer Sportives with lots of climbing, since living in Switzerland there are a lot of those. But I think something like a Scott Addict Gravel, Cube Nuroad, Cannondale SuperSix Evo SE etc. Should make for a good dual use bike, But having a dedicated road bike has it’s draws for me, and the Value for a Canyon Endurace SL8 seems really nice with the current prices. Can just move my Zipp 303s wheels over to that and buy a Gravel set for my old Topstone Alloy and continue to use it as a Gravel bike.
My gravel bike would probably be a bit heavy for full on road riding (it would probably be fine for some group rides with slicker tyres) but my mate the other week had a nice Trek gravel bike (I think a Checkpoint) which is about 2.5kg lighter in road format. He did change the crank though. Another mate has used an On One in both formats (gravel and road) without changing the gears but the road sessions haven’t been full on. I think you’d need like my mate with the Trek to do that for faster groups.
The Shafer is great as an aggressive descending gravel bike but I wouldn’t put it in the dual road/gravel category. I’m happy enough to ride it on the road, especially solo, but man the turning is slow. Head angle and trail combine to make it feel like steering a boat. The upside is it’s incredible at holding a line at speed.
In your case, you already have a dedicated road bike so it’s a great gravel option as long as you don’t mind slow turning on steep techy uphills.
I have been using my Gravel Bike as a Road bike for 2 years now.
It was simple to do - I purchased two wheelset with identical hubs (different rims), and I purchased 2 sets of the same rotors. I purchased a Rotor Aldhu crankset (aluminum) and two different DM chainrings.
I can change the front chainring literally in minutes.
The road wheels has a 48 - 11/32
The gravel wheels has a 38 - 10/42
The bike is 11-speed (I chose to keep it this way), but the chain doesn’t need to be changed or anything just the rear B screw tweaked a little, I literally can change it from gravel to road, or road to gravel in 5 minutes.
The bike IS NOT any slower than my tarmac period.
I do live an an area where a 1x road bike is most appropriate however - so keep that in mind.
The Shafer has the longest wheel base of all of the gravel bikes I’m considering … by a lot (like 30-40 mm). My Empire handled fine on the well-maintained dirt roads I took it on and only had the rear wheel slide out on me once.
I did have difficulty climbing a steepish hill due to the rear wheel slipping while standing. Once I sat down I had plenty of traction. A longer wheel base would definitely help, but I think the additional 20-30 mm that the Ribble, Lauf, and Giant have would be fine.
Still, can’t beat the price of the Fezzari Shafer.
I will send you a PM in the next day or so when I have a moment. Ironically if you are in search of a 56cm bike I have a 2022 crux and possibly the 2022 Aspero I just built for sale.
