Crux 4 is such a good bike, and I have given her hell for years, I just can’t see selling it when I do get a new “race” gravel bike. It will probably become my 2x mixed road/gravel ride, winter trainer, do it all bike.
Brendan Johnson’s eyes in one of the follow up videos looked like he baselined cow poop right straight to the cornea!
Watched the same unbound video yesterday and thought the exact same about his eyes!
Also watched Russel Finsterwalds Unbound recap and he mentioned the crap in his eyes was causing a 10/10 pain every time he blinked for a period of the race.
Watching all the post race videos, I was amazed by the number of people trying to ride in groups without glasses out there. Yes, it was nearly impossible to see anything while wearing glasses at times, but never did I consider taking them off with the amount of mud and grit flying around when riding behind others. It was an option when solo, but still a lot of stuff flying off the front tire.
Yeah, I’ll be curious to hear your review after trying it with smaller tires. Of all the bikes out there with modern tire clearance, the crux looks like the most road-worthy bike on paper. It’s one of the reasons I’m considering getting one, basically a crossover bike for less technical gravel and road use. And while the new crux may have “slower” handling compared to the old one, it’s hard to imagine it not being faster on the road given the aero focus.
I dont think you will. The Crux 4 is an incredible bike, especially for your rider profile.
Thanks for the report.
Schwalbe recently released the G-one speed in a 40mm tire. They are a bit hard to find right now, but I’ve got a buddy who is running them on our saturday team rides. It’s not going to be as fast as a GP5000, but it’s a fast rolling tire and pretty ideal for a gravel bike road setup IMO. I plan to get some at some point. I’ve run 32’s a few times on my Lauf and it’s faster with them, but 95% time I just roll 50+ gravel tires. They don’t suck that many watts until you are hitting high speeds and I don’t mind a little extra work. And our country roads suck, the big tires make riding chip seal and broken pavement a pleasure. I may never buy another road race bike, I just don’t enjoy riding them as much. I still have my aero madone rim brake bike that I pull out when I want to do a road race.
I was out today riding 30s on my SL8. I forgot how nice it was to ride fast.
SL8 is kind of magic with how compliant, yet fast it is. I do stick to a decent country road route though.
I was riding Schwalbe GS-One RS Pro 40s all winter to save wear on my 2.2s. They were ok, didn’t really notice any speed/handling difference and once the 40s are done will probably go with something wider for more comfort.
I’ve got a set of 40mm Challenge Strada Biancas that have been pretty awesome.
They are quite a pain to install, but great otherwise.
What do ppl think of the Satin Carbon color on the Sworks?
I like it but am worried the matte won’t hold up well. Deciding on this vs the Rival black gloss and just doing a strip-down / rebuild of my own parts. I really don’t dig many of the other colors..
I’ve got that colourway (or something very similar, can’t remember the exact name) on my SL7. Still looks great after 2.5 years of me riding it
I won’t spoil your spoiler. But I also recently heard that Alex Wild was riding the new Crux when he took the KOM on Haleakala a few months back. The performance difference between racing on an all-out road race bike and something like the Crux is going to be a thin margin. The lack of support for a 2x drivetrain is going to be the biggest difference for people with a strong preference. For weekend warriors doing the fast local group ride or jumping in the occasional crit or road race, a bike like the Crux is not going to keep anyone off the podium.
Might be controversial, but could you not just use a clamp style FD on this bike? The tubes appear to be round down there - although not designed for it!
“quite a pain to install” may be the understatement of the decade for those tires. I have never had a harder install / uninstall in my 58 years!
A friend gifted me a set of the 36s and a set of the 40s.
I thought it was nice of him until I realized that he was just offloading them on me, probably as a prank.
Regardless, they roll nicely!!
…with friends like that… agree, they definitely have great road feel, but probably took a year off my life 
Are most builds / frames really not going to be available until end of July / beg of August? I have some June and July races coming up and was hoping to be able to use the new Crux …
The difference between the new Crux frameset and the old one on a size 54 is only 95g: found this reel with the weight differences: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZXjh-PB8Tj/
I bought one! Can’t wait to get out on it.
I don’t think either are on the way out. I said “better balance”. At least for the foreseeable future, the reality is that electronic is always going to be heavier at a given spec level and probably more expensive than mechanical and if sram and shimano stop offering it as a high-end option, after-market manufacturers will fill that gap. At least in MTB there is an increasing amount of after-market manufacturers. Some frame manufacturers will also fill the gap of offering high-end frames with cable routing, taking some market share back from those who don’t offer it if they go that route. Regardless, specialized didn’t do that with the crux 5.
I remember people wearing goggles during some races several years ago… I’m sure it’s out of fashion but man that sounds better than poop in the eye and scratched corneas. I scratched them a few years ago during a race and it required antibiotics plus darkness only for several days. And that was without the poop.
When I did unbound/DK, I cut my knee open a few miles into the race. I got it glued back together at the aid station at mile 50 (thanks Dr. Smiley!) but for the rest of the race all I thought about was what was in that mud splashing onto my knee 
.