My CX bike is nearly 10 years old now and I’m starting to look at replacing it. I use the bike as my road and gravel bike (more gravel race-not adventure gravel) and has Ultegra Di2 11sp. Frame and wheels aside, what build kit would you go with if building a bike for both gravel and road? Ultegra, GRX, Force, Force XPLR, AXS Eagle? Would you go 1x, or 2x?
Force xplr 1x 46t oval front.
I would go:
-Sram Red AXS HRD Shifter: The updated ergonomics is significatly better. Or I would wait a couple months until Sram releases the updated Force groupset with the new shifter shape.
-Force XPLR derailleur: Orbit mechanism makes the chain retention significantly better.
-48t or 50T chainring: Nice balance between road chainring and gravel chainring. (depending how strong you are)
-Rival XPLR cassette: Very minimal weight saving from Rival to Force cassette.
-Force AXS chain: Tested to be the fastest version of the AXS chainring after hot waxing it.
Di2 11 speed 2x with either a grx derailleur or an rx805, 48/31 chainrings and an 11-36 cassette. You get all the range of the 1x stuff, smaller jumps between gears, and can mostly use your existing drivetrain.
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Pretty much this, but 42 or 44t chainring.