"You've probably read about my Santa Cruz Blur and my Trek Emonda in previous editions of the Shop Rag, but my Specialized Crux is probably my favorite bike that I've ever owned. It is positioned as the gravel/cyclocross race bike in Specialized's gravel line up and it certainly lives up to it's potential. This bike is at home on everything from road to cyclocross courses to Arcadia gravel with just a swap of the wheels.

This bike started out as a stock Specialized Crux Comp, with 1x12 mechanical Shimano GRX and aluminum wheels. I swapped the handlebar and crank right out of the box to improve the fit and so I had a powermeter on the bike. Since then, everything has been swapped and the only stock parts left are the headset spacers.

The wheels were the first change. I purchased a set of Industry Nine Solix hubs and laced them to a set of Bontrager Pro 37V carbon rims with Berd spokes. Berd spokes are really cool as they are made from Dyneema. They are floppy and feel like shoelaces when not installed, but they are 10x stronger than steel and have incredible vibration dampening properties when laced up. When I installed the new wheels they transformed the way the bike rode and handled. It was so much smoother over the rough stuff and the bike was much snappier as the wheels were much lighter than the stock aluminum wheels.

The drivetrain was the next big thing that got swapped. Sram launched their new 1x13 Force XPLR gravel groupset around the beginning of the summer, and I got the groupset not long after that. It has been an amazing groupset to ride. The derailleur bolts directly to the frame like the Sram Transmission mountain bike derailleur so the shifts are fast and precise every time. The brakes are a massive improvement over the previous generation of Sram road brakes so I can run them without swapping over to Hope brake calipers like I have on previous bikes. They also redesigned the brake hood shape, making it much more comfortable than before.

This bike has had more miles put on it in the past 10 months than both of my previous gravel bikes combined. It's just a fun and comfortable bike to ride. I put road tires on it, downsized the chainring, and pulled off a bottle cage to do the Mt. Washington Hillclimb in August, and it weighed in at just under 16 lbs. I ended up finishing the climb in 1:18:05, with a Strava KOM at the very top. Mt. Washington isn't the only racing I've been doing on this bike. I've done multiple cyclocross races this fall, finishing in the top ten at every race I've been to so far. Our service writer, Chris Perez, one of our bike builders, Caleb, and myself also went and did the Lime Rock Park Explorer in the middle of October. This event is a gravel fondo, where you are timed on several segments and go as easy or hard as you please between them. Caleb and I both finished on podium, taking home a second and third place for the shop.

The Crux is my favorite bike because it can be so many different bikes in one. It can be a road race bike when you put road tires on it, it can be a hillclimb bike when you put a light wheelset on it, it can be a cyclocross bike when you put cross tires on it, and it can be a gravel race machine when you put 50mm gravel tires in it. Come on by and check it out! It's often at the shop because I've gone for a ride before work!"

- Michael