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Another day, another new bike thread. I'm thinking about acquiring a gravel bike. Most of the rides from my home are a mix of road and easy bridleway. So, I'm thinking about a gravel bike to do longer rides but also have a bit of fun. I think I've narrowed it down to a Sonder Camino, Trek Checkpoint or Cotic Escapade.
Sonder, mainly due to price and some good reviews. Trek, I have an Emonda, so like their fit of bikes although it is pricey. Cotic, my SolarisMax is brilliant and I've been chatting with the team about an Escapade and the fact it has external gear routing is a big plus.
I've not got SRAM gears on any bike, so tend to lean towards Shimano, but every cheaper bike has SRAM and I've never really got on with any demoed double tap I've tried. I've also seen a couple with Apex AXS and I am being lured by shiny shiny. Any real life experiences of it?
I’ve a tripster ATR with Rival AXS..it’s really good.. I was pleased to have gone from a 2x setup to a 1x..
I’ve got Rival gears, but a force Crankset..I wanted a bigger chainring up front (think it’s 4teeth bigger) as i use the bike as a road bike too, so wanted taller gears.
I’m a big fan of AXS!
DrP
1x or 2x?
Cos 1x doesn't have the double tap, it just has right button for smaller cog, left button for bigger cog and it's very easy with excellent shifting.
I do prefer Shimano but finding a gravel bike with a GRX groupset is more of a challenge and their 1x stuff isn't Di2. Shimano really need to sort their gravel options out properly which is a shame cos their brakes are better than SRAM.
I have a gravel bike with sram 1x, and a road bike with Shimano 2x. Both manual, not wireless. Was really easy to get accustomed to double tap to be fair
Probably 1x, I've got the Emonda for dry road and a Kinesis Racelight for winter/wet road activities. But the latter will likely become redundant with this purchase, so a bigger chainring may come in handy. I think the lure of AXS is no messing about, just riding. How does it deal with the wet?
I struggle to see past axs now...although I've never tried the road or gravel kit. However, I'm also thinking of a gravel bike and it'll have axs as it just works flawlessly in all conditions and in any state (other than a flat battery, which isn't a common issue unless you just chuck your bike back in storage without doing anything to it after every single ride).
Have a trek checkpoint with SRAM 1x - had a bit of trouble with one of the shifters but replaced it and its been fine since. Done some multi day tours on the checkpoint, gravel and road mixes. Being able to take the battery off the rear mech and charge it in the hotel room - big plus . Prefer shimano but the battery arrangement isn't as flexible. Really like 1x too- that rear cassette 52? gets me up everything.
I have AXS Rival 1x on both my gravel bikes, a Spesh Diverge and a Giant Revolt X. It works perfectly and I wouldn’t wish to change. On the Giant I also have an AXS Reverb.
How does it deal with the wet?
Electronic gears have been a thing now for nearly 20 years, ridden hundreds of millions of miles worldwide including in WorldTour races, CX, ultra-endurance.... If water were an issue, I think it'd be fairly common knowledge by now!
1x, I'd go SRAM. There are just more options, the AXS stuff is all plug-n-play and there's no double tap to worry about, it's simply one lever for lower, one for higher.
If I was custom-building a sort of all-rounder cross/road bike, I'd go for GRX Di2 with a 2x which is about the only option (SRAM don't do a 2x gravel unless you start mixing and matching road/MTB kit, Shimano don't do a 1x electronic.)
(2x etap/axs doesn't have to be doubletap either - right for up, left for down, both simultaneously to swap chainring)
The wife has a Camino with AXS Rival. She loves it. I have the same AXS set-up on my Mason ISO.
No problems at all, just lovely, light and precise shifting.
I have a Revolt with 2 x AXS. It’s a fantastic gravel group set, it’s the wide 43-30 chainset with a 10-36 cassette. The easy 30-36 gear is great for climbing steep stuff. I also have another gravel bike with Force 1 x. I really prefer 2 x on a gravel bike now. It’s great for an easy gear and for a hard gear when your back on smooth tarmac.