Ryan's Not a Gravel Bike (Crux 2022)

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RyanH
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by RyanH

Placeholder for next week but I impulse bought the new Crux after seeing it's basically a road plus version of the Aethos. This will be a trial run of a 650b road oriented bike before I decide which direction I'm going to go with my English I put a deposit on (build date is Mar 2023).

Plan is for Campy Ekar, SRM Origin, Light Bicycle 650b HOOKED rims to DT 240 EXP and whatever I have laying around.

Intent is 99% road use. I basically want a bike for easy days so I can mob around the Hollywood Hills without giving a F about the poor state of the roads. Will probably do 650x42 since that works out to around the same diameter as 700x23. The goal is to have a bike that feels and handles like a road bike just with tires big enough to not risk getting wedged into one of the many cracks in the concrete around here.

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morganb
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by morganb

650x42 is great for big tire road riding. I ran that configuration on my gravel bike for winter with fenders and it was a missile downhill and really only felt like I was missing top end going very fast. I did a few road centuries set up like that and it is also nice to be able to hit some light gravel if you see it far from home.

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

650Bx40 is the best upgrade I made on my gravel bike. 700Cx40 made the steering very slow and unfun to ride. 650Bx40 made the bike into a go-cart and incredibly fun to ride. And I saved exactly 2lb of rotational weight over the stock 700C wheels the bike came with 😲 Lastly, the smaller diameter (650Bx40mm vs. 700Cx40mm) gave me an equivalent of an additional small gear which I needed on steep gravel climbs.

Question: why do you insist on hooked rims? I built up a set of LB XC725 flyweight hookless rims to 240 EXP, CX-Ray and the wheelset came to 1,110g. without tape and 1,118g. with tape. Incredible wheels. The rim is listed under MTB but there's no reason why you can't ride it on gravel or road. I'd avoid any deep rims in combination with wide tires. There's no aero benefit when you mate a WR50 to a 40mm tire. They only make the bike visually look fast, that's it. Go WW and make it as light as possible.

Lastly 40mm is adequate for gravel let alone for road. I also use Terra Speed 35mm and they are more than adequate on gravel or road. You can go 35mm and be perfectly happy on road.
Last edited by pdlpsher1 on Sat Oct 09, 2021 8:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

RyanH
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by RyanH

@pdlpsher1 I keep reading too many stories of tires blowing off hookless (particularly Compass/Rene Hearse). This will be primarily road so I don't want to be descending 50 mph down a hill with concerns my tires may blow off. While I can reduce that risk by using suggested known good combos, I'm no longer interested in being a Guinea pig on bike standards.

My preferred tires will be the Compass tires and they seem barely passable for tubeless compatibility.

Anyone know of a place that has a DT 240 EXP N3W freehub in stock? I can't find one and at this point, I may be ordering a set of Campy Shamal 700c just so I can ride this bike this year.

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by AnkitS

dang im late, reserving this for future mockery

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by spdntrxi

I've had many a ReneHerse/Compass on both my Enve4.5AR and G27 (both hookless) I'm certainly running higher pressure then you will at 81kg. My only neg on Rene/Compass would be their extralite casing which weeps sealent. The endurance / normal casings have been fine in that regard.
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itsacarr
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by itsacarr

Subscribed ❤️

Also just wanted to say I spent a lot of time on AR hookless on the road and did enjoy it a lot. The build quality on the shamals looks amazing though. And those hubs ... 😁
Just ride ..

kode54
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by kode54

It is always the case that 650bx42 can substitute a 700x23 wheel/tire combo? And with no worries of a lower BB (crank too close to the pavement)?

Or is the new Crux meant to use either or?

I’m curious if I can just put 650b wheel set up on my Factor LS
- Factor Ostro VAM Disc
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- Specialized Aethos Disc
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- Guru Praemio R Disc

RyanH
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by RyanH

@kode54 as long as the chainstays aren't shaped in a weird way where they bulge out for 700c then you should be able to. If you're using 700x40mm tires now, you'd lose something like 15mm crank arm clearance?

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by che

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andreas
RyanH wrote:
Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:28 pm
@pdlpsher1 I keep reading too many stories of tires blowing off hookless (particularly Compass/Rene Hearse). This will be primarily road so I don't want to be descending 50 mph down a hill with concerns my tires may blow off. While I can reduce that risk by using suggested known good combos, I'm no longer interested in being a Guinea pig on bike standards.

My preferred tires will be the Compass tires and they seem barely passable for tubeless compatibility.

Anyone know of a place that has a DT 240 EXP N3W freehub in stock? I can't find one and at this point, I may be ordering a set of Campy Shamal 700c just so I can ride this bike this year.

kode54
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by kode54

RyanH wrote:@kode54 as long as the chainstays aren't shaped in a weird way where they bulge out for 700c then you should be able to. If you're using 700x40mm tires now, you'd lose something like 15mm crank arm clearance?
Best way is to find someone nearby that has one already set up…so I don’t find out the hard way. Thx.
- Factor Ostro VAM Disc
- Factor LS Disc
- Specialized Aethos Disc
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spartacus
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by spartacus

You didn't ask but I would suggest trying gravelking slicks. I have 650x42c gravelkings on my hakka. They are more than good enough for any light off roading, which isn't as relevant, but on the road they roll almost as fast as a road tire. I rode with someone yesterday that was on a road bike, and coasting down a long hill, it was basically even. The RH tires are probably the other good option here but there may be no reason to try them since the GK is actually quite good. Also tire pressure with a volume this large on the road is very sensitive. Too low and it feels horrible and saggy (much below 30psi) too high and it doesn't roll any faster and it gets harsh quickly.

Interested to see your build.

Marin
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by Marin

RH only make sense in Extralight IMO, the heavier grades are basically Gravelkings at 3x the price.
Tests confirm that they non-EL aren't especially fast. I only have EL so I don't know if the heavier ones ride especially smooth, but I wouldn't know why they should.

GK Slicks are very fast in 700x35/38. I have 650b x 48mm and they are dog slow, and SK in 700 x 50 which aren't fast either.
It's possible that the 650 x 42s are also very fast if they are similar to the narrower 700c versions - sounds like it from the above.

BTW, Pacenti Pari-Moto 650 x 42 are a great option, RH EL in affordable. Tubeless works fine for me even on hookless carbon rims.

Yoln
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by Yoln

Any experience with Ekar chain + SRM crankset? What's your plan on chairings?

I'm assuming there's no other options (4iii / stage) for Ekar crankset PMed?
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RyanH
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by RyanH

I think the current plan is to see if I can file down the BOR 40T ring to get it to work. Otherwise I need to abandon the SRM and go Ekar cranks. I dunno, still on the fence, I may order an Ekar Crankset tonight.

I need the chainring in hand to see what needs to be done. Someone said that Wolftooth was 1.8/3.8mm for the narrow wide teeth and Ekar is 1.6/3.6mm. If I can do that on the grinding wheel without it looking like a hack job I may.

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