Specialized Crux Pro: Why Buy Anything Else?

Is the Specialized Crux Pro the world’s best gravel bike and is Liam Cahill about to sell his road bike in favour of one bike that does it all?

Liam has been riding this gravel racer for over a year, so he has a lot to say about where it’s brilliant and where it might be lacking. But what do you think of this lightweight gravel bike? Let us know in the comments.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:46 A Gravel God
03:03 Hit The Road
04:53 Don’t Call It A ‘Cross Bike!
06:13 Mis(sed) Adventures
07:19 Would I Sell All Of My Bikes For The Crux?
08:27 The Crux Of The Matter

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NEW 2022 Specialized Crux | “The World’s LIGHTEST Gravel Bike”

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This is the specialized Crux Pro and I think it’s brilliant yes it is quite expensive but this is the first gravel bike that I’ve ridden that I would happily call my one and only bike it’s been a beach racer it’s fantastic on the road and it’s smashed through one of the

Wetest cyclocross seasons that I can remember now add in a bunch of fast and sometimes overly adventurous gravel rides and I’d say that this is a thoroughly capable bike that you should be considering so why by anything else let’s take a closer look at this thing because there is one potential fly in

That lovely lovely ointment but before we do remember to like this video if you enjoy it and Subscribe let’s start with where this bike was designed to be ridden rides on the open gravel roads of like Souls plane showed the Crux Pro to be a super Speedy racer packing enough stability for the area’s fast gravel descents standard builds come with 38 mm Pathfinder Pro Tires I set these up

Tubless on the rovol Terra CL Wheels without any real issues and the result is a fast rolling package which suits dry conditions and kind of finer gravel if your gravel looks like this and chunkier I’d recommend using more of the crux’s tire clearance there’s space for

47 7 mm tires on 700c Wheels in here and if you prefer 650b Wheels you can fit a 2.1 in Tire what you fit is entirely dependent on your local conditions and terrain sometimes I treat myself to those Souls rep play rides but my usual trails are much more rugged and wider

Tires with extra shoulder tread would have been more suitable the near slick Pathfinder tread is also quickly out of its depth in the mud so I’d be looking towards something like challenges new gravine the Schwab G1 B or Victoria’s terano wet the weight is a defining

Factor of how this thing rides my size 54 pro model with the kind of stock build is under 8 kilos which is brilliant for a midlevel build and it showed itself constantly on my rides naturally low weight helps when climbing the MIP and cotwell Hills where I

Usually ride are as you might have guessed quite hilly the Trux is fantastic here feeling as nippy as my legs and lungs would allow Punchy acceleration from a slow speed is also helped by the low weight and this feels great on technical climbs a lowest gear

Of 40x 44 teeth and the low weight combined here and I certainly felt like a technically better climber than I maybe am as is the case with most of my gravel rides I do like to come away from them feeling like a little bit more of a capable bike Handler Road rides can

After all be a little bit dull in that regard in my eyes this is is one of the best gravel bikes for faster riding and smooth Trails but what about when you transition From the Rough stuff to the smooth well the lightweight gravel race design makes the Crux an incredibly nice bike to ride on the road too it doesn’t take a genius to put the Crux and the Athos side by side and see that they

Share some design DNA as an AOS owner I was quickly comfortable with the Croc and I found myself choosing it for relaxed weekend Road rides I mean it’s fast too with the long and low geometry you’re still able to hunker down in an arrow riding position if that’s what you

Want to do really the only thing holding you back from doing super fast Road rides on a Crocs are the stock gravel tires which are fine but just a little wide for Speedy Road rides and then there’s the gearing the 40x 10 biggest gear is equivalent to about a 5230

Which is plenty big enough for the majority of Road rides at 100 RPM with these tires that’s about 52.6 km hour on maybe like the two occasions that I wanted to Pedal down a gentle Hill yes I did feel a little lacking in the gear department but otherwise the gearing was

Fine for Pure road rise yet it would be nicer to have a closer cassette range and a larger chain rink the closer cassette means smaller gaps in the gears which gives you smaller Cadence changes and the bigger chain ring well that just feels nicer to me but as a compromise

Between Road and gravel riding the swam Force Access One by group set was fine I know it’s a bit cliche but having the ability to just Dart down a bridal path or hop onto a byway brought a new dimension to my usual Road spins for a recreational Rider I’d seriously

Recommend considering the krux pro while the Crux is now officially a gravel bike my starting cycling took place while this was still a cyclocross machine fast forward to today and I believe the current Crux in fact I’d extend this to include the majority of go faster gravel bikes are much better

Cross Bikes for the havo racers like myself while your legs might grow we nothing towards the end of a race slows you down more than wheels that won’t turn the crux’s clearance for 47 mm tires means that there’s just plenty of space around the average 35 mm Cy the

Cross Tire if you are racing at a level where the tire width is limited by the uci’s 33 mm regulation the benefit is even greater this has allowed me to turn up to even the muddiest cyclocross races and finish without the aid of a spare

Bike or a pit crew and I don’t have either of those some have suggested the slackening and lengthening of the crux’s geometry which is better for gravel is less than ideal for cyclocross which traditionally required sharper handling I thought thought the Crux did brilliantly though handling modern courses featuring their flowing turns

And naria Forest sections with absolute ease if you like to dabble in some winter cyc crosss fun then this is an excellent bike for that job the one area where I do think that the Crux Pro missed out a little was a bit more at The Adventurous end of the

Gravel Spectrum here you’ll find big rocks and plenty of tree roots and super techy descent as well this often favors truly gargantuan tire sizes and some suspension now I’ve been riding the L sagler its grit suspension Fork is a brilliant bit of Kit showing me just how

Useful suspension can be on a gravel bike the saga’s capability off-road showed me what the Crux was lacking on rougher Trails it just wasn’t as calm as the sagler but then the Crux is a pure race bike so it can be forgiven you’ve also got precisely one extra fr frame

Mount on the Crux so if you want to do some bike packing or just head off on some super long rides you’ll need a bag that straps to the frame that might matter to you it might not okay so the bike isn’t ideal for super gnarly gravel

But it wasn’t designed to be if you want a bike for that from the specialized range look at the Diverge I completely understand that some people don’t get the one bike to do it all thing you just might be compromising elements of your riding too much that’s fine you do you but if you are looking for a single bike to cover Road faster gravel and cyclocross duties

Then this is a bloody good option okay so I’m not going to be a super fast road racer on this thing the gearing isn’t big enough and the tires would slow me down but I’ll happily do a pretty Pacey group ride just fine likewise I wouldn’t call it the ideal machine for hill

Climbs but I’ll happily take off a few local climbs at the week weend at the other end of the scale the Crux isn’t the best adventure bike the frame is a bit stiff and the mounting options are limited but it wasn’t really designed to take the place of a hard tail mountain

Bike so I can’t really criticize it too much there either so would I sell my Athos and use this across Road and gravel well I think the Crux is perfectly capable of serving me well for both and as I move away from road racing it’s becoming more and more tempting to do so

I have one issue with this bike and that is the price 7 Grand is a lot to pay even if you’re getting a versatile machine and this is made worse because there’s an exceptional bike available at a much lower price the vetus venon Evo RS Force access cost just 4,700 quid

Which while still a lot of money makes it a far more affordable proposition than the Crux and it’s not just good on paper this thing W our overall bike of the Year award in 2023 because it excelled on road and gravel you can get huge 45 mm tires into the frame to make

It a very capable gravel machine or you could add mud guards thanks to the neatly integrated eyelets how about that for a winter road bike it’s just a little heavier than the Crux at 7.8 kilos for the medium but it’s still a blast to ride and I would have a hard

Time choosing between the Venom and the Crux van ril’s gravel GCR will be one to keep an eye on too we saw it at seot last year and we were still waiting for it to properly launch but the claims weight with a one by Ram Force EAP access drivetrain Reynolds Carbon wheels

And Hutchinson tweg tires is 8.3 kg in size medium the only price we have is $5,695 for a version with fulcrum alloy wheels but it is one that we really really want to test as soon as possible Rivals aside the Crux Pro is the first bike that I’d actually consider buying

To cover Road and gravel duties as a standalone gravel bike it is wicked fast on smoother gravel and it regularly made me feel like a better Rider than I actually am the fact it will also smash a cyclocross race is just a bonus in my

Eyes but do you agree is this a bike that you would use for all of those disciplines let me know your thoughts down in the comments now if you like this review then hit the thumbs up subscribe for more independent reviews and why not check out Jack’s review of

The canyon Grail it is right here