My parents have decided to move to a spot on a dirt road with only a major road as the paved option to get close. I am thinking of building up a gravel bike for there since riding on the A92 and having to drive down a dirt road to ride my road bike seems silly [The road is too rutted and steep to ride down on a road bike]. All my other bikes are shimano but the rival xplr axs groupset seems like more bang for buck. I am curious on people thoughts. I want electronic shifting since I prefer the hood shape. I already have some cranks and since I won’t be riding the bike a ton, I don’t want to spend too much on it. More adventure than race but not so chunky that riding on the road is miserable.
Is GRX a better option? Apex XPLR? Apex Eagle? Worth doing a mix and match with some used stuff?
If the bike is going to be left standing for a long time, there might be a benefit to sticking with mechanical shifting to save some battery hassle.
What cranks do you have?
Plus 1 on mechanical shifting if the bike will be sitting. Also probably worth going tubes rather than tubeless. Ordinarily I’d say tubeless is the way for gravel but it doesn’t really lend itself to neglect.
Depending on how little you want to spend and the technicality of the terrain, a used cross bike with decent clearance and rim brakes might be a good fit and can probably be had for a song. Heck, an old mountain bike could be a blast too.
I’m building one up right now, and expect to leave it at my in-laws for most of the summer as well. I want to stick with 2x, and have a set of mechanical GRX shifters and brakes so going in that direction for financial reasons as much as anything. I’m dreading running tubeless, but it probably makes sense given the roads I’ll mainly be using it on.