I’m looking for a middle of the range, off-the-shelf gravel bike, with electronic shifting. Something like a Trek Checkpoint would be fine - except that I would rather have Shimano GRX than SRAM.
SRAM seems to have the off-the-shelf gravel market pretty much sewn up. The only Shimano options I’ve been able to find are the Canyon Grail CF SLX 8 Di2 (which is out of stock), and the X-LABS GT8 (coming soon in Australia).
I don’t think buying a frame and groupset and building it up will be in the budget.
I’ve ridden the X Lab GT8, albeit only for a couple of miles on pavement. Obviously that’s not much, especially for a gravel bike, where you want to know how it feels on all sorts of gravel roads and light trails, but my first impression is that it feels remarkably premium for a $3200-3300 USD bike. It’s definitely a nicer bike out of the box than its similarly priced RS7 di2 road-going sibling, mostly due to the fact that the GT8 comes with a nice set of Continental TLR gravel tires, whereas the RS7 comes with a pair of awful wire bead tires.
Note: The GT8’s wheels come taped for tubeless but the bike doesn’t come with tubeless valves.
Note note: The RS7 (and also the aluminum RS5) feels relatively Super Saiyan above its original form when you swap out the bummer stock tires for a nice set of tubeless tires.
Better gravel bikes than the GT8 exist, but not at that price point, and especially not if you don’t want to buy a better frame with worse components and upgrade everything later.
It can’t compete with the GT8 on price, but the Cervelo Aspero (non-5) is available with GRX Di2 1x12.
I guess $7k is mid-range these days lol
Not to change the subject, but regardless of how they ride, these XDS bikes just don’t do it for me. I don’t want to go out to the garage and think about how much money I saved when I pull the bike off the hook. I want to feel lust…
I couldn’t find one in Australia. Same problem for the other bikes that Koen mentioned, either out of stock or they don’t have much representation here.
I agree the GT8 doesn’t look that exciting, but for the price and for how often I ride gravel I can live with it. I have a road bike that fits that bill which I’ll ride far more often.
Check out Obed bikes, which allow you to spec almost every component — even paint color — at an attractive price. Most of their lineup are gravel bikes. You can choose GRX or SRAM. https://obedbikes.com
I was in the same boat as you and ended up putting in an order for an Orbea Terra with the 1x Mechanical GRX, and then getting 105 Di2 levers and the wireless DeoreXT rear mech from Anrancee on AliX. Theoretically I all will have to do when the bike gets here (MyO order takes a bit) is swap the levers and rear mech, and do a brake bleed.
