I would be interested in your opinions on reducing my fleet of bikes to what I actually need.
At the moment, I have a mid-level road bike, a 2025 Giant TCR (Di2 105, Powermeter, carbon wheels); a lower-mid-level MTB (Canyon Exceed, carbon wheels, no powermeter, mechanical shifting) and an entry level gravel bike (which I probably love most of all of my bikes) - a Specialized Crux DSW (=alloy), SRAM apex mechanical, alloy wheels, nothing facy…
Also, I have a no-nonsense city bike to ride around town (Specialized sirrus) which I will keep
Since I have very little time to actually ride all these bikes, with family and job and other life committments, to only have one bike to do it all:
Sell the Giant (Road) and the Canyon (MTB), upgrade the Crux with a set of decent gravel wheels, a set of good road wheels to swap and SRAM Force AXS XPLR groupset. All things considered, this might be a zero-sum thing, which I would be happy with. Is it worth it? Would I end up regretting not having dedicated bikes for various terrains?
I do not race except for the occasional Gran Fondo or Ultra; and I have no aspirations of finishing on a podium any time soon
The off-road terrain where I live (and ride) in Vienna, Austria is mostly gravel or single track where I hardly need a MTB. And given that the Exceed is a hard tail 100mm travel XC bike, there is not too much I could do with it that the crux could not handle.
Based on what you say, just keeping an upgraded Crux with multiple wheelsets may work out well.
Two things to take into account i.m.o.:
all your rides should ideally be doable using a single type of cassette, so that you don’t have the hassle with swapping chains as well (unless that doesn’t bother you)
a muddy gravel ride closely followed by a road ride may require some dedication when it comes to cleaning the bike.
The comment of Paul_van_Woudenberg is also really useful, I think. Don’t end up with a solution that is only practical but not satisfactory. The heart needs food, too. Be in terms of happiness about a bike or happiness about the new situation.
I’m one of those people who does not think you need a bike for every terrain but can find a solution to work for 98% of your riding.
For me having multiple bikes is more about just having some variety, but that variety has to be a big enough difference. IMO gravel and road are too close to offer that unless you’ve managed to be at both ends of the spectrum. For example I have 2 “town” type bikes, one is a friction shifter 650b and the other is a single speed clunker rolling on 2.6s
If you love the crux I would focus your energy there and sell the other bikes. You may not even need 2 wheels. Consider what your actual gravel terrain is like and how often you’re on it, you may be able to find a tire that can meet both needs. This is again anecdotal but my “groad” bike is on Terreno Zeros at 40mm. Is it the fastest road or gravel option, no, but I can still take it pretty much anywhere around me without stress.
I went through this recently where I had 3 bikes: one “groad”, one dedicated cross bike and a bikepacking/touring type bike. I had internal struggles around having 3 and selling them but ultimately sold the cross and touring bike to fund a totally different bike. My feelings here were my groad worked perfectly for 5ish years as a literal do all option for road, gravel events and cross races. If I was going to have a 2nd bike it’s gotta be way out there different from it so that’s what I’m having built (longer, 2.2 clearance, different material, etc). In the end up happy with this direction as I’ll have 2 bikes for 2 different types of riding.
I’m not really short on space, and also have no issues with cleaning my bike regularly. The thing I wonder though is, would a really nice build of the crux feel superior to all the bikes I have now.
I’d go with one cassette size as well to make swapping easier @Jack_Leville
Only having one set of wheels/tires would not really do it for me I think. I’m thinking about a set of deep(ish) carbon wheels with 30mm road tires and a set of good carbon gravel wheels where I’d put on the widest tires I can find (47/48mm). My hope is that I could have one bike with two set up options and both would feel superior to what I have at the moment. (Don’t get me wrong, the TCR is a great bike and does everything it should perfectly fine, I just feel I would prefer a nice-buildt road-set up crux to it.)
Generally, I also love the idea of having an alloy bike (again). If I’d buy new today, I’d probably go for a high-class steel bike, but that’s a project for my (next) mid-life crisis;)
Nothing wrong with 2 wheels, I was just offering a way to plausibly save money if you gave it a deep hard look. I’m seldom changing wheels/tires so I’m good with just one now but when I was racing cross more I definitely preferred having spare wheels (changing tires at 9pm the night before a race got old fast).
I disagree with having just one bike. But if that’s what you want and you need to pick from a current bike, I’d keep the crux with 2 wheelsets (or two sets of tires if you want to save money). Run 50mm gravel tires and 32mm road tires. I’ve done this before on the crux and it’s great.
My thoughts too. I have space and having multiple bikes doesn’t significantly add to my budget. Maybe a couple extra sets of tires each year and a little more lube.
I have good access to a variety of trails. I mostly ride my gravel bike (Giant Revolt), followed by my mtb. The Revolt has been excellent for pavement to singletrack. I also have a TCR because I like the snappy, fast feel of riding a light road bike and being able to safely and comfortably join a road group. My fourth bike is a steel road bike (Cielo) that doesn’t get ridden much but sure is nice to have.
If I could only have one bike I’d probably stick with the gravel bike because of its flexibility. That said, reducing to one would eliminate a lot of ride opportunities and variety that I enjoy.
I have different shoes and boots for different needs,
and different bikes for different needs.
Why would life restrict me to just one pair of shoes?
Life is short.
I would go with the Crux + good wheelsets and 1x group. I ride pretty similar conditions here in Germany, and if I‘d start from scratch now I would probably go with a modern race gravel bike with ample clearance like the Crux 5 or the new Ridley Kanzo Fast plus second road wheelset, different tire options for the gravel wheelset and call it a day.
I’ve got the previous generation Canyon Grail (gen2) - haven’t had the chance to ride on gravel yet, was planning for a trip with light gravel and unknown road conditions - so I’ve tried with my road wheels and have to say I’m questioning if I really need my road bike, a previous gen Cervelo Soloist.
The grail accelerates quite fast, the fit is similar (only slightly more upright), and its overall a well thought through bike - no need for saddle bag, good mounts for front and rear lights, matching frame storage, UDH, 2x, cables routing from the outside to the headset.
It does feel slightly slower and holds up speed a bit less, but I’m not sure it sufficiently justifies having another bike. if it’s worth selling the Soloist though is another question.
If id start again - I’d choose a good all road / light gravel bike that fits well and a different wheelset for each use case.
