Cyclocross - CX and SSCX races and training

Mares. Not exactly ideal timing but so few XL’s come up

Im super happy with my focus mares cantilever. You can size down with a Cx tho, mares are not designed to be slammed

Good to hear. Yeah wasn’t sure how geometry faired, also with higher BB and handling, stack is lower.
My Canyon is mid point on factor steerer.
Think this is too big??

I am not certain which is which in your table. I ride 54/55/56 road bikes and have focus mares in L which is 55.
It feels just nice but am nowhere near slammed, the headtube being very short.
In totally empiric fashion, I would picture you on a trek boone 58.

I just trashed my rd… what’s the current thinking on groupsets for cx?

I’ve got a focus mares cx and am currently on an old version of sram rival (hydraulic disc).

I’m thinking I want to swap to shimano for consistency with my other bikes. Looking for 11sp, hydraulic disc, probably 1x (I’ve literally never used my big chainring on my cross bike 😭). Other than that I probably want the cheapest option out there.

I’m guessing grx is the best bet, do they have a 105/rival equivalent? I’ve not really followed recent tech so is there anything else i need to worry about?

This bike:

1 Attachment

I have Grx 2x in mechanical on my focus mares canti, and 1x in di2 on another bike and i must say the shifting is really good in both cases, with or without clutch engaged.

It is a well known fact but i find shifting smoother than sram 1x.

If your thinking of going 1x you may be able to to fit a SRAM MTB derailleur , when I had SRAM on my old CX bike I remember reading that the 10 speed groupsets had the same pull ratios ( or something like that) for the road and MTB rear derailleurs. Not sure if that's the same for the 11 speed groupsets.

The SRAM road rear derailleurs also are set at higher tension than shimano so if you get the chain length right 1x should be ok with a normal rear derailleur . Until I killed my old ultegra mech with some crappy after market shiny pimp my ride cogs that promptly broke I never had an issue running it 1x . In fact Giant supplied it like that way before GRX was a thing

Go for Shimano double (R8000 46-36 chainset is mega). 1x requires a chainguard for when it gets muddy and even then it isn't great for chain retention when racing. GRX is designed for gravel, not CX.

personally I've never needed a chain guard or had any issues with chain retention over the last 5 or 6 years I've used 1x

although I know AndyP may not share that sentiment this season

https://ratiotechnology.com/product/12-speed-road-ratchet/

This might be another option.....go straight to 12

Is a 2x grx derailleur inferior to the older rival shown above ?

LCCA (London Cyclocross Association) AGM is being held on 28th April from 7 pm at Herne Hill velodrome.

Come along if you want to have your say in how the London and South-East League is run.

I don't know but they do require GRX cranks with their wider Q-Factor and chainline

I doubt that is a real life issue, i have it with absolute black Q rings on sram force cranks, it works just fine

For racing?

No ! Is this really that different ?

IME, very! Things that work fine when just riding about don't always perform so well in races when you don't always have the time to hit the smoothest lines, make considered gear changes and are going a lot faster under pressure. You ask a lot more of your bike when racing.

no of course i am not suggesting that race condition aren't different to idle gravelling or solo training, even intensive.
But, my question is : in the exact same race situation and with the same grx 2x11 derailleurs, is the grx 46x36 crankset going to retain the chain and the sram + whatever 46x36 rings drop it ?

GRX is designed for gravel, not CX.

Yeah but other groupsets are designed for road, right? Surely the demands of gravel (clutch mech etc) are closer to the demands of cross than road? Or are most people running hybrid setups of road shifters with mtb derailleurs as suggested above?

People raced cross for decades using road components, which met the demands placed upon them. It’s only now that they have gravel-specific components to market that road components aren’t up to scratch.

Yep, and the best cross racers in the world still choose to use road components over gravel or MTB stuff. A proper CX bike is much more similar to a modern road bike than a gravel bike innit.

' Don't always have the time to hit the smoothest lines ' haha that sums up my racing stlye perfectly.

Anecdata: GRX (810) has been noticeably poor at keeping the chain on the ring on a 1x setup (benchmark was SRAM Force 1 on previous bike).

Strange, I've never had any issues with the ultegra or the RX derailleurs on 1x

How short have you set the chain, I've found that's pretty important to chain retention?

Thats a different mech though isn't it? The uletgra RX was the sweetspot for shimano CX mechanical 1x

GRX is a totally different design