Thread Starter
TS
Yeh, it looks stoopid - until you realise how functional it is.
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Gravel: shift lever bang
- Thread starter cantunamunch
- Start date
Yeh, it looks stoopid - until you realise how functional it is.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2017
- Posts
- 2,232
I liked the Niner RTL Steel format and GRX so much that I have a carbon version on the way as a personal bike.
Look up the review on GJ.
Enjoy.
@cantunamunch , I’m your original post, about sore hands after a footy section, were you riding on the hoods?
If so, my first suggestion is to ride the drops in those conditions.
If so, my first suggestion is to ride the drops in those conditions.
Thread Starter
TS
Yeh, I tried that about a minute into the initial misery. Didn't matter. Pick any position - hoods, hooks or drops. Put one finger on the brake lever . The next finger over is the one getting bounced into the underside of the lever at the next root. The only direct ways out were death grip the bars or give up on using the brakes.
Aha
Thread Starter
TS
Big, fat, tall lever posts that don't let your hands slide up them or around them. Road levers have anemic little nubs in comparison. GRX levers also have some nice beveling on the front and scalloping on the backside but lever shape wasn't really a contributing factor to the original problem.
I fixed the original problem in this thread by swapping 40cm bars for 50 cm bars - having the elbows be narrower than the hand grips means more pressure on the meaty part of the hand when the bars are jumping around. Same geometry as the above abducted hoods, except without cocking the wrist so no cramping.
Much, much less aero tho. 
Let me show you what is not so genius:
The rubber covers of the hoods absolutely suck. No matter what you do, they always stay like this letting dust and water inside. A huge oversight from Shimano.
Otherwise, they work well, but frankly I was just as happy with raised to a steeper angle 105s.
BTW speaking about comfort in gravel biking: I cannot praise the 3T Superghiaia handlebars high enough. Quite expensive yes, but by far the best gravel handlebars I have ever tried. Muuuuch better that Ritchie and Easton.
Highly recommend.
The rubber covers of the hoods absolutely suck. No matter what you do, they always stay like this letting dust and water inside. A huge oversight from Shimano.
Otherwise, they work well, but frankly I was just as happy with raised to a steeper angle 105s.
BTW speaking about comfort in gravel biking: I cannot praise the 3T Superghiaia handlebars high enough. Quite expensive yes, but by far the best gravel handlebars I have ever tried. Muuuuch better that Ritchie and Easton.
Highly recommend.
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^^. thats not a good thing! I don't really understand GRX though, it weighs a lot too. I am running ETAP Red on my Moots and AXS on my road bike, AXS is sweet, I am addicted to the sequential shifting. I will say, Once you go electronic, there's no going back. I did FORCE shifters and derailleurs and RED cranks, cassette and brakes and saved a bunch of Money but still saved all but 30-40 grams. I guess they have better gearing options? its all good stuff.
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Nope, it isn't. More of an annoying thing than a real problem, but still-no bueno.
I needed to lower the gearing on this bike, as the stock 50/34 to 11/32 was no good on "normal" gravel rides, with "normal" for me being XC stuff with LOTS of climbs and steep ones at that, so first I changed the crankset to GRX 46/30 and front derailleur from 105 to GRX, then I decided to go even lower and changed the cassette to 11/34 which necessitated changing the rear derailleur to GRX too, which at the end lead to changing the shifters..
I hear lots of good stuff about the electronic shifting, so it is decided that my next road bike will be Roubaix Di2, but I think I will stick with mech on my new MTB and at this point I believe I prefer XTR to the SRAM stuff.
Thread Starter
TS
At my 10 miles per $ metric that's another 3500 miles I'd have to do on this bike
At my 10 miles per $ metric that's another 3500 miles I'd have to do on this bike
Yeah, there is that indeed.
if Sram would just change that damn push/pull shifting thing! Otherwise, I love Eagle. My right thumb doesn't work too well after recon surgery so I may look into upgrading the Eagle to electronic but depends on $.