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Gravel is a spectrum. All the way from praying for grip on 28c tyres to falling asleep climbing on a full blown MTB. Important context as someone who mainly rides on the road or heads straight to that sweet sweet singletrack on an XC bike.
The best gravel bikes aim to fit neatly in the middle somewhere; confident enough to have fun, fast enough to keep you awake. So what does the Specialized Crux DSW Comp have to offer? Is it a road bike with an identity crisis? Is it enough to make the most mundane off-road riding enjoyable?
To answer these questions I took the “lightest alloy gravel bike” out on a platter of central Scotland’s finest gravel and tarmac. A mixture of chunky and smooth, often wet, fast and hilly.
Design and Aesthetics
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Perhaps taking aesthetic cues from the Tarmac SL4, the Crux paints a classic silhouette, with clean lines and simple tube shapes. Something I greatly appreciate.
The clean looks also carry over to the simple frame features and glorious lack of gimmicks. A round 27.2mm seatpost, 68mm BSA BB, three bottle cage mounts, 47mm tyre clearance and most importantly, no headset cable routing. Personally I believe this feature has no place on off road bikes but I understand some people want that clean look. I would love to see mudguard mounts, but I suppose we can’t expect that from a bike designed in California.
The 40c Pathfinder tyres hint at the bikes intended use. As the current trend is to go wider and wider, I would like to see that tyre clearance fully utilised out of the box but I appreciate Specialized isn’t trying to make the Crux something it isn’t. After all, Specialized has the Diverge in its range for those more adventurous/chunky gravel rides.
SRAM provides the…
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