Specialized has had a fantastic year with the Tarmac SL9 and Crux 5, but there’s one more new bike from the American brand I want to see – an aero-optimised, aluminium Crux DSW.
That’s right, I want a new alloy Crux that marries the aerodynamic upgrades and tyre clearance of the American brand’s latest carbon Crux 5 gravel race bike with the D’Aluisio Smartweld (DSW) tech of the existing Crux DSW.
Or, to put a finer point on it – an Allez Sprint with clearance and geometry optimised for 55mm gravel and cross country mountain bike tyres.
Stuck on repeat
As someone who works in the bike industry, I get exposed to practically all of the latest and greatest bikes on a regular basis.
It’s easy, therefore, to become so accustomed to it all that you forget how exciting ‘new bikes’ felt when seeing (and often riding) dream-spec bikes wasn’t an everyday occurrence.
Nevertheless, there are always certain bikes that stick with you. Occasionally, it’s because they do something so different that they stand out from the crowd, but, more often, it’s simply because they hit that sweet spot of characteristics you value most in a bike very precisely.
The Crux 5 was one of the latter.
Although I only rode it for a single day on some hilly gravel trails in north east Spain, it’s a bike I’ve thought of often in the months since – especially as I consider upgrading my gravel bike (a Kinesis GX Race) to get something with more tyre clearance.
The problem is simply that it’s prohibitively expensive. The S-Level build (not the flagship ‘S-Works’ model) I tested earlier this year costs £8,799 / $10,500 / €10,499, and the cheapest build in the range is the Crux 5 Sport at £3,249 / $3,999.99 / €3,999 (for a rather uninspiring build with aluminium wheels and finishing kit).
Annoyingly, you can’t simply buy the Fact 10r carbon frameset here in the UK either, so building up a Crux 5 from scratch is only an option with the ludicrously priced £5,249 / $5,799.99 / €5,799 S-Works Fact 12r carbon frameset.
Why an aero-optimised Crux DSW makes so much sense
In contrast, an aluminium Crux DSW frameset costs ‘only’ £1,500 / $1,799.99 – not cheap, but far more accessible.
The problem with the current model, though, is that it’s an outdated design. That’s not to say it’s a bad bike, simply that it lags behind the current standards on things such as tyre clearance and aerodynamics.
The Crux DSW’s 47mm of tyre clearance felt like plenty a few short years ago, for example, but the carbon Crux 5 can accommodate 55mm tyres and, personally, I need to be able to run 2.1in Schwalbe Thunder Burts (the best gravel tyres available right now, in my opinion).
Likewise, round tubes are very elegant, but in performance terms they can’t compete with truncated aerofoils.
We know Specialized can do this because the Allez Sprint exists.
As a quick reminder, the Allez Sprint is Specialized’s premium aluminium road bike and uses hydroformed aluminium tubes, with truncated aerofoil shapes based on those found on the Tarmac SL7.
Specialized stopped short of revealing how the Allez Sprint compared to the Tarmac SL7 in terms of aero performance, but it did say it was “41 seconds faster over 40km than the previous Allez Sprint Disc” – which used a semi-aero design.
Given that, we could expect significant performance gains from using aero-optimised alloy tubes and fully internal cable routing compared to the round ones and semi-external cable routing on the current Crux DSW.
Of course, an aero-optimised Crux DSW wouldn’t be a light as a carbon fibre Crux 5, but we’ll have to compromise on something to hit that substantially lower price, and I’m fine with an extra 200g or so of frame weight.
Are there any other options?
The more I think about it, the more I want this bike.
Part of the problem is there isn’t really anything like it on the market right now – unfortunately, ‘aero’ and ‘alloy’ are two words rarely used in the same sentence in the bike industry.
There are plenty of fantastic alloy gravel bikes, of course, such as my own Kinesis or the recently launched Trek Checkpoint ALR Gen 3. But I can’t think of anything that nails the brief for an aero-optimised alloy gravel bike with massive tyre clearances, quite like this imaginary aero Crux DSW could.
Of course, it’s far easier for an imaginary bike to hit my dream combination of characteristics than it is for something that has to be manufactured and brought to market, but if I can have one as described, in the same polished-silver finish as the 2015 S-Works Allez, that would be perfect, thanks.
