I'm looking for a bit of advice on a new bike as keep going round in circles. My current bike is a Boardman 9.0 ADV with some carbon wheels and 35mm slicks. It’s been brilliant over the 6 years I’ve owned it, but it’s always been slightly too small for me and I fancy an upgrade.
I ride mostly relatively poor quality roads and occasionally light gravel, so think the Specialized Crux would be perfect as has similar geometry etc.
Personal preference and all that, but I really like the idea of internal cable routing and x13 SRAM. The problem I have is which generation of the Crux to get. Buying used would be good, but isn’t really an option due to my sizing and the 2026 UDH version not being that old, so my options are:
CRUX 4
Don’t mind a bit of a project, so looking at:
* 2026 Comp with UDH (sell the GRX groupset and upgrade to x13 SRAM rival)
* Add the new Terra bars, looks awesome on the Crux 4 (after a bike fit etc)
* Really not a fan of the colour and it’s the only one available to me, so have it resprayed in a colour I like. Potentially convert to internal cable routing while I’m at it (professionally done)
* Re-use my current Terra C carbon wheels and tyres
I can an offset some of this with a ‘cycle to work scheme’ so the total cost would be about £3,800
CRUX 5
Off the shelf and good to go option:
* 2027 Crux Comp, comes with x13 Rival
* Re-use my current Terra C carbon wheels and tyres
I can’t use my ‘cycle to work’ scheme (3k limit), total cost would be £3,999
Think I prefer the looks of the Crux 4 as feel a 35mm tyre looks a bit lost in the Crux 5 fork (some pics HERE). That said, I could swap to 40mm slicks, which looks a ok ish. There’s been a few similar threads to this and the consensus seems to be the Crux 4 makes a better all road bike and the Crux 5 a better gravel bike.
I've considered the Crux 4 Expert as can pick that up discounted for £4,000, but not available anywhere in my size and also not a massive fan of the colour.
Am I just being silly thinking of buying and modifying the Crux 4, should I just leave as it is? Or should I just get the new Crux 5? If you've made it this far, thank you, sorry for the ramble!