By Jack Luke

Published: Thursday, 07 October 2021 at 12:00 am


The new Specialized Crux is claimed to be the world’s lightest gravel bike, boasting a claimed weight of 725g for a 56cm frame, with top-end complete builds starting at 7.25kg.

The new bike steps away from its cyclocross roots and is now billed as an uncompromising ultra-light gravel bike that borrows much of its design and tech from the similarly feathery Specialized Aethos road bike.

Despite its light weight, the new Crux retains genuine real-world practicality, with clearance for tyres up to 2.1in wide on 650b wheels, or 47mm wide on 700c wheels. It also sticks with a threaded bottom bracket shell, and can even accommodate an internally routed dropper seatpost.

With clean lines, a simple frame and no mudguard or rack mounts, the bike stands apart from the Specialized Diverge and is – to quote Specialized – aimed at riders looking for “gravel enlightenment”.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that all of this comes at a, to put it mildly, very high premium, with the top-end S-Works model we’ve been testing coming in at $12,000 / £10,750 / €12,200 / AU$18,000. For that, you get Specialized’s top-end S-Works 12r carbon frameset, a full SRAM Red eTap AXS XPLR groupset and Roval Terra CLX wheels.

For those without bottomless pockets, the Pro, Expert and Comp bikes use the slightly heavier 10r layup, which adds a claimed 100g to the frame weight, but will save you a fair chunk of cash, with the cheapest build coming in at £4,000 / $4,200 / €4,000 / AU$6,300.