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It’s been a busy few weeks for Shimano, starting with XTR Di2 and the matching brakes and wheels, then a fortnight later, XT Di2, again with matching brakes and wheels. Today, the Japanese outfit has unveiled the long-awaited GRX Di2 1×12 gravel groupset.
Since the revamp of GRX began nearly two years ago, the first question was, ‘Where is Di2?’ Then, when the electronic shifting finally arrived, the next question was, ‘Where is 1x?’
We now have all of those answers, but is it enough, given SRAM has already begun to trickle its 1×13 XPLR groupsets down to more budget-friendly product lines, or is GRX Di2 1x too little, too late from the big blue S?
We’re patiently awaiting test samples to arrive to be bolted onto Peaches, our long-term Cervelo Aspero test bike. So in the meantime, here’s what we know.
Related:
- First Look | SRAM Releases New Force and Rival XPLR Groupsets
- Shimano GRX Di2 Review | Class leading gravel shifting missing one big thing
- New Shimano GRX 820 12-Speed Review | Boring but brilliant
GR-XT Di2
GRX 1×12 is centred around the RD RX827 rear derailleur. The SGS long cage rear mech is designed to pair with the 51-10T cassette and uses the same XT/Ultegra M8100 12-speed chain as all of the other Shimano groupsets.
It’s fully wireless and is based around the Shimano Shadow ES design, which sees a low-profile wedge and dual spring chain stabiliser. There are solid pulley wheels, a replaceable skid plate, an automatic recovery function, and a removable battery said to last between 700km and 1,000km on a single charge.
After reading all that and looking at the photos, if you’re saying to yourself, ‘man, that looks a lot like the XT Di2 derailleur,’ that’s because they are the same thing with a different badge.
Like SRAM, all of Shimano’s 12-speed electronic components can talk to one another now; you can run an XT/GRX or XTR Di2 rear derailleur on the back of your gravel bike without issue. Conversely, if you’re chasing an XT Di2 rear mech for your mountain bike, but your local shop only has the GRX RD RX827 in stock, well, if you can get over having the wrong decal on the parallelogram, it will work just the same.
If you wanted, you could even pair it with the flat bar shifter and make yourself a flat bar gravel setup.
Shifters, Brakes and Crank | If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Shimano updated its GRX Di2 levers when the 2×12-speed drivetrain was launched last year with reworked ergonomics, and the accessory buttons on the inside of the hoods.
For the 1×12 GRX, Shimano is launching a BL RX825-L shifter that eliminates the paddles, accessory button, and subsequent electronics, as they aren’t needed. Shimano claims this shaves off 19g, and it will also remove a set of coin cell batteries you’ll need to keep track of.
As we mentioned before, all of the Shimano 12-speed components talk to one another, so if you already have a set of the GRX dual control levers or prefer the Dura-Ace, Ultegra, or 105 Road levers, or even the flat bar shifter, you can pair those up to the 1x derailleur without issues.
Shimano has made a point of drawing from its existing catalogue where possible, and so the cranks, chainrings, brakes, and rotors are all the same as the rest of the GRX lineup.
That means one crank goes across 1x and 2x, and features 40T and 42T RX820 aluminium chainrings, as well as a 38T steel RX610. The brakes have also been carried forward with the purported increase in pad clearance, and the bleed port located on the side of the flat-mount calliper.
With that, they also still run on the old pink mineral oil, not the new lighter viscosity gold oil.
Shimano RX180 alloy wheels
When Shimano first launched the GRX 1×12 mechanical groupset, it also unveiled a non-GRX branded set of RX-880 carbon wheels. Weighing 1,430g, they were the first Shimano wheels to accept both Shimano’s Microspine and HGL2 freehub bodies — and the only gravel wheels we knew of to come with a Microspline. They also cost more than two big ones.
With the launch of GRX 1x Di2, Shimano has now introduced an alloy wheel to round out its gravel groupset offerings.
Claimed to weigh 2,113g with the Microspline freehub, the hooked tubeless rims have an internal rim width and should play nicely with tyres from 32mm up to 50mm.
Priced at $465 AUD, they are also about a quarter of the price of the RX880 wheels.
GRX Di2 Pricing and weight
Here is how the pricing shakes out for the new GRX Di2 1x. We should note Shimano AU has advised this pricing is subject to change ever so slightly when the groupset lands due the way the dollary doo is bouncing around over recent months.
- RX-825 Right shifter w/ Brake Calliper, hose | $560AUD |415g
- RX-825 Left shifter w/ BrakeCalliperr, hose and adaptor | $530 AUD |395g
- CL 800 Rotors | $90 AUD each | 169g each
- RX-820 Crank 170mm, 172.5mm, or 175mm | $330 AUD |644g w/40T chainring
- RX-827 Rear derailleur | $828 AUD | 454g
- M8200 12-speed cassette 51-10T | $285 AUD | 463g
- M8100 12-speed chain | $80 AUD | 252g
- IB-TDN320A Battery | $80 AUD
- IE-CDN100A Charger | $70AUD
Total | $2,943.00 AUD
For reference, here’s how that compares to the other gravel groupsets currently on the market
- GRX 2×12 Di2 | $3,341.83 AUD,
- GRX 1×12 mechanical | $2,137 AUD,
- SRAM Force XPLR 1×13 | $3,375 AUD without the power meter
- Rival XPLR 1×13 | $2,455 AUD without a power meter
- Campagnolo Ekar GT 1×13 | $2,463.80 AUD
Flow’s take
It’s been a long wait for Shimano GRX 1x Di2, and many — including this writer — have speculated about what the new wide-range 1x gravel groupset would look like. With 2x Di2, the shift quality and ergonomics outclassed anything else on the market.
But that was before SRAM dropped the full mount 1×13 version of its XPRL gravel groupset. Wil and Mick have been impressed with the performance of both the new XTR and XT Di2, both in terms of shift performance and ergonomics. We can speculate that the same derailleur using the same cassette and chain would be more or less identical, and we’re already well acquainted with the lovely GRX Di2 levers.
While Shimano might be a cog short at the back as it stands, the use of a derailler hanger is likely to be appealing to folks who aren’t so sure of the full mount system. While UDH hangers are across more gravel bikes, they’re still not universal yet. One of the most popular gravel bikes on the market — the Giant Revolt, which was only revamped last year, doesn’t use one. This does create some space for Shimano to move in here.
Is this enough, or is the big blue S a year late and a cog short? Only time will tell. We’ve got a groupset on the way for review, so stay tuned for more.
The post Shimano Unveils GRX 1×12 Di2 | Wireless gravel groupset borrows from MTB tech appeared first on Flow Mountain Bike.
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[[{“value”:”It’s been a busy few weeks for Shimano, starting with XTR Di2 and the matching brakes and wheels, then a fortnight later, XT Di2, again with matching brakes and wheels. Today, the Japanese outfit has unveiled the long-awaited GRX Di2 1×12 gravel groupset. Since the revamp of GRX began nearly two years ago, the first
The post Shimano Unveils GRX 1×12 Di2 | Wireless gravel groupset borrows from MTB tech appeared first on Flow Mountain Bike.”}]] Read More Flow Mountain Bike
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