The 2021 G2X GRX bike has been well-received by Merlin customers, selling quickly and gaining a lot of 5 Star reviews. As well as selling the full bike with Shimano GRX, we also sell the frameset which gives you free reign to build with whatever components you choose.
Build Base
I built last year’s G1X frameset last August and have used it for about 4000 km’s of gravel tracks. I really enjoyed riding the G1X. I built it up with Sram Rival 1X components (Sram Red cranks). With Pro Build Chosen / Alex Draw wheels and tubeless Schwalbe G Ones, the bike always felt light / fast and agile as well as tough enough for local gravel trails and adventures further afield.
2021 Build
The big change for the new 2021 frameset is the revised geometry. The shorter top tube and lower head-tube should make the bike feel more comfy for me. The bike built up to the same weight as the previous model at just under 8.5 kg, pretty good for a tough aluminium hydraulic brake gravel bike.
Build a Gravel
The process of swapping framesets is pretty straight forward. The only trickier part is removing the hydraulic hoses and re-routing through the new frameset and re-connecting the hoses. Having new hose connectors on hand is a must. For sram rival I have some olive / barb connectors. Also, having some extra top-up fluid is a good idea.
Tools
As well as thinking through the process before you start, get your tools assembled and on hand ready for the build. I learned this lesson 15 years ago when building a MTB in my garden. I went inside to find a tool, when I got back out into the garden just in time to see magpies flying off with my little bag of shiny Hope rotor bolts.
Grease
If you dab a little grease on components while you build, future jobs on your bike will be much easier. As I was swapping components over, I cleaned off the old grease and applied new as I went along. If you haven’t got a work stand, try slotting wheels in as well as bars / stem and seatpost & seat – leaning the bike against a flat surface will allow you to work on the bike.
Anything Else…
While swapping components, take the opportunity to check eveything over and replace worn parts. In this case the (grating ) brake pads and (knocking) bottom bracket needed replacing – they gave me their handy noise alerts. Cassette, chain and cables are the usual suspects for updating, however, thanks to my borderline OCD chain and cassette cleaning (and my chain check tool), they should be good for another 1000k’s or so, before replacing.
12 Months on…
Check out a one-year-on update blog here.
