richard.susanto

Hello,

I'm a new member and relatively new to cycling. I just got the Canyon Grail CF SL 8.0 carbon fiber bike (the one with the double-decker hover bar), and would like to get anyone input about getting a new wheel-set equipped with road tires. The goal is to be able to switch the wheel-set for my local road group rides a couple of times a week, and used the delivered 40mm wheel-set and tires during the weekend on my weekend gravel rides.

Has anyone done this before? Would like to get your input. Many thanks in advance!
Richard

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This is the wheel-set and tires that I'm interested in getting: DT Swiss P1800 Spline 23, with the Conti Grandprix 4000S 25mm tires.
And this is my delivered gravel wheel-set: DT Swiss C 1800 Spline, with the Schwalbe G-One Bite 40mm tires.

Elvo

It should be fine but I'd go with at least 28/32mm tyres. The Grail was designed around 40mm tyres. Make sure you get a matching cassette, thru axles, and rotors.

WhyFi

Putting slicks on gravel/CX bikes for road use is pretty common. Do it up.

WhyFi

I'd actually go with a tighter cluster with taller gearing. The tire size change certainly affects total gearing. I recently had to send my rear "road" wheel out to be serviced and I popped my 12-25 cassette on to my gravel wheels with 35mm rubber. I ran out of cassette and had to bail to the little ring far more quickly/more often. The OP would have the opposite problem and would spend a lot more time on the smaller cogs and might never touch the little ring. Might as well tighten up the spacing as long as the RD can handle the chain wrap.

richard.susanto

All good suggestions. Appreciate it. I was thinking about getting the 28mm tires as well since that fits into my style of riding on the road (more endurance v.s. racing).

Elvo

This is a good idea if you are willing to adjust your RD (and possibly FD depending on how big of a change) everytime you swap wheels.

WhyFi

This shouldn't have anything to do with the cassette gearing, should it? It sounds more like it would be down to variance of the hub (placement of the cassette along the axis). 'Specially with thru axles, I don't think that I've ever needed more than 3 or 4 turns of the barrel adjuster when swapping out wheels. Never had to touch high/low RD limits nor the FD.

Elvo

Depends on how big of a change and how picky you are on shifting performance. If you're going back and forth from 12-25 to 11-36 you'd need significant b-screw and tension adjustment especially if you're not gonna increase the chain length.

Sticking with the same cassette on both wheelsets simplifies things greatly.

HTupolev

The issue is the gap between the jockey wheel and the cogs. You might need b-screw adjustments to maintain optimal shifting.

Seattle Forrest

I go between an 11-25 and a 12-28. Can definitely feel the difference in gearing riding up a hill. But it's small enough to work without adjustment.

WhyFi

Ah, B-screw. Yeah, the B-screw on the Domane was adjusted with whatever cassette came stock - probably an 11-32, but I'm not certain. No problems swapping between that and the 12-25, other than the aforementioned 3-4 barrel adjustment turns. *shrug*

richard.susanto

Thanks all. I really appreciate all the inputs here. Based on some the feedback here, I am inclined to get a new wheelset with 28mm tire size. I researched some of the Canyon road bike models, specifically the Endurace, and I noticed that the ultegra mech model has exactly the same cassette and rotor specification as my Grail. Which brought me to a decision to get the following wheelset, tires, and parts:
- DT Swiss E 1800 Spline DB
- Conti GP 4000 S II 28 mm
- Shimano RT800 Rotor
- Shimano Ultegra HG800 11-34 11s Cassette

My next questions, any recommendation for buying and getting the parts installed? Order them from the local LBS? or just buy from Amazon (any other online bike store recommendation), and do it myself?

Zaskar

I have a Grail with two wheelsets - the O.E. DT Swiss and the same wheelset, just slightly narrower, that comes on the Canyon Endurance.
Tires: 28mm Conti 4000s on the road wheels.
Road Gearing: 11-28
Gravel Gearing: 11-34

jfranci3

N/a

jfranci3

It'll work perfect. I did this for years wo adjusting the RD. Id recommend a second set of wheels, discs, and cassette too, so you can flip back and forth quickly and put lower gearing on one. You may want/need to shim the rotors so you don't need to adjust the brakes every wheel change.

Wheels - You've got very decent wheels for gravel (c1800) for road. You can use something similar or if you want something that looks nicer DTswiss P1800 32mm deep $300 . Or spend a bit more and get the slightly wider ER1600 with the quieter 350 hub. I've been using these in Chicago, not minding potholes, for a few years and had great results. Spend 2x that for a set of LightBicycle carbon wheels. Spend 4x the $300 wheels and get some cheap brand name carbon wheels. In my experience, Strava noticed the DT Swiss 32mm alloy wheels but didn't notice the slightly deeper cheap carbon wheels. I'd steer you toward the ER1600 32 wheelset or the LB wheelset. https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/d...0c-112361.html https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/d...0c-125728.html https://www.lightbicycle.com/

From what you posted, I'd slightly change everything here (see prior post) :
- DT Swiss E 1800 Spline DB 32 (deeper version looks nicer and does some aero things, ER version has a quieter hub).
- Conti GP 5000 TL 25f-28r mm (narrow in front looks nicer, is a touch more aero. Tubeless is the way to fly).
- Shimano RT800 Rotor 160mm
- Shimano Ultegra HG700 11-28 11s Cassette (get a narrower cassette. 28 is plenty low for most everything)
- 4oz of Orange Seal TL goo

Your LBS (which one) will probably give you s*** for buying that your instead of saving HUNDREDS at Merlin UK (or some other EU site). The hardest thing there is putting the cassette on, which requires 2 cassette tools (which you should buy anyway). The next hardest thing is getting the tire mounted and the goo in. Also, shiming the disc is also a good idea. I'd use Velofix mobile or similar, which is still likely the bike store, but they won't give you s***.

Centerlock shims: https://amzn.to/318VHGN
Cassette tools : https://amzn.to/2SNPaOC There are a thousand versions of these. The cassette Pliers are much nicer, but also a lot more expensive.
Tire goo : https://amzn.to/311DJ8N
Cassette (save $20 and get the 105): https://amzn.to/32TwWjv
Rotors: wherever is cheapest.
Wheels: Merlin UK in my experience for DT Swiss.

Rides4Beer

Not a Grail, but I did the same thing with my Giant Revolt gravel bike. DT Swiss wheels w/ 28mm Conti GP5Ks, they ride and handle great and I have no problems keeping up on fast group rides. I run the same cassette/rotors on both wheelsets so that swapping is seamless, I don't want to have to adjust anything every time I swap wheels.

OhioJTrek

Somewhat unrelated, but how has your experience (albeit maybe short lived so far) been with Canyon?

I was leaning their way for awhile but not being able to truly test ride the the bike, and their DTC process had me a bit leery.

Looks wise – I think they make the best looking bikes out there..

richard.susanto

Thanks, @jfranci3. Appreciate the comprehensive feedback. This is awesome.

richard.susanto

Thanks, @Rides4Beer. Appreciate the input. This is awesome!

richard.susanto

Hi @OhioJTrek,

I love it. I have put around 600 miles on it so far. It's truly a capable and fun bike to ride. I've been riding it on various gravel and forest trails around the Chicago area. It put a big smile on my face everytime I ride it. Love how I could riding it fast on a winding forest trail, yet still have full control over the bike by using the dropbar. I just completed a 70 miles ride on gravel last weekend. This weekend, I'm planning to cover 80. My goal is to be able to do the Dirty Kanza in June 2020. This is the bike that I'm going to bring with me.

To be honest, I was a bit concerned about buying from Canyon as well. However, I've learned that their customer service is truly top notch. I actually bought the cheaper Grail model first. Rode it for almost a month, already converted the tires to tubeless, and returned it. When I called them up, it only took me less than 5 minutes to get the process finalized and got 100% of my money refunded in less than a week. It's that simple.

I ended up buying my current bike a few weeks after that. After this experience, I can see that my next bike will be a Canyon. It's just amazing value supported by awesome customer service.

Hope that helps,
Richard

OzzyB

Hi Richard,

Just bought the Grail CF SL 8.0 as well and was wondering what you ending up getting for your road wheels... and if you had to make any adjustments with each swap... Ideally I'd like to avoid as many adjustments as possible. Cheers!
Ozzy