Love / hate bike relationship
Just a rant thread. As I was riding to work this morning on one of my two main bikes (a cross / gravel bike set up for commuting), I was reflecting on why I don't love this bike. When set up properly as it was this morning, it is fantastic to ride. Yesterday was maintenance day, so I did a drive train clean, replaced the rear disc pads -- the others had a little life left, but had started making not-good, not-not normal noises -- and generally just got it cleaned up. I do basic maintenance on this bike fairly regularly (a minimum of once a week - more after really dusty or wet rides). This morning, it rode great! Everything quite, shifted well, brakes worked as expected. But... this bike is extremely sensitive. I use it on gravel / dirt, and the shifting gets out of whack really quickly. On longer rides / events, applying some lube periodically helps. But the bike is such a pain in the ass, it is hard for me to love. I've put about 1600 miles on it since I got it in the spring, and still am uncertain about it; I find myself investigating alternatives regularly.
Contrast with the road bike purchased last year with close to 6000 miles on it now. It just works. No major issues, perform the same basic types of maintenance and never have big issues even when I've used it on light gravel, in the rain, or in other less than ideal conditions. I can't imagine replacing this bike anytime soon unless something really unexpected happens.
I'm trying to decide how much of this is groupset (SRAM Apex vs Di2) and how much is the bike. The fit on the cross bike is fine, I just get annoyed by it a little too easily.