FX6 Apex
 

My first choice for a flat bar bike, the Sirius X5, has been nixed due to shipping prices and the uncertainty of Specialized’s reasoning for removing the bike from the Canadian website.

The new FX6 Apex appears to be a solid replacement choice. The weak point appears to be the tires. How much credence does this review merit ? It would be cheaper to have dealer swap the tires before pickup. From bicycle rolling resistance review website

“We don't like being harsh about tires as we know very well that a single "best" (gravel bike) tire doesn't exist. Unfortunately, the Bontrager GR1 Team Issue is one of those tires we can't recommend to anyone. The incredibly high rolling resistance is a deal breaker, as this tire looks and feels like it should roll much faster.
Most tires that roll this slow come with huge knobs or a heavily reinforced casing, but that's also not the case with the GR1 Team Issue. The puncture resistance of the tread is also near the bottom of all tires we've tested, and the sidewalls offer just average puncture resistance. The tread pattern and compound provide good grip on our hard surface wet grip test, but given the knob height of just 1.2 mm, we don't expect much grip in wet off-road conditions.
We don't think this tire deserves the Team Issue name.
RATING: 2.0 / 5
TEST VERDICT: Not Recommended

They use the same tire on all the Checkpoints including the SLR

I would value a BRR summary because it is based on measurements, comparables, and repeatable testing.

I have 3 bikes.

looking for a fast flat bar for variety.

Pick up a set of the Bontrager Girona RSL tires in a 38 or 42, they are fantastic tires. 220 tpi, comfortable, fast rolling, and are pretty reasonably priced. I have some for my CheckPoint when I am going to be riding a 50\50 fast gravel\ road course. You wont be disappointed. I have about 800 miles on mine at this point and they still look brand new. They have even held up in some pretty chunky gravel, that normally I would have wanted something a little more knobby on. They are putting this tire on their new CheckMate Gravel racer.

Cool. Looks perfect . Haven’t seen those before. They must be newish.

dealer wants the price of one tire to swap but maybe since those are Trek tires and it’s a Trek store I can talk him down.

Yea they came out about 4 or 5 months ago I believe

Arent you the guy that claimed Marathon Plus 38mm tires were just as fast as anything else in that size? What happened?...you sure refused to budge off that opinion despite basically saying it was based on ignorance, so why change now?

Nearly every bike comes stock with inferior tires, I may be wrong, but I think most can be removed and replaced...

Try them, they'll already be paid-for.

My road bike has what most people consider to be inferior tires, Bontrager R1 "Hardcase Lite". However, I've ridden it over 4,000 miles with no flats, so that's worth something. I'm supposed to look for supple tires, but those are also flat magnets, and I sure do hate flats.

Some of my buddies in the (roadie) club are very pro-tubeless, and it's true they don't get flats where they have to remove the wheel to fix them, but they sure do have punctures to plug a lot more often.

My plan (this might work for you) is to just use up those stock tires and get yourself a frame of reference while you build strength and endurance. THEN try something fancier and note whether they are easier to pedal and whether they flat more, etc. Just take notes from the experienced members here for now and try to ignore the unhelpful sarcastic responses. I always value the posts that are more like: "This is what I would do and why, based on this experience." But many people are too lazy to type that out for you, so they just post something snarky for a couple of Likes from some other Good Ol' Boys and move on.

Normally Id take that advice and run with it but this tire gets such a horrible review I am not sure I want to ride it until it wears out. lol.

Yours at least gets a Recommended (barely)

Not at this price level. This is not supposed to be an inferior tire. Its specs on paper are as good as anything. But it got such an awful test result! You have to wonder what went wrong.

FX1 tire ($500 bike) vs FX6 tire ($2700 bike) bumf

At this price level and beyond. From what I can tell they use this same tire on top level Checkpoints running over 12kCND

Did you mean CAD? $12K CAD is, like, what, $29.99 USD? :lol:

Huh ?

12k CAD is 12,000 so USD it’s about $8,500. That would be an SLR

Same crappy tire as far as I can tell.

Yep. You missed it.

At the start of my tour of Andalucia I met a Canadian couple at Camping Sevilla. They called their currency the “Canadian peso.” That has stuck with me for nearly 25 years.

A quip about the CAD and yet another mention of one of your tedious tours. Yawn.

Bike shop will do a straight swap to the new Girona RSL. No brainer.

Spoken like someone who clearly has never been on tour and doesn't get it...heck if I didn't have to spend all my time at work I would love to go on a nice long tour somewhere fun.

If I do decide to putter about on a weighted bike I will be sure to reference my adventures in every post.

That might be more interesting than hearing about your failures to use the internet in every post.

​​​​​​​This forum is on the internet No ?

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c53e8d383f.png

​​​​​​​

Well the thread is about the poor review of a tire not the interpretation of snarky replies.

So I wonder who missed the point.

Are you basing your decision of whether to buy a $2800us bike based on a review of the stock tires?

dealer was going to swap for price of 1 new (Conti Trail Speed) tire.

Now he’ll do a straight swap to the new Checkmate tires so it’s an easy decision.