Your Complete Guide To Shimano's GRX Gravel Groupset

In 2019, Shimano announced GRX, the "world's first dedicated gravel component group" which combines key technologies and components from road and mountain bike groupsets with some added brand new parts that should be ideal for your gravel bike. ​

Below we've tried to compile everything you need to know about the groupset giant's gravel-specific drivetrains. If you're looking for advice on Shimano's road bike components then fear not, just head over to our complete guide to Shimano road bike groupsets instead!

Firstly, GRX is divided into three different levels: 

RX800 series

Equivalent to the Shimano Ultegra road bike groupset

12-speed and 11-speed 

Mechanical and electronic (Di2) shifting 

RX600 series

Equivalent to the Shimano 105 road bike groupset

Mainly 11-speed and 12-speed (although there is a 10-speed RX600 chainset too)

Mechanical shifting only

RX400 series

Equivalent to the Shimano Tiagra road bike groupset

10-speed

 Mechanical shifting only

That's all simple enough, but things are complicated by the fact that you can't get every component at every level. You can't have a complete RX600 groupset because there's no such thing as an RX600 rear derailleur. For instance, if you want an 11-speed mechanical rear derailleur you need to go for the RX800 level. In other words, you sometimes have to mix and match.

Things are further complicated by the fact that, at the time of writing, you can only get the new 12-speed GRX with mechanical shifting. We assume a Di2 version will follow, but for now GRX Di2 is 11-speed only. 

With all that said, if GRX is for you it's easiest to decide first whether you want 12-speed mechanical, 11-speed Di2, 11-speed mechanical or 10-speed mechanical. This is the way that Shimano structures everything on its website(link is external), and we've followed this in our guide to each groupset and their variants below.