This Cervélo Áspero has been through the shop a few times over the years — it started life as an Apex build, became 11-speed GRX mechanical during the COVID parts crunch, and just got upgraded again to GRX 11-speed Di2. A good example of a bike that evolves with its owner.
The Build History
This bike was bought from the shop during the COVID supply crunch. The customer wanted GRX from the start, but at the time you simply couldn’t get a GRX bike — so it came in as an Apex build. Maklin is happy to swap parts to get a bike set up the way a customer wants, so they stripped the Apex kit and rebuilt it as 11-speed GRX mechanical: mostly 600-series brake levers and shifters, the shared 800-series derailleurs, and an 810 crank because this rider wanted a larger chainring than the 600-series offered. A Stages power meter went on at the same time.
The recent job was taking that same bike and converting it to GRX Di2, staying on 11-speed.
Why 11-Speed Di2
There’s still no 12-speed GRX Di2 — everyone’s waiting on it — so staying 11-speed was the sensible call here for more than one reason. The customer’s family runs other 11-speed bikes, so keeping this one on 11-speed means they can share wheels and parts across the fleet instead of having one oddball in the mix.
Steve talked through 12-speed and SRAM with the customer. He’s a fan of SRAM’s 12-speed, but the GRX 11-speed Di2 hoods and ergonomics are excellent and already familiar to this rider, so there was no real reason to push a change for its own sake.
The Handlebar
The original aluminum bar had no ports for the Di2 wiring, so it came off in favor of the carbon bar that comes on the Áspero-5. It’s a bar Steve likes a lot — a narrower profile with a clean channel on the underside for housing — and the same one he runs on his own Áspero-5. Finished off with Silca tape.
Wiring It Up
Running full 11-speed Di2 on a gravel bike is a bit of a process. Unlike Shimano’s 12-speed road Di2 — where it’s wireless from the battery up to the levers — the 11-speed system is fully wired: both shifters connect to a junction box (which is also where you charge it), and that ties into the rest of the system. It’s a fair amount of wire to route cleanly, but once it’s in, it works great.
A bike that evolves with its owner
Apex to GRX mechanical to GRX Di2 over a few years — every step on this Áspero was driven by what actually made sense for the rider and the family’s bikes, not by what was newest. That’s the kind of build the shop does well: balancing goals, parts availability, compatibility, and preference into a setup that fits.
Thinking About a Custom Build?
Gravel, road, or MTB — Maklin in Scandia, MN can help you spec it and build it right.