It's been years since I last checked what's going on in the bike market. I bought my Pinnacle Arcose almost 10 years ago. It came with Shimano 10 speed STI shifters and a XT M770 rear derailleur. Everything was working ok, except the TRP Spyre calipers. I tried changing the housing, cables, pads – but they were still crap. So I found some antique Avid Juicy brakes on ebay, a flat handlebar, SLX shifters, XT derailleur, and convered to a flat bar. Problem is it's boring. I like drop bars more. I've been thinking about converting back to drop bars, but I need better brakes. It looks like the cheapest option would be Tiagra 4720, but I don't like the levers. The next best thing seems to be GRX400. I don't have enough space to fit a GRX front derailleur, but I undestand the 4700 series has the same pull ratio – so I can use that in the front. For the calipers – see lots of 105, GRX and Ultegra options.
Is GRX400 the most cost effective solution in 2026 if I want a 2×10 setup?
I hate what Shimano did with their groupsets and it doesn’t look like there have been any improvements since the M770 series.
by Spiritual-Rip1253
6 Comments
Microsoft sword
you can do cues 2×10 with microshift sword in the back
I have GRX400, and it’s pretty solid. CUES might give it a run for it’s money on future-proofing if you’re starting from scratch, but you’d need to replace cassette, chain, etc.
Tiagra 4700 and GRX400 are compatible, so you can mix and match parts from those. I bought a GRX400 take-off groupset, and that bike came with a Tiagra 4700 front derailleur and road-chainline crankset. For calipers, your bike appears to use Post-mount, so I’d go with BR-M6100 since that’s on the Shimano compatibility chart for GRX and road levers. [https://productinfo.shimano.com/en/compatibility/C-499](https://productinfo.shimano.com/en/compatibility/C-499)
Cost effective? Best is used or something Chinese. I used Sensah, they were OK. Other people have used Ltwoo or Microshift. IMO the quality upgrade to Shimano was worth it if this is your main bike.
I’d see if you can find a new take-off OEM setup or a groupset that somebody is upgrading. Tech changes fast enough that there’s always somebody buying new crap, so take their 10 speed setup with a smile. My sensah setup was 10 speed, and it didn’t give up that much to an 11 or 12 setup
Manchester? Yeah, the 10 speed grx system is probably the best price to performance, especially used. Just don’t get used rx400 calipers, they’re bad. There’s also AliExpress stuff, have a look at tracevelo YouTube channel for details
It’s wild that you went from TRP Spyres to Juicys because you had problems with the Spyres.
I’ve literally done it the opposite way around multiple times because of Juicy’s being leaky, binding pieces of poo.
I have seen Spyres seize up though, particularly in the inside of the caliper where you adjust the inner pad. Otherwise, they have always been brilliant mechanical brakes in my experience.
As far as your return to drop bars, the biggest issue is the brake/shifter levers, they’re so bastard expensive! I’d get whatever might be compatible indexing wise, and is the right price. Even potentially buying a crashed bike with working shifters and matching up to whatever needs replacing.
The supplier to the UK for Shimano, Madison, sometimes has mental full kit deals on groupsets, so if you have a decent LBS, give them a visit and have a chat with them with your specs to hand. Some of the full kit deals are a better price than a random person selling just a pair of brake/shifter levers on ebay, used. They also have just drivetrain deals too.