Cross Bike Help

peggyggm

So I have been racing cross for 3 years now on an old Bianchi Axis, it's done it's job bit it is time to retire it to a pit bike. I am looking at a Columbus Wing-X and a Kinesis EVO 3, however, I can't find geometry tables for the Wing-X, can anyone help?

Thanks

Mike

andrewgturnbull

Hi there,

What size do you ride - my x-wing has a 54cm top tube, with a 56cm seat tube (measured from centre of bb to the top of the seat collar).

Cheers, Andy

andrewgturnbull

ps Here's an email I've just dug out for you from the last time someone asked about the x-wing.

andrewgturnbull wrote:

The x-wing is a great bike, I've ridden it for the last 3 winters and have been very pleased with it. It is however the only cross bike I've ever had, so it's hard for me to judge it against a Ridley, Kinesis, Focus, Planet-X or whatever.

What happened was that I had a £1000 cycle-to-work scheme budget to spend and fancied a cross bike. After a bit of research I was told that Paul Milnes in Bradford was the man to speak to, so I phoned him up and asked what he could build to budget. He recommended the x-wing as that was what he sold (not supplied) to Rob Jebb. I reckoned if it was all right by him, then it'd be ok for me. Plus I'd heard that those Belgians knew a bit about cross..

So what I got was a xwing with ultegra, frogglegs and open pros for the money. I've used it for cross, winter commuting, wet reliability rides, towing kids trailers, and even chasing my 6 year old round the local bmx track. The only thing that stops it being more versatile is a lack of being able to fit mudguards - couldn't even get race blades on it. For winter commutes I used a mtb style mud flap thingmy.

As a pure cross bike though it performs very well. It seems to be pretty light for a cross bike. The aluminium tubes have been drawn into weird and wonderful shapes - the down tube starts off round, and ends up in a huge flattened oval almost the whole width of the bottom bracket (for stiffness I guess), while the top tube starts off triangular in section, then ends at the seat cluster as almost oval with a flat underside to make it sit comfortably on your shoulder. The front of the chain stays are flattened off on the inside for greater tyre clearance. The fork is also a thing of beauty - the biggest chunk of carbon I've seen in a long time. I think this has been upgraded now to one with a full carbon steerer. Dunno if this is a good thing or not?

The cable runs aren't as neat as those on a Ridley or something, as both the gear cables go down the bottom of the down tube - I was worried this might be a problem in thick mud, but it's been ok so far. Yes the headset is integrated - I've got an FSA one in there, and replaced the lower bearings after 2 winters. I'll probably need to replace the whole thing next year though. The bottom bracket lasted 3 years, and has now been replaced too.

If you're ever across this way, drop me a line and you're welcome to a test ride - mines a 56cm if that's any use.

Cheers, Andy

ps It's survived a few crashes too - including when my ITM bars snapped at a most inopportune moment...

leonlikestrees

IS this the fork you acn buy here for £110?

http://www.paulmilnescycles.com/cross.htm



Just wondering how it fared under heavy braking? I've found some cross forks really judder under heavy braking. I'm trying to find a nice solid one at the moment.

DavidBelcher

leonlikestrees wrote:

IS this the fork you acn buy here for £110?

http://www.paulmilnescycles.com/cross.htm



Just wondering how it fared under heavy braking? I've found some cross forks really judder under heavy braking. I'm trying to find a nice solid one at the moment.

If you're using an old-school 1" headtube, Sintema Muddy forks are a good, solid carbon effort (threadless steel steerer) and don't judder. Don't know if they are still in production though, especially now that Sintema themselves are under the Kuota banner.

David

leonlikestrees

nope, I'm on nu-skool 1 1/8" ahead.

I don't think the problem is in the steerer anyway - they seem to flutter, at the bottom, fore and aft.