ONE of TWO BIKES, your opinions

j.p.seagull

I'm looking for opinions to help me, I'm thinking of a new bike, and moving from straight bars to drops. It'll be used mainly for short commutes (4miles or so each way), a camping tour once or twice a year, and I'd like to loose abit of weight, so something that will encourage me to (1) do some training, (2) do some audax type rides,
I seem to have narrowed the field down to two options, (1) Specialized tricross now they've stopped fitting it with cantilevers and use mini v's instead. relatively light, sporting enough to have fun on, tough enough to commute and tour. £699
(2) Edinburgh country explorer. heavier, but cheaper, again good for commute and tour, perhaps less sporty. However It's got disc brakes and I have to admit i have a gimick/gadget weakness. if it's good enough to throw yourself down a mountain with, it's
good enough for me.
there are very positive reviews for the tricross, none for the explorer. any one got one
and what do you think. :?:

j.p.seagull

Anyone.....I feel lonely now.......

mtbcommuter

I haven't got a clue which you should choose.......I just felt sorry for you being ignored like that.

Hopefully one of the knowledgeable ones will sense your plight.

:roll:

j.p.seagull

thank you.....

Jamey

Has the 2008 Tricross (Sport, if it makes a difference) got mini V brakes then? I could've sworn they were something else when I test rode one briefly last month (or maybe the month before, I forget).

blorg

Tricross could be a good option for this; I don't have one but I've seen them with mudguards and racks. Good point on the brakes, cantis with road levers are less than effective (I am waiting on Mini-Vs myself to replace my cantis.)

I use a Van Nicholas Amazon for similar to what you want to do (light touring) but have a racing bike for the one-day stuff. I suspect BTW that you might want to keep the touring relatively light on the Tricross.

Cycling Plus did a group test a while back that compared I believe the following, that you might also consider.

Most reviews here

Ridgeback Horizon £500
Specialized Tricross Spt Triple £700
Planet-X Kaffenback £750
Setavento SLR Touring £775
Van Nicholas Amazon £1669

Belv

I'd go with the Tricross because:
1) It's one of the bikes i'd seriously consider if i ever get enough spare money to replace one of the old ones i seem to replace parts on every week.
2) If you are doing (or aspiring to do) touring and Audax rides then I would consider lighter weight to be important.
3) I wouldn't consider disc brakes to be necessary for any of the applications you list plus they are heavier, *can* require more maintainence and would be harder to perform a running repair on when they break down in the middle of nowhere.
4) In my opinion the spec of the Tricross more than justifies the £100 higher cost.

BernieG

I have a Tricross and have just fitted a rack to go on a touring holiday next week...it seems ok to me, thus far.....


You can also fit road wheels on it if you want to go a bit faster when you are carrying less.

Go for it .

garryac

HAve a look at A Kona Jake The Snake as well..good value

meanwhile

Belv wrote:

I'd go with the Tricross because:

3) I wouldn't consider disc brakes to be necessary for any of the applications you list..

..Unless any of those activities are going to be carried in the rain, in the presence of traffic.

If the bike is for work, don't forget to check on the Bike 2 Work scheme. Huge refund.

It sounds like the OP will be buying from the Edinburgh Bike Co-op. They do test rides, so I'd go mostly on that.

The other possibility from EBC would be a Courier Disc, with Midge bars (a type of drop bar designed for MTBs) slapped on and Dia Compe 287V(?) drop bar levers - these are designed to work with disc and linear pull brakes. I'm not sure how rack compatible the bike would be, but it would save hundreds compared to a TriCross.

don_don

Can't help with the Edinburgh bike, but I can recommend the Tri-cross, which is about as versatile as you can get. I had one for about a year but sold it when I realised I really wanted a more 'roady' road-bike, as it were! Its a very comfortable frame, strong wheels for touring/commuting and still pretty quick.

The mini-Vs may have solved the problem, but I would try and have a test ride and see if the carbon forks flutter under hard braking. I think other owners had the same problem and it seemed to be caused by the 'zertz' elastomers in the fork legs. Not dangerous though, just annoying.

Hope this helps. BTW, I can't see the point of discs on the road from a practical point of view, but I suppose they fit the lower maintenance (not no maintenance!), urban bike ideology.

blorg

The fork stutter is likely the brakes rather than the fork- cantis are known to cause this, and I have it on my own (non-Specialized) fork with cantis; have never had it with calipers. Mini-Vs attach to fork in the same way as cantis but nonetheless I have read reports they do eliminate the stutter.

BUICK

I love my Tricross. I am also getting guards and a rack fitted this week. I have experienced the 'stutter' under braking a couple of times but just tweaked the brakes a bit and it stopped happening. It's the 07 model I've got, and the brakes are adequate rather than impressive - I can understand it being a worthwhile upgrade.

don_don

The fork stutter is likely the brakes rather than the fork-

I tried it with 3 different sets of canti's and plenty of tweaking, buit still got the same result. There was a thread on here ages ago when the same discussion came up about the Tri-cross. Unfortunately I never got to try a different fork.

Having said that, I really don't want to put anyone off buying the TC, it was just an occasional annoyance on an otherwise excellent bike. They may even have changed the fork design by now.

Just a thought j.p. - what about buying both?

carlosanderama

I've recently bought a GIant SCR2 from Edinburgh Bike Co-op and it's brilliant...

I use it for shortish commutes and the odd longer ride. It's great for the road and I know it will encourage you to ride more.

You can fit a rack and tour on it as well when you need...

SCR1 would be even better!

Mr P

I fitted a fork mounted brake cable hanger to my (canti) tricross (to replace the steerer mounted one) and the stutter went away....thought about mini-v's but reckoned I'd lose the mudguard clearance.

blorg

don_don wrote:

I tried it with 3 different sets of canti's and plenty of tweaking, buit still got the same result. There was a thread on here ages ago when the same discussion came up about the Tri-cross. Unfortunately I never got to try a different fork.

Sure, my point is that this is a general problem with low-profile cantis rather than something specific to the Tricross. You will find it mentioned with regard to countless bikes with cantis (at least with road bike levers) and I get it myself on my Van Nicholas Amazon (ITM Visia carbon fork) and converted Specialized Sirrus (steel fork.) I am pretty sure I had it with a previous steel-forked bike too but it was too long ago. It's _possible_ that the Tricross is worse than I get and that the fork on the Tricross exacerbates the problem (I don't have one) but I suspect part of it is just that the Tricross is a very popular bike that used to come with cantis. Just google for "cyclocross juddering fork cantilever" and you'll find plenty of references to how general a problem it is! Thankfully you will also find people saying that mini-Vs fixed the problem, so here's hoping on that point.