Recommend a CX Bike?

richtw

Right been off the road for a few weeks now due to weather - can anyone recommend a decent CX bike that I can use as a winter bike/ cx bike?

This has probably been covered a thousand times before but a search yielded nothing....

Budget about £1200 ish!

Thanks

Supergoose

Worlds your mussel at that price point.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16377974

Frank the tank

Recently purchased a merida cross bike for about £680 and is great fun and a great entry level crosser.

bigpikle

Boardman gets good reviews and a club mate has one he raves about. I got a used bike which I recommend as if you plan to race it then it'll get trashed in no time and you'll be gutted you had a nice blingy bike in the first place!

Really like m Cannondale CAAD9 cx but not sure what the current model is.

cougie

Planet x uncle john - great bike !

Mark Alexander

Ridley's are great.

hammerite

There really is a lot you can get for that price.

Just take a look at the gearing, a lot of cross bikes are being sold off the shelf with 50/34 as they're now popular for use on the road/towpaths etc.... for commuting, but the 50 is far too big if you want to race.

Mark Alexander

Ridley

Monty Dog

There's a huge choice - popular ones include Planet-X, Kinesis, Ridley, Kona and Specialized amongst many others.

Points worth considering if planning to use it for more than just CX is make sure the frame has bottle cage bosses, mudguard and rack eyes for versatility. Generally people run a cross frame a little smaller / shorter for improved standover and keeping the weight even between the wheels.

Most at this price point feature an alloy frame with Tiagra/105 components, but you might be able to get a full carbon frame if you go to someone like Paul Milnes cycles and then use this as the basis for further upgrades.

FransJacques

> £1200 will get you a CAADX + Ultegra at Evans - if you can get one. These promise to be tremendous bikes b/c most Cannondale's are.

< £1200 will also get you a Mares Comp with Ultegra from wiggle - another great package. Bet it won't be as light as the Cannondale but I've not seen the 'dale, no one has in the UK 'cept industry types. Which I'm not any more.

Lastly, £1200+ will get you the new Terra-X frame from Condor + a basic build group and wheelset. Have a look at the Condor option.

There is more variation in CX bikes than in road bikes making them tough to buy - with a road bike you get the lightest / stiffest thing you can afford, end of. CX bikes vary between heavy or rather overbuilt frames like Marin, Kona, or Genesis to lighter frames like Pro-Lite, Giant, or Dale (or new Focus?) to middle of the road like Kinesis. Also there are two schools of thought re: BB height - low makes for good cornering but having to run over all barriers vs high which does the opposite.

Good luck - I finally settled on a Giant TCX frame and will race it at Hearn Hill this weekend on it's maiden voyage...