Tricross or Allez or Wilier!! :)

iandennis

I'm still trying to decide which to buy for my commute.
My commute is normally from the Chalfonts over Harefield hill and through Ruislip into Pinner. It's about 11 miles and all on road. Last week I found another route mostly off road, via the South Bucks way and the London Loop then down through ruislip woods. The idea of being able to commute off road is appealing but ultimately it will be slower. A tricross might give me the option to either go on or off road and be a bit faster on road than a suspension mountain bike. An allez would be fast but only for use on summer days - I have a heavy old raleigh MTB with slicks and guards for the rainy days. A wilier Lavaerdo would be a plaything for sunny days and sunday mornings. I've tried all three and liked the tricross but the brakes didn't seem much cop. The allez (elite) was ok but probably a bit too common ! The Wiler is just great.

The tricross is probably the most sensible choice but I do already have 2 mountain bikes ?? The allez would be a good sound choice as there is a Specialized concept store on my route, it gets good write ups and would be reliable yet sporty. The Wilier is just sheer indulgence
I'd use the C2W scheme for acquiring one of these and all are about £999 so diffcult to decide! Anybody ride a tricross and is it a jack of all traders

ScottieR3

I've just built a tricross up, 1st 20 mile commute on it today, and it was awesome, even went off road on the way back and it was fantastic...

See the your road bikes section for some pics etc...

Change the pads on the brakes to some bbb ones they are superb..

I've got a set of schwalbe cx comp to throw on through the summer to make it quicker for club runs etc...think I'll be using it all year round now.

Hope this helps

ilm_zero7

iandennis
it does sound as if your route may be better suited to a tri-cross, but your heart says 'buy Wilier' - fully understandable

Phate

Was also looking at the tri-cross but ended up going for a Cube X-race Comp 2011 which also sits on the C2W limit at £999. Vast majority of the time it feels and handles like a road bike but really can handle being thrown about!

Buckled_Rims

The choice between the 3 is fairly simple. If you need to put mudguards on, then the Tricross is the best bet.

I've a CX bike (see sig) and I've 25mm Schwalbe Marathons on, but 28mm would be ideal. It's fast, tough and can go to 95% of places that a road and MTb can do, plus have a full set of guards and a rack. The brakes are the only weak spot. A Croix def fer with it's disks would have been the best to get for me, but I'm happy with the Snake for many years to come.

Allez, I used to have one, great bike, probably a max of 25mm tyres if you use a crud roadracer guards, but they're little help on rough surfaces. Can actually do some rough tracks and bridlepaths.

Wllier, probably the the same as the Allez, but you'd probably want 23mm tyres on and much more road orientated.

Cyclocross tyres are are a complete pain, they're too soft and puncture very easily on the roads. In about 2000 miles on the Snake, I've never had a puncture and I've ridden some very rough tracks.

cougie

PX Uncle John would be my vote - again with the Marathon tyres on.