Cyclocross buying advice.

Simonhi

Dunno if this should be in here or Your Bikes but I'm gonna go here and if Mods wish to move that go ahead.

As above really, having been bitten hard by the road bike ever since building up this I am now in the market for a cyclocross bike (once I have sold this and this) , the bike will also get occasional use during the fillthiest of winters on the road, maybe something with braze-ons to I can easily fit decent mudguards.

I am wondering if disks would be the way to go, I quite like the Avid BB7 fitted to my Singular and was wondering if any peeps out there have experienced both cantis and mechanical operated discs ??? Is there a huge difference in performance ???

I think I would like to stay with Campag groupset where possible and therefore may find a problem in finding a 135mm disc compatible hub ??? Any ideas ???

Also, would it be worth going for a 132.5mm spacing frame so that I could easily swap out the disc wheels and use canti's on the road with a road hub ??? (as Singular Peregrine).

So many choices, and I know F@&k'all about cyclocross other than I want to keep riding a road bike position but for the gentle type of XC stuff I have been doing on my MTB for the last few years.

Really like the on-one Disco but then would have to forego mudguards and possible use of road wheels as it's just not made for them. Also, thought about another Enigma which looks like it manage the cyclocross and road but without discs ???

All advice and ideas gratefully recieved, post up your CX bikes too to maybe give some inspiration ???

Cheers,

Si :-)

bendertherobot

Is it for cyclocross? Or, if you like, for "off road."

I've bought a Genesis Croix De Fer for the latter reason (well, mostly a foul weather bike).

woolwich

I use a Kona Jake for all year use and light green laning, towpaths bridleways ect. Perfect for the job. Having looked at your other bikes, I think you'll be really disappointed with canti's after having mechanical disks. I upgraded the jake to a disc front and would never consider going back.

Take a look in the workshop section, I think someone has a thread about getting a dt swiss hub to accept campag for 135. I think Hope do a conversion for theirs too, so there are some options.

I would forget about mudguards if your going to do even a bit of off roading. They are a liability if the lovely dry lane your on, suddenly becomes muddy and you spend more time pulling mud out of the chain/seat stays/mud guards than moving forward. MTB crud catchers would do the job without clogging.

petemadoc

woolwich wrote:

I would forget about mudguards if your going to do even a bit of off roading.

I Agree with this! I've had my cross bike for a few years now, it gets used for commuting, winter road riding, training and cross racing amongst other things. I've tried all sorts of mudguards from fixed SKS cromoplastic things to full on MTB guards. The MTB guards look terrible but are the only thing that you can realistically use if you plan to go offroad at all. I have a cheap clip on rear MTB guard for commuting and wet rides just to keep my bum dry.

Cantis are terrible, but they just about do the job required. If you can afford discs then yes get them, the difference is BIG.

The Planet X dirty disco is a great bike. Not much more you would want from the perfect cross bike, maybe some tubs and a lighter groupset.

So in short, forget about mudguards on a cross bike, they'll just give you a headache. Disc brakes are a lot better than cantis.

There was a cracking looking cannondale cross bike in the classifieds section a few days ago.

bendertherobot

In terms of crossing, I'd avoid guards.

I have no issues, greenlaning, commuting etc, on my Day One Cross. I just made sure I had the size of SKS above the tyre. So I have the 28-35c ones for 28c tyres rather than the 23-38c ones.

jordan_217

PeteMadoc wrote:

I Agree with this! I've had my cross bike for a few years now, it gets used for commuting, winter road riding, training and cross racing amongst other things. I've tried all sorts of mudguards from fixed SKS cromoplastic things to full on MTB guards. The MTB guards look terrible but are the only thing that you can realistically use if you plan to go offroad at all. I have a cheap clip on rear MTB guard for commuting and wet rides just to keep my bum dry.

I've found the Zefal Swan Road good for this. As it can be attached/detached quite quickly - I just take it off altogether when I'm planning to get really muddy and wet, although it does allow for a fair bit of mud clearance and stays put when I'm bouncing around on non-technical (flatish) towpaths and bridleways. It's not offensive to look at either.

woolwich wrote:

I use a Kona Jake for all year use and light green laning, towpaths bridleways ect. Perfect for the job.

+1. I Have a Kona Jake and use it for the same stuff. I found my MTB was just overkill for the local terrain and I wanted a second, Winter/foul weather road bike - a CX bike was an ideal compromise. I sold my MTB on here and bought the Jake for less than £500 on the C2W scheme - absolute bargain IMO.

CX bikes are as versatile as a potato waffle and are great fun.

As others have said the biggest draw back is the limited stopping power of the canti brakes. I've tinkered with mine to improve them slightly but I haven't mastered the dark art yet. Although this shouldn't really be a problem now as disc brakes are commonplace now that they are UCI legal, which eliminates the only real con of this type of bike.

petemadoc

I thought I'd found the perfect easy clip on and off rear mudguard solution recently. it was a Aldi £8 special, worked brilliantly. Then last week it broke :evil:

Fecking Aldi

I'll give that swan a try. Any guard that can be quickly removed without any tools will do.

Monty Dog

I have three CX bikes - CX race with cantis (TRP CX950), Breakaway CX clone with mini-vees (TRP 8.4s) and one with discs (Avid BB7s) and they all work well but there are relative advantages and disadvantages. I still run rim-brakes on my CX-race and Breakaway bike because grip and light weight is more the issue rather than stopping. The TRP 8.4s are really good - powerful enough, a doddle to set-up and adjust, no brake judder. I use the disc-bike for riding single track and technical trails - the absolute brake power helps when you're on the edge of a series of 2 ft drop-offs. I've also ridden the Southdowns Way a couple of times on it because the brake effort is pretty hard on the wrists otherwise. The downside of discs is weight - I'd certainly not want to lug all that extra weight around a race for 60 minutes. In terms of mudguards, I used Crud-Catchers on the downtube and rear wheel to keep the worst off. Anything with less than an inch of clearance would be hopeless in muddy conditions and would cause you to grind to a halt.

Simonhi

Cheers for the advice guys, certainly food for thought.

Monty, would it be fair to say that if you didnt race you would prefer discs over canti brakes ?

Still undecided, practically I know they would be great apart from the infernal noise the moment a bit of grease gets on the discs (easier than ringing a bell to warn people ahead) but then I think I might find cantis tough on longer rides.

Decisions, decisions !!!

ugo.santalucia

Discs are good if the pads are set perfectly on a cross bike... BB7 are very good brakes, nearly as good as hydraulics... you need the pads very close to the rotor and the piston side a bit further apart than the inner side... they will get noisy if dirty and that will be annoying, but it won't last long.
If correctly set up, there is more stoppage power than in V brakes, if badly set up they are worse than the worst brakes you ever had... Long rim lifetime is the obvious advantage, which means you can invest in quality ones, maybe a touch lighter than the usual cast iron rings CX bikes come with. I have recently built a set with Ambrosio Excellence/Novatec 711-712 hubs and ACI DB spokes for road use and they are impressively light, even with the rotors on

Simonhi

Cool ... I'm gonna start looking for a disc frame then ..l and ideas on getting a Campag cassette onto a 135mm disc rear ??? the only option I can see is DT, possibly Tune or Royce ???

Cheers again for the advice,

Si :-)

ugo.santalucia

Simonhi wrote:

Cool ... I'm gonna start looking for a disc frame then ..l and ideas on getting a Campag cassette onto a 135mm disc rear ??? the only option I can see is DT, possibly Tune or Royce ???

Cheers again for the advice,

Si :-)

Also hope pro evo2 with campagnolo pro3freehub... If you stick to 9 speeds you can happily run a shimano cassette.
A cheap option for 10 is shimano freehb and campagnolo spaced shimano cassette from marchisio

Chocolatebike

I'm very late to this thread but I hope this helps.
Enigma will make you a disc compatible frame (I have two) and they can customise it to meet your needs.
My "light" bike has 135 mm rear spacing and clearance for quite wide tyres. I'd guess up to 32 mm on the back, maybe larger. It also has rack fittings although I've not used them.
Perhaps because of the clearances, the frame works well with Race Blade XLs and it's also easy to take them off when they're not needed.
Royce make a Campag disc rear hub (135mm). That's what I have. Hope's Pro 2 Evo can also come with a Campag fitting.
The "light" bike has Campag Veloce 10 speed levers.
Both of my Enigmas have BB7s. They're fantastic in all conditions and the "light" bike is still on the original pads after 6300+ miles.


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