Specialized Secteur or Tricross

Ursicles

Heya folks,

I got a charity ride in september and using that as motivation to get fit (which is much needed!) and looking to buy a bike.

I was all set on getting a 2013 secteur, but an LBS has the 2012 tricross for the same money, and not sure what i should do.

The LBS i spoke with said if i wanted to do 99% of my riding onroad the secteur wins, but if i did want to go off-road then the tricross.

Originally i liked the tricross, but was out of range (have a £700 cycle voucher at work) so the £100 saving has brought it into scope.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Planning on going down on saturday to sit on both - and as an aside - the service over the phone from Pedal Heaven was excellent and very basic which this newbie needed!

owenlars

All depends what you are going to do with it. If you are intending to be a down and dusted sportive hound riding in groups at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour where every second and every gramm count then the Secteur is a good beginners bike for this. If however you want a bike for getting around on, keeping fit and with the odd sportive/charity challenge thrown then get the Tricross.

If you get bitten by the bug you will upgrade pretty quickly anyway whichever way you go and if you start with a Tricross then when you have upgraded to uber cool carbon with Di2 shifting you will have a great Sunday bike and a super versatile Tricross which will take you pretty nearly anywhere you want to go.

slowbike

I have an Allez and a TriCross (+ one more) - the Allez is a different geometry to the Tricross and although they're about the same weight the Allez is marginally faster. I have the Tricross as a do-it-all bike and the Allez is the road ride.

Now I've got another road bike I've put the roadwheels & tyres from the Allez on the Tricross for the summer commute - it rolls a bit better, but still doesn't have the response of a roadbike. But it is comfortable for longer rides - but then so is the Allez!

Ultimately, the best bike is the one that fits you and the sort of riding you want to do best ... if I was only allowed one bike then it would be the Tricross ... purely for the versatility - but I'd still want a good roadbike!

carrock

I would buy a crux which effectively replaced the tricross in the range. Much lighter than the tri cross, better off road, better on road. Haven't sold all that well so may be able to get a discount.

Ursicles

Cheers for that guys.

I think the tricross fits the bill as most of the time its to ride to the gym and out and about, and as mentioned above if i really do start to enjoy it then i can buy something nicer next time - buying it on cycle to work scheme so can get a new bike every 18 months

luv2ride

Tricross is a good choice. I have it in single speed flavour and find it very capable on and off road as you can get bigger tyres on it as the clearances on my are huge, and takes proper full time mudguards which are a blessing in winter. Will also take a proper rack - I'd recommend a Tortec Ultralight or Velocity rack (again surprisingly useful).

Would defo recommend some biggish tyres (28mm, or 28mm+ maybe) as the comfort gains will be worthwhile, it will feel really smooth on the road even over c**p surfaces. A neighbour has just bought a 2012 model and likes it a lot.