Best cross bike for £1000

chrisǃ

Hello,

I'm looking at getting a cyclocross bike for doing some racing this autumn/winter, therefore I want a 'racier' bike rather than one you'd put racks on and commute with. Two bikes have taken my eye so far,

Planet X XLS 105
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/CBP ... cross_bike

Giant TCX 2
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/giant-tcx-2-14

Obviously the big difference is the carbon or ALu frame. Is there any other bikes around the £1000 mark that stand out?

Dozzina

The Planet X is a lot of bike for the price. Crossjunkie does a good review of the frame too. http://crossjunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... s-new.html

I have the Dirty Disco but would prefer the geometry of the XLS had it been out at the same time.

MarksMintness

If it helps I really like the look of the Boardman team xc. Lovely frame and decent spec for a bike which with British Cycling discount would come out at less than £860...

chrisǃ

Thanks for the replies.
Re the cross junkie review he seems to rave about it, I've had a good read of the blog and there's some good info. He's a Planet X rider though so it's no surprise he loves the XLS!
Re the Boardman, it does look good but Halfords are only showing a size XL on their site, and I know first hand that their service is shocking.

muttley_109

I've ordered the tcx slr 2. Just waiting for it to be delivered to the shop now.
What sold it for me was the brakes, cable operated disks but dual piston. Also the frame apparently only weighs 1200g I think which seems pretty good for an ally frame. My caad 10 comes in at 1100g.

durhamwasp

We've got 3 Ridley's in our team, and you see quite a few Ridley X-Bow's in the league we compete in. Excellent quality reliable bikes at a good price.

springtide9

Chris! wrote:

Thanks for the replies.
Re the cross junkie review he seems to rave about it, I've had a good read of the blog and there's some good info. He's a Planet X rider though so it's no surprise he loves the XLS!
Re the Boardman, it does look good but Halfords are only showing a size XL on their site, and I know first hand that their service is shocking.

You are right about cross junkie and the XLS - his views will be biased. Shame no BR review... As an owner of the XLS (force build) I do agree its a great bike and recommend it.

Take a look on the singletrack forums as the XLS has been discussed there. I've seen a few complaints from people using alloy crossbikes as road bikes stating the ride is very harsh.... I can say the XLS rides on butter while still being very stiff in the BB area.

Good luck on your search. I also looked at the Kinesis Pro 6 which was my second choice.. If you don't need/want disc brakes, the Cannondale looks good also.

rubertoe

Its a bit over budget but what about a Canyon?

They look very well specced for the money.

High end alu, will be better than low grade carbon.

springtide9

rubertoe wrote:

High end alu, will be better than low grade carbon.

Although I'm not aware of any low end carbons that are being used for Cross bikes.

The XLS is a £600 carbon frame: http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/FRP ... s_frameset

Maybe not a £2k frame, but as PX, Boardman, Ribble etc have shown with their lower end carbon road frames (the PX SL is only £400), entry level carbon frames do outperform similar priced aluminium alloy frames (£600 is the same price as PX were selling the Guerciotti X-Crow)

uptheswa

check as many as possible and buy the one that fits best

also look out for good mud clearance, seen a lot of new bikes come to a standstill and have seen club members getting rid of them as they got bogged down while older or lesser bikes carried on

chrisǃ

I think the XLS is winning for me at the moment. After moving from a Specialized Allez to a BMC SL01 on the road side and seeing how big the difference from aluminium to carbon is I think I'd rather stick with carbon.

springtide9 - how long have you had your XLS? What's the build quality like? Also what wheels did you get? Sorry for all the questions!

springtide9

Chris! wrote:

I think the XLS is winning for me at the moment. After moving from a Specialized Allez to a BMC SL01 on the road side and seeing how big the difference from aluminium to carbon is I think I'd rather stick with carbon.

springtide9 - how long have you had your XLS? What's the build quality like? Also what wheels did you get? Sorry for all the questions!

I have an SRAM Force build and it's very well put together. The frame works very well with the natural carbon look but with all black components (with a splash of white) it does look either (1) stealth or (2) a little dull.

Overall the frame finish is very good and has got a lot of positive comments from friends.
Some photos at: viewtopic.php?f=40044&t=12902723&start=60

I've now had it a couple of months and it's really grown on me. It's currently being used as a winter bike and is proving itself to be fast (<2% slower than my road), comfortable (combo of the frame and tyres just soak up all the bumps) an extremely stable.

The only let down are the wheels. They are bomb proof, don't actually look that bad, but are probably 2.3-2.4kg at a guess. I plan to get a lighter set for the road and use the existing wheels with cross tyres.

Probably I'm going to get a set of these (as they are light and cheap)
http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... imano.aspx

Although some handbuilts with the red Novatec hubs look like they'd brighten up the bike a little:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTB-Novatec-R ... 3f23f785e7

Not had much experience with cross bikes - but have an old Jamis Nova. To compare the two, the Jamis rides like a tourer where as the XLS position is more like my road/race bike (similar drop for me) but with a shorter top tube (there's about 10mm difference) making it more manageable offroad (not that I take the N2A offroad)

I'd highly recommended it and at £999 it's a steal with 105 IMO. But this is obviously my opinion and like other 'budget' carbon bikes, does seem to attract the same criticism that if a carbon frame costs less than £2k, it must be junk!

chrisǃ

Cheers for the reply Simon. I've managed to reserve an XLS, good timing as well as they're not expecting stock until November 8 now!

springtide9

Chris! wrote:

Cheers for the reply Simon. I've managed to reserve an XLS, good timing as well as they're not expecting stock until November 8 now!

Great news. I had to pre order mine but only had a two week wait (think they are struggling to make enough of them). I do hope you are happy... will feel guilty if not.

Even at £1299 I feel it was a bargain.