Budget build Croix de Fer

andygo

After stuffing my bike into the back of a car because I couldn't stop in time :roll: - I decided my next bike would definitely have disc brakes.... I'd wanted a Croix de Fer for years but the cost of a new one was way out of my price bracket. Even getting it on a bike to work scheme worked out at around £800 and decent used ones seem to go for 600-800 too. I'd always wanted to build up a bike so I thought I'd get a CdF frameset and use as much from my old one as I could.
This is the result......
Some of it is new - frameset, headset (Grand Cru) hubs (Novatec 521/522), spokes, chain, cassette, cables, tyres.....
Some has come from forum classifieds - brake calipers (Spyre), rims (Velocity A23)
The rest - saddle, seatpost, handlebars, stem, BB, crankset, shifters, derailleurs - came from my old bike (halfords carrera virtuoso).
The rims have graced these pages before - last seen a Genesis Fugio in south London.
It's still a work in progress....I plan to upgrade the saddle, handlebars and shifters at some point. I'm also lusting after a Velo Orange crankset http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/ ... 4x48t.html
So far the total build cost (excluding parts pilfered from the Carrera) is £630...including postage costs - which I think is reasonable. Obviously if I'd had to buy the parts from my old bike it would have pushed the budget up to the same as getting one on the cycle to work scheme.....but where's the fun in that....also the brakes and wheels would have been lower spec.
Thanks to people who've contributed to this forum for sharing your knowledge and experience...

gethinceri

Get off the Taff Trail and onto the road mate, that surface is cr4p! Nice work on the bike, though, what did you spend on the disc setup?

ugo.santalucia

Nice one... how do you like the A 23?

bendertherobot

Nicely done. I maintain that, and this applies to pretty much all Genesis bikes, it's far better to build your own.

andygo

Cheers guys....am liking the rims, they seem light enough - althought it was a right bastard trying to get a tyre onto the first one - but I think I've got the knack now. The Taff trail is part of my regular commute hence the need for something robust. I got lucky with the Spyres - someone on another forum had abandoned their build and was selling the bits. These were reissued after the recall so came with compressionless housing and spare pads - he was asking £95 for the lot. Otherwise I was looking at getting some BB7s - new ones are around £100 a pair, good used ones on ebay seem to go for around half that - but often don't have a rotor. The other option I was looking at was Shimano CX77 or R517. Evans has a deal on them and there's a bike shop in N Wales which sells them (with rotors) on ebay at a good price. I'm informed by a teccie at madison that the only difference between them (apart from price) is the colour and the weight.
Disc brakes are a revalation by the way - so much better than rims.

ugo.santalucia

The discs look massive, are these 180 mm?

bendertherobot

andygo wrote:

Cheers guys....am liking the rims, they seem light enough - althought it was a right bastard trying to get a tyre onto the first one - but I think I've got the knack now. The Taff trail is part of my regular commute hence the need for something robust. I got lucky with the Spyres - someone on another forum had abandoned their build and was selling the bits. These were reissued after the recall so came with compressionless housing and spare pads - he was asking £95 for the lot. Otherwise I was looking at getting some BB7s - new ones are around £100 a pair, good used ones on ebay seem to go for around half that - but often don't have a rotor. The other option I was looking at was Shimano CX77 or R517. Evans has a deal on them and there's a bike shop in N Wales which sells them (with rotors) on ebay at a good price. I'm informed by a teccie at madison that the only difference between them (apart from price) is the colour and the weight.
Disc brakes are a revalation by the way - so much better than rims.

What tyres are they? Hard to make out. Reflective patch suggests Vittoria but can't see label.

Good choice of brakes IMO. I hope to get a Hy Rd tomorrow. Going to put one on the front first.

Did fancy a pair of BB7 Road SL but the price is bonkers. Just silly.

ugo.santalucia

Bender, have you seen my crazy tyres?

bendertherobot

Those are nice!!! Challenge?

andygo

ugo.santalucia wrote:

The discs look massive, are these 180 mm?

No they're 160s...or at least that's what says on them I haven't measured

I would have liked HyRd's....until I saw the price. I've got friends in the US who could post some over (avoiding import duties) but even then they're still pretty expensive. The spyres have had good review too though - even with the recall.
Tyres are radonneurs as recommended by Ugo - they put up a fight going on though.
The reflective line is really handy though to make sure they're sat correctly. On the first run out I thought I'd messed up my wheel build until i realised it was the tyre sitting unevenly on the rim....
They handle the Taff trail and trails around Castell Coch ok and seem to run quite well on tarmac. I'm used to 23c or mountain bike tyres so hard for me to tell really.

One think I didn't realise was just how close the front disc is to the front fork - it's less than the width of a 1p piece. Is that normal or have I done something wrong?

ugo.santalucia

No, I did have some Challenge, but they scuff super easy...

No, these are touring tyres... Panaracer pasela TG folding 32. Unlike the Rando which fit as a 29 mm, these are 32 for real... they are also lighter (350 gm) and plusher, although I suspect puncture protection will not be as good and probably not as durable... still, nice tyres and a touch nippier

RideOnTime

pictures ok (bit small)...