Trek Crockett 5 or Giant TCX 2 or Specialized Crux Disc

angrynortherner

Hi,

I currently have a cantilever Crux and want to get a disc bike for the coming season.

Narrowed the choices, Trek, Specialized or Giant - any opinions welcome.

Paul 8v

The Giant seemsto be the best value out of all of them to be fair

angrynortherner

Agree - the TCX is the best deal, could buy it and a set of wheels for the cost of the others. But... I'm worried about the specific seatpost design - given the wear and tear of repeated remounts in races I'm concerned breaking a post could be expensive and a pain to find a replacement .

tom3

What size is your crux? ;-)

angrynortherner

It's a 56 and it's up for sale - pm me if interested

Paul 8v

Is it not just a normal round one? Giants pictures are cack to be fair, they only ever have one picture of the bike!

angrynortherner

No - is a bespoke D shaped one - it's a clever design as it ensure that the saddle is always straight - but it's carbon and I'm 80 ish kg so suspect me remounting over time could break it.

Paul 8v

I wouldn't worry too much, they're designed to take heavier people than you! I wouldn't mind a D shaped one, at least you'd know your saddle was always dead straight. Doesn't carbon have a very good fatigue life, I thought it did?

I'm looking at the Giant myself and I can't find much near that spec for the price. The other similar one is the cube but that doesn't have the through axle which I must admit does appeal

mikey2341

How much for the Crux?

FransJacques

Crockett all the way - unless you're talking about the newest TCX with the thru bolt hubs.

The problem with the TCX is it's not a fast-feeling bike due to the geometry. A team-mate and I both had them and sold them.

The new Crockett is interesting b/c it was inspired by pro races (Compton and Nys) - people who know their onions. Chances are you'll appreciate what they appreciate.

The Crux is heavy and has slow steering b/c of the slack head angle, plus you have one already so like Cheryl Crow says, a change will do you good.

angrynortherner

Thanks for the advice guys, just ordered a Crockett

Paul 8v

What was the main difference in geometry with the Crocket FransJacques? I've looked an on paper they seem quite similar. I am a big fan of Treks to be fair but it's £400 more for the same spec so it would need to be a big difference! Also what sort of size tyres can you get on these? I wanted about a 33 for racing and a 35 (Or as big as I can get) for other riding like gravel trails.

angrynortherner

The trek has a lower BB height than the Giant and shorter chainstays. Based on a very short test ride of the Crockett it's slightly more responsive but the geometry of the two is very very close. The trek and giant both feel very light, especially compared to say the CAADX cannondales.

Honestly I couldn't tell much diff between the giant and the Trek, it mainly came down to me preferring the looks of the trek and not liking the non round seatpost on the Giant.

Paul 8v

Cool, perhaps they've changed it slightly since FranJacques rode it as they re-vamped their range for 2014 and now the Revolt does the gravel road/touring thing.

I will be using mine for commuting but it will be offroad mainly so I'd rather have something super quick handling so when I race it it's more responsive, the Fort I have at the moment is a bit of a whippet, I rode the revolt and it was the difference between driving a Mk1 Gti and a bus.

The Trek definitely looks better but it's slightly out of my price range, I'm hoping they will reduce them soon as the 2015 11spd models will be out.

FransJacques

If you're talking about the new TCX vs old TCX Giant has gone the US-east coast inspired geometry route and lowered the BB which does wonders for high speed cornering, the scariest part (for me) of cross races.

The last canti TCR Advanced that LvdH rode was a beautiful bike but had a nuts-high BB (55mm drop?). The issue was that Giant never published BB drops so it was hard to know exact figures. I tried my best to measure the drop on my M/L TCX (2010 model) but never got a reliable reading.

The other trend is to sharpen up front ends to 72 degrees or more. Again to help with tight courses.

The outgoing TCX suffered from long stays as well but this was good for touring. I loved the bike, don't get me wrong, I won some prize money on her, but my new carbon bike with a lower BB is just amazing to ride.

From the last analysis of geo I did, the Crockett (and by extension Boone) and the Van Dessel Aloominator are defo 'on trend' to the max on these three fronts (ie. BB drop, HA, CS length).

Please show us some pix of the Crockett when you get it, i hope it's not too heavy but discs always add >500 grams to a bike. Even Nys' mechanic guessed it was somewhere north of 600 grams with a cost no object set up. You can search for the Boone pro-bike review on CN.

angrynortherner

Pictures will be on as soon as it arrives!

The TCX still have a higher BB and longer stays than the Crockett (on closer inspection the CruX and Crockett are identical) - the Crockett is quoted as frame weight of 1250 in size 56 and it certainly felt lighter than my current bike.

FransJacques

BTW, the skinny on the fate of ALL 2014 Giant TCX (alu or carbon frames) such as this model(http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... cross_Bike) is that the frames were produced in the factory but the bike are in warehouses b/c all of them relied on Sram's hydro brakes which of course were all recalled. Hence the full, final bikes never got to stores. If someone can find one in a store, call me.

Sources say what Giant does in this case is take all the frames, sandblast the 2014 paint off, paint them in 2015 colours and build them up when Sram releases it's new hydro disc road groups (which will be in time for the 2014-15 cross season).

If anyone can confirm/deny this rumour then I'd be keen to know your thoughts. The above is from a large SE dealer. All I know is I have never seen one under an amateur nor a pro who's not Lars. I wonder what he was really riding.

angrynortherner

The Giant store on London Wall has the TCX 1/2 in stock (I've seen both) and I saw them building a bike as well. Additionally they quoted lead time on 1 week on an M/L

If you want a CruX disc with the new hydro SRAM then bike scene are knocking them out for 1200 quid as 'ex demo' - these have to be the residual stock which couldn't be sold this year.

FransJacques

thanks for the info, didn't know a store was there.

i bet the landlord is happy - that was the old Cliffor chance building and it's been empty for 7-8 years now.

rents per sqm are up but so many city buildings are empty, 2 of our former buildings are ghost buildings.

btw, i hope the angry northerner didn't challenge too many cowering, southern-softy, flabby legged city mamils to a head butting contest :-)

Paul 8v

I think I've fallen for the Ridley X Fire now, a bit more expensive but it looks awesome, going to try it out tomorrow :-)