CX Bike Buying Advice

triathlontom

Hi,

So i have made a few forays into CX racing with a couple of novice races. Started out on my 29er, changed the tyres for 33mm ones to aid speed.

I am going to borrow a full CX rig from a friend for my first full Senior Race, and before i commit to a purchase. However i have been looking at the range of bikes and its all a bit bewildering!

Inputs are:
I will be using this to race, maybe commute occasionally on it but focus is racing.
Budget, so i can utilise my cycle to work scheme here, or go second hand. SO for a new bike its £1000 and then a used it's £600ish (i have wheels already).

I am probably going to upgrade the bike if i buy a new one, or custom build if i buy used.

So my question is thus:

What is the best deal out there on for a bike with the best frame possible for £1k - components are not important as i would want to customise and i have a suitable wheel set as it is
- should it have discs? or Canti?
- Should it have front and rear thru axles or just front?
- Carbon or Alu?

The alternative to buying off the peg, would be to buy a frame set (possibly open mould carbon) and then build up from components.

Thanks!

robertpb

For a carbon frame bike one of these http://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/xls

A bit more do it all http://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/grav ... full-monty

VamP

Sounds like you should build up a frame to your own spec. Unless you can still find one of last year's ex Telenet Fidea Ridleys, that were doing the rounds a couple of months ago - that was a great deal with full Force 1 - complete bikes but without wheels.

Frames that are on my radar that are within your range are the Kinesis CX Race (really well sorted frame with bags of clearance and option to go disc or canti) or the iplay IP-105-D if you are willing to buy direct from iplay in China. That is a better frame than the XLS IMO, although that is also an option. There's a lot of them about though.

Top of my list for when my aging frames need replacing is Trek Boone - that is £1600 just for the frameset though. Having said that, the Crockett (ALU sibling to the Boone) is really well rated, and there have been some amazing deals on last year's models going round. So that's worth looking at too. A fast lad at our club who has both Boone and Crockett prefers the Crockett. He is young though

triathlontom

@robertpb - yes like the look of the PX, the frame is the same as the open mould carbon frames but could be a good way of getting hold of an open mould, with a warranty and exploiting the cycle to work scheme

@VamP Noticed that your not bothered about the disc/thru axle thing? - I have been reading up, seems that if you want a light light bike then you go for non-disc. - My worry is that everything will go to discs in the future and i will be a bit stuck in the past. - Thoughts?

I have seen a Ridley available probably a little large for me, shame i dont think i would be able to use my cycle to work on that! and probably a little out of my price range.

Yes the boone looks like a good ride, very light for the canti one!

tgotb

triathlontom wrote:

@VamP Noticed that your not bothered about the disc/thru axle thing? - I have been reading up, seems that if you want a light light bike then you go for non-disc. - My worry is that everything will go to discs in the future and i will be a bit stuck in the past. - Thoughts?

My take on this - cantis are slightly lighter, slightly less powerful (which makes no difference in 95% of CX races) and will cause small amounts of rim wear. Discs are slightly heavier, slightly more powerful (which is of no real benefit in 95% of CX races) and rim wear is obviously not an issue. However, if you're going to get into racing, there's a good chance you're going to end up with multiple wheelsets and potentially multiple frames. Once you get to this stage, switching systems gets a lot more expensive because you effectively have to replace all your kit at once.

I went for discs, mainly so I wouldn't have to worry about rim wear. Your priorities may be different, but bear in mind that you're (probably) making a long-term decision.

As for thru-axles - a clubmate had to DNS last weekend after trashing a wheel in warm-up, because he has a thru-axle and the spare quick release wheel I offered him didn't fit. As far as I'm concerned, they're a manufacturer-led innovation that solves a problem we don't have. The only thing you can do about it is try to choose one of the hubsets that can be switched between different axle systems :roll:

VamP

What he said.

I think I am stuck in the past and not too worried about it. As TGOTB says it's a long term decision, with significant switching costs. I am happy to be in the canti camp, and my next frames will likely be canti again. My current bikes come in at 7kg without expensive components, so that's nice. There are no real performance downsides to older tech, one club mate rides a pair of 15 year old Alu frames and he's a World Champion.

The thru axle thing I'd avoid personally. Seems like a pointless headache to me.

triathlontom

Thanks for the input. Good to hear some experiences there

Good to know about the thru axles, haven't had a lot of interaction with them being time trialist background, but yes I can imagine it would be mega frustrating. I can also believe that it's all marketing, I don't know many people who race who would be so heavy as to need extra stiffness in a modern carbon fork to cope with braking load!

My bug bare with them is that they have only just come to a standard width, and consistency of having front and rear - take away is that my ride won't be featuring them then!

The disc vs canti thing is probably going to be based on me spotting a bargain second hand or going for something new.

On the drive terrain: looks like a 'X1' system is the way to go - I am typically a shimano person, but because they don't have a proper X1 set up for road, and if using discs, you end up shelling out for a complicated LH shifter than you only use for braking.

Also you can get a SRAM X1 kit of the peg

trek_dan

I built my 7.4kg racing bike for about £600. Buy sensibly and its very much doable, albeit it took me a few months to collect all the parts and I was lucky that the exact frame I wanted came up for sale on Ebay. I like Canti's anyway so didn't even consider discs and its very much easier to get a hold of canti brake wheelsets and frames cheap at the moment as you won't be bidding against the yellow jacket brigade on Ebay. I'd also recommend SRAM for CX as its easier to put together a cheap decent/robust 1x setup with a clutch mech since your can mix and match MTB parts with road shifters. The other thing to consider with buying a new bike is I know several people that have had mechanicals this year on new bikes and the one thing they all have in common is 11 speed setups. 9 or 10 gears is more than enough for CX and seems to be a lot more robust.

AllezAllezAllez

I'm facing the same question myself as the opening poster.

I started racing/taking part in the Yorkshire Series for the first time this year. I'm currently using a 12kg+ Norco Threshold, which, to be honest is very hard work when you have to carry the bike up hill.

For around £1000 the Planet X XLS seems a ready to go bike at around 9kg. I've also looked at the Canyon Cross bike which comes with better wheels, but is £2600. Also a low weight of 8.3kg vs. my current 12kg+.

I've also seen a few good prices on nearly new complete bikes on Ebay.

I also had a browse of the option of building up a Kinsesis bike.

After completing a few races my shopping list priority would be:

- Overall weight
- Wheels/tyres
- 1 x chainset

triathlontom

Totally right that collecting parts for a build over a long time is the way to go. can be opportunistic on the bargains then!

From research its looking more and more like a self build job now, seems that Cycle2Work is not the gravy train it used to be, i have seen some sites saying that they will add 10 or 15% to a discounted bike price if buying via C2W.

- Plus where is the fun in that anyway!

the canyon does look lovley and i am sure it is, but I can't justify that sort of spend!

I have seen some really innovative stuff on some bikes, like running x1 on shimano with an XT shadow RD and a Woolftooth TanPan (http://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/coll ... cts/tanpan) and the no drop chain rings.

I have realised that i might have to go for disks, basically i have a set of rims that have some minor damage to the brake surface but are fine otherwise so I kept them for use wth disc hubs, plan is to use these as they are strong and dead light

Based on that i think my fame options are looking like:

China Open Mould Frame - c£400 new
Specialized Crux E5 - £550 new
Keinesis - £550 new
or keep an eye out for a bargain on t'bay

Any one got thoughts on the above frame sets, or any around the £400 mark if used or slightly more if new?

trek_dan

Trek Crockett (good enough for Sven Nys)
Look for second hand carbon like Ridley X Night, Dale SuperX or Focus Mares CX .

I managed to get an Addict CX second hand, but think you'd be lucky to find a second hand disc version.