New Bike Dilemma

cgfw201

Been meaning to buy a CX bike for a couple of years and now finally getting round to making it happen.

I’ll use it for
- CX races (20%) – gave up with road crits after seeing one too many broken bones and bikes, so want to get back into some safe( r ) racing
- Off road riding (60%) – after 5 years of road riding, I want to mix it up a bit and take some paths, gravel, mud, etc to discovers some new places
- Commuting (20%) – general bad weather bike for getting to work in London. Currently use a fixie which I’m going to sell.

Got around £1300 for this, and have come to three totally different bikes, would be interested to get some opinions

1. Cannondale Slate Apex 1.
a. Available for £999 now, down from £1800.
b. I like the novelty of the lefty fork
c. It doesn’t have any front suspesnsion like the more expensive Slates, does this mean it’s no better off road than other CX bikes?
d. An issue a year ago was that there were limited tyre choices, however Schwalbe seem to have a pretty full range of 650b tyres now
2. Rose Pro Cross Apex
a. Big fan of the orange
b. Looks like a really good all round CX bike, well reviewed
c. Most expensive
3. Whyte Glencoe
a. Can’t work out if it’s a ‘gravel’ or more off road friendly bike? Seems to be more road-focused than I’m after
b. It looks the nuts
c. It’s quite heavy

Any thoughts? Think the Slate is most likely due to price and payment options on wheelbase which are rather useful.

Cheers

fat daddy

cgfw201 wrote:

d. An issue a year ago was that there were limited tyre choices, however Schwalbe seem to have a pretty full range of 650b tyres now

do they ??? .. I can only seem to find the G-one a bunch of commuter tyres and in 2018 the Bite .... but thats pretty much it.

you got a link to a 650b 38-42mm tyre that will handle a bit of mud

cgfw201

fat daddy wrote:

cgfw201 wrote:

d. An issue a year ago was that there were limited tyre choices, however Schwalbe seem to have a pretty full range of 650b tyres now

do they ??? .. I can only seem to find the G-one a bunch of commuter tyres and in 2018 the Bite .... but thats pretty much it.

you got a link to a 650b 38-42mm tyre that will handle a bit of mud

I know these are popular on Slates, not full MTB but a bit knobbly
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schw ... prod154966

These seem to be the most popular knobbly option
https://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/componen ... yre-p12862

fat daddy

thankyou very much ..... I am also debating the Slate and have got to the point of "tyres" and what size frame would I get.

doolie

GT Grade CX? Currently around £1k at a few places (Rutland/Wiggle).

cgfw201

Going to pull the trigger on the Slate I think.

Can race it, can ride in a pretty wide range of conditions, it looks cool and it's under £1000.

Do prefer the Rose but finance options and extra cost are big limiting factors.