I've been allowed an "n+1", now my research begins

burnthesheep

I've been allowed to get an "n+1" cyclocross bike for my birthday. The compromise was on budget and that it must live in the barn instead of in the bedroom.

But, I'm basically looking at $1000 new or used. I do plan to try to race. There is a fairly active season where I live. I do though, also plan to use the bike in the off-season as my training bike while riding gravel. I also want to do a few gravel grinder events in the 50-100 mile range.

In this price in the US, there's some things to consider new and used.

I'm looking for advice on where to best allocate the $1000 within the bike. This seems different off road versus with a roadie, so want to consider that.

I've seen brand-new CX bikes from Nashbar for $800 with 105 components and mech discs. Not sure you could get hydros for $1000.

Local to me, you see the following CX bikes come up used for around $1000:
-Crockett's and Boones
-newer Haanjos
-Soma Wolverines
-TCX's

The Crux's local to me all seem to be pricier. The nicer bikes in that price range, used, all seem to be 11spd but with canitlevers. I was told hand strength being tired in a long gravel grinder may be a case for disc brakes.

I've also heard the type of rider you are may depend on the bike you get. Do you power up hills or carry more often. Etc.. All I know is that I'm 5' 9" tall and am a decently light rider with about a 4.0 w/kg from my roadie numbers.

So....basically my questions are:
-If you had to choose between newer and lower budget bike with mech discs vs older higher end bike with cantis.......which way would you go? Assume newer bike is alloy and heavier and the older is something like Ultegra and full carbon.

-Is hydro worth it over other considerations?

-How popular is tubeless now? I'd think that would be a good choice for CX usage given the popularity in the 29er world.

DeVlaeminck

I would go higher end with cantis mainly because decent cantis are easily as good as mechanical discs and a lower end bike will be a bit if a tank which you do feel in cyclocross with the repeated accelerations. I would definitely go tubeless by preference because tubs are a royal pain and clinchers will limit you in racing - I should add here I've never used tubeless but they sound like they give te advantages of tubulars without the drawbacks.

veronese68

DeVlaeminck wrote:

I would go higher end with cantis mainly because decent cantis are easily as good as mechanical discs.

I can only comment on my own experience which was middling canti's (Avid Shorty's I think) as against BB7 mechanical discs, the BB7's were much better. I know people have had trouble with bottom end cable discs. The irritation with the cable discs were a pulsing from the rear brake when braking gently, possibly a warped rotor, and having to adjust them for pad wear. I changed to a Parabox hydraulic convertor and the brakes are better and self adjusting, the pulsing went as I suppose the fluid allows the pistons to move in sync so the movement isn't transferred to the lever. I would expect full hydraulics to be an improvement on that so I really would try to get full hydraulics if possible.

trek_dan

DeVlaeminck wrote:

they sound like they give te advantages of tubulars without the drawbacks.

If you ever get them to seal properly, then once they are sealed they don't burp racing

I'd also agree on high end canti bike if for racing. See if you can get an older Scott Addict or Dale SuperX.