Well, after all the recent broo-haha over CX as a fun way to keep the wheels rolling, I only went and flamin well bought one!

Local dealer sourced this rather nice machine for me (62cm Cube Cross Race Disk, perfect fit), got it yesterday and took her out for a spin this morning on a seriously cold but beautiful and snowy Basel am.

And of course, it is adorned by the very same pedals in this thread!
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/will-my-m540-spds-ever-die-hurrah-for-stuff-that-just-works

Observations from having my first ever drop bar bike since I was 12 with a Peugot 12 speed racer?
1) I need to lose more weight to do this thing justice! 👿
2) By jesus it accelerates fast, magnificient 😀
3) Surprisngly stable, but still with a really tight turning circle
4) Quite a bit sketchier over frozen/snowy/wet off camber roots/branches than an mtb 😯
5) On hard pack snow that has many foot prints and tractor tracks forzen in, it is really quite brutal – there is a place for suspension and 2.4″ bouncy rubber! 😆
6) Quite sore on the heels of my hands over that same terrain – and we are talking about 6km of that rutted frozen snow (see Rule 5 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/ 😆 )
7) Superb fun! Can’t wait to explore more riding with it.

Cheers to everyone, inc GrahamS thread, + Dirt mag and ST mag recent articles, for peaking my interest.

Kev, (now worryingly close to thinking about more bib shorts and roadie tops with pocket on the back! )

Looks good, my hands hurt on my crosslight for a while until I slammed the stem.

It will look/be much faster if you slam the stem!

Bars look like they are angled up a bit too?

My gut might protest at slamming the stem too much at the moment, but prepared to give it a go.

Cheers for the tip about the bars, migth be to do with the photo, does this one still make you think angled up a bit much? (cheers for the help).

without seeing you on the bike we cant say if its angled ‘too much’

I would say that if you can bend over and touch your toes with straight legs then you can almost certainly have it lower, if you reach your mid shins (like me!) then leave it as it is!

you will slowly adapt to the position and you can then adjust once you are used to what you have now

Seat looks a touch down at the nose?

Looks awesome. I pick up my shiny new Cube Cross Race tomorrow morning and this post will ensure that I don’t let the light sprinkling of snow here in the UK become an excuse to avoid riding it this weekend. And don’t slam that stem – it is a silly idea.

Great bikes. I’ve got a 2011 X Race Pro, and it’s rapid. I reckon yours has the dual benefit of being able to stop as well – mine only has canti brakes.

Ooh nice one. Looks good.

Think my last “racer” was a Peugot when I was about 12 too – before I binned it for my Raleigh Striker 😀

62cm? – are you pretty tall or did you just want more of a roadie position.

I went for the 58cm Rose. Recommendation, based on my inseam, was 56 but looking at the geometry the top tube and reach on the 58 was still smaller than other 56cm bikes I’d been fine on.

I looked long and hard at the Rose based on your thread Graham, but my LBS hd some of these in stock (amazingly! as most places couldn’t get them till end April!).

Yes, I am 6’4″, normal leg length for my height. And Graham, I think your gearing option of 32 cog will be plenty of gears. They really are surprisingly sprightly machines! The Rose should be ripper as well.

Alasdair, yep, the new shimano brakes on these are extremely good, I’m well impressed!

Reckon I could swivel the bars down a bot more, was a wee bit not quite right when in the drops in terms of brake lever reach.

Thanks for the responses folks!

CX in the snow = fun..

Quite sore on the heels of my hands

Saddle positions are a personal thing but maybe drop it 5mm or so lower and flatten the saddle? May let you sit a bit further back, take your c of g further back and reduce pressure on hands that may be having to push you back. Sliding saddle back a little may also help. Sometimes hand / wrist discomfort isn’t actually about bar position.

I looked long and hard at the Rose based on your thread Graham, but my LBS hd some of these in stock (amazingly! as most places couldn’t get them till end April!).

Yeah fair shout – the downside of the Rose is that I have to wait 4 weeks for it. 🙁 But it’s ski season anyway so I have other things to occupy me till then 🙂

I’m quite tempted to go for a bike fit session when it arrives. Get my position sorted before I get into bad habits.
Sounds like you might want to try one too.

FFS why can’t I have one like that? Or a Guerciotti build 😀

Must find a way to justify the purchase (and room in t’ shed).

I might do a wee bit of tweaking here and there with position, does ECM to make a huge difference.

When I got it the saddle felt pitched too far back compared to my mtbs, but I may have corrected it too far.

Cheers for the inputs, will update on conclusions as I get them. More snow forecast for tomorrow, so might be a weekend with the kids on the planks for us also!

Kev

Spacemonkey, just do it! 8)

Hmm, if all goes well with the house move I may just treat myself (might have to “hide” the bike in a false ceiling though!)

Very nice, committed mountain biker but really like the idea of cx for winter training. What inside leg are you scot, lm same height,no real idea what size bike other than reading on here.
What’s slamming the stem?

Hey bob, not really measured it properly, but 34″ in trousers. So, kinda average for our height? As also a committed mtb’er, except for commuting, so the appeal of something a bit different is also great.

Slamming the stem. I believe, would be turning it over and putting spacers on top. As I said, my gut might preclude that being comfortable, as it would likely occupy the space normally used by my lungs!

Kev

Cheers kev thanks for the insight. Stick with your gut, slamming just does not seem right.
Enjoy the bike, but now I have the itch too. Possibly one day.

I’ve been looking at these. The spec says it’s under 9kg, is that right?