After a lot of deliberation for a new do-it-all bike and narrowing it down to a cx, I finally placed an order on a Rose Pro DX Cross 3000. It arrived this weekend, after 4.5 weeks of waiting (standard delivery times from Rose, though they did list the frame as in stock and then told me it wasnt!) and it has been for its first ride. It was well packaged and had been well set up with no need to fiddle with cables etc. I liked the fact your can spec frame size, bar width, gear options etc.

Untitled by ritcheyp20, on Flickr
Sorry for the rubbish, out of focus phone picture.

I’m impressed! I wasnt sure how I would find a cross bike, especially ordering without trying it (though I never tested my Nicolai and Cotic), but it is good. We did 20 miles yesterday both on and off road and I didnt find the ride harsh at all (was a bit worried about about the aluminium, but it has a bit of flex, combined with the carbon post and fork). It was confident off road and accelerated on road with me able me to pull away from my much fitter husband on his rigid mountain bike. Brakes felt positive in the wet and mud – which is very impressive considering how scared I am of my road bike. Internal cable routing is nice and helped for the short bit of carrying. Overall I am very impressed. I know a few people have asked for a full review as there aren’t many in English, so I’ll be sure to post something a bit longer when I have done a few more rides on it.

For info, I got them to change the rear cassette to 11-32 (11spd), which also needed the mid-length rear mech (I am unfit and its hilly here). I also got them to put a woman’s saddle on it, which was about £30 difference. The stand over height is quite high – I ordered a 54 cm and I have a 32-33″ inside leg and have a couple of inch clearance. The husband is an inch shorter and would also want a 54 cm, but got left with no stand over when he tried it.

Nice 🙂 Cross bikes are brilliant.

with me able me to pull away from my much fitter husband on his rigid mountain bike

Oh, I’ll bet you loved that 😆 How long until he gets one?

About the standover, I don’t have anywhere near the clearance on my cx that I have on my mtbs – they’re kind of different in use so I’ve never found it an issue though YMMV depending on how/what you ride.

I wondered how long it would take for that lovely white frame to get muddy…! 😆

with me able me to pull away from my much fitter husband on his rigid mountain bike.

Oh, I’ll bet you loved that How long until he gets one?

Maybe… 😛

He is now looking at a PlanetX one.

I agree, don’t think stand over is going to be an issue. Just a bit different to my road bike as that has a sloping top tube. I can see me getting some good winter miles in with this.

Oh, I’ll bet you loved that How long until he gets one?

Doesn’t bother me. As above, I’ve been looking at the Planet X XLS

Yeah yeah 😉

😛

BTW if you haven’t already seen it, there’s a decent review of the XLS here (though not completely independent)

http://crossjunkie.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Planet%20X%20XLS

I discussed it with the writer when I was looking at an XLS but it turned out that the short head tube would probably be an issue in my size but it sounds like it might be good for you if standover could be an issue, p20

(FWIW, I got a Chinese carbon frame direct)