I’m really fancying one of these as my road bike and to do a little bit of gentle off roading with (fire roads etc). I’m a bit concerned about the weight, however. Anyone got any interesting comments?

I too was concerned by the weight of the Croix and bought a Vapour Disc instead. I absolutely love it. It is incredibly versatile and I now have two sets of wheels for it, one with light road tyres and one with CX tyres.

But I like the idea of steel, i think it looks better and ‘people’ say the Croix is a really comfy ride. Which I need, ‘cos I’m old and knackered ….

I think a lot of it is in the wheels – basic deore hubs, etc.

My mate just bought a mint one from gumtree (not nicked) and it is surprisingly heavy to pick up – but riding feels lighter.

Get a mint 2nd hand one (about 700ish) and then drop 300-400 on some decent wheels.

I am thinking about stripping down my equilibrium and selling the frame and wheels now I have tried his Croix de fer

I rode a Vapour once, only on the street, and it seemed very stiff and hard – and I had toe overlap.

The Croix seemed a lot more comfy and springier, and I also didn’t have any toe overlap for some reason.

No experience of the bike but I did ride up the Croix de fer last year. I can recommend that.

Nice, but very heavy IMHO..
I don’t think its much heaveir than my Vaya, but id did feel like it was?

I’ve got one and after a year still love it! I came to it from mountain biking so although lighter bikes exist i’ve never ridden one and don’t feel like i’m missing out. Over the year i’ve used it for long day rides, short training blasts, cx rides and even my first cx race. This year i hope to put some racks on and do a bit of light touring. Only thing i’ve bought for it are some road tyres and a new bb.

On paper It might not be the best at any particular thing, but that makes it versatile and I love all the options it opens up. Plus it’s a looker!

On the road i find it comfy and it’s great fun zooming through the woods.

My current road bike is around 20lb, I guess and it feels very light to me. A Croix will weigh, what, 25lb? Maybe a bit less with some better wheels. My Orange 5’s about 30lb. I can probably live with 24-25lb. Especially if it’s a smooth ride.

Heavy to pick up but ride ace, quite happy to head out on a club run in winter on mine with full guards on and heavy tyres.

It’s not a race bike, but what it is ace for is longish rides on light trails, the road or anything in between, riding to work rain or shine, lugging around 20 kg’s of groceries in a courier bag without the back end feeling noodly or the braking being er special.

It’s all I’ve ridden since I got mine, and granted it’s winter and I wouldn’t ride anything nice, but I’m considering a second that I could respray and pimp up.

It’s just a bike that gets stowed in the kitchen that I pick up and ride to work, the pub, fifty miles to the cafe without batting an eyelid, great!

So good it’s relegated a fully custom Mercian cross bike to just neglected.

I’ve had a Vapour (non disk) and after a couple of years gap I now have a Croix De Fer. If you want fast get the Vapour, but it is a little harsh for longer rides / rough roads. The Croix is heavy – as heavy as my 29er HT and therefore doesn’t climb well, and isn’t great under power. Having said that it is very versatile if you want to do light touring and commuting. I never used either in a CX race but if you’re not racing they are both fun and as good as each other off road.

the frame is 2kg, or 4.4 lbs, so that is similar to a steel HT. The fork is going to be less than a suspension fork.

So with decent wheels, tyres and groupset it should be 22-23lbs – I don’t think that is particularly heavy.

The bog standard wheels are heavy and I bet the tires are wire, which is why I reckon it is so heavy bog standard.

I have a CdF, a Vapour and a Vaya

ride pref is Vaya, CdF, Vapour

I genuinely don’t see why it needs to be light to be fair it’s the bike that’s made me left my weenyism behind, and that’s coming from a man with a custom 17lb steel road bike ;0)

It’s either that or I just bought it as middle age kicked in…

I’d have a Vaya but the rear disk brake although practical makes me just taste a bit of sick in my mouth, **** hell that’s a shallow reason to hate a bike, but that’s life ;0)

the wheels are cheap, heavy, and nigh-on bombproof.

think of them as your ‘commuting wheels’ and fit them with marathon plus tyres.

it’s upto you what your other wheels/tyres are like…

I had one and it was my least favourite bike ever.
I bought it as a commuter and it was awful for that pupose.
The mudguard fittings were obscured by the discs and I had to fit a narrower tyre on the front because the shape of the fork wouldn’t allow for a wider guard.
A rack would have had to share the same fitting as the mudguard (if you could get it around the disc).
Mine was an early one, hopefully they have sorted them now.

No problem fitting 35mm tyres, guards and a rack on mine (2011). A little on heavy side but comfy and if you’re not racing it so what? Never tried the stock wheels/tyres though, they sounded crap so upgraded them from the off.

Just been out on my mates again and have ordered a frame and forks to build one up.

Not going to get rid of my equilibrium as it is a little different and better for long distance stuff – the CDF cockpit is a bit smaller and it is more ‘agile’. 56 equilibrium, 54 Croix de fer, but the fits seem right.

What are you building it up with, just out of interest? I thought I might get a F & F, but I’m not really au fait with road stuff. My LeMond (which I’ll split and sell) has 105 and Bontrager kit. I’d like some decent wheels, how about Hope Hoops 29ers?

I was thinking of moving the 105 stuff from the Equilibrium, but I don’t think I will now.

I have some Hope Hoops Pro3 XC6 26 which I had the front wheel rebuilt but it has been a disaster – the shop didn’t centre it and then it popped a spoke nipple which put a small buckle in the wheel, and then they left a flat spot in it when they repaired it, and two spoke nipples have gone again in my garage without me even riding it (I wasn’t riding it when the first one went) – JRA suggested the spokes might be too short! – Head for the Hills are the perps…

So I might get the 24 spoke hubs built up onto some Stans Iron Cross, along with a new rear Pro2 with 32 spokes for the mtb.

Hope hoops with crests are definitely not a good idea for the Croix, need a narrower rim. You can find discussion on this forum from a while ago.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/29er-wheels-on-a-cyclocross-bike

UK bikes depot are currently selling the croix de fer for £976.75. I am very tempted!

There’s a 56cm 2010 for sale, £650 posted, not mine.

I have one built up from frame/fork by 18bikes. Shimano 105 gearing and Hope/Easton finishing bits with a Thomson seat post. Wheels are Hope Evo hubs built onto disc only Mavic A317 rims. BB7 brakes. Not the heaviest, or lightest bike but very compliment and forgiving on the road, really irons out the bumps. I went down the 29er Stans Crest wheels route first but couldn’t get suitable tyres on for love or money so swapped them for the ones I have now. I do have toe overlap though on my 52cm frame.

I’ve been thinking about treating myself to new wheels for the croix de fer. Either Novatecs on H Plus Son rims built up by a lbs which are a little spendy or some Fulcrum red power xl 29er wheels which are only £180 and are marketed for cx too. They may be a be a little wide for road use though. Or wait a year a more road and cx disc brake wheels hit the market. Maybe hope will start doing Stans iron cross hoops, please!

Maybe hope will start doing Stans iron cross hoops, please!

Just Riding Along do them so see how much a complete build is with their build calculator.

I get no overlap on a 54cm and that has 175mm cranks I think – size 42 feet but I did get it on a vapour, which might have been a 56.

Actually I see hope already do carbon road / cx disc hoops with their rims.
http://www.hopetech.com/page.aspx?itemID=SPG477
I’ve not see them mentioned anywhere but I expect they are a little high end for my needs.

From what I can garner fro various sources, the standard Croif de Fer wheels are lighter than most of the expensive alternatives. Now I’m really confused, me. Which wheels!!!??

From what I can garner fro various sources, the standard Croif de Fer wheels are lighter than most of the expensive alternatives

what weights do you see?

Saw one of these in the flesh the other day. Very nice.

I have one, I like it, nope not light but nice to ride. 90% of the time it’s used for commuting with guards rack and panniers. I do the shopping with it some days, 2 panniers full of shopping now that’s heavy

older model but my wheels are deore hubs with Alex rims. not bloaters but not light! my Hope P2’s with 355s are lighter

I’m seeing weights around 1750-
1900 g. I guess that the standard wheels must be in this range. Maybe Shimano XT/Mavic open pro would be a good quality, but cheaper alternative to Hope?
I’m thinking 105 compact chainset, 105 mechs and shifters with Avid BB7 brakes. No idea about bars and stems, but Ribble seem to have good prices for road stuff.

Are they really 1900, feel heavier than that.

Stans 29er Crests are about 1600, which would be light.

I would get Hope Hubs rather than XT – sealed bearings versus cup-and-cone.

Miss/forget a service on the cup-and-cone and they are damaged.

I might go the Iron Cross route as tubeless is nice 🙂 Alpha 340s do road tubeless as well, but I have my Equilibrium.

FYI the stem on the 54cm I tried was 100mm.

For bars I might go for one of the Salsa bars, as here:

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/handle-bars-219-c.asp

or something similar.

I’m seeing weights around 1750-
1900 g. I guess that the standard wheels must be in this range. Maybe Shimano XT/Mavic open pro would be a good quality, but cheaper alternative to Hope?
I’m thinking 105 compact chainset, 105 mechs and shifters with Avid BB7 brakes. No idea about bars and stems, but Ribble seem to have good prices for road stuff.

Can’t remember any of the weights from when I bought mine, but the stock wheels/tyres were considerably heavier than the Open Pros I had built on Hope rear/shimano dyanamo front. A lot of this weight is in the stock tyres though.

I’ve got on very well with the Tiagra drivetrain. My bike gets used everyday (quite a bit off road) and not cleaned that often so I would be loathe to grind away expensive bits when I can get away with less. That said, I did replace the rear mech with an MTB one (as Keith said above, when you have dual panniers filled with shopping it gets very heavy!)

I have gradually replaced other bits and bobs on the bike though. CRC were doing Easton EC70 carbon posts in the correct size at a good price recently (they might still have some). I picked up some Easton EC90 bars from Merlin (I think) when they were half price, which I can recommend.

Would definitely recommend a Brooks (or SJS equivalent) saddle – dead comfy, looks great with the style of the bike. Obviously weight not a real issue with this sort of bike.

BB7s are OK but I replaced them fairly quickly with Hope V-Twin. Having said that if you do want BB7s I have a set in my spares cupboard with probably only a couple of hundred miles on them that came off my Croix de Fer…

oh yeah and SKS Chromoplast mudguards look & fit great (with a bit of fiddling!) and I would recommend them too.

Singletrack’s Mark loved the Vapour Disc so much he bought our test model. I found the ride harsh for offload and after several months on the steel single speed Day One Disc have just ordered a Croix de Fer as although I loved the Day One I wanted gears. Now just waiting for it to arrive 🙂
Reviews of Vapour Disc and Day One Disc in recent mags
http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/editors-choice-2012/
http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/issue-78/

A lot of this weight is in the stock tyres though.

I was thinking that.

if you do want BB7s

how much do you want for them – was thinking of the new lighter BB7s, but…

I am BB7 fan, got them on both my mtbs after getting hacked off with hydros.

On the road they might not be so good as on the mtb as the mtb has avid ultimate speed dial levers, so I can run a big gap between pad and rotor, which is nice.

Going to put a USE titanium seatpost on mine – I broke mine on the Equilibrium and replaced it with a carbon one and then noticed that most of the spring ‘steel’ feel was coming from the seatpost/flite gel flow saddle – maybe 1/2 inch of movement.

Going to try my middleburn duo 42/29 on it and then I can maybe use a smaller range cassette on the back with a short cage – I have a long cage and 12/32 on the back of the Equilibrium.

And that will allow me to stay using a square-taper BB 🙂

Ti seatpost – hadn’t thought of that. [googles] yeah, looks nice. Quite pricey though!!

re: the BB7s… open to (sensible!) offers. They came off a 2012 bike so I guess they’re the 2012 model.

re: the BB7s… open to (sensible!) offers

dammit – I hate that!

ok – new BB7 road with 160mm G2 rotors are £70 – as I assume that you want to keep your rotors.

And the G2 rotors are £33, so that is £37 per new rotor.

So if the condition of your rotors is 80% I will pay £37 x 2 x 0.80 = £59.20, plus shipping, for the two.

Is that too sensible?