Hi all. Beware: Newbie alert.

I have a confession – I’ve gone from wanting to spend up to £300-350 on a second-hand decent bike (or crazy new bargain) to lusting after the Croix de Fer (and missing out on a couple of S/H models). Now I’m seriously considering splashing out up to £1,000 on a new one, waiting for the right time to pounce as the 2017 discounts roll in as the 2018 range arrives.

However, I know there are some very decent alternatives out there and I think I’d be happy with single speed even, given that I’ll be commuting and going out for a muck about and long rides on the odd weekend. I’ve eyed-up the Day One 10/20 (and the TdF), but I’ve also spotted this:
Charge Plug Enduro, hydraulic disc brakes, single speed, “40% off a price that it never was” at Wiggle for £509.99. The only thing is, it’s not a steel frame and it’s not Genesis (or particularly comparable all round). I’ve read nothing but good things about the Reynolds frames used on the Croix/Tour de Fer 20 & 30.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/charge-plug-grinduro-single-speed-adventure-road-bike

On SS, I’m happy to have a bike with less to go wrong as I’m new to tinkering (happy to watch and learn from YouTube tutorials, mind) and I’d been riding an ancient fold-up Dahon with Sturmley-Archer hub (3) often in one gear. But I don’t want to buy a SS only to potentially no longer need it for commuting (may happen soon) and finding that actually it would have been a good idea to have gears for weekend stuff after all. I do want to do some mini UK touring in the future, too (again, I know SS would be fine but still). I know I don’t want a standard road bike – I want to hit some dirt etc.

I could get a Day One 10 2016 for £420 or the 20 for £490 (I know these use Genesis’ own steel), or I could spend £400 more on a 2016 Croix de Fer 20 (or even up it to the 30 as I reckon I’ll get one for under £1,000).
I’m still scanning the auction sites in hope, of course. I nearly grabbed a bargain S/H 2016 ’10’, but that fell through and I missed out on a 2016 ’30’ for £700 as travelling 150+ miles alone by train hoping a private seller would keep it for me put me off, funnily enough! I’m still tempted by the 20/30 though.

Apologies for the long message. I keep to-ing and fro-ing. Part of me thinks ‘get the Plug’, the other says ‘don’t you dare’. I’m also looking at people’s lovely winter bike jobs on here and eBay – also tempting and probably all I need. The part of me who wants to know what it’s like to own a brand new bike for the first time says ‘splash out, you ruddy deserve it’.

Would you touch the Grinduro with a barge pole?
Is a Croix de Fer 10/20/30 worth that £210/450/500 more with a decent discount?
Right, I’ll shut up now.
Thanks in advance.

The 2017 Croix de Fer are reduced now at many online stores

My only reservation with the Grinduro is the alloy fork (although a big tyre will negate that somewhat). That and CdF’s are always going to be in demand s/h, I suspect the Grinduro would be harder to shift in future (at the end of the day it’s still a cheap alloy road bike with some quite expensive brakes and no gears).

Left of field, if you fancy touring and some off-roading, have you considered the Genesis Vagabond?

thisisnotaspoon – Those were my thoughts, too – there’s no doubt that CdFs hold their value pretty well.
I had thought of of the Vagabond – it came onto my radar a little later, but I’ve been up to my eyes in researching (I started off looking at road bikes and I was swimming it all) and Genesis already had such a lovely range of models for me eye up but I loved the “frankenbike” term they’ve pushed. Do you own one or know anyone who does?

ElShamino – ’tis true, and I’ve found some good prices. Have you seen some of the prices for the XS? Silly prices there – ‘S’ should be right for me, I know some people play about with stems etc. but at 5’7-8″ and 31″ inside leg I didn’t bother considering XS). I’ve not had luck getting a test ride booked as I’ve been too busy but hope to over the next few days.

im waiting on a 2018 croix de fer from madison as a replacement for a faulty rapide rl2 disc that i had bought.

hopefully it’ll arrive soon

I did have a drop bar’d mtb many many years ago, and quite fancy a vagabond now but looking for a Gryphon instead as I want to run it fixed.

Not got much to add, but I am loving my Plug 1, same as the Grinduro but rim brakes basically.
For the money it’s light and fast, and the best thing is how little money it would take to make it lighter and faster.

Looking forward to gravelling it up at some point.

Always go hydraulic discs or rim brakes imo. Cable discs are rubbish and expensive to upgrade.

Got a croix de fer and a vagabond. Both lovely bikes, got the cdf set up more road based. The vagabond ride does feel a bit special though, definately try both if you get a chance

Wouldn’t bother with the Genesis as they’re dead heavy.

Get a Pinnacle Arkose, or one of the 2018 Charge Plugs

https://grit.cx/news/2017/07/chargeplug_2018

I wouldnt say always go hydro discs I had trp hylex on one bike and bb7 Road on another and tbh I preferred the bb7

That said have bb7 on one mtb and just bought another set to swap with deores on my other one

I used to have a charge tap alfine and it was a very high standover and a very short toptube made worse with a stock silly short stem. It never felt right tbh. I’d definitely try before you buy where possible

Yo,

I made a similar post a few weeks back, I was arguing over a Croix de Fer or a CAADX for a N+1 nob around bike.

One thing that got me was that everyone was saying the CdF is dead heavy, I’d try and see one in the flesh to verify this for yourself as when I picked mine up I was surprised how light it was in comparison to my Giant Trance (which is a burly thing with tonnes of upgrades, dropper, 2.4 tyres, hope 35W wheelset, big brakes etc etc).

The CdF still feels like a whippet to me on and off road due to the ruggedness of the trance.

I’m not saying it’s light at 11.9kg (large), but it’s still light in comparison to a full bounce I’d say.

The CdF is a great bike, I’m very rough with my bikes and spared the CdF no mercy on a recent XC loop and it performed brilliantly. My only gripe would be is that the paint chips for fun, I’ve got a few chunks out of it already.

Hope this helps anyway.

That Charge looks a pretty good buy for £510, especially if you swap out the alloy fork for a carbon one.

There probably are straight steerer carbon forks out there that would accommodate the 40mm Nano tyres it comes with, but there is always the option of fitting a tapered lower headset and then using a tapered fork, of which there are several on the PX website at decent prices for example.

I think the Charge frames have integrated headsets, is it possible to go up a size with those?

OP I’ve sent you a PM

Are you able to have a test ride on both Small and Medium in the CdF? FWIW I used to have a Small, am 5’5″ with short body and long legs. You may be on the cusp.

Hi cinnamon_girl – thanks for your comment.
I can’t for the life of me track down a Croix de Fer S or M near to me – it’s both the worst and best time of year to go bike shopping (availability vs price reductions!).

However, I did sit on a Pinnacle Arkose, Mens, Medium which is meant to be for 5’7″-5’10” riders. I found that comfy although I didn’t give it a test ride (may go back) – but from sitting on it, there was a cm left maybe, toe-to-ground wise so potentially could have had the saddle ever so slightly higher.
Going by Evans’ geometry chart for the Arkose, it looks like it’s very close to the Medium Croix de Fer – the standover is higher on the CdF but there was some give and standover isn’t particularly important if everything else seems ok.

I started off thinking I’d be a Medium, then checking the size chart and trawling through forums etc. in lieu of being able to try a CdF, it seemed like I’d be a Small but I’m back now to thinking a Medium. I guess I could wait for the 2018 models to come in and hopefully try one.
Still could be swayed towards a Day One, but I want the Reynolds 725 frame and at least the TRP HY-RD brakes that the 20 offers. I’d actually be prepared to plump for the CdF 30 if I could get it for around £1,000. I’d eyed up a CDF30 2016 at that price but figure that I might as well go for the CdF20 2017 for £50-100 less being that the gears would be on par.

The hunt for the bargain and the right size continues…

Always go hydraulic discs or rim brakes imo. Cable discs are rubbish and expensive to upgrade.

I’ve been using cable discs for 16 years and completely disagree. YMMV.

Ahem

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/yet-another-new-bike-day

The reason I went with the Grinduro is thats its just easy to stick in the shed, then take it out again and ride it. Low maintemance. I took it out the orher night for my first ever CX experience and didnt get battered to death at all. Comes tubeless ready also. Brakes were very good in all regards with reach adjusters also. I have road bikes and wanted so,ethimg different thats mainly for a bit of fun but scratches the CX itch.

The only very minor gripe is having to carry a spanner around in case of a puncture. Im in search of a smaller lighter tool…

At the current discount on Wiggle its a keeper for me.

FWIW I use one of these. They’re about £2 and weigh a fraction of a Jethro Tule. If you’re more fussy about size and weight you could hacksaw the other end off, though the rounded lump does help with leverage.

asile321 – it’s a nightmare isn’t it! Why not start a new post asking if any Small or Medium TdF owners would let you have a sit on theirs? I’ve found folk on here to be really helpful.

Alternatively any upcoming bike shows may be worth investigating?

Good luck with your search. 🙂