Plan to have a dig at cx racing this winter. Been lusting after a proper cx for the n+1 for a while.

I’m after a proper fast bike, not a cx come commuter. Hydro brakes a must. I quite like the latest 105 so doesn’t need to be an expensive groupset. Alloy or carbon.

Currently looking to get a test ride on a 15 caadx rival I the sales, which is slightly more than £1k. Dull paint job though.

what else? Don’t see, to see any tcx in the sales. That Planet X Flanders thingy is tempting too, though I have no idea of its pedigree.

Frame only an option too as I like a build

This piqued my interest the other day…

http://road.cc/content/news/161000-vitus-introduces-2016-cyclocross-range

Waiting to see what the Bowman Foots Cray is like too.

Lots of deals on canti braked CX’ers …

Lots of deals on canti braked CX’ers …

Quite. Saw a Di2 Focus the other day for £1099. Bargainous.

That aside, Focus are rather lovely, but their lower end ones have the HYRD type half/half hydro cable discs. Am unconvinced by those, seem to be taking the complications of both systems for none of the benefits of either!

Of the new, 2016 stuff I’ve seen so far, the Specialized Crux e5 X1 makes me drool. A lot.

Saw this yesterday. Full hydraulic discs, decent frame and wheels along with Ultegra groupset. Was very light and looked nice.

Dolan or OnOne would be my dilemma if I really felt I needed a cx bike…….

Wets appetite.. Light too..

Here it is;

Just over £1k at Sigma.

The new CXRACE from Kinesis makes me tingle.

Disc

or Canti

Oh and keep some money aside for some tubs. They’re the absolute nuts.

Still think my Swiss cross looks the nuts

We can’t tell unless you put a pic up! 😉

We can’t tell unless you put a pic up!

Of his nuts? 😯

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/scott-launches-redesigned-addict-cx-carbon-cyclocross-bike-for-2016-44104/

Throwing OP’s budget aside I’m liking the new Scott addict cx.

not many Disc’ed CXers in the sales, most sold out half way through the year, and there’s a lot of cable-disced bikes still going for £1500 or more. CXers seem to carry a premium over the equivalent road bikes.

Giant’s TCX is on sale at Rutland but still £1500 for carbon, 105 and TRP Spyre cable discs.
SuperX with Sram Rival is £1700 at Triton Cyclesdown from £2k. Westbrook briefly had a single Super X Rival in 54cm reduced to £1500 pop up on their site. But I appear to have bought it 🙂 I think the Carbon SuperX is slightly longer/racier than the CaadX?

Marin Cortina with 105 hydros

and

Fuji Altamira with CX1

were on my radar till the much-reduced SuperX popped up. And I saw how much a replacement CX1 rear mech or chain ring was….

Ridleys are looking good again this year!

We are having a CX demo night this Thursday at our shop. Bikehaus in Gatley. Check out our Facebook page for more info. Free beer and Frites!

£1500 for a superx is a bargain….does seem that disk brake cx’s were popular and my plan of waiting hasn’t worked.

Thanks for the note about the demo, I’m too far away 🙁

Worth keeping eye on Westbrook site, I’d been checking it regularly road bike shopping for a mate and that SuperX literally just popped up. They may find another!

Quite a few different axle standards (as with disc road bikes), the Cdale is standard Q/R, Giant have 15mm bolt thru front, Focus is bolt thru front and rear.

I recently got my first cx bike – a bottom of the range Ridley, and I’ve been absolutely frothing on it. If their entry level bike rides so nicely I can only imagine what a higher up bike would be like! I saw a few site offering the 2015 X-ride with 105 and mechanical disks for around a grand. plus they look amazing too!

Jesus. That Focus 😯

Anybody want to buy my Felt F95X CX bike?

New Canyon Inflites were released yesterday – choice of 105 / cable discs, or Ultegra / hydraulic.

I wish that I’d never seen that new Canyon with the Reynold Tubs.

Black focus bike is looking great.

How does pre-ordering from Canyon work? Does the price you pay vary with the exchange rate until they take payment and deliver? (Presuming they don’t charge until shipping?)

Rose’s offering is competitive too, but it is probably less CX race than I want

Really liking the new addict and kinesis too.

Hydro brakes a must

I wouldn’t say so for your first stab at it. If you’re doing it right you’ll barely touch them anyway (or maybe thats just me, as I never really get fast enough to need them!). I think hydros are better for an all rounder than an out and out, vomit at the end race bike. Of course just wanting them though is reason enough 🙂

How does pre-ordering from Canyon work?

I think they fix the Euro and Sterling prices at the start of the product year then that’s that. Doesn’t vary with exchange rate, and they won’t let you pay in Euro and ship to UK, much to the annoyance of us brits who are trying to take advantage of a weak Euro. So the price shown is what you’ll pay I suspect.

Not had a good look at the Inflite, have they changed it much from last season when they couldn’t seem to decide what they were trying to sell it as (mostly commuter with a bit of off road.) I’d be interested to know how the geo matches up to proper CX race bikes.

Oh and I like the new Addict at lot 🙂

I’ve just finished building my inflite up. I had a gut feeling canyon would release a new version. Dare I look?

Fast CX bike eh? On a really muddy day, the fastest bike is the one you’ve got two of. N+2 is where it’s at for ‘cross.
If you’re racing, cantis are ok. You almost never need to come barrelling into a corner and scrub off loads of speed. Aluminium frames are fine – Ian Field was British Champ on an aluminium Crux a couple of years back. A spare pair of wheels is a good idea – a general-purpose pair of clinchers and a pair of mud tubs would be ideal, but a spare set of anything is better than nothing.

That does put me off CX racing a bit, not just the investment in a second race bike, but the need for a “crew” to service and turn around a second bike. Sounds like if you don’t have that and a second bike then on some courses on some days you might as well not bother.

Singlespeed cross bike for when it’s really muddy, the reliability pays of then, and it’s lighter to chuck on your shoulder and run with.

Love mine (albeit a bit older and have cable discs not hydros like this one).

Don’t really need all that stuff, you can clearly if you like.

I do it with one bike and, erm, me. I choose tyres the night before the race/event and just go ride it.

But if doing it with any race conviction then another set of wheels would be a “nice to have” but another bike?

Nah, thats for the Pro’s or seasoned types.

That Focus ^^ has got me thinking… another CX’er for proper racing… hmmmmmmmmmm…. 😕

That sexily shot Focus looks from the huge sweeping BB like the CX carbon, the one CFH linked to is the AX alloy with 10spd DI2, which is an obsolete dead end with fiendishly expensive replacement parts IF you can find them.

I got the SuperX to try keep up with Munqechick who just got the Focus CX carbon with Ultegra disc…

I’ve found that having one bike is fine on all but the very muddiest of courses but two pairs of wheels is pretty crucial if your trying to race in all weathers.

I’ve raced an alloy crux with cantis which was great for my first year and I still have it as a training bike, I did however finish that first year thinking that I needed to sort something for muddy races – I had a number of occasions where the rear wheel clogged so bad that I could barely turn it. I considered a 2nd bike but didn’t have someone who was prepared to stand around cleaning my bikes so I decided to change to discs (I went with full hydros) and didn’t have a problem all of last season and will be on the same TCX again this year.

If I was starting tomorrow it’d be an alloy TCX with 105 hydros and a couple of pairs of cheapish tub wheels, one with muds and one with inters.

“All that stuff”, i.e., pit crews and bike washing, is necessary to be competitive at a mucky National Trophy race or the National Championships. If you don’t plan on bothering the leaders just yet or you’ll only be doing local races for fun and fitness, follow Adam Buckland’s sound advice. The worst that will happen is your bike gets a bit bunged up with mud and grass and you have to stop to pull out a couple of handfuls of the stuff. Hardly a reason ‘not to bother’.
Anyway, if you do start to become properly competitive, you can look to join a team with all the kit already. When I started doing big races, the local club didn’t have any pit gear but it was great fun to team up with other riders to share a jetwasher and pit for each other – the camaraderie was brilliant.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Keep hearing the second bike and helper thing and didn’t know how necessary it really was. Good to know.

Adam, Crux bad for mud or was it the canti’s? Had a fairly long test of one from banjo’s a while back and really liked the way it rode.

That does put me off CX racing a bit, not just the investment in a second race bike, but the need for a “crew” to service and turn around a second bike. Sounds like if you don’t have that and a second bike then on some courses on some days you might as well not bother.

It’s far from essential. Just make sure you’ve got a mud setup that has good clearance (in terms of frame clearances, tyres sizes, and tyres that clear well). Your wheels should then keep turning. Sure you’re going to lose some time carting round a few extra kilos of mud stuck to the bike, but so is everyone else. In my local league (Welsh) only the very top guys have pit crew, and some of the top ten are running only one bike.

I’ve got two bikes (the second being an old but racey Ridley built with bits out the parts bin/off the classifieds for about £350) but no pit crew/equipment, the second one is there to finish on in case mechanicals really. But it does also give me option, in really cloggy conditions, to take a clean bike halfway through the race, so that each one only has to last 20-25 minutes (I’ve never actually done this tho).

Mr B

Adam, Crux bad for mud or was it the canti’s? Had a fairly long test of one from banjo’s a while back and really liked the way it rode.

The Crux is a great bike, the mud issue for me was caused mostly by the cantis but added to by alloy frames need for the little brace between the chain stays (newer ones may not have it). IMO the handling of the Crux is super passive and as a result great everywhere that stability is required but I find it tough going in tighter areas of the course.

Horses for courses