Duties would comprise a short (5 mile) commute which is a 50/50 mix of of road and off road 'XC' singletrack smooth and stony. And then general hooning

Would like the budget low

6'3" 13 stone

Cheers

Jaycore hooning or dropbar freemince hooning?

dropbar freemince

Love it

Boardman?

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/cx/CX_Pro.html

Ridley normally release their new cross bikes in July/August in time for the new season. Crossbow is a nice bike.

I love my jake the snake, but it's a grand.

I've got a Tricross SS for my little commute. It's rather good :O)

Tim
13 stone
Sagatarian
Freecross mince

Probably dropbar but jaycore curious

Sorry I can't do this again, Deep-River is to blame. 😥

Was also thinking of going SS Fixie

Was also thinking of going SS Fixie

Genesis Day One Cross

Not sure what you mean by low budget, but I love my jake the snake too. Only 5 miles you say, would it really matter if you used a dirt cheap mtb?

Tricross singlespeed are great bikes if you can make the gear work for you (like most SS bikes I guess but slightly worse due to the road/offroad element of the ride).

For dropbar freemince stepcore i can recomend the Singular Gryphon.

Here's mine in action on one of your local trails.

Aaahh, yes I've seen good reports on the Gryphon. I like the idea of a light bike, will Gryphon fit the bill?

Have looked at the Tricross. Again favourable feedback and Andy at Two Wheels thinks I should buy a Genesis Day One off him. Got to say it fits the budget at just £300 for a complete bike

I don't think you could describe the Tricross or Day One as light bikes.

For 300 notes though you can't go far wrong.

For 300 notes though you can't go far wrong.

Pretty much what he said

Sorry, I best answer on behalf of oldgit 🙂

He/I recommend

Kinesis Crosslight5T – i have just bought one and its great
Ridley Crossbow
Focus mares
Fuji crosscomp

all about £800

Hope this helps

Just want to put a big shout out for Landcruisers, super tough fast and comfy for the dry conditions. Just put mine back on for a pre 3 Peaks shakedown.
Very cheap as well.
Agree the Kinesis is a great all rounder with a good cx pedigree.
Singlespeedstu, keeping an eye on the Kites development as a second crosser/winter road bike. Though that cute little Traitor Crusade is hot it's heels.

How did the Kinesis shape up size wise? Theres a wierd gap their sizing.

I've been looking a this kind of thing for a while now. My thoughts, fwiw:

Basic Tricross is £700, pretty hefty and has weird touring type gears.
Giant TCX 2 is is lighter, has standard roadie compact gearing, RRP £750 though I've been told 10% could come off that
Kona Jake at £770 looks quite good
Merida and Scott apparently do CX bikes in the £700-800 bracket
Genesis Vapour looks nice at £850
Ridlay Crossbow looks a bargain built up comapred to the frame only price.
Planet X Uncle John seems popular, can built it up as much as you can afford.

Bizarrely, the current favourite on my list is a Kona Dew – £300 from Evans, pretty sure it will do your proposed route!

So I really need to spend £800…?

What sort of weights are these ~800 options?

Thanks for the replies

What about the Ragley Rodwell? Been thinking of one of these myself, but not seen much about them

The Merida CX bike is really good for the money and comes in around 22lbs

I dithered around for about 1 month trying to decide what cx bike to buy around 1 month ago. The trouble is, theres alot of excellent choices all around the £800 mark, all with good specs and good frames.

Like someone said to me , I think it comes down to which bike you like the look of, as they are all pretty much the same ish around that price.

To me the only decent option below £800 was the Focus mares comp, on sale in wiggle for £600.

I bought a Kinesis for £800, its great to ride, it weighs 22.5 lb