As above. I like the feel of steel frames. The Cotic one looks good. What other steel cross bikes are on the market?

i love my Genesis, but it’s no lightweight.

(mostly down to the world’s heaviest/strongest wheels)

Genesis Day One
Genesis Croix de Fer
Charge Filter
Surly Cross Check
All city
On One Pompetamine

To name a few..

You might be very disappointed if you think that all steel framed bikes ride like ‘steel’ supposedly should…

Gunnar Cross hairs:

http://www.gunnarbikes.co.uk/

IF Planet Cross

IMHO many of the modern steel bikes are not far off gas pipe. My Cotic X certainly fits the bill. You will see that the manufacturers never give any real info as to what they are made of, gauges of tubes etc. There may well be an exception but I am damn sure that most of them are sub 531 in quality and also heavier than 531. And nowadays that’s now’t special.
My old style Kaffenback is better but nowhere near as light as my old 531c Raleigh that’s at least 2 sizes bigger. Forks often are even cheaper and nastier. Spend very little eg Kaff and accept the bonuses or spend a lot .

Going by the weight of my Cross-Check it isn’t gas pipe, in fact it isn’t made of tubing at all, it’s solid rod.

Gunnar Cross hairs

I just picked up a 2nd hand Crosshairs frame. Tis lovely.

Crosschecks are butted tubing, not sure exact spec but certainly different to their LHT model. Whatever it is the ride is really good.

The on-one pomp is a good sscx bike but i found it much harsher ride than the check, the fork on the on-one is especially harsh in comparison.

I have just built up a croix de fer and it is 22.5 lbs with pedals and some possibly redundant gel padding under the tape on the bars.

It is nicely springy, and more so with a titanium seatpost on it.

I decided to build it after a mate bought one after I suggested that it would be better for him than a road bike (lives in Malverns).

I tried it, felt the springiness, and decided to build one rather than something from aluminum.

As I suggested to him, it is best to look for a 2nd hand one, and they normally go for 700ish.

If you don’t like it you can sell again for not much loss. If you like it you can spend another 300-400 on new wheels/tyres which will help convert it to something that could be used as a boat anchor (actually it is only something like 26-27lbs in standard form)

Mine is a 54 whereas my Equilibrium is 56.

I think that is about right as the croix de fer is more nimble for offroad.

Note that the Genesis CDF is supposed to be stiffer and not so springy compared.

Either genesis they look amazing

I meant ‘from a boat anchor’ !!

Having owned various steel-framed CX bikes (and several Alu ones too) I’m musing over getting Rourke or similar to make me a frame this year, in order that I can get a high-end quality steel frame at an affordable cost.

I used to race (when sponsored and living in California) on Paul Sadoff handmade Rock Lobsters (which are nothing like the Merlin RL’s we get here in UK) and Bontrager CX bikes. Both of these were top quality steel frames, and the ride quality was infinitely better than the steel frames I’ve owned since, like Cotic X, Kaffenback, Pompino….. although to be fair, these budget frames are not comparable to their higher end brethren: they are “CX-look-a-likes” than real CX frame, catering to the commuter/mudguard market.

Looking at what’s available today it seems no-one makes an off-the-shelf decent quality steel CX frame. While some of them look nice (Cotic X, All-City et al) the tubesets are just nasty and IME ride like planks. Some of the geometry from the more MTB-oreinted companies can be very strange too… the X for example is really nothing like a CX bike – it’s a mountain bike masquerading as a CX bike.

a mountain bike masquerading as a CX bike

I tend to think of it and bikes like it as ‘all road’, not CX.

As you say, pure CX frames are dsigned for one thing, going round a muddy field for 1hr+1 lap – it’s fairly limited market.

Designing a bike to do a bit of everything from commuting to light touring to mucking about in the woods to riding the local bridleways is a different job and the one that most of these bikes are built for. So they do tend to be ‘over built’ for racing and also have different geometry.

They’re also partly designed for mtbers lookign to add a bit of road so tend to cater for their ideas on handling and geometry rather than someone who’s out on the local chain gang twice a week?

Looking at what’s available today it seems no-one makes an off-the-shelf decent quality steel CX frame.

tend to agree, but does this count? Ritchey Swiss Cross?

as the owner of a charge filter, i tend to agree with mattsc and digger above, namely that modern steel frames do not compare well with a vintage 531 frame from even 10 years ago.
i used to have a terry dolan 653 road frame and even accounting for the extra weight from discs and sti levers, the difference in ride is frankly pretty depressing.
if i was looking for another cx style frame now it would either be custom steel (brian rourke, or similar) or something like on one dirty disco.
IMO, if you just go onto a website and order the size you want off the shelf it will probably be gaspipe.

I like to think of my X and Kaff as rough stuff bikes . CX is racing and they are not for that by a long way. However they both work nicely for back roads, green lanes and my daily blast around the gravel.

Love my recently built up Croix de Fer – though it’s definitely in the all road category rather than a CX race bike. If I’d realised how much fun they were I might have spent the extra on those beautiful Shand bikes, and not just because of the great ‘Stoater’ name.

For the record my 56 cm Croix de Fer frame weighed in at 2.15kg and the uncut fork 0.956kg.

as the owner of a charge filter, i tend to agree with mattsc and digger above, namely that modern steel frames do not compare well with a vintage 531 frame from even 10 years ago.

531 is 1950’s gas pipe with thick walls and small O/D. A modern oversize steel frame (deda eom, Columbus spirit, 853 etc) is a totally different kind of ride, a lot stiffer and a lot lighter, things have moved on a lot since lugs, 1in head tubes and 7 speed.

531 is 1950’s gas pipe with thick walls and small O/D. A modern oversize steel frame (deda eom, Columbus spirit, 853 etc) is a totally different kind of ride, a lot stiffer and a lot lighter, things have moved on a lot since lugs, 1in head tubes and 7 speed.

Yes things have moved on but most of the Steel bikes around now aren’t EOM, Spirt et al. they are cheap gas pipes. current bike is Platinum OX and is a lovely bike, but the 525 it replaced was nothing like it. Both steel and both fairly modern.

I tend to agree as I did right up there in my first post that ‘steel’ isn’t desirable in itself.

I can’t help but think that a lot of bikes are being offered in steel just because the companies know that lots of people believe the mag guff about steel’s feel despite the fact that only some steel frames feel that way.

I’d be interested to know if this is right, but I note that most steel nowadays is oversized (relative to say 80s-90s steel) but I’d be interested to know if the tube thicknesses are less to balance it out or as I suspect, they’re not a lot thinner since skinny butted tubes were already getting close to as thin as you’d like before they start to buckle or get too delicate for normal use. If that’s the case, that would explain the lack of spring from many modern steel frames.

I should probably add (because I might well be sounding anti-steel) that my current 3 mtbs are all steel. Not because I chose them to be steel but that’s just how it’s worked out. None of them (90s Kona Kilauea, 853 inbred, Singular Swift) are particularly springy or steel feeling FWIW.

If I wanted ‘steel feel’ nowadays, I reckon I’d go for carbon. YMMV.

I have an old strange planet x which was basically a cross bike version of a Kaffenback, possibly built for a sponsored rider. I would say that a proper steel frame would be better in terms of weight, comfort and speed. However I have always used it as a rough stuff, through the woods, sort of bike and it has been great. It has even been good on road with full guards in the winter. With better brakes, it would be a very good contender for a do it all bike if you could only have one.

One thing I have noticed is that with half decent components, it is quite a lot livelier, and with good components there is not too much difference in speed to an average road bike.

I like to think the Singular Kite rides pretty nice and smoothly.

Bontrager CX bikes

I’d (probably) sell my soul for a Bontrager CX – gorgeous frames.

I would sell a kidney for that swiss cross.

Dont forget discs get banned from cross racing soon ,should you care about such thngs

The Merlin Rock Lobster 853 was the last seriously light (under 2kg), decent quality, seriously good value steel MTB frame I can remember.
PA’s, Pipedreams & Souls are still well built frames, but the PA & the Pipedream are strong as opposed to light & the Soul isn’t the cheapest.
But those are MTB’s, not cross bikes.

I was brought up on secondhand 531 road bikes, but they were never THAT cheap new.
The lighter ones weren’t amazingly strong either, I know plenty of people who managed to mangle 531 frames.
Yes, they were lovely to ride & I do miss them, but is something like a Genesis Equilibrium or a Singular any worse for being a bit overbuilt?

My 531 Dawes Galaxy was good enough to do the 3 peaks twice and thats not even a cross frame.My oldest 531 frame is from 1949 and my mum still has hers from 1953 so they are fairly robust!

Edric64 – they’re banning them again?

No 😉 It’s an April’s fool joke that lots of people didn’t get. The problem I guess is that the uci are a bunch of fools so people found it believable…

Apparently so, I wish the UCI would make their minds up banned from 2014

Disc brakes banned

…
[Ed. note: This was one of a handful of stories posted on April 1 for a little April Fools’ fun.]

[Ed. note: This was one of a handful of stories posted on April 1 for a little April Fools’ fun.]

*still unclear*