[Closed] let's see your Croix De Fer's

I am surprisingly impressed with the Conti CrossSpeed 35's that came with it. First ride was 4 hrs round Argarten peninsula which included some pretty steep and tecky ups and downs. I did lose traction a few times on the ups but stable on the descents which were more rough and rocky than muddy. 24 mile hilly home road loop today, after a few weeks injured and still managed 16mph average so they do roll well. (By comparison my fastest on carbon road bike is about 18.5, so the CDF is quite sprightly)

Ardgarten peninsula - very nice.

Tyres (been in the garage a while) are 35mm I think on Mavic TN719 rims/hope hubs - an old pair of mtb wheels. Think I'll get something a bit faster.

Rest is a 105 group from Merlin. Spyres. An old EC70 seatpost that I couldn't sell a year ago. Forks are Kinesis Carbon - originally was going to use an older steel Volante frame but the headtube was way too short.

To do 75kms out of the bag is the sign of quite a good bike.

Sounds a nice solid build Andy and a decent distance out the bag as you say 🙂

I am coming from an 07 Jake the Snake and the Genesis seems a better bike for my needs so far.

Hmm. Was having a think about fitting a carbon fork next year, and that Kineses doesn't look too bad.

Assume it's a D37?

Mine just built as-yet unridden.

Jamie Yeah DC37. Some say they judder a bit but I have insufficient experience to comment. On offer at Edinburgh Bike Coop as well at the moment for £100

Iain my last bike like this was a Soma Doublecross which was lovely but do prefer the discs on this. (Looked at the Doublecross disc and Salsa Vaya but geometry, weight and price put me off)

[quote=Andy ]75 Kms today. Out to the Mull of Galloway, Port Logan, Port Patrick and back to Drummore. Feeling a bit tired! V pleased so far. Trundles along quite nicely and easily copes with rough roads
Lovely roads. I must plan another visit.

Jamie Yeah DC37. Some say they judder a bit but I have insufficient experience to comment. On offer at Edinburgh Bike Coop as well at the moment for £100

try again

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/74342282@N04/11573110246/ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/74342282@N04/ ]James A Hatfield[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by James A Hatfield, on Flickr

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yes, yes I was in Metallica.

yes, yes I was in Metallica.

I assume this is the first ever time this joke has been made?

joke?

[quote=jimmy ]try again

Untitled by James A Hatfield, on Flickr

Aha - Mr D mentioned a CX bike.....

its been a while in the making (3 months) but gears needed* for the new commmute and hopefully do some mini tours next year.

*Preferable

joke?

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Some nice red bits there 🙂

Hi, new member from Finland checking in!

When I decided to go for the Croix de Fer I got frustrated over the fact that there was quite little information and pictures available on the internet except for pics of stock builds, so I decided to post here for future reference because it seems to be one of the few places where this particular model is being discussed (and there's pictures too!)

I had a clear vision of what I wanted: A "do it all"-bike to take care of all the riding that my fun/stupid bike (EAI Bareknuckle skinny tyred brakeless fixed) and my full sus trailbike (Trek Rumblefish Elite) couldn't handle - for me that means crappy weather riding (when it's too cold or too snowy for the trails or the road), gravel grinding, the occasional cross jaunt and bike touring and general mucking about :). I knew I wanted a steel frame, it had to have disc brake tabs and it needed to be fairly cheap. I used to have a Genesis Day One cross a few years ago and I always kind of regretted selling it because I liked the ride quality and the price/quality-ratio of it. I looked into loads of options and ended up with two possibile candidates: The Croix de Fer and the new Traitor Crusade. A two month wait for the Traitor and an increase in price of 1/3 in comparison to the Genesis sealed the deal and the point of no return had been reached 🙂

Parts spec is Sram Force, BB7 roads and the fit and forget Thomson and Chris King-kit (which I have on all of my bikes). I'm also a Flite junkie, fits me perfectly (not on my MTB though, I prefer the SDG Circuit there). At the moment I'm using a cheapo Deore-hubbed 29er wheelset but am upgrading it this spring to a lightweight (Notubes ZTR Alpha 340 Disc/Novatec 711/712) set for use with skinnier road tyres (28 mm) for touring and road rides and this will remain as my crappy condition wheelset. This should bring the weight down to around 10 kgs. I also swapped out the stock fork for a Kinesis DC37 since I found the stock fork surprisingly harsh - nothing I had read a word about online so maybe it's just me 🙂 Definitely one of the stiffest steel forks I've encountered, probably because of the beefy tubes and the straight blades.

No full fenders at the moment because of the snow and freezing temperatures but they will be put back on and probably staying on for most of the time. For bike touring I use a Tubus Fly rear rack and panniers.

Thanks for reading, here are some pics to make my babbles seem worthwhile 🙂

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Oh yeah, coming from a mainly MTB background the geometry felt just right from the beginning and I've been riding this bike quite a bit since I got it built in November. We just recently got snow so it's been mainly gravel road rides with cx tyres and a few with the studded ones. Even though I'm really waiting for spring to come and bike touring season to begin I'm quite liking the riding conditions right now too. All the potential there to be the do-it-all bike it was meant to be.

That's a lovely looking example indeed 🙂 interesting to see how much clearance that fork has compared to the stock one too.

I really need to stop seeing Croix De Fers with those D37 forks....

*must resist*

^^ You mean mudguard clearance? Haven't experienced any trouble with the stock fork, 42 mm Sks Bluemels and Maxxis Raze 33 mm tyres or with the Marathon Winters. Haven't been out in proper muddy conditions though, just your regular gravel roads and some minor muddy patches.

The Kinesis does have a lot more space between the treads and the crown which would indicate more clearance.

Mudguard clearance, yes. The stock one is a little tight with 35c conti's but yours looks to have a lot more space

Think the Dc37 makes the front a bit lighter and more agile as well. I have now gone from an 80mm stem (I got it wrong above) to a 70mm stem which has allowed the seat to go back from its ridiculous position in the photo above 😀

It absolutely does. And has the added benefit (depending on preferences) of getting a normal height spacer stack below the stem with a comfortable saddle to bar drop.

Agreed and I struggle with head tube length and spacers (need high to match saddle height) v top tube length (need shorter) on most frames. If this really does work with the pair of spare road wheels I have built as my do all road bike then will consider something custom in the future

Think the Dc37 makes the front a bit lighter and more agile as well.

It absolutely does

Good to know. Will persevere with the original fork for a bit, as only just got the fork fitted, but looks like the D37 will be a viable option in a couple of months.

I haven't weighed the stock fork but I guess the Kinesis is about 300-400 grams lighter which is a quite significant difference and definitely noticeable. In the current setup (but with the Maxxis Razes) the bike weighed 10,9 kg and with the stock fork and mudguards 11,75 kg. I guesstimate the fenders to weigh about 400-500 grams so that would would leave the above weight difference for the fork.

Got round to taking a pic of mine. Had it about 2 months. The stock saddle and bar tape came off before it left the shop and fitted trusty sdg bel air as per all my bikes.
Fitted SKS Commuter 45 mudguards which just clear the stock tyres (provided you're not going mud plugging) and then later fitted some Gatorskins in 28mm as only been off road twice on it so far. Will prob swap back when local trails aren't submerged.
Topeak rack takes an MTX pannier bag for carrying my stuff to work and back, 15mile each way. Very enjoyable and a world apart from the Roadtat it replaced.
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Apologies for the sale post but I have an old carbon fork off a 2009 Croix, same dims as the cr-mo one. Available for a fair offer (will be donated to a good cause as it was a sample), plus postage of around £8. A few chips but totally sound and fits a 58cm, I used the cr-mo fork more so it's not had much use.
(some nice bikes on here, looks great in black)

Gah. I wish I wasn't trying to curb my spending this Jan 🙁

Could you email me some pics, James. You should have my email from when I sold you those rotors, or it's in my profile.

Will get you some pics tomorrow.