After months of half heartedly selling my bikes to clear some space, wasn't too fussed which ones went, just that the n+1 rule had become "If you get n+1 bikes again you're moving out" from her indoors.
Anyway, the original thought was to get a Singular Swift as the opposite/compliment to my Pitch.
But after wandering down into the next village to get some northwave winter boots (Celsius Artic GTX, £129, Westbrook cycles, thats £20 under CRC!) I saw a Cannondale Flash 3 (alloy) in large for not much more than it'd cost me to build the Swift up. So I'd be getting a groupset and sus fork for no weight of financial penalty. And I've always wanted a superlight race bike since I sold my old cannondale F500.
On the other hand the swift is better looking, and probably a better winter bike, which is what this is supposed to be! And the Swift might be less of a thief magnet if it's used for commuting.
And after the Pitch I'm not a big fan of fully built bikes, are they all full of nasty cheep component suprises? Or was that specialized rear hub just a spectacutlarly bad example of cost savings?
Grrrrr...........decisions.
Feel free to suggest other bikes and make it even more difficult.
if you are worried about it being a thief magnet, dont buy anything expensive, for a start.
i prefer to buy a frame and build up myself, but its rarely the cheap option.
also, ive found that usually (not always mind) companies own brand components are pretty average, at best.
^^^^^=2p
Are there any XC/race frame only 29'ers at this budget though?
the swift is a pretty nice looking machine . . . . . . . .
Based on my experience of a new fully built Cannondale there's a lot of very average parts eg Deore hubs on a £2k bike ,solid crank arms, weighty own brand finishing kit and the world's 2nd worst grips, etc. Also my experience of them wasn't great eg headsets where there are no spares and it's Cannondale specific. Having said all that it's life time warranty, it rode OK and it's made in the US, subject to model.
Upto you, but I'm not minded to have another Cannondale.
Yea, my last one was a poverty level cannondale though so maybe I expected the poor parts.
The frames still half a lb lighter than the niner EMD which seems to be one of the few reasnobly priced/entry level alloy 29er frames. (£240+tax from Jensen)
I've sold all my mountain bikes with the exceptions of my dh bike which is going on eBay on Sunday to be sold. Just waiting for my new nicolai to turn up!