After reading Coastkid’s blog and seeing his new Genesis ‘Croix De Fer’ I’ve realised It’s probably the type of bike Im after. I currently have a Full Suss , A hardtail and a road bike. I’ve found that I ride my road bike 80% of the time and fancy doing a bit of off road touring c2c , great glen kind of stuff. Im aware that I could just load up my hardtail with some panniers and plug away on that but think a cyclocross style bike would be faster .
Anyhoo getting to the point what are the alternatives to the Cdf ? , Is steel really better suited or could I just opt for something like a Whyte , Cannondale or equivalent alloy framed bike. ? I think I’d probably want something with disk brakes and mounts etc.
What are the Stw massives views. ?

Go for the Croix de Fer – other half has one and loves it. I have an Orange RX9 and love that too!

You feel likwe you could ride arounds the world on them 😀

Yes, all of the worlds!!!!

Salsa Vaya 3.

Steel is def more comfortable, also if your running racks double check which is most suitable.

Yup Clarey I’ve read it has been done on a CdF. 🙂 I’d settle for a coast 2 coast over landy tracks etc.

Focus do some nice CX’s

Cotic X?

Mine with carbon Kinesis forks, I previously had a CdF and prefer this (only slightly though). Cotic don’t actually make the frames anymore, but been a few floating about on classifieds and fleabay last few weeks.

Or the new Transition Rapture:

Surly
Whyte’s do look the biz though.
I have a alloy Kinesis CL5t which I really like but wish I had gotten the carbon fork. Beware toe overlap I run 32c tyres on mine and it bugs the sheeite out of me at times!

I have a Croix de Fer, it’s very comfy especially with wide-ish (35mm at the moment) tyres so I would definitely recommend a steel frame. I fitted carbon bars which didn’t make much difference and then got a carbon seatpost which made it even comfier.

I have a Croix De Fer. It’s alright. Probably the best of the steel framed options.

kona rove, singular peregrine??

I had a kona sultra- but it was on the heavy side for me- good loaded tourer thou.

**watches with interest**

That rapture looks nice but I’d imagine way out my price range , If had the cash I’d probably go far a hand made bike from ‘Shand cycles’ but keep the alternatives coming.

That rapture looks nice but I’d imagine way out my price range , If had the cash I’d probably go far a hand made bike from ‘Shand cycles’ but keep the alternatives coming.

Ok. So what’s your budget?

I had a Kona Jake the Snake (so more traditioanl cx with alloy frame and carbon fork) which I have just replaced with a Croix De Fer. The steel is heavier, but a lot more comfy for what I do which is winter road, lightish offroad, messing around with the kids, and planning some summer on/off road tours.

I looked long and hard at the options and most of my musings are in my history. When was looking, around 3 months ago, of the non steel options, the Pinnacle Arkose 3 was head and shoulders above the competition

This type of bike is on my shopping list too.

i like the look of the new on-one pickenflick although its lack of mudguard mounts is a big negative. Cdf 931 is an option but if i’m spending that kind of money, i’ll go for a Shand Stoater.

I’m pondering this too, like the idea of something for winter road potholes, summer double track cruising / riding with my daughter etc.

I’ve gotta look secondhand and I need a 51/52 frame so I might be looking for a while but still I’ve been occasionally stalking ebay for:

kona rove
Charge filter or 2014 plug 3
Cdf & croix
Cotic x although I don’t think they made them that small?

Think anything salsa or surly will bust my meagre budget

**toddles off to google Shand Stoater**

My budget is around the £850 mark so either a new cdf 2014 model or last years model at £699 is fine. Im going to fund the bike partly by selling my Prince Albert hardtail .

There’s one 57cm Salsa Vaya frameset available from Billys at a bargaintastic £250

(the sizing for the Vaya is the effective top tube length)

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.php?prod=FMSA-2013Vaya&PHPSESSID=dfld2cihrmellbrprkg5s2sjo4

very satisfied Singular Peregrine owner here – but at £850 budget you might struggle to get a new build.
It’s my default bike a lot of the time, doubles up for local woods, longer road rides, mixed trails – very good general purpose bike really. ‘general purpose’ sounds a bit lame but that’s what it is. Even ‘all road’ doesn’t covert as it’ll happily buzz round local trails that are definitely not roads..

Do you mean Croix de Fer or CdF.. one might be within your budget, the other – not.

Yes I got bitten on the bum about Cdf/Croix de fer a while back 😆 For the 2014 Croix de fer, they look amazing especially the 931 version. However they now have the read disc brake inboard of the rack now, which sounds great but I heard that rain can collect inside the works because of the angle?

There’s a nice cheap Cdf in the edin bikes sale right now, think the sizes are a bit limited so better check. The Shand bikes look dead nice, iirc you can choose the colour and components etc as they build them up.

Heard a lot of good things about Singular as well… think the guy is busy making the Puffin fat bikes atm (could be wrong)…

My budget is around the £850 mark so either a new cdf 2014 model or last years model at £699 is fine. Im going to fund the bike partly by selling my Prince Albert hardtail .

Ah. You’re on about a CdF and not a Croix De Fer. In that case, default answer in that price range is a Boardman CX Team.

In true stw tradition of recommend what you own, how about a Planet-X Kaffenback?

TBH I’d just use your hardtail or road bike depending on the surface. I just find my cyclocross bike is not good at anything, and ends up as a heavy road bike most of the time. Sure you can ride it offroad but it isn’t much fun.

dragon,

i guess its a bike like riding a hard tail on the road, its not the most fun, and is generally slower than a road bike….but, i regularly encounter some very bad surfaces on some of my routes and there are lots of bridleways which are not much fun on my road bike (in particular the tyres are unsuitable). after a winter of commuting on my road bike i think a ‘cross’ bike might be a good addition and there is clearly lots of others on here who think likewise.

anyway i’m off to speak to Shand.

The 2014 Croix De Fer is a lovely bike 🙂

My Pinnacle Arkrose 3 ticks all the non-steel boxes, great bike.

That said, if they’d been in stock I would have got a Kaffenback probably

I had a (too large) road bike for a while, but as with rendo above, I found I was quite often on rubbly back roads, or tempted to try out little tracks I could see disappearing off the road into woods or round a hill; hence I sold on the road bike and some time later, the Peregrine acquisition..

Sure you can ride it offroad but it isn’t much fun.

I think you’re bike is suspect, most people, including myself, think they are ace fun.

If the OP is in Surrey and a 54cm Croix would fit he can come and try mine.

The stock one is a bit heavy though, basically because of the wheels/tyres.

A good strategy is to buy a 2nd hand one for about 650-700 and then later buy some decent wheels.

I recommended this to my mate, he bought a mint one for 700 and then hasn’t changed the wheels. Consequently he is a bit ‘meh’ about it, but then noticed how he could climb hills he had failed on with mine, which has the same gearing but has better wheels (and 105/ultegra instead of tiagra).

I built mine and it has iron cross on hope at 1610g and salsa cowbell bars and I think it is great fun for fitness work round the common.

Looked at Cdf but my next do it all bike will be

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/cx/cxr92.html

Great spec, price and weight. I’m not a pannier type, light weight touring only. Have a second hand team carbon also brilliant bike.

That transition frameset will be something like 499 I seem to remember

I love that Transition Rapture.

Another vote for a Vaya.

Love mine..

Shand bikes looks good online – they look even better in real life 🙂

I don’t own one, but I have seen several at Bespoked and they are lovely.

I want a CFD, but I’m too lazy to clean it regualrly, so have been looking at the day one hub, but there were some uncomplimentary comments about hub hear picks ups on here recently.

Thanks for your input ,been at work so not able to reply. I get your drift about just using a guardrail but find mine really boring to ride on the road hence the cx route. Going to have a look at coastkids genesis and look at some of the alloy options. I also prefer last year’s blue colour to this year’s black genesis frame so would look for a 2013 model.

Verenti Substance from Wiggle. A similar spec to the CdF but substantially cheaper (fund for new wheel set?).

Out on a horse/bike ride today Paul, but fire down and try the bike sometime soon,
2013 Cdf is very blue!,i am loving it! 🙂
Great colour for pictures 😉

11th Jan; Genesis Cdf Half Century-with a bit of Roughstuff 112 by coastkid71, on Flickr

11th Jan; Genesis Cdf Half Century-with a bit of Roughstuff 041 by coastkid71, on Flickr

Pics and some waffle on the blog;

50 mile road/Roughstuff with pics and first impressions

Another vote for the pinnacle arkose, I tested it back to back with a Croix de fer and much preferred it.

Another vote for the pinnacle arkose, I tested it back to back with a Croix de fer and much preferred it.

Interesting, I compared them both closely but couldn’t get a ride on the pinnacle. My head said arkose and heart said genesis. Having come from a Jake the snake I felt steel would be a bit of a change.

How did they compare riding back to back ?

Pics and some waffle on the blog;

50 mile road/Roughstuff with pics and first impressions

coastkid, that’s a cracking set of photos, what camera were you using?