I’m about to build my first cx bike – is there a clear favorite group set among the amateur cx racers?

I’d say reliability and robustness are top of my list.

Pick whichever manufacturer you prefer and pick what you can afford, that’s about all there is to it!

You see local league events with guys on Sram Red and Duraace Di2 and Nat Trophy races with people on 105 or less. Personally I prefer Sram and use the Force level, the National Champion does to so no NEED for any better…..

You’ll see Tiagra to Ultegra, Force/Rival fairly commonly, Dura Ace/Red for the keen/rich and a smattering of Campag.

Most serious CX racers I know reckon the best thing would be to have two £500 bikes rather than one £1k bike for when the conditions are bad but YMMV.

“Don’t race what you can’t replace”

Ultegra or SRAM equivalent is fine

Sram Rival which came with the bike and it’s been faultless. The higher you go the more expensive it is to replace.

All good advice.

Do you have a road bike? If so, make sure they are compatible so that you can swap wheels across (unless you are going for a disc CX)

I use the old bits from my road bike and I swapped all the lovely new parts from my new cross bike onto the road bike.
Most people in my club use 105 because it works well but its not too expensive. Rear mechs seem to break quite a bit, I remember Stu Reid breaking 2 dura ace mechs at a race once – an expensive race!

I have a mate who races CX quite seriously – he races all DA except for the rear mechs which he uses 105 or Tiagra since they’re so much cheaper to replace…

Campag Xenon levers, and front mech, veloce rear. Gone through two rear mechs in the last season (last race of last season and last race of this season!), so I wouldn’t go any higher than veloce.

Agree with Leggy about sticking with what you have on the road bikes for cross. I use training road wheels for cross (I’m not at the sharp end so haven’t spent a lot on wheels).

My only Campag bike is my crosser. Mainly because I bought it s/h and that’s what came on it (Veloce and Centaur).

I’m distinctly hopeless racing it, but still plan to have a set of tub wheels for next season. What the hell..!

105 5700 on mine..

Bought when ribble where doing one of their mad sales..

Got the whole lot for under £300…

Anything less than Dura Ace, Red or Record Carbon is not taking it seriously! 😀

Seriously though… most people’s first CX bikes are built using whatever spare parts are lying about in the shed. My first 2-3 CX bikes were a real mish-mash of road and MTB stuff all banged together – and they worked perfectly.

With my mature years and discerning connoisseur style, my new CX bike has full SRAM Red gruppo, with Avid Shorty Ultimates (just about THE most expensive cantilevers known to man), lots of fancy parts and a beautiful set of expensive, handbuilt wheels. But I’m a whore….

Just build your first CX bike with whatever you’ve got and ride the heck out of it!

Avid Shorty Ultimates (just about THE most expensive cantilevers known to man

I love mine too..

Spotty dog IMHO.

i built mine on the cheap, ultegra chainset from a german website cheap! 10 speed campag shifters combined with an 8 speed cassette in crc sale with an mtb mech

105 9 speed on mine, FSA chainset. I seem to own a ridiculously good set of 105 bits, buttery and efficient.

Mavic and Ultegra factory wheels.

I find keeping the bike just for race days helps.

For the likes of me it’s all that’s needed for 1 hour a week three months of the year.

I stocked up on DA 7800 a few years ago when it was silly-cheap compared to today (£50 for a rear mech).
If I was building from scratch tomorrow it’d be Force or Ultegra.

And I’d rather have two lower-spec bikes with cheap drivetrains but running tubulars than one bling-machine.