Need/want a new road/cx bike. I know little about road bike stuff.

I’ve whittled it down to the Arkose but can’t decide between the 2017 or 2018, specifically;

£1035 – https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-3-2017-adventure-road-bike-EV275624

or

£1250 – https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-3-2018-adventure-road-bike-EV306246

As far as i can tell, the 2018 has better wheels. Is that pretty much it?

Prefer the colour of the 2017 and the price tag. Am i missing something?

Full carbon fork on the more expensive one.

You can get a 2016 frameset for a little over £200 so you’d be able to build up a better bike for the same money yourself if you could be bothered (that’s what I did). Only thing to check would be tyre clearance as I know the geometry on these seems to get tweaked every year it seems.

Shame they haven’t still got a few of last years 4s around cheap, they were nice. I think the big change in tyre clearance was between 16 and 17 so you’re probably OK for most sizes after that point.

2017 is only in XL if that makes a difference? I don’t think there’s much difference otherwise. Put the £200 difference towards an upgraded wheelset in future if you need it. Does anyone know how easy Praxis BBs are to live with?

(Personally I’d try and find the money for the 2018 4 but annoyingly I’d consider the rings on that a downgrade).

Planet X are doing the Pickenflick (titanium) SRAM Apex (presume mech disc, but haven’t checked) for £1k just now. I’ve got the Rival HRD build and love it as both a ‘gravel/cx’ bike, and as a road bike. If you can live without mudguard and rack mounts, it’s worth a shout. Or they do the XLS (Carbon) Rival HRD for the same price … Only available for a few days.

I’ve got a 2017 Arkose 3 and I’d highly recommend it and it’s been my most ridden bike since I got it. No issues at all with the Praxis chainset or BB despite riding in some properly filthy conditions (off road  and on) this winter.

Oh and it’s brilliant with 650b wheels and 47mm tyres.

2017 and 2018 frames and forks are same (carbon steerers aside).

RE geometry tweaks – the only real change was 2016 to 2017, revised for the new fork and bigger 45mm tyres. Before that the only changes were from 45mm to 50mm fork offset and more BB drop, 2014 I think.

The newer spec’ I think has new 105 front derailleur. This seems to not have an arm which gives even better clearance on the rear tyre

I have the 2016 frame with shorter chainstays so the arm on my mech’ is a touch closer to the tyre. Mine is fine with 38mm tyres but if I put some 40mm tyres in and then I might get one of the new 105 armless mech’s

But I think overall I’d go cheap. I haven’t touched my loose ball hubs in over a year and they are still running really smoothly

Thanks one and all, can’t be arsed to build up a frame. I barely have time to fix all the things broken on my MTB.

Did see the on-one but want guards and rack as this will  primarily be my commuter/do it all bike to replace a CX and a road bike.

Like the idea of putting the money saved to nicer wheels.

Basically, i wanted the red one and hoped you’d convince me i wasn’t being an idiot. Cos you know, red is betterer.