Kinesis Crosslight Pro6… Brilliant

The new bike turned up last week. It’s brilliant. On the road, it feels like a road bike. Off road, it feels like a rigid 29er, only with drops. Having discs is an absolute revelation on a cross bike – the brakes allow you to really hammer the trails and know you can actually stop/slow down. The handling is very mountain bike – really chuckabke and nimble. Just back from a loop round the Surrey Hills taking in a couple of the drier trails (Secret Santa, Supernova and Barry’s) then heading home. Fantastic for an after-work ride.

If you are interested the spec is Ultegra gears, CX-70 chainset, 105 STI levers, USE carbon finishing kit, Hope/Stans Crest wheels, Racing Ralph 700×35 tyres. I am also running road pedals (105) as I hate the rattly feeling of mtb pedals on a road bike, and seeing as I spend most of the ride on the road and don’t race cross they are fine.

You all need one.

GB

They look nice too. A riding buddy has just got one, and the wide headtube and fork look extremely purposeful.

I have one, the only major downer is the finish **do not** even slightly knock the paintwork with anything hard. It has become my expedition bike and many big things are planned for it.

Yes the paint is a bit crap – overspray on the stickers, little bobbly bits by the dropouts… Can’t see it when it’s covered in mud though!

GB

They have good pedigree that famous 3-peaks face plantee on video was riding one 🙂

That’s all very well, but let’s have some photos please.

How much does it weigh? Want.

What brakes? Am going to disc up my P-X Uncle John.

Sounds very nice. Are you running the tyres tubeless? I’m looking for a suitable tyre to run tubeless on crests but the stans website suggests that schwalbe tyres are too tight for their rims?

Ta

You all need one.

Nah, I’m more than happy with my Felt F6X, especially after knocking 2lb off the weight by fitting some nice tub wheels 🙂

As above – what brakes you running?

BB7 roads on mine

I was looking longingly at the Pro 6 frame and forks in my LBS at the weekend and do really like the look of it. I’ve got a Tripster at the moment that I’ll rave about til the cows come home but the Pro 6 looks like a good option for a pimp, fast, super-commuter. It does have mudguard eyes doesn’t it? My commute is a bumpy, muddy, back road blast of about 23 miles each way, so a CX bike is the obvious choice.

Regarding the finish on it, my first Tripster frame went back under warranty – uncrimped driveside chainstay – and the paint on the replacement was MASSIVELY improved. The first one, I dropped an Allen key on the top tube when I was building it up and chipped it. This version is way tougher. Wonder why it’s so changeable?

+1 on the pics though… please! 🙂 Glad you’re pleased with it too.

Brakes are BB5s from my old Vaya.

Yes, I am running the tyres tubeless – it’s the UST ones that don’t fit on Crests, these are the normal tubeless ready ones. They work great. I run Schwalbes tubeless on Stans rims on every bike I have – no problems.

GB

a pimp, fast, super-commuter

I have one too!!very good fun to ride. – I’ve put the hope vtwin thingy on mine. I’ve yet to commute on it – I keep on messing about in the woods!ha.

I built my Pro6 up a few weeks ago. Must say that I was pretty disappointed on the quality and finishing for a £500 frame and forks. Pretty much everything needed facing, including disc mounts, all the threads were full of paint, bottle bosses are wonky, decals half sprayed over. Also the fork steerer seems ever so slightly larger than any other I’ve had, so stems and spacers are a tight fit. The mudguard eyelets in the fork seem to have half the thread on an alloy insert, and half is lumpy carbon covering the hole, not sure I trust the bolt in there to stay in there tight for all that long.

Didn’t make for an easy build. Not impressed really.

That said, now that it’s built, it does look pretty tidy and has been great fun. It’s my new night ride bike, commute bike, local rides bike and loved it all so far. I’d recommend one, but def buy from a shop and inspect before you buy to make sure you don’t get a duff one.

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Kinesis Crosslight Pro6[/url] by ed_middleton[/url], on Flickr

Most important question: whats the mud clearance like?
Some of the older Kinesis cross frames were terrible for clearance, especially around the forks. Living in the NW, this can be make or break for a cross frame.

Traildog. Seems fine, has dealt with both sloppy and claggy mud pretty well, although I don’t have much to compare it with.

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Pro6 Front[/url] by ed_middleton[/url], on Flickr
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Pro6 Rear[/url] by ed_middleton[/url], on Flickr

Just build one with flat bars for commuting on.
It have come out weighing 10.2 kg and that is without having paid any attention to the weight of parts and with Deore hydraulic brakes.

Interesting. Seems to not be on their site, is it discontinued?

I’m looking for a suitable tyre to run tubeless on crests but the stans website suggests that schwalbe tyres are too tight for their rims?

Perhaps you mean CX tyres, but Rocket Rons go on easily.

Its on the site

http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/products/crosslight/prosix

so it is ta

not linked at http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/crosslight – some issues with their CMS I’d guess.

Can’t comment on build quality and have never owned one. But I know a couple of people who have and they both rave about the quality of the ride and how much out and out FUN they are. I’ve got an old Rock Lobster cross bike that I bought off a guy on here and it’s absolutely superb. Prefer it on the road to my Cannondale CAAD8, which is in itself a lovely bike. Is the fact that cross bikes are built to accelerate fast and be nippy in their handling (as opposed to a more trad road bike which needs more stability to hold and maintain top-end speed as I see it) a factor in their general fun-ness to ride both on and off road?
+1 for discs by the way, I HATE trying to set up cantilevers..

I got one, love it 🙂

Dear edsbike,

It’s always a good idea to face the BB, kind of standard practice, but actually the BB shells we use are very accurate and do not necessarily need it.
For the disc mounts, I really don’t understand why you would need to ‘face’ post-mount disc mounts, how did you do it?
Threads are normally plugged before spraying, maybe your frame missed this, but I haven’t heard of this before.
Decals CANNOT be sprayed over! They are transfers applied ON TOP of the paint and then covered with a clear top-coat. The ‘overspray’ you can see is part of the decal design.
Fork is really high quality and the steerer is not oversized, threads for ‘guards are into alloy dropout. Send a pic via e.mail dom@upgradebikes.co.uk because it’s unclear what you are saying is the problem.
Glad you are enjoying the bike though!

mattjg

The link you have there is for complete bikes, we don’t offer one for the Pro6 bike yet.

Dom – fair comment on the decals – it just looks like overspray but I guess it’s modern design… 🙂

Bike is brilliant off road, much more so than I was expecting.

GB

Dom,

The overspray on the ‘6’ logo on the top tube is obvs the decal, but the fork logos are different on either side, one nice and crisp, one looks like half the transfer is faded/missing.

The reason for facing the post mounts is so that the caliper is bolted on straight. If I put the nice flat machined surface of my Hope caliper onto a lumpy, painted surface, the pads and disc will not be parallel. It also means that the caliper shifts sideways as the bolt is tightened up.

The left hand fork mudguard mount hole was completely full of paint, I managed to scrape out most of it and get a bolt in, but it seems the carbon layer that the bolt goes through to get to the alloy threads underneath is much thicker on that side that the right. I’m just worried that with a few times of taking the mudguards on and off, that this thread will be shot, as it doesn’t seem that strong right now.
Are the forks available separately?

Like I said, I’m pretty happy now that it’s built up, but just expected better finishing on something costing that much, I’m guessing a just got a rough one. I’ll try and send you some photos later in the week.

DomMason – have you any plans to make a complete disc bike based on the Pro6?

Thread resurection.

May buy one for a winter bike, putting 23 mm tyres on it. Can you run FULL mudguards on the front, Im sure you can on the rear.

Photos if you have done so.

Cheers.

Yes you can, I have mine fitted and I even managed it myself. Will try and remember to get a picture.

Any excuse to show mine 🙂 I do like Trio25’s “sick green” one though…

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Kinesis Pro 6[/url] by 24tom[/url], on Flickr

Same excuse here. Comes in at around 8.2kg. Since I didn’t like the silver look of the BB7 Road I bought the black MTN version and put in a road internals kit. Works like a dream and it’s black. Wouldn’t have fitted my bike otherwise. The wheels are bombproof. XTR Hubs, CXRay Spokes and H Plus Son rims (32holes).

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Kinesis Crosslight Pro 6[/url] von niconj[/url] auf Flickr

Can you run FULL mudguards on the front

yes but toe overlap is a problem – think mine is a 52cm and i have small feet its ok unless you have a lot of tight commuter bends otherwise it is a great versatile bike

Reet,

Bought one, had it a few weeks now, been on and off road quite a bit with it, superb. I cannot fault it.

In the market for a 54 cm frame and seems none available due to being out of cross season , if anyone knows of a shop that has one then pls hola .

Seems the sick green ones are sold out everywhere , anyone know when 2014 models touch down 😀

There’s a 54cm black frameset on ebay at the moment.

My latest picture after a wash!