Cross curious, looking at getting a focus mares rival, either that or get a giant tcx. Any experiences?

I have a good road bike and a good XC dual suser, debating to myself how much use I’d get out of one although I’d use it as a winter trainer, gravel road basher and maybe occaiional cx racing.

My lad has a tcx slr1 which we are just swapping from CX race to winter trainer mode.

Roads are filthy at the moment – so one big problem is complete lack of mudguard mounts. There is an M5 hole in each rear dropout but nothing else. It hasn’t got any kind of bridge on seat or chainstays, and no holes anywhere on the fork. Might have to get inventive……

Crud Mk III roadguards?

Work just fine on my Boardman CX

OK will have a look – I take it they have improved as crud mk1 was pretty rubbish.

I have Crud mk3’s on my Giant TCX. They’re still a bit flimsy and a bit of a faff to get the clearance just right without rubbing but they do the job.

Those holes are for a rack AFAIK

Can’t comment on either of the bikes listed, but I bought a Cube Cross race earlier this year, absolutely love it. Has spent most of it’s time setup for road riding – I have 2 identical sets of wheels, 1 with cross tyres the other 25mm conti GP4000s.

I’ve fitted the Crud mk3 guards, they were a faff to get setup but work well and clear the cross tyres nicely too.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Psnfvn]Solstice eve cross[/url] by Matt Cotterill, on Flickr