that photo was up in the Goyt Valley near Buxton before I hammered it down Cumberland Brook – all good fun!

Blinkin’ flip (just avoiding the swear filter there) Simon! I thought I recognised the backdrop of the photo (you’re in my manor around there!) but never in a million years did I think you’d have ridden that down Cumberland. Chapeau. I thought I did well last winter bimbling down from about halfway on my (geared) crosser with only a dozen or so dabs and no face plants, but I take my hat off to you for even thinking about it, let alone doing it!

As far as I can see a Langster is very similar to my Tricross single. Bung in a disc fork and run a disc adaptor on the back.

I like my Cotic X but they have a silly choice of bottle mounts.2 on the down tube which works ok except you can’t run 2 cages and a big bottle. They don’t fit a seat tube one as apparently it compromises it race capability. Tosh. Otherwise its great

I too, have a Kinesis tripster – which I’ve now used for a couple of winters quite successfully as a nice comfy, road commuter.

Mines built up with shimano 105, Hope pro 2 on mavic a317’s (on which I’ve run both 28mm road tyres and some fatter cross things without problems) and BB7(road) brakes – which are fine with the 105’s. Adjustability is a bit crap though.

The fork that comes with the tripster frame (the DC 19) is ok, but a little bit noodly under heavy braking. – I believe kinesis do another more cross-focussed fork with disc mounts (ah yes, they do) no idea what it’s like though.

I believe kinesis do another more cross-focussed fork with disc mounts (ah yes, they do) no idea what it’s like though

It’s an ally fork, rather than carbon. TBH, I’d expect carbon these days.

Tektro Lyra brakes as they are part of a full build Cotic and also my Cotic dealer used them and reconded they were fine. I am a touch disapointed with the power.

Yeah, seconded. Not a patch on BB7s imo or the Campag Chorus calipers on my road bike. I guess you could argue you don’t need much power with cross tyres, but I’d take the BB7 Roads over the Lyras and use some self control – brakes aren’t on/off things, you can actually modulate your input.

I would not fancy an alu fork off road, flex is good!

I ride a Charge Mixer which is ace for the commute but another of this type of bike to chuck in the mix is a Jamis Bosanova.

A tourer really but a nice looking bike with lots of clearance for big tyres and a reasonable price too.

Another Tripster owner here:

Shimano 105 + BB7 roads.

I’ve not tried the BB5s, but I found it hard enough to get the BB7s adjusted even with adjusters on both sides. STI levers really don’t pull very much cable so even with road-specific Avids it’s quite hard to get the balance between not rubbing and not bottoming out the brake levers.

I ended up building my own wheels. Shimano M525 hubs, DT Swiss Competition spokes, DT Swiss R450 rims.